Luck from a Horseshoe

by my_little_medic

A Life Worth Saving!

Vince looked at the rhythm displayed on the monitor. “Mark, shock her now!”

Mark nodded. “Shocking on three! One, two, three!” Mark pressed a button on the machine and the child’s body almost appeared to jump off of the ground.

After a few seconds, Mark checked for a pulse on the child. “I’ve got no pulse Vince!”

“Keep going!” Vince yelled back while vigorously pumping on the child’s chest and giving her mouth-to-mouth.

They continued to work on the child’s lifeless body for what seemed like hours. By this time they had done just about everything they could think of to try and bring the child’s still heart back to life.

“Vince… We’re gonna have to call it…” Mark said in a solemn voice.

“We’re not calling anything!” Vince screamed back.

Vince had sweat dripping from his forehead at this point. “One more… One more time Mark!”

“There’s no point man! We’ve done everything we can!” Mark exclaimed.

Vince looked down at the necklace around the child’s neck, the golden horse shoe that he hoped would bring her some luck in getting her heart beating again. “This is where you come in… If you’re going to bring this little girl some luck… Do it now…” He whispered.

“Mark, one more time. Shock her one last time.”

Mark rolled his eyes and focused his attention back to the monitor. “Shocking on three! One, two, three!”

The little girl’s body jumped from the shock. Vince paused for a moment and then hesitantly felt for a pulse while looking at the monitor. He touched his fingers to the child and felt the slow and faint pulse of the child’s beating heart.

“…..I’ve got a pulse...” Vince said in a shocked voice.

“No way!” Mark stated while reaching to check for himself. “Holy cow! We need to go!”

“Let’s go then!” Vince said as he scooped up the little girl to carry her out to the waiting ambulance.

The child’s father stood up almost smiling. “Wait! Does that mean that she’s alive.”

Vince gave the father a reassuring look and stated. “That means we need to go… Now!”

Vince carried the child from the bedroom, passing the young boy in the hallway and pausing if front of him. “If I have any say in the matter… You will see your sister again!”

The young boy just nodded his head.

After getting the little girl into the ambulance, Mark hopped into the driver’s seat and drove as fast as he could to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, the little girl’s heart was still beating, albeit very slowly. Vince and Mark brought the little girl into the hospital where the doctors and nurses began to work on her. During the time that they were there and watching the staff do their best to bring the little girl back from the edge of death, one of the nurses tried to take off the little girl’s horse shoe necklace.

“NO! Don’t take that off of her.” Vince snapped at the nurse. “She needs all the luck that she can get…”

The nurse gave a frustrated look and left the necklace in place.

Mark soon came back from the garage after straightening out the ambulance. “Vince, we gotta go… Scott needs us for
another call.”

