Rounding Third - Michelle Lynn Page 0,47
of emotions, ending in a soft plea.
Adrenaline rushed through my veins, and I laid Ella down before running toward him.
A truck screeched to a stop in front of the two cars.
Coach Weathers sprinted over to help. “What happened?”
Noah was still trying to get Kedsey to wake up, and my forearms were on fire from pulling on the metal doorframe to dislodge it.
Coach Weathers went to the other car but returned to us fast, confirming what I’d already assumed. The driver was dead.
He took my place and tried to free the door while I ran back over to Ella to make sure she still had a pulse.
“You’ll have to use the window!” I yelled to Noah.
“Baby, come on.” I urged Ella to wake up, but she wouldn’t.
Again, I felt her pulse and placed my hand over her chest. At least she was breathing. I pried her eyelids open, only to have them shut immediately.
“Lynch, help me over here. Kedsey has Noah trapped, so we’ll have to get her out first.”
Coach Weathers rounded the car to the passenger side. He flung the seat forward, and Kedsey’s body was limp and pale over Noah’s body. His hands were on her back, rubbing, as he believed she’d wake up.
“Come on, baby, wake up for me.” His pleading voice broke more.
“Noah, you’ve gotta get her out of the way!” I screamed.
“She can’t…she can’t be,” he said.
“Listen, Ford, you have to help us here.” Coach Weathers’s voice was so calm that it almost made me calm until I glanced over to Ella’s lifeless body on the grass under the tree.
“Come this way,” he instructed me.
I stepped into a puddle, and I looked at Coach Weathers. Beltline had been in a drought for the last month. We both looked down at the ground and back to one another. Fuck, we needed to move faster.
“Push her toward us, Ford,” Coach Weathers said.
But Noah’s hands were over his face.
“Fuck, she can’t be dead. She can’t. Kedsey!” he screamed.
Right as his final cry was let out, a large spark from the other car went off, and a slow line of fire rushed over to the puddle I was currently standing in.
Coach Weathers pushed me in Ella’s direction and followed me under the tree.
“Noah!” I screamed, pushing against Coach to get back to the car.
“Crosby!” Noah yelled.
Then, the puddle of gasoline ignited, and the car exploded.
“Help!
Scream.
“Help!”
Scream.
“Help!”
Moans rang out until all that could be heard was the burning metal.
I stopped fighting Coach to get back to the car, my body falling limp into his arms.
“Noah,” I sobbed.
Coach Weathers held me as we watched the car light up the night sky. He didn’t let go until the flame caught the tree branch, and the inferno continued to the trunk.
“Get her out of here.” He pushed me toward Ella at the same time a huge tree branch cracked.
I fell to my knees at Ella’s side. I laid my body over hers to cover her from the falling debris.
Just as I picked her up to get her farther away, another pop of an explosion set off from the car, and a hot, wet substance splashed on my back.
By the time I’m finished telling the story, Ella’s curled up in my lap with her arms tight around my neck. My legs are bouncing, my body is trembling, and my shaking fingers are unable to fully hold on to her.
“I’m sorry, Crosby,” she whispers.
“You have no reason to be sorry.”
I slow my breathing, remembering my father’s words to not allow that memory to control me.
It happened two years ago, and although that moment in my life will forever stay embedded in my memory until I take my last breath, the outcome will never change.
“I’m just sorry you’ve been tortured with that memory all this time.” A tear slips down her cheek before I can catch it with my thumb. “The loss of them was hard enough, but you’ve had to endure the unimaginable.”
“In my heart, I believe it was an accident, but my hands were controlling that wheel, and my foot was on the gas pedal. Two of my friends died, and the bloodstains are on my hands.”
My eyes concentrate on her kneading hands between us. I never planned to pour out everything tonight, but I can’t seem to shut my mouth.
“I understand, but it could have been any of us that night. Noah and Kedsey wouldn’t want you to let your own life pass by.” She straddles me again, her hands now resting on my shoulders.
“For