Sheet Music - A Rock 'n' Roll Love Story (16 page)

Michael entered his bedroom and began removing his clothes, leaving them in a neat pile on the floor.  Then he made his way to the shower.  Once again, thoughts of Annie crept into his exhausted brain.  He wouldn’t be seeing her again until they cut that demo tape together at Brian’s sound studio on Monday night.  If it was the last thing she ever heard him say, he fully intended to apologize for his behavior.  He also planned on telling her exactly how much he felt for her.  No matter how uncomfortable it made him, it needed to be said.

It was almost noon the next day when Michael was roused from sleep by the sound of his ringing cell phone.

“Yeah,” Michael’s sleepy voice yawned into the phone.

“Get your sorry ass over here and you better bring your check book,” Brian demanded, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Fifteen minutes later, Michael walked into Brian’s kitchen with a sense of dread.  Brian was sitting on a kitchen countertop leafing through a pile of 8 x 10 glossy photographs.  The grin on his face told the entire sordid story.

“Mr. Wade, you horny old dog,” Brian scolded.

Michael yanked the enlarged photograph out of Brian’s hand.

“My, my!  Judging by the way you fill out the front of those leather pants, I can see why the girls are always chasing after you!”

“Give me the pictures,” Michael asked.

“Wow, if the photographer had gotten another foot into the room I’d be looking at cooch right now,” Brian snickered.

“Give me the fucking pictures,” Michael demanded.

“Not so fast,” Brian taunted.  “I’m not done with them yet.”

“You are now,” Michael replied, grabbing the rest of the pile.  Then he quickly scanned through them.  Each one was somehow more revealing then the last.  He dropped himself onto a wooden stool in disgust.  “Is this all of them?”

“Far as I know,” Brian answered.  “They came in the envelope that Arnie brought to my house this morning.”

“He could have called me.  I would have driven to his house to pick them up.  He didn’t need to leave them here.”

“Don’t know what to tell you.  I live closer to him,” Brian shrugged.

“How much?” Michael asked.

“Two hundred grand,” Brian replied with a chuckle.  “That's got to be the most expensive piece of ass you
ever
had,” Brian nearly choked in laughter.

“Go to hell.”

“Oh, and there’s more good news,” Brian added.

“What do you mean?”

“Rumor has it, the promoters are preparing to pull the plug on your band.”

“Are you serious?”

“Afraid so, Mike.  Can’t say I’m surprised and it’s not like I didn’t warn you.  What did you expect?  I just hope this mess doesn’t blow the deal for the other bands.”

Michael shook his head and released a heavy sigh.  “I’m not surprised either, but I didn’t think it would happen this fast.  What am I going to tell her?”

“Nothing.  Let the promoters handle it and don’t see her again.  Simple as that.  Frankly, you’d be doing the girl a favor if you left her alone.”

“I can’t do that,” Michael answered.

“And why not?” Brian asked.  “Don’t tell me you have feelings for this chick?”

“Actually, I do,” Michael replied, defensively.

“Mike, you wouldn’t know love if it unzipped your pants and bit you on the dick!”

“And you would?”

Suddenly the cell phone in Michael’s shirt pocket began to ring.  He pulled it out and studied the phone number illuminated in the display panel.  “It’s Sammy.  I better answer this,” he said, flipping open the phone.  “Hello.”

The line was silent.  Michael said “hello” again.  Still nothing.  He was about to hang up when he heard a faint female whimper.

“Annie?  Is that you?” Michael asked.

“Yessss,” she answered.  Her strained voice barely audible.

“What’s going on?” he asked, panic quickly settling into his chest.

A long pause filled the phone.  Then finally she spoke again.

“Accident,” she said, struggling to get the word out and then she groaned in pain.

“Shit!  Where are you?”

“Mass Pike.”  Another groan escaped her throat.  “Millbury.”

“I’m on my way!  Don’t hang up on me!”

Michael bolted toward the door in the kitchen.  Then he swiftly turned toward Brian.  “Call 911!  There’s been in an accident!  Mass Pike, west-bound, in Millbury!”  Before Brian could respond, Michael was gone, the roar of his car rattling the windows in the house.

“Annie are you still there?” Michael asked, as he left Brian’s driveway.

The silence was deafening.

“Come on, Annie!  Talk to me!”

He turned up the volume on the phone.  He could hear her shallow breathing and then she coughed.