With a sigh and one last look at the little girl, Vince left the hospital to go back to work.

~~~

The little boy nodded his head, as if answering a question.

Tears began to well up in Vince’s eyes. In a very shaky voice Vince simply asked. “Did she make it?”

The little boy had a smile come over his face and he gave Vince another big hug. This time Vince kneeled down to hug to the boy back. “She wouldn’t have pulled through without you.” He said.

Vince began to cry at this point, not from sadness but from the joy of knowing that he had given this young man his sister back. “I was just doing my job.”

The boy stepped away and looked down at Vince smiling. “No, you did so much more.” The boy wiped his face and pulled something out of his pocket. “She woke up a few days ago in the hospital. We all told her the story of what happened and how you wouldn’t give up on her.” The boy opened his hand to reveal what he had taken from his pocket.

It was the necklace that the little girl was wearing that day, the golden horseshoe pendant with the pink stones. “She wanted to make sure that I got this to you. Our parents both told her that she needed to keep it, but she insisted that someone like you was going to need it more than her.”

Vince gave the boy a puzzled look and then looked down at the necklace in his hand. He wiped his face with the front of his shirt. “I really couldn’t accept this. I think that your parents are right… She should keep it. I believe it’s what saved her that day.”

The boy shook his head and held it out for him. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Vince looked at the necklace in the boy’s hand and held out his own hand. The boy put the necklace in Vince’s hand and took a few steps back. “This necklace once belonged to our grandmother. My grandmother said once that it had been in our family for many generations and had the power to bring luck when it was needed the most. My little sister said that she felt it would bring you luck, since you helped it bring luck to her.”

Tears were starting to well up in Vince’s eyes again. “Please, tell her thank you from me. Let her know that I’m very grateful for such a gift.”

Vince reached into his shirt and pulled out the necklace he was wearing. The star of life that he had been wearing under his shirt since he first started the job. He pulled the necklace off from around his neck and held it out for the young man to take.

“Make sure your sister gets this for me? It’s what I’ve worn since I started this job.”

The boy nodded and took the necklace from Vince. “Thank you again.” The young boy said while turning to leave.

Vince watched the young man walk away before turning his attention the horse shoe necklace in his hand. He undid the chain of the necklace and securely fastened it around his neck, tucking the horse shoe into his shirt.

After walking back inside, Scott stopped him in the hallway.

“We’ve got a call for you. Abdominal pain at 423 Rezen Street.” Scott said, handing him a piece of paper with the address written on it.

“Rezen Street? That’s almost all the way on the edge of our territory.” Vince replied questioningly.

“Yeah, well they don’t have any one over in that area to respond to it. So you’re it! Jodi’s already in the ambulance waiting for you. Get a move on!” Scott said while pointing at an ambulance that was pulling around the side of the building.

Vince ran over and hopped into the passenger seat of the ambulance. The ambulance came to life as it sped down the highway, sirens blaring and lights glowing.

“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” He said to Jodi.

“All I know is that Rezen Street is up on top of Young’s Hill. So that’s where I’m headed.” She replied.

“Oh yeah! The roads used to get us a lot of business up there.” Vince said with a hint of amusement in his voice. “People taking the corners too fast and driving right off the edge… It’s a good thing they installed the guard rails along the edges up there.”

“That’s very true.” Jodi said with a slight giggle.

They hit their turn-off for Young’s hill and began their ascent up the winding road that took them to Rezen Street at the top of the hill.

“When did they start all this new construction up here?” Vince asked.

“A few months ago I guess. Big new housing development going in.” She replied.

Vince looked over at Jodi with an amused grin. “I don’t think I could stand living in such a high place. I’d be afraid that Jess would drive right off one of the edges.”

“HA! That bad of a driver huh?” Jodi laughed.

“Well, after all she is a woman right?” Vince poked back.

“Ok, not cool.” Jodi said with an annoyed look on her face. “Not all woman are bad drivers…”

Vince just laughed and turned back to look at her. He barely had time to see the cement truck speeding down a small side road before it struck the driver’s side of the ambulance. The cement truck struck the side of the ambulance with such force that it pinned the vehicle to the guardrail on the passenger’s side.

Vince’s heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was digging its way out of his chest. He was deafened by the sound of the two vehicles colliding and his hands were completely numb from the sudden shock. He looked over at the driver’s seat where Jodi was sitting.

“Jodi?! You all right!” He yelled in what sounded like a muffled voice.

Jodi did not respond. She was slumped over to her right side, still seat belted in place. Her eyes were closed and he could not tell if she was breathing. He undid his seat belt and tried to get his door opened but couldn’t. The passenger side door had been pinned shut by the guard rail. He reached over and tried to get Jodi to wake up. Slowly he began to regain his senses as the adrenaline wore off slightly. As his hearing began to come back he could hear something that made him freeze in place. It was the cracking of the wood posts that held the guardrail in place, which in turn was keeping the ambulance from toppling over the edge of the hill.

Panic quickly set in as he realized that the guardrail was not going to hold the weight of a cement truck and an ambulance. He quickly tried to scramble out of his seat to make it into the back of the ambulance and out the back doors. However, this was an attempt made in vain.

A loud crack and the quick shift of the ambulance signified that the guardrail had given away under the weight of both vehicles. Time seemed to slow down as he felt the ambulance slide and then roll off of the edge of the hill. He felt every muscle in his body clench tight as he looked out his window at the fast approaching ground. With nothing else left to do he shut his eyes as tight as he could while he waited for the ground to meet him.

Author's Note:

Hope it's not too boring here...

Comments

[doctor_n]

Fucking literal cliffhangers

[damnaion]

dam i love it

[Tome Turner]

Hope it's not too boring here...

What? You are literally having somebody fall off a cliff! How could that bore anybody?