Sweet Country Life

ATV

2000
It was a Saturday morning and the sun was shining. The kids had been waiting for this day for so long, the weather was finally warm enough to go out quading. Raven was in the bathroom french braiding her hair, ready to finally be back outside.
Patrick and Adrianna took out all the quads, all 10 of them. Originally all the older kids had their own and then the quads each rode on the back of one of the older kids ATV. But when Arthur moved to college one of the little ones got and ATV. To make it fair, they would take turns every time we went out.. this time it was Raven's turn to drive her own.
"Mom where are my boots!?" Evvie screamed through the house.
"Everyone's boots are in the mud room. If they aren't there then I don't know where they are." Mom answered, still in the bathroom getting ready.

"Let's go guys!!" Callie screamed from the backyard.
Running down the stairs everyone darted for their quads, already lined up in the order they ride in. Echo quickly ran out, beating Raven to the shared ATV.
"Whoaaa hold up dude," Raven said as she noticed Echo sitting on the quad, "It's my turn today champ.. hop off."
"But Raven come on," Echo whined
"Come on what? It's my turn!" Raven stares with anger starting to build up in her voice.
"Last trip we barely went anywhere and I don't think that should count as my turn," Echo complained
"That's not fair and you know it," Raven crosses her arms, "Fine, I'm not fighting with you about this."

Raven's stomped off to Patrick's ATV. Climbing on the back, she gave a shrug to her brother as he looked confused to not see Echo.
"Alright everyone!!! We want to go to the cliffs!?" Micheal screamed
Clear agreement came from the entire group as they all turned on their ATVs. Revving up the engines they all took off. Micheal played music through the speakers connected to his quad and they all had so much fun, until it wasn't fun anymore.
Whipping around a corner they had never been around before, Patrick whipped the quad right off the path. Dangling from the edge of a cliff, the quad had gone flying to far around the corner. Suddenly the quad lost grip and went tumbling down the cliff. Patrick held onto a root growing out the side of the hill. Looking down he couldn't see his sister holding onto anything, that's when he realized she was in fact falling straight down the cliff.
All of the siblings had slammed on their breaks behind Patrick. Getting off their quads they ran over to the edge of the cliff, helping Patrick back up onto solid ground.
"Raven, She, she... went... she couldn't... she didn't grab anything." Patrick stuttered.
Peering over the edge they saw Raven splash into the stream below.
"I.... I... kill.. killed her."
"Patrick it's okay, it's going to be okay." Adrianna rubbed his back.
Around them the little ones cried, Echo nearly hyperventilating. Callie grabbed Brandan and Elsa and they ran down to the bottom of the stream. Adrianna and Abria gathered everyone back onto the ATV's. Abria brought Echo, Ri, Maia, Evvie, Micheal, Lela and Patrick back to the house. Patrick had to ride on the back of Abria because he was to much of a mess to function. Adrianna took an ATV down to the water.
"MOM!!!"
"HELP US!!"
"MOMMY!!!?!"
Screams echoed through the yard as the ATVs pulled into the back of the house. Running inside all screaming for Mom.
"Woah woah woah, guys calm down," Mom said emerging from the bathroom upstairs.

"Raven she..." "And Patrick couldn't stop," "She's dead" "Then he started crying" "She went flying off the cliff."
All the kids tried talking at once, overpowering eachother and just confusing Mom more.

"Okay guys, one at a time!" Mom answered

All the little ones turned to Abria, waiting for her to explain what had happened.
"We were out in the woods and Patrick didn't stop soon enough. The ATV and Raven went flying over the cliff and we don't know if she's okay."

"Oh my goodness, Lela your in charge.. Abria take me there NOW" Mom had tears welling in her eyes
"okay okay let's go now then." Abria started for the door.
Leaving the house Mom through on Lela's helmet sitting by her ATV and got on the back of Abria's. Whipping through the woods, this was the fasted Abria had ever driven before. In a matter of a few minutes they were at the base of the cliff, right by the water. Abria pulled the ATV up next to Adrianna's and got off.

