Wrong Side of the Tracks by Ashley Zakrzewski
ChapterThree
The next few hours are rough, and every time a doctor comes out of the emergency doors, I perk up, thinking it’s going to be an update on Tina and Kennedy. How long do surgeries usually take? I have no idea if I should be more worried since it’s been this long or not. Carol is sitting down and I’m still pacing around the waiting area.
“You got a smoke?” I ask her.
“I thought you quit years ago?” she says, opening her pack and handing him one.
“Well, I need one right now, okay.” I grab from her hand. “I have my phone you call me if he comes out.”
She nods, and I walk out the front doors and over to the smoking area. I think about going back in and not smoking this cigarette. It’s a horrible habit, one that I stopped years ago, but I’m stressed to the max right now, and this will give me some relief. So, I light it up and take the first drag.
“What are you here for?” a woman asks, standing a few feet away from me, sitting on the curb.
“Wife and daughter are in surgery.”
She nods. “My father is too. Have no idea what happened, but they called because I’m his emergency contact.”
Honestly, I don’t feel like talking right now, but it might take my mind off it for just a minute.
“Hope he’s okay. It’s been hours and they still haven’t updated me. Sitting around waiting is torture.”
She nods. “My dad ends up here often. It’s to the point to where I have the hospital programmed into my phone. He doesn’t actually want anything to do with me, so why doesn’t he just change his emergency contact information?”
My father and I didn’t have the best relationship either. He was a hard-working man, who worked as much as he needed to, and never once complained. We had a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs. We just never really got to know each other.
“All I can say is make amends. My father and I didn’t have the best relationship and he passed before we could truly work things out. Biggest regret.”
Normally, I don’t input myself into other people’s problems, but I don’t want her to have the same regrets as me. This could be the time where her dad doesn’t make it out of surgery.
She doesn’t respond but walks inside. I take the peace and quiet to close my eyes and enjoy the last few drags of this cigarette. Nicotine, oh how I’ve missed you.
My phone starts to ring, and I throw the cigarette down on the ground and run inside. There is a doctor talking with Carol.
“Are you their doctor?” I ask, trying to catch my breath. “Are they okay?”
He pulls us to the side, and that’s when his demeanor changes.
“We tried to do everything we could, but the impact caused several injuries and internal bleeding. We weren’t able to stop it.”
I fall to the ground. Am I dreaming? Carol’s sobs echo in my ears, and the doctor keeps talking, but I can’t comprehend what he is saying. My wife and daughter are dead. They won’t be coming home with me tonight.
He walks away, and I try to take a deep breath, before I start having a panic attack, but it’s no use. My chest is tight.
“Milo, what are we going to go?” Carol asks, grabbing his hand.
Tears won’t stop, and I don’t know how I’m going to survive. My whole world has collapsed. My beautiful daughter won’t be playing softball this summer, and my dad won’t be lying next to me when I go to sleep. This isn’t supposed to happen.
I stand up and throw my arms around Carol, trying to comfort her. Tina was the only person she had left, and now we are both left alone.
Another doctor comes out and goes straight to the woman from outside and from what I can tell, it must be good news because she smiles and then leaves.
What am I supposed to do now? Just leave and go home like nothing ever happened? I need answers. What caused the accident?
I pull out my phone and dial the Sheriff.
“Milo, I just heard. I’m so sorry for your loss, son.”
“Listen, I don’t want to hear any of that right now. All I want is answers. What happened? What caused the accident?” I ask, trying to gain some composure.
“I’m on my way up there. Give me five minutes.”
Nothing is ever going to bring my family back. Things will never be the same. How am I supposed to go on living without the two very people that make life worth living?
“The doctor asked if we wanted to see them, but I said no. I want to remember them as they were,” Carol says.
My wife was beautiful, intelligent and someone I imagined growing gray and old with. Kennedy, well she was the very light of my life. The whole reason I work so hard for my family. I wanted to give her the world, and it still wasn’t enough. Seeing their lifeless bodies isn’t going to do anything but make it worse.
Carol pulls out her pack of cigarettes and offers me one. Right now, I’ll take anything. I follow her outside and take a seat on the curb, not carrying who stares at me. Grown men, okay.
“Hey, Milo.”
I look up to find the Sheriff hovering over me. “This is Tina’s mother, Carol.”
He comes over and takes a seat next to me. “Listen, I know there is nothing I can do or say that’s going to make a difference, but I promised your daddy that I’d watch out for you.”
“Let’s cut to the chase. I need to know about the accident. How did this happen to my family?”
He takes a deep breath and clasps his heads together in his lap. “I got a call while patrolling about two cars that had collided and one went off the road and into a tree on highway 292. I was only a few minutes away, and when I arrived on scene, they were both alive. Badly injured, but conscious.”
Hearing him isn’t making things any better.
“We worked with the fire department to get the doors off and get Tina and Kennedy. As soon as we got them out, we rushed them to the hospital.”
“And what about the other car?”
He tips his hat, and looks at the woman from earlier, standing about twenty feet away.
“The other driver was intoxicated. Our guess is he was going too fast around the ben and they collided.”
So a drunk driver did this? They took away my entire reason to live?
“Who was it, sheriff? I have a right to know,” I say, standing up with white knuckles.
“The suspect just got out of surgery.”
My eyes go mad. “You’re telling me the guy who did this is still alive while my wife and daughter are dead?”
I start hitting myself in the head. “Who was it? What’s his name?”
“Lee. Lee Dupre.”
The woman starts to walk over toward us. Cigarette still in hand. “Yes?”
Why is she coming over here?
“We are having a private conversation.”
“I heard my dad’s name. And he is the sheriff, right?” she asks.
Her father killed my family. I try to remain calm with everything inside me, but I just can’t.
“Do you know your father is a murderer?”
“Excuse me?” the woman replies, hand on her hip. “My father didn’t kill anyone.” Her eyes go over to the Sheriff’s. “Did he?”
I don’t need to take out my anger on her. After all, she isn’t the one that drove the car, or sent her dad to the store, but she needs to know what kind of man he is.
“He killed my wife and daughter! Why isn’t he the one dead?”
Everyone knows about Lee Dupre. He is the town drunk who has been arrested plenty of times for driving while intoxicated yet still has his license.
“He has to pay, sheriff. Are you taking him into custody?”
He nods, and has the woman step back. “I have to wait until his doctor clears him to be transported. Don’t worry, Milo, this son of a bitch isn’t getting away with this. Not under my watch.”
I hope the bastard rots in prison for the rest of his life. And a short one at that.