by Julian Bloom
When she was less than a block away from her car, she spotted a figure coming out of a large building near the corner opposite from where her car was parked. The lamp post on that corner was burned out, making it hard, at first, for her to tell whether the figure was a man or a woman; but as Allison watched the figure approach the corner of the street, she could tell by the shape of their silhouette that the person was almost certainly a female.
The street was so quiet that Allison could actually hear the “click clack” of the woman’s heels as they hit against the sidewalk, and even in the dark, from almost a block away, she noticed the sway of the woman’s slender hips as she walked along with a feminine switch.
Allison was a lesbian—an open and active lesbian. She had been attracted to other females since she was in middle school. She had kept her lesbianism a secret for several years, this being due to the fact that her parents were very religious Catholics who frowned on any type of homosexuality. She had “played the straight card” all the way up until she’d finally gone off to nursing school.
She had purposely chosen to attend a college that was three hours away from her family, and located in an entirely different state, so that she could reinvent herself and finally be the person she truly was on the inside—a woman who desired other women.
Allison’s first experience with another woman had actually taken place when she was in her first year of college. She had been surfing the internet, one night, and had stumbled upon a dating site for gays and lesbians. The site also had an app that could be used on smart phones and Allison had downloaded it onto hers.
She had created a profile, posted a few photos of herself and started chatting with some of the other users on the site in a members-only chat room. That night, she had met a girl in the chat room who attended the same college and lived on campus in one of the dormitory buildings.
The two young women had chatted online for a while and then, had decided to exchange numbers. The girl’s name had been Sara Wallace. She was from a small town out West and had chosen to go away to college to get away from home. The two women had found that they’d had a lot in common and they’d clicked right away. They ended up dating each other openly, for almost a year. But Sara was a few years older than Allison and she had graduated and moved away to start a new job in another state on the other side of the country.
The two women kept in touch as friends, but eventually Sara had met someone out in her new city and Allison started hearing from her less and less often. Then one day, she had received an eVite to Sara’s wedding in her email box. She didn’t reply, nor did she attend the wedding, but she never forgot about her first intimate girlfriend.
After Sara, Allison had dated a few other women here and there, but hadn’t felt a real “connection” with anyone since Sara. She had been hired by Hartsville General Hospital after graduating from her college nursing program in the top 10 of her class. She had been working there as an emergency room nurse for the past 3 years and although she loved her job dearly, the crazy schedule and brutal hours didn’t leave a lot of free time for much of social life, and she was beginning to feel pretty lonely.
As Allison approached the middle of the city block, she heard the sound of a car engine growing louder and louder. The woman who had been walking toward the corner where the street light had burnt out was now crossing the street. She was carrying what appeared to be a briefcase on one arm and what looked like a large purse on the other.
Just as the woman reached the middle of the street she was crossing, a dark-colored sedan came out of nowhere and struck the woman so hard that she went flying up onto the hood of the vehicle and rolled up into the windshield, hitting it hard. Her limp-looking body then rolled back down onto the hood of the vehicle and fell off of the car, over the passenger side, and down onto the cold hard, dark street below.
To Allison’s shock and surprise, the vehicle never stopped. It didn’t even slow down. In fact, it sped up even more and continued to race down the street, off into the darkness.
Allison let out a scream and looked around, frantically, to see if there was anyone, anyone at all on the street who had witnessed what she’d just seen. Almost instinctively, she took off running toward the still unmoving body of the woman lying on the side of the street.
The impact of the speeding sedan had knocked the woman’s purse and briefcase out of her hands and papers and other objects had flown about and were strewn all over the road and nearby sidewalk. The woman’s body had landed less than a few feet away from the curb and she was as still as a corpse.
Allison ran as fact as she could, taking her cellphone out of her pocket as she ran.
“Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Allison was saying it over and over as she hurried over to the fallen woman. Just as she reached the spot where the woman was lying on the ground, the 9-1-1 operator came onto the line.
“9-1-1 operator. What is your emergency?” a woman’s voice asked. Allison was frantic.
“Oh, my God! I need an ambulance! Send an ambulance, right away! A woman has just been struck by a speeding vehicle!” Allison’s voice was trembling with urgency.
“OK, I’m patching it in now. Where are you ma’am?” the operator asked, in a calm and soothing voice.
“I’m—I’m at the corner of Bellevue and 29th street in downtown Hartsville!” Allison shouted into the receiver.
“OK, ma’am, the ambulance is on its way. Please stay on the line with me, if you can, until they arrive on the scene, okay?” The tone of the female operator’s voice was calm and composed, yet it also had a sense of urgency in it.
“My name is Allison Manning and I’m a registered nurse at Hartsville General. I am going to assess the woman’s injuries,” Allison told the operator. She placed the phone down on the ground beside her and put it on speaker.
