| In Memory of Katie | ||
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"Chuck, are you sure you're OK?" Chuck looked over at Randy in the passenger side of his father's Jeep Cherokee. "Yeah. Of course I'm all right driving. I didn't drink that much," Chuck responded. He sat there for a moment and thought about what he'd just said. "Well, maybe I did," he laughed. "Man, I'm sure glad you can drive, 'cause there's no way I could," Randy mumbled. "Did you see me and Katie finish off those 40s?" "Yeah, look at her," Chuck replied. He looked in his rearview mirror at Katie, who was sitting in the back seat trying to stay awake. "You all right back there, Katie?" Chuck asked. She looked at him, her brown eyes glazed, and smiled her beautiful smile. "It'll be cool when we join the rest of the kids at the party," said Randy. "Katie, you can use my sleeping bag if you want to," he said with drunken sensitivity. She smiled as she had before and said, "Thanks, Sweetie." Steve, sitting next to Katie, was looking out the window, enjoying the ride. Chuck turned up the radio. Meanwhile, at the party . . . "Hey, Bob. I don't feel so good," Rich mumbled. Bob looked at Rich. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I don't know. I just don't want to stay out here tonight." Bob was sitting on a log, holding a beer in his hand. He looked at his friends sitting around the fire. The flames from the crackling fire provided the only light in the darkness of the forest of evergreen trees. Bob looked at Rich. "OK, Rich, I'll take you home. I don't feel so good myself." Bob put his beer down and stood up. "Here . . ." he said. "Let's just say goodbye to everyone, and we'll get out of here." Rich nodded agreement. He was still sitting on his blanket with a weary expression on his face and thinking of how much he wanted to be with his girlfriend, Katie. Before they left the party Rich looked at his watch-it was 12:30 a.m. Randy yelled as he looked at Chuck. "Chuck . . . Chuck . . . look out!" Chuck looked up just before the impact. He caught a blurred view of the oncoming trees and then heard the screams from his three passengers. Then nothing but darkness. He sat stunned for a while, in shock. Smoke billowed from the engine, which was wrapped around the tree that had stopped them. He lifted up his head and looked around. There was Randy in the passenger seat, hunched over, his neck supporting his battered skull. Blood was seeping from his forehead, ears, and mouth. It looked like his legs were crushed beneath the dashboard and the shattered windshield. Blood dripped from the cracked plastic and twisted metal that lay above his legs. Then Chuck heard a moan from the back seat, where Katie was struggling to free her seat belt. Chuck turned around in his seat and asked, "Katie, are you OK?" "Yeah," she replied, "but my stomach really hurts." "Hold on, Katie; I'll help you!" Chuck crawled out of the car window and struggled to his feet. He tried to open the door nearest Katie. Steve, who was in shock, climbed out the window on his side. "Chuck, I'm gonna go get help!" Steve said as he stood outside staring in awe at the mangled Jeep. He looked confused; shock had taken control of his senses. "Go on, Steve!" Chuck demanded. Steve stumbled away as Chuck continued trying to open Katie's door, but it seemed impossible. Finally he knocked out the remains of the shattered window, knocking glass fragments inside the vehicle. Katie finally succeeded in unfastening her seat belt and Chuck literally pulled her out the window. "I'm OK," Katie said. "I can walk it off." Chuck put his arm around her waist to keep her from falling. He gently helped her sit down on the ground as she hugged her stomach. "Let me just walk it off," she said again. "No, you just lie there. I'm going to try to get Randy out." Chuck walked around the other side of the car. "Randy, I'm going to get you out, buddy. Just hold on." Randy had come to and was screaming in pain. Chuck tugged at the car door, trying to open it, but it was as if the door had been welded shut. "Randy, I'm here, man. I'm trying to open your door, but it won't budge." Katie, lying there on the ground, began to cry as the pain in her stomach increased. She hugged her stomach tighter and tighter. She stopped crying and began to cough. A small stream of blood slid down the corner of her mouth, and she lost consciousness. When the police arrived, Katie was somewhat coherent. They put her on a stretcher and loaded it into the ambulance. Steve, still in shock, was found a half mile away wandering aimlessly, looking for help. Chuck, who was apparently unharmed, was questioned and taken to the hospital by the police. Randy had to be cut out of the car with the "jaws of life." He was placed on a stretcher and quickly loaded into the ambulance with Katie. "Everything's going to be OK, Katie," he said to her softly. And then he once again lost consciousness. The pain in Katie's abdomen began to intensify. She tried to fight it off, but couldn't stop crying. She tried rolling back and forth to stop the intense hurting throughout her body. But soon her movements stopped, and with her eyes closed she lay motionless on the stretcher. Now she experienced no more pain. The time was 12:30 a.m. The next morning Rich awoke at Bob's house. He'd been so tired the night before that he'd decided to stay there instead of going home. Bob's mother handed him the phone. It was Steve. "Hello?" Rich questioned. "Hey, Rich, it's me, Steve. He spoke with difficulty. "Hey, what's goin' on, Steve?" Rich asked. "There's been an accident," Steve said. "I was in it." Rich was shocked. "Are you all right?" "Yeah. I was with Chuck and Randy," Steve answered. "Are they OK?" Silence. "Steve?" Rich felt his heart pounding with dread. "Katie is dead," Steve finally choked out. "No, no way!" Rich cried out in disbelief. "She died on the way to the hospital." Again there was silence. "I'm sorry, Rich." Rich slammed the phone down, grabbed his car keys, and headed home. There he found his parents sitting by the telephone, weeping. They had thought that he too had been in the crash. When they saw him, they ran and hugged him. Then Rich knew that Steve had told the truth, and he broke down and wept for the loss of his girlfriend and best friend, for Katie had been both to him. Many lives were changed that night. Katie lost her life from the impact of the crash that forced her seat belt to rupture her spleen and liver, causing massive internal bleeding. Steve suffered from severe shock and three broken ribs, but he suffered no lasting physical effects of the accident. Randy's head injuries put him into a coma. He had a broken leg, shattered jaw, and several other broken bones. Several weeks after the accident he came out of the coma. Unfortunately, because of the extent of his injuries, he will always walk with a limp and wear the scars he received that night. Chuck walked away from the accident without injury. Because of his reckless driving under the influence of alcohol and the death of Katie, Chuck was convicted of vehicular homicide. He faces up to six months in jail. But that is the least of his concerns. As he stated, "I know that the pain I've felt every day since the accident will be with me forever. Each day I see how my actions have changed my life, and how I have changed the lives of others. . . . I feel so guilty for [Katie's] death, and have relived the minutes following the accident a thousand times. It was the moment I helped her out of the car and saw the look of terror on her face that I will always remember. . . . Through the months following the accident, I've known about the grief my family, my friends, and I have gone through, but I can't imagine how much her family has missed her." Along with the judgment of six months in jail, Chuck's driver's license was suspended for five years, he was ordered to write a letter of apology to Katie's family, and the judge ordered him to perform 500 hours of community service, which involves working with youth groups and speaking at high schools, telling his experience the night Katie was killed. Also, he is not to consume drugs or alcohol. Chuck says, "I would like to help prevent tragedies like this from happening again, and let other teenagers know how serious the mistakes I made were. Whether or not alcohol caused the accident is not the point. The importance lies in the fact that none of us should have been drinking at all anyway. I was wrong to consume alcohol. It is a problem many high school students routinely face. Hopefully I can help other people learn from my mistakes and avoid this living nightmare." * All names are pseudonyms. (William wrote this story from an experience that happened to his friend Chuck.) |