upward toward them. For a moment, Joshua and the man both stood transfixed, staring at the horrific sight.
Blood covered the woman’s face hiding her features. It flowed over her lashes and down her face but when she opened her eyes, he could see that they were blue. Her forehead had a deep gash at the hairline, her nose, a small cut and blood was oozing from her mouth. When she opened her mouth to say something, blood gushed outward. Joshua could see that her tongue was bleeding when she mouthed the words, ‘help me’, but did not think that much blood had come from her tongue.
He and the man both responded as each grabbed an arm and slowly pulled the woman from the car. They then eased her as far away from the vehicle as they could without dragging her body too far along the edge of the pavement. They did not want to harm her anymore than necessary; however, both felt the need to get her as far away from the wrecked vehicle and leaking gasoline as they could.
“You stay with her, Sheriff,” the man said, “I got a blanket in my truck. I’ll go get it. We can use it as a gurney.” Joshua was on his knees at the woman’s shoulder. He wanted her to lie flat but she had begun to try to sit up, reaching wildly in the direction of the car.
“Ma’am, you need to lie still,” he said loudly, trying to be sure he was heard over the sound of the music. “We have an ambulance on the way,” he said, but she still kept trying to sit up. Joshua heard the truck crank and he immediately thought the man was just going to crank up and drive off, leaving him with the injured woman. However, the man drove off the road and around the wrecked car. He pulled his vehicle down by Joshua’s patrol car. When he came to where Joshua and the woman were, he had a woolen blanket and a rag he had soaked in ice water. He spread the blanket over the woman and then placed the wet rag over the gash on her forehead and applied pressure to staunch the flow of blood.
“Do you want me to go call an ambulance?” the man asked.
“No, I already radioed it in; one should be here shortly,” Joshua replied.
“Damn’it to hell and back,” Joshua grumbled as the woman kept struggling to get up. “What’s taking them so damn long?” It seemed as if it had been an hour since he came upon the wrecked car, but in reality, it had been less than ten minutes. He knew it would take an ambulance at least twenty to twenty five minutes to reach them. They were near the 22-mile marker, which meant they were at least twenty-two miles from Mobile.
“Sheriff, we really need to get her further away. That thing must’ve had a full tank of gas,” the man said worriedly. “One spark and we’ll all be goners.”
Joshua looked from the man down to the woman lying on the ground. He realized the victim had quit struggling. Mercifully, she had lost consciousness. At least he would not be so worried about causing her pain as they moved her.
“Like you said, maybe we can slip this blanket under her and use it as a gurney to move her further down the road,” said Joshua. “Or, we could put her into the back of your pickup,” he thought suddenly.
“Let me run move some stuff around and let the tailgate down. If nothing else, we can just lay her on that.”
The man stood up, went to his truck, and after a couple of minutes backed it up to where Joshua and the woman were. He and Joshua rolled her slowly from one side to the other slipping the blanket underneath her. They then picked her up and placed her as gently as they could onto the tailgate. Joshua walked behind the vehicle as the man drove about fifty feet down and off to the side of the road, then shut it off. He was afraid if she came to she might roll off the tailgate and be injured worse.
Joshua sure was glad when in the distance he could hear the sound of sirens approaching. When it arrived, it meant the injured woman would then be the patient of the ambulance attendants and he would be free
Carolyn McCray, Elena Gray