It Could Be Worse, Part II
This is dedicated to all those affected by the 35-W bridge collapse. I was not there to see it, this is just what I gathered from the videos I saw and what I've read. I do know what it's like to think that a loved one is trapped in that, though. Thankfully, it was only a scare, but some were not so lucky.
-Sigh- Back to a serious chapter...
"No – Becca," Melissa protested to her friend dragging her in a blue car from a pizzeria in Minneapolis. "It's been a long day, can't I go home? I had my pizza with you, we caught up on what we did over the summer, and it was fun and all, but we can do this again tomorrow, too."
"The night is young!" her blonde friend, Becca, said. "It's 6:10! Come on, you wouldn't have minded before. Really, what's at home? Nothing."
Melissa popped a mint into her mouth and got in the car.
"I had to get up early, and I have to tomorrow, too," Melissa said.
"So do I," a red-haired Ashley pipped from the backseat. "We can go for a walk around the park in St. Paul, then go home. How's that? We've been cooped up all day."
Melissa gave in, not wanting to be a party pooper. She buckled her seatbelt.
"We'll just go on 35-W and we'll be there in a few minutes," Becca assured Melissa. "Don't worry. Just relax, okay, Mel? You don't seem to do that enough."
How am I supposed to act lately? she thought. I'm pregnant and tired and want to get home!
They took the lane to go on the 35-W bridge. The three got closer until it was in sight. They were two cars behind from going on it. All of a sudden, she heard something like steel creaking, and the bridge they were about to take vanishing, down to the waters. Just moments after, she saw a large spray of water come up. Melissa gasped out of shock and fear.
Through the open windows, she could hear an eerie silence. What had just happened? Melissa knew what she saw, but her brain couldn't fully comprehend it. Had she really seen a bridge – a supposedly strong, dependable bridge that took thousands of people to and from Minneapolis and St. Paul each day – collapse?
"Oh, my God," Becca breathed. She looked over at her wide-eyed friend.
Melissa saw people getting out of cars. In a trance-like state, she did the same. She saw people getting on their cell phones and heard people vaguely calling 911, reporting that a bridge had collapsed. It sounded so distant. Everything sounded muted and far away.
She knew that there were cars on the bridge. They could be dead right now, or trapped, either under the bridge or on top in the water.
"We have to get out of here," Ashley said.
"And where to?" Melissa responded. "We're stuck until the people at the end of the line start backing out. We can't."
This is not what Melissa needed. Stress was not good for her unborn child! She tried to stay calm, but she found it nearly impossible with seeing a bridge collapse in front of them. They were three cars away from being on the bridge. If Melissa had been more willing to go out, that would have been them. Who know what the outcome would be, then.
Seven minutes passed when she finally heard the first police siren. Sitting on the hood of her car, Melissa craned her neck and saw officers running out of their cars.
"What took you pigs so long?!" a man in a group next to her said to the officers.
Deciding that now was not the time to be in the middle of all this chaos, she got back into the passenger seat. Was this on television yet? Did Jack, Kate, or her parents know that the bridge had collapsed?
She pulled out her cell phone and quickly dialed her home number. She couldn't even get a dial tone; she guessed that the cellular phone lines were too clogged with 911 calls and people trying to reach loved ones, like she was.
There was no way to let anyone know that she was alive. For all she knew, they could be thinking she was dead right now!
Panic rose in her. She didn't want anyone to think she was dead! She didn't even want anyone to think she was missing!
Melissa sighed again and swallowed the growing lump in her throat. She tried to remind herself that it could be so much worse. She could be in the water or crushed under that steel death trap right now. Melissa had no reason to start crying. She was alive.
"Melissa, I can't get through –" Becca began.
"Neither can I," Melissa interrupted. "We'll just have to wait."
After getting home just minutes before the Leweses, Jack had retreated downstairs, where he flipped on the television. He guessed that Melissa would be home by 6:00 or 6:30 at the latest, depending on how late they stayed at the restaurant.
6:00 slowly changed to 6:15. Jack boredly watched "Access Hollywood", something Melissa made him watch nearly every night. He was beginning to wonder when she was going to come back.
"Breaking news on FOX 9," the announcer said. The television changed from "Access Hollywood" to a news station. "We have just received word that the 35-W bridge, connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul, has just collapsed."
St. Paul. Wasn't that where Melissa said she would be? Or, she said she would be going from Minneapolis to St. Paul. Would she be taking that bridge? Jack found it peculiar that she hadn't arrived home yet.
The reporter talked some more about what was going on, but that gave him no information on where Melissa was! What if she was in that heap of a bridge? Could she even be dead right now? Jack didn't much want to face that idea. He trusted Melissa too much to even entertain that idea.
"Everyone is encouraged to free up the phone line," the reporter continued. "Use phones only for emergency purposes."
