The Matinbury Estate

Chapter 2: Minutes

May 5th 1995 11:38 pm

I was driving my typical route when it happened. My name is Mark and I work at the San Francisco Police Department. I was in the uptown area listening to my police scanner and eating some Chinese food on my lunch break. This was only my first week on the force and nothing had happened yet. I had just graduated from the police academy and I had not yet gained any experience in the practice of protection. I sat and waited for an assignment on the police scanner. Nothing was called in with my name.

A red pick up truck appeared and raced down the street at, near sixty miles an hour. The driver collided with a parked limousine as an older woman was climbing out of it. I saw it all happen and jumped out of my patrol car. The entire limousine had flipped over and I could see that it had pinned the woman down to the street. I ran over to her as I called it in. Help would be here soon but I could tell by looking at her that she wouldn't make it unless I did something.

Her eyes were shut so I checked her pulse and then saw that she was still breathing. She was unresponsive. I needed to get this limousine off her. I ran back to the car that had run into her. The man driving the pick up was dead with his head resting on the steering wheel. I saw the name of an electric company on the side of the truck. Surely he would have cables. I jumped into the back of the truck and quickly found something.

That woman wouldn't have much time unless this worked. I tied the cable to the limousine and then to the pick up truck and rushed back. I pushed the body of the man in the pick up truck to the side. He smelled very strongly of beer. Apparently he had been drinking while driving his work truck. I shoved his body aside and switched the gear to reverse. The engine sputtered. It had been damaged in the crash. I tried it again and again. It refused to work. I needed to get her out of there. She was going to die.

I could see people gathering around the accident watching me. I couldn't hear sirens yet. That was bad. I called it in and they were taking their sweet time. I angrily jumped out of the pick up truck and ran to the front hood and pulled it up. As I opened the hood, flames flared up from the engine. I fell backwards and then jumped back up. The pick up truck had been damaged too much. I needed to try something else.

I ran over to the woman again. I checked her pulse. She was still alive but she was weak. I needed to get her out now. I desperately pushed on the side of the limousine. Nothing. I was not a superhuman and my own strength was not enough. I could see blood in her mouth. She was bleeding internally. I tried pushing at the side of the limousine again. Nothing. I ran back to the pick up truck. The flames were rising as high as ever. That was when the miracle happened.

It began to rain. The sky suddenly burst with water and it poured down. The flames weakened and then suddenly went out. I jumped back into the pickup truck and tried it again. The engine had cooled enough. I pulled out and the limousine flipped back onto its wheels. I jumped out and ran back to the woman. She remained lying in the street. The limousine was off her now. I could tell just by looking at her that her legs had been crushed. I checked her pulse again. Still alive. Barely. I heard sirens in the distance. They would be able to get her out in time now. Maybe.

I sat next to her broken body, breathing heavily. The heavy rain was brief and had stopped now. I couldn't believe the luck and looked to the ambulance that pulled out. Medics jumped out and ran to the woman. The crowd that had gathered around the accident cheered.

I later learned that the woman's name was Mrs. Matinbury. She worked for the government as a vaccine scientist. She was paralyzed in the accident from the waist down. But she was alive. I was promoted at work for my resolve and courage. Mrs. Matinbury would never walk again but I saved her.

September 13th 2006 4:38 pm

"Kassidy!" I said in shock. There she was standing in front of me. Had she seen the young girl who attacked me? She was looking at me sternly in the way she did when I was child. I doubt she had seen what I had just seen.