“Annie?”

“It’s bad,” she whispered.

“Annie, it’s going to be all right.  Stay with me.  The ambulance is on it’s way.”

“It hurts so bad,” her voice trailed off.  Then a series of bumps.  Michael assumed the phone had been dropped.

“Shit,” he muttered.  “Annie, stay with me,” he shouted.  “I’m almost there!”

In the background he could hear the sirens and people talking to her through the window.  He floored his car, skidding sideways onto the ramp to the Mass Pike and headed west.  He passed cars like a professional race car driver, until the traffic came to a standstill a few miles before the Millbury exit ramp.  Half a dozen State Police officers stood in the road merging vehicles into the far, left hand lane.  A sick feeling of doom seeped into the pit of his stomach.  It had been several minutes since he had heard any noise come from Annie and he was beginning to fear the worst.

At a snail’s pace, he inched his car forward.  Then he saw the accident flares strewn across the other two lanes.  Fresh, thick rubber marks scarred the pavement and led his eyes toward the breakdown lane.  A few feet further, the smoldering wreckage of the car came into view.  The car itself was unrecognizable.  Every square inch of it was pulverized into a mass of compressed shards of metal:  “How could anyone survive that?” Michael asked himself.

Michael’s eyes were transfixed on the eerie scene as emergency medical teams valiantly worked to free the occupants.  Then, to his horror, he read the vanity plate attached to the back of the wreck.  In big, bold letters it read: SAMMY.  The reality hit him hard.  He immediately steered his car out of the line of soldiering traffic and skidded to a stop beside a waiting ambulance.  Without even shutting off the ignition, he jumped from his car, only to be stopped by a police officer.

“I’m sorry sir, but you can’t leave your car there,” the officer said.

“I know that guy,” he shouted, adrenaline pumping through his veins.  “I know the owner of that car!”

Michael didn’t wait for a reply and forced his way through the crowd of rescue workers.  He was twenty feet from the smoldering car when he felt the bottom fall out of his stomach.  The bloodied body of Sammy was still slumped over the twisted steering wheel.  The driver side door was caved in to a point that Michael wondered what could be left of his friend.  Three firemen worked on the passenger side of the car with the Jaws of Life, cutting through the mangled roof as if removing the lid from a tin can.

“Why aren’t they getting him out of there?” Michael screamed.

A fireman to Michael’s right turned to face him.  “That guy is already gone.  They’re trying to get the girl out while she still has a chance.”

“Shit!  Annie!”

“Believe it or not, there’s a passenger in that mess.”

Michael raced around the side of the car as the EMT’s were preparing to remove her from the wreckage.

“Hey, get the hell out of the way, pal!”

“I know these people,” Michael screamed but no one seemed to want to listen.

Then he saw the blood-streaked face of Annie appear from the debris, as the EMT’s gently eased her onto a stretcher.  She was still wearing the same clothing from the night before.  What remained intact was torn, bloody and dirty.  The boot was missing from her right leg and the shin and ankle were grotesquely disfigured.  Her lifeless body lay still on the stretcher while the medical workers desperately tried to keep her breathing with chest compressions.

An anguished cry of pain rose from his toes, shook through his torso, then finally rocketed from his mouth.

“Annnnnnie!”

“You know her?” A police officer asked, frantically holding Michael out of the way.

“What the hell do you think I’ve been trying to tell you people?  I know both of them!”

“What’s your name?”

“Michael Wade.  Can I see her?”

“Sorry, Mr. Wade.  I can’t let you over there.  Were you a witness to the accident?”

“No!  Look, I need to see her,” Michael demanded, attempting to shove the officer aside.  The last thing he needed was a chatty police officer.

“Is she your wife?  Girlfriend?”

“No, yes - for Christ sakes, just let me be with her!”  With every ounce of fight he had, Michael pushed the officer back and darted around him.  From above, he heard the propellers of a helicopter slicing through the afternoon air.

“Is she ready for transport?” an EMT yelled to another rescue worker.  “We got Life Flight coming in now.  Ger her stabilized then MOVE!”

Michael’s face was white.  The voices around him blurred.  The emergency crews bounced about as if he were invisible.  Never before had he felt so helpless and inadequate.  Annie lay before him, not a trace of life left on her delicate face.  An EMT raced passed him with another medical bag and Michael grabbed his arm.