"This is an emergency," he said to the television. "Mel 'n' th' baby could be in it!"
He got off of their bed and reached for the green phone on top of the television. He dialed Melissa's cell phone number.
The rational side of his brain told him that she could just be coming home and there was nothing to worry about. But the rash side of his brain, for whatever reason, told him otherwise.
"We are sorry," the recording on the other end said, "the number you have dialed is temporarily out of service."
"Yer out o' service!" Jack said, turning the phone off. He grew more worried. Was Melissa alright? She had to be.
Right?
Fifteen minutes passed, then twenty, then, before he knew it, it was 6:45 and Melissa was not yet here. Jack started getting even more nervous. If she was running late with her mates, surely she would have called. That was just Melissa's way!
He picked up the phone again and dialed. He got the same recording.
"Mel," he muttered. "Get yerself o'er 'ere now!"
Kate was tired. She was tired of being stressed planning this wedding, she was tired from pushing the car today, and she was tired of waiting to go to New York. They were a day and a half from leaving for the weekend to search for homes. She prayed that they would find The House. Nearly all of Saturday would be spent showing the homes, as well as a bit of Sunday. She wondered what that feeling would be like to find The House. Would she know it right when she walked in the door, or would she know it after seeing the final room?
Kate was packing her suitcase for New York when she heard Will walking quickly down the hallway.
"Kate, you need to see this," he said from her doorway.
She turned around and saw the panic in his face. "What's happening?"
"Come out to the living room."
She rose from sitting cross-legged by the suitcase on the floor and went out to the living room to the rest of the family, where the television was turned on. She could see rubble of what seemed to be a collapsed bridge. Below, she could see "35-W Bridge Collapse".
"When did this happen?"
"I'm not sure," he replied. "I was in the garage with your father when your mother told us."
She remembered Melissa saying that she was going out with friends from their school for dinner afterwards in St. Paul or Minneapolis. If she had gone out in St. Paul, she would have to take a detour home.
Was she on the bridge at the time of the collapse? She dared not to think about it. Kate was she that she was safe at home with Jack.
Kate pulled away and went to the kitchen, picking the phone up from the receiver. She dialed her cell number just in case. Will hesitantly followed her into the kitchen.
"We are sorry," the recording said, "the number you have dialed is temporarily out of service."
"Oh, God," she breathed. She set the phone down gently on the counter. A light rain started to come down.
"What is it?" Will asked gently.
"The number's out of service. Melissa's number. She could have taken that road coming back." She paused. "You don't think that she..." Kate didn't want to say it. She didn't even want to think about the possibility of her lifelong friend being crushed by a bridge. She felt like crying at just the thought.
"Do you think it's a possibility that she turned her phone off?" he suggested.
"If she did, it'd go straight to voicemail." She straightened her brown tank top out of worry. Was Melissa really on that bridge when it collapsed? "Do you think Jack knows?"
"Why don't you call him?"
"I can't do that without calling her house, and I'm sure her parents would pick up on the first ring, in hopes that I knew something they didn't." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"She's going to be fine," Will said, hugging her tightly. "I know it."
Kate wanted to believe Will, she really did. Something horrible inside her told her that she wasn't fine, though. One couldn't be able to make a call if they were stuck under all of that cement and steel.
She felt like crying, but refused to. She may be alive. Will was right: she could just have her phone and voicemail off. There was no need to automatically assume the worse. But perhaps she was doing so because it was so hard to see anything good out of a disaster like this. Who knew what the death toll would be come tomorrow morning? What about the missing and injured? How high would that be?
"Please don't assume the worse," he whispered. "It may not be as bad as it seems."
Jack waited for Melissa. As time dragged on, he couldn't help but think that she had been on that same bridge. He had gotten no word that she was safe.
As annoying as that girl could get, he didn't want anything bad to happen to her. Not good girl, musical loving, blood-and-guts hating Melissa!
Harden up, he scolded. Yer not writin' 'er bloody eulogy. She's only missin'.
Melissa would be fine. He was convinced that she would be.
But he had gotten no bloody call!
Melissa couldn't slow her racing mind while they waited for a way out of the jam. She wondered if Jack knew that there was a bridge collapse. Was he worried? Were her parents worried? Was Kate worried? She wanted to get home...
She had tried calling her home multiple times, but the phone lines were too clogged to get through. She had attempted Kate, but the same thing happened. Melissa wanted to let people know that she was fine and alive, but that was impossible! She couldn't even text message Kate to pass on the message that she was fine and just waiting to get out of this.
It could have been so much worse. She could have been more willing to go and not have her friends drag her to the car; that would have resulted on getting stuck in the Mississippi River – or worse. She felt guilty that she had come so close to doing so, and here she was, upset that she couldn't reach her loved ones. Melissa would talk to them eventually; they'd find out that she wasn't missing.