Just a little down stream the teenagers were huddled around something. Mom ran, faster than anyone knew she could ever run. Getting closer she saw Raven propped up on a rock, coughing up water.
"RAVEN!!" Mom screamed
Raven looked up and smiled, happy to see her Mom. For several moments she thought she would never see anyone again.
"What the hell happened!?" Mom cried sitting down and wrapping her arms around her daughter. Raven winced in pain and Mom quickly moved her arms away clearly scared.

"When she fell, she missed the rock face and fell straight down into the water. We found her a few feet away from a massive rock. She got really lucky Mom." Callie explained
"Lucky? She just fell like 200 feet and your trying to tell me she's lucky." Mom wiped tears from her cheeks.
"Mom, she could be dead. Be happy she's not." Brandan added.
Mom looked around at all her kids and smiled, "I'm proud of you guys"
Adrianna laughed, "Thanks Ma."

At the hospital, Callie and Mom waited patiently in the waiting room. All the others had gone home, Adrianna and Abria made dinner for the kids.
It had been an hour and still nothing from the doctors. This could be very good or very bad.

Doctor Russell emerged from the swinging doors and Callie & Mom automatically stood up.
"Is my baby okay?" Mom asked, fear in her voice.
"Raven is very much alive Ms Reyes, she suffered a pretty major fall there. To be honest we don't see many people survive falls that large, let alone sustain no life threatening injuries. However we do have some things to talk about," the doctor paused
"What do you mean," Callie asked
"Come with me," The doctor said, beginning to walk into the main hospital.

Raven laid in a hospital bed and smiled when Callie and Mom came in. Her face was red and her eyes puffy, she had clearly been crying just a few minutes ago.
"Raven can we talk here about what we just talked about?" Dr Russell asked looking at Raven.
"Oh yeah, of course," Raven grinned

"When Raven came in she had some inflammation in her throat, most likely from aspirating so much water, so we gave her some anti inflammatory medication to help with that. Our main concern however is that leg of hers. When she hit the water, most of the impact hit her leg causing a lot of stress. We took several X-rays and MRIs, and found multiple bone breaks as well as tendon and ligament tears. Several sensory receptors were also damaged in the fall, most likely why Raven was handling the pain so well. Because she couldn't feel it," Dr Russell glanced to Raven to make sure she was doing okay. Raven smiled and he continued, "Raven asked me several questions about what her options are. Generally I talk to the parents first, however she seemed to know everything that was going on. So we discussed the options."

"Is she going to be okay?" Mom asked

"Well we have several options. She is okay, but we are going to do everything we can to make her quality of life okay as well."

"Okay, so what are the options?" Callie asked

"Alright, so option one would be to perform a surgery to try and repair as much of the injuries as possible. She would then be in a cast for several weeks, and a leg brace for several more depending on how well the surgery went, she may never have full mobility of her leg again."
"Oh my god" Mom started crying, putting her head in her hands.
"Mom, Mom it's okay. Come her," Raven said.
Walking over to Raven, Mom reached out for a hug. Hugging her back, Raven looked over Moms shoulder at Callie who just grinned back at her.
"How are you so strong baby?" Mom laughed as she stood up from the hug.
"I've got a pretty great Mom, I think that's the reason," Raven winked

"So what's the other option," Callie asked

"Are you okay to continue," Dr Russell paused for the okay from Mom, when she nodded he continued, "So this option may sound much more extreme however with the extent of the injuries, we recommend this option. As a medical professional I am recommending amputation."
"What!?!" Mom nearly screamed
"Hey Ma it's fine, I'm not doing it." Raven stated.

"Raven is quite admit about not doing option 2, however i do believe you all should talk about it as a family before anyone makes a decision, I'll leave you space." Dr Russell left, closing the door behind him.

That's the day Raven learned your life can change to quick.