Allison reached out and touched the injured woman’s face gently. She was a beautiful young African-American woman and even with her noticeable injuries, Allison could see that she had a very pretty face. To Allison’s surprise, the woman opened her eyes when Allison’s hand touched her face. The woman’s eyes were a stunning hazel color and Allison couldn’t help but to notice how radiant they were.
“Miss? Can you hear me?” Allison asked the woman. The woman groaned and mumbled something unintelligible in reply. “Miss? My name is Allison and I’m a nurse. I’ve called you an ambulance and they’re on their way. Can you tell me your name?”
“Jua—Juanita,” the woman replied in a soft, weak voice. “My…my name is…Juanita.”
“Juanita, that’s a beautiful name,” Allison told her, forcing a smile. The woman looked to be in pretty bad shape, but it was Allison’s job to show reassurance and comfort. “You’re gonna be okay, Juanita. Help is on the way and I’m going to stay with you, okay? Now, I’m just going to briefly assess some of your injuries.”
The woman nodded her head slightly in reply.
“Thank…you,” she said, weakly and then, her eyes closed again.
“Juanita! Juanita, honey, try to stay with me, okay?” Allison wanted to try and keep the injured woman conscious as long as possible. Juanita was lying on her back and her long jacket had flown open. Allison lifted her head, slightly and saw that she had suffered an injury to the back of her head. She also noticed that Juanita’s left arm and right leg both looked broken.
The 9-1-1 operator was still on the line.
“Ma’am? Ma’am are you still there?” the operator asked.
“Yes, I’m here!” Allison replied loudly. “The patient seems to have suffered a head injury and numerous broken bones. What’s taking the ambulance so long to get here? I’m only a few blocks away!”
“Ma’am, the ambulance is on its way. It should be arriving any…” Just then, Allison heard a loud siren and saw flashing lights rushing toward her.
“Oh, thank God!” she said aloud, to no one in particular. She looked back down at Juanita’s face and saw that her eyes had c
losed again. “Juanita! Juanita honey, the ambulance is here! Can you hear me?”
This time, Juanita didn’t answer.
Chapter 2: The Aftermath
Allison helped the paramedics load Juanita’s unconscious, motionless body onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance van. She gathered the contents that had flown out of Juanita’s briefcase and purse and stuffed them into a clear plastic bag. She had just placed all of Juanita’s belongings inside the ambulance when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
“Ma’am, did you witness the accident that took place?” Allison turned around and saw that a tall, stalky male police officer had addressed her.
“Um...yes. Yes, I saw the whole thing, actually,” Allison affirmed.
“I’m Officer Holt and I’d like to ask you a few questions about the incident,” the officer stated dryly.
“I’m happy to answer any questions you may have, officer, but I’m not leaving this woman. I’m going to ride with her in the ambulance to make sure that she gets there safely.” Allison’s voice was adamant.
Office Holt didn’t argue with her. He offered to meet up with her at the hospital and get her statement there.
Allison rode in the back of the ambulance with Juanita. She felt bad about rooting through the woman’s belongings, but she was trying to find some identifying information, like a driver’s license or a medical card. Finally, she found a black leather wallet with and ID inside. The woman’s name was Juanita Crawford.
The ambulance pulled into the ER parking lot and Allison held Juanita’s hand as she was rushed into a trauma room. Just as they transferred her to the hospital bed, Juanita opened her eyes. She looked up at Allison and moved her mouth as if she was trying to say something, but no words came out. Allison felt Juanita squeeze her hand just before her eyes closed again.
“Ms. Manning?” the sound of Officer Holt’s voice came from the doorway of the trauma room. “Can I speak with you, now, please?”
The doctors and nurses had taken over and Allison knew she had to leave and let them do their job. She looked down at Juanita one final time before leaving the hospital room to go and talk with Officer Holt.
Outside in the ER waiting room, Officer Holt handed Allison a cup of coffee as she sat in one of the chairs explaining the details of the accident she had witnessed.
“Were you able to see whether the driver of the vehicle was male or female?” he asked.
Allison shook her head.
“It was really dark, and I think the windows may have been tinted,” she replied. I couldn’t see inside of the car at all.”
“Did you happen to catch the license plate number?” the officer inquired.
“No, the car was moving much too fast, plus I was too far away and it was too dark to tell,” Allison noted.
“Were you able to make out the color, make and/or model of the vehicle?” the officer asked.
Again, Allison shook her head.
“I could see that it was dark-colored car, with a loud motor and I’m pretty sure it only had two doors,” she replied.
“Did the driver of the car stop or slow down at any point in time?” he inquired.
“That’s what’s weird to me, officer,” Allison asserted. “It looked like the car actually sped up when the driver saw Juanita in the street. It seemed like the car hit her on purpose.”
Officer Holt’s facial expression changed when he heard Allison’s statement. He wrote something down on his little note pad and looked back up at her.