“Is she going to be all right?” he asked, his body frozen in fear, his skin bathed in a cold sweat.

“Sorry, it’s too early for me to tell.  Are you her husband?”

Michael opened his mouth to respond but nothing audible could be heard.

“Come on,” the EMT instructed.  “You can ride with us.”

Behind him the helicopter landed in the middle of the highway.  Traffic on both sides of the Mass Pike was halted.  Michael followed the stretcher and helped hoist Annie in through the cargo door.  Then he hopped in himself and took a seat beside her head.  The two-man medi-evac team worked simultaneously hooking Annie up to several different machines and running an intravenous line into her arm quicker than Michael had thought possible.  Never raising their heads, they exchanged medical information in a language Michael found alien.

“Yeah, this is Medi-Evac One.  Do you copy?” the medical technician rambled into a small telephone.

“Go ahead, we copy,” a voice came through on a connected speaker.

“We have a female patient in route.  Multiple injuries as follows: head trauma, compound fractures to the…”

Michael tuned the man’s voice out and reached for Annie’s hand.  It was cold to the touch.  He didn’t need a medical degree to know that Annie was slipping away, and there was nothing he could do about it.  With tears biting at his eyes, he lowered his face beside Annie’s ear and fought to contain his emotions.

“Annie, please don’t leave me now,” he whispered.  “I need you in my life.”

“Blood pressure is dropping!  I’ve lost a pulse!”

“I love you,” he said, and kissed her bruised cheek, the blood from her head wound smearing his face.

“Okay, we’ve got a flat line!  Lean back,” the EMT instructed Michael.  Working faster than before, the two technicians cut through the front of Annie’s shirt and prepared her for the shock from a heart defibrillator.

“Charging…clear!”

Annie’s body jolted and came to rest as lifeless as before.  Three times Michael watched in panic as she lurched off the stretcher.

“Please, don’t let her die,” he pleaded.

“We’re doing everything we can!”

“Wait, I’ve got a pulse!  It’s faint but it’s there!”

Michael released a heavy sigh and bent again beside her head.  “Come on, baby, stay with me!  I love you.  Did you hear me?  I said the words!”

Another medical team waited near the heliport at the UMass Medical Trauma Center and quickly rushed Annie into the facility.  Michael was told to wait outside the swinging doors beside the exam room.  Once again, he was an outsider looking in and he hated it.  Ten minutes later the room evacuated in haste, pushing Annie down the hall.

“Where the hell are you taking her now?” he yelled after them.

A hospital intern came up beside him.  The front of his white lab coat stained with Annie’s blood.  “She’s on her way into x-ray and then into surgery, sir.  A doctor will be out as soon as possible to give you an update.”

“How bad is she?” Michael asked.

“They’ll know more after they operate,” the intern replied and turned to leave.

Michael grabbed the intern’s arm.  “What kind of answer is that?” he spat.

“Listen.  It’s too early to tell!  She’s lost a lot of blood but she’s young and clearly a fighter.”  The intern jerked his arm away from Michael’s grasp.

“Look.  I’m sorry,” Michael apologized.

“Like I said, as soon as possible a doctor will come out and give you an update on her condition.  In the meantime, you may want to call her family.”

Family?  She had no family.  Instead Michael called Brian.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Michael paused, rubbing at his aching head while searching for the right words.

“What’s going on?” Brian asked.

“It’s really bad.”

“How bad?  Is she going to be okay?”

“I don’t know yet but…she’s in rough shape,” he wiped at his eyes.”

“Mike, I’m really sorry to hear that.”

“Sammy…, was driving,” Michael’s voice cracked.  “He didn’t make it.”

“Shit.”

“Can you call his parents for me and have them come up here?  They’ll have to identify…” Michael choked on his emotions.  “I’m at the UMass trauma center in Worcester.”

“Of course.  Anything else you need?”

“Yeah, have Bull get my car for me.  It’s on the Mass Pike, just before the Millbury exit.  He has a set of keys.”

“I’ll give him a call.”

There was a long pause.  “I can’t believe this happened,” Michael sighed.

“I’m on my way, Mike.  Hold tight.”

Michael nodded and hung up his phone.  Nervously, he began to pace the waiting room.  He had already lost a close friend of nearly twenty years and now, Annie’s life was hanging in the balance.  His heart ached at the possibility of having to say good-bye to Annie.  He was helplessly in love with her.  There was no way this could be the end for them.