HOPE'S CALLING- CHAPTER 9- THE ACCIDENT

Father Mulcahy was quiet, too quiet for Hope. Was it her driving? She was keeping the speed down to 25, mindful of the potholes. Every time she opened her mouth to say something, she closed it quickly. Hope really wanted to know what was troubling him before they got back home. She would be on duty almost the minute they got there and didn't know when she would have time to speak with him privately again. Incoming wounded didn't come on schedule.

After 15 minutes of this silence, it was more than she could stand. "Francis, talk to me. Back at the orphanage did I do or say something to upset you? Please tell me, I'm your friend."

He closed his eyes and sighed, "Hope, please don't ask me. I just can't…. Oh God, watch the …"

The jeep hit a pothole the size of a crater on the moon. It flipped over on its left side, throwing Hope and Francis out of the jeep. Hope hit the ground with a thud. In those seconds, which seemed like an eternity, she felt no pain. "O.K., so this is what being dead is like. Look Lord, I thought you'd be a little more original with Heaven than this. Heaven looks just like Korea. Don't get me wrong, I was just hoping for something different."

The pain that flooded her body let her know that she was definitely in Korea not heaven. "Oh crap! I'm alive!" Every part of her was on fire with pain. Once Hope had established she was still alive, she thought of her friend but she wasn't ready to try moving.

She yelled, "Francis, Francis where are you? Francis! Francis, answer me!"

He moaned softly. She heard him, but couldn't see him. "Where are you, Francis?"

"Over here Hope." His voice was barely audible.

She finally saw him and started to stand up and go to him. When Hope put her weight on her right foot, there was a sickening pop. Immediately she landed back on the ground with an unceremonious plop. "Well I guess I'll crawl. What a damn nuisance!"

Hope spent five minutes, which seemed like fifty, crawling over to him. She found him laying face down with blood trickling down from his forehead. His glasses were nowhere to be seen.

"Do you think you're able to turn over? I need to look at you."

He groaned and managed to roll over on to his back. "My head fells like someone dropped an anvil on it!"

"Francis, try to open your eyes wide for me. I want to look at your pupils." Thank God, they were equal and he was conscious. "Do you think you could manage to walk over to that tree?" She pointed to one that was a few feet away. "I'm going to crawl over to it. I think my ankle is broken."

He managed to make it to the tree, put his back against it and slid down to the ground. Hope started crawling towards it. Hearing the dress ripping apart in several places, she stopped and pulled the thing away from her knees. "Oh great, just great!" she thought. "I'm out in the middle of nowhere, hurt, in a ripped dress with a priest." Then the thought occurred to her to see if she could find the canteens and ponchos before she got to the tree.

Hope crawled back to the jeep and found both canteens and ponchos laying on the ground right by the jeep." Thank God for small miracles! She grabbed them and started crawling toward the tree. It wasn't easy but she made it.

Without his glasses the world was one big blur to Father Mulcahy. He did manage to make out that Hope's dress was half way torn apart. He cleared his throat and looked away. "Uh Hope, you know those ponchos you brought along? Even though it's not raining, you need to put one on."

She looked at herself to see that her bra was clearly visible since the top part of the dress had a hug rip on the right side that went from the shoulder almost to the waist. "Oh!"Hope threw a poncho on. "Sorry I "flashed" you Francis."

"I've got to ask you some questions Francis and they're not about what you weren't talking about be for we landed here. How do you feel? Dizzy? Does your head hurt? What about anywhere else?"

He sighed and said, "Inside my head it feels like someone is playing the Anvil Chorus or the 1812 Overture. Yes, I'm dizzy and I hurt everywhere!" He was hurting; he was frustrated and very angry with Hope because her insistence to know what was bothering him had led to the accident.

She knew he was angry with her, but wasn't concerned with that at that moment. Hope really wanted to know his physical condition. Only God knew how long it would be before someone found them. "Look Francis, I know you're mad at me. Yes, it's my fault we had this accident. But right now I am more interested in finding out how badly you're hurt."

"Oh Hope, I'm sorry." He had pulled his knees up to his chest and was resting his head on them. She scooted closer to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "It's alright. I just want to know how to take care of you until help gets here. You do the praying and I'll do the nursing. Sound like a fair division of labor?" She smiled.

He relaxed and put his legs down and his head against the tree and smiled. "Yes, that sounds right."

"O.K., I think you have a concussion and you will need to stay awake tonight, just as a precaution. So that means we're going to have to do something to keep both of us awake, like talking." He opened his mouth to object, but she held up her hand to stop him." Look we can talk "around" around any subject you want to avoid, but you've got to stay awake."

"Alright Hope," he sighed. "This is going to be a long night."

Francis is right. He and Hope have a long night ahead of them. Thanks so much for reading this story. Please review if you're so inclined. I really appreciate it!