“So they never slowed down or stopped at all?” he asked, again, as if seeking further confirmation.
Allison shook her head, again.
“Never once. In fact, it sped up even faster after it hit her,” Allison stated, assuredly.
The police officer seemed a bit perturbed at her statement, but nevertheless, he thanked her, left a card with her and told her to call him if she recalled or found out anything else. He also told her that he’d be questioning Juanita, herself, once she was awake and in stable condition.
Allison waited in the ER waiting room to hear from the doctor before she left the hospital. Even though she didn’t’ know this woman, she had felt some kind of connection with her. She wanted to make sure she was going to be okay.
She was beginning to nod off when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up to see Dr. Benson standing beside her.
“Nurse Manning?” he addressed her in a soft voice. “Ms. Juanita is going to have to have surgery, but she’s going to be okay. You should go home and get some rest.”
He was smiling down at her with kindness and concern in his eyes. Allison was relieved to hear his kind words and she finally felt comfortable enough to go home.
**
The next morning, Allison woke up to her alarm clock in a daze. She hadn’t gotten home until nearly 2:30 a.m. the night before, and she had another 12-hour shift to work at the hospital. As she showered and dressed for work, she couldn’t help thinking about Juanita. Even though they had never met before last night, she knew she had felt an instant connection with her. She decided to go check in on her before her shift started.
She put on one of her favorite scrubs and pulled her thick, shiny blonde hair back into a tight ponytail. She added an extra coat of lip gloss to her pouty lips and put on some dark eyeliner and mascara to accent her sea green eyes. She checked her appearance in her bedroom mirror, and when she happy with her look, she headed out to her car.
Allison walked up to the reception desk and greeted Lisa, the daytime front desk receptionist.
“Morning, Lisa,” Allison said, flashing her a warm smile.
“Morning, Alli. Are you starting early today?” Lisa asked, curiously.
“No, actually, I wanted to check in on that hit and run victim from last night, Juanita Crawford,” Allison replied.
Lisa clicked on her computer screen and typed in the name.
“She’s been moved to room 423,” Lisa informed her.
“Thanks, Lis,” Allison flashed another smile at Lisa before heading toward the elevators.
Allison knocked on the door of room 423 and waited to hear an answer.
“Come in,” a pleasant female voice said from behind the closed door.
Allison opened the door and entered the small hospital room. Her eyes lit up when she saw Juanita sitting up in her hospital bed, finishing the last bit of a meal. She had a bandage wrapped around her head and her left arm was in a cast. She also had a cast around the bottom of her right leg and there were a few scratches and bruises on her face, but other than that, she looked much better than she had the night before, lying motionless in the middle of the street.
“Wow, you look much better!” Allison exclaimed as she closed the hospital room door behind her and walked toward the bed to get a closer look at Juanita.
Juanita smiled at her when she saw that it was Allison, flashing a pretty set of pearly white teeth. Her smile brightened her whole face. Allison could see the beauty behind her facial injuries. She had a creamy caramel-colored complexion and the most beautiful pair of hazel eyes that Allison had ever seen. Her long, wavy dark hair hung loosely down around her face, and it was neatly parted in the middle, at the top. She was a beautiful young black woman, indeed, and Allison was smitten with her immediately.
“Thank you, Allison,” Juanita replied. Allison was surprised that she had remembered her name. She hadn’t been quite sure how conscious Juanita had been the night before, and it flattered her that this lovely woman had remembered who she was.
“How are you feeling?” Allison asked, taking a seat in the chair next to the bed.
Juanita looked over at her with a tired-looking, yet happy smile on her pretty brown face. Allison couldn’t help but notice how smooth her skin looked, even with the bruises and scratches. She tried hard not to stare too intensively, but the thought of caressing Juanita’s lovely face was flowing through her mind.
“I’m pretty sore and a lit
tle tired, but I’m doing pretty well, nonetheless,” Juanita replied, and then reached over with her free arm, taking Allison’s hand into her own. “Thanks to you.” She looked deep into Allison’s emerald-green eyes as she spoke.
Just then, there was a knock on the hospital room door, and when it opened, Allison heard the voice of a woman as she entered.
“Hello-o,” she crooned in a singsong-y tone of voice. “Ohh, Nita, honey, how are you?” A tall thin pretty woman with fiery red hair entered the room and quickly headed over toward Juanita’s bed. Juanita looked very surprised to see her, but Allison could tell that she definitely recognized her. Allison quickly pulled her hand away from Juanita’s, as if she felt intimidated by the presence of the strange, redheaded woman.
The woman went over to Juanita’s right side and embraced her in what looked like an emotional half-hug. Juanita didn’t smile, nor did she return the woman’s embrace; in fact, she looked just a little bit uncomfortable with the woman’s actions.