There were so many what-ifs with this situation. What if she hadn't toured the campus a few extra moments? What if she hadn't used the restroom before they left the pizzeria? What if their waitress hadn't taken an extra moment to talk to a fellow waitress?
After some workers found a route out of the cities, Becca drove off in silence. All three were quiet the entire way. It was unspoken that it could easily have been them on the bridge when it collapsed.
Becca pulled into Melissa's driveway at 7:45. She got out and raced, in the pouring rain, up to the doorway. She went up the stairs and hugged her parents.
"Oh, Melissa, thank God you're alright," her father said, embracing her tightly. "We were so worried you were on that."
She nodded. She felt like she was in a dream. Even though she had thought what could have happened to her over and over, it fully hadn't settled in. Tomorrow would be a harder day than today was, if that seemed possible at the time.
Melissa hugged her mother tightly.
"I tried calling you both, but the lines were so clogged," she said. "I was out with friends for pizza, and we were going to take the bridge. We got in a traffic jam. They – so many other people were trying to call. I just couldn't get through."
She could feel a lump forming in her throat. Her eyes drifted downward to her pink toenails so that she would be less tempted to cry.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to be by myself tonight," she said softly, still not daring to meet their eyes. She could help but wonder how worried they had been. How many parents would be receiving this news over the next several days, that their son or daughter had died in the collapse?
"Oh, of course," her mother said.
Melissa walked down the stairs to her room. She was so excited to see Jack. If they had just been a few seconds quicker, she would probably not be seeing him tonight (or maybe any other night).
She turned the knob on her door. It was locked. Letting out a sigh, she knocked on the door. There was no answer.
"It's me!" she said softly. "Jack, it's Melissa!"
The door then opened. She wasn't sure if she was ever that happy to see a person in her life. His wide eyes indicated that he was more than surprised to see her.
She wrapped her arms around him and cried. She had been holding her tears in for what seemed like days. Melissa was crying for what could have been, the relief, and coming closer to the epiphany that things could have been so much worse.
"We were so close to the bridge," she whispered. "We were three cars away – three."
Jack awkwardly hugged her back, patting her back. Melissa realized that they were in the doorway of her room. This was not the place to be, not unless they wanted to get caught. She wiped her eyes and went into the room, breaking away from the hug, and closed the door, locking it behind her. She saw that the television was on to a channel covering the bridge.
"Why didn't ya call, Mel? That was so stupid o' ya! Here I am, sitting in yer room, thinkin' yer injured or worse, 'n' ya couldn't e'en pick up th' phone –"
"I know," she said, through another round of tears. "I know! I tried for so long to get through to you and Kate, but the phones were clogged..."
She sat down on the bed and wiped her tears away. She was so sick of crying. This was the third day in a row that she cried! But these were very monumental things; how could one not cry during them?
"Were you worried?" she asked.
"O' course I was worried! I didn't know whether ya were dead or 'live."
It meant everything to her to hear that he worried for her safety. As he sat next to her, she leaned against him. She had never been happier to be sitting next to him before.
"It could have been so much worse," she said. "My parents could have reported me as missing if I was on the bridge..."
Melissa didn't dare to think about what really could have happened. It was too bizarre to think that she could have gone down with that bridge. The last thing she said to Jack would have been "It could be worse."
It really could have been worse, too.
"I love you so much," she whispered. "Please remember that."
"'Ow can I forget if ya tell me that e'eryday?" Jack teased.
She smirked and rested her head on his shoulder. "I mean it. Don't you forget it."
Kate picked up the phone that evening yet again in an attempt to call Melissa. She had to admit that things were looking very bleak now. But it was worth one more try, wasn't it? This could be the time that she answered!
"Kate, either she'll answer her phone, or she won't," Will said, who had been with her nearly all of her attempts to call her.
"But what it this is the time?" she said.
Or what if it's not? the other part of her thought.
She was beginning to be exhausted from worry. It was only 7:55, but she would be waiting the whole night to hear a response if she had to.
"Just one more time," she said. "I can't sleep knowing that she could be in that bridge, Will."
Something inside of Will gave in, for he nodded. She was just desperate to know even the tiniest bit of new information.
Kate dialed Melissa's cell and heard it ringing. Kate gasped. A wave of relief washed over her.
"It's ringing!" she exclaimed.
The line rang a second time.
"Hello?" Melissa asked.
"Say it again," Kate said, smiling like a child.
"What?" Melissa asked. "Say what again?"
Kate was so relieved to hear Melissa's voice. For the past ninety minutes, she was wondering where exactly the owner of that voice was.
"Where were you?" Kate said. "I was worried sick!"
Melissa retold the story of how she was nearly on the bridge, how she saw it collapse, and how she tried to call her and Jack, but the lines were so clogged that she couldn't.
"Melissa, do me a favor," Kate said, her voice slightly shaky. "Don't ever scare us like that again."