How could this happen to me?

Chapter 2: The Roll

"George, come on, you promised you would take me for ice cream tonight, please!" came the insistent small voice from down the hall.

"Frankie, you were support to have been in bed hours ago. We have to be at the airport tomorrow at 5 am you know," George commented to his excited little sister.

"I can sleep on the plane tomorrow, George, and you said Ross's is open late on Fridays. Please," George gave in. He could never stand up to Frankie's puppy face.

"All right pest. Just let me ask Dad."

Frankie started dancing around the room singing, "We're going to see Ross. We're going to see Ross."

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After getting permission from their dad and swearing to be back in fifteen minutes, George took his sister by the hand and led her out of the house towards the end of the street and the small ice cream store owned and operated by one of their closest family friends.

George may have been 17, and his sister only 7, but he didn't mind holding her hand when he knew it would be safer to do so. He was very protective of Frankie, and always had been.

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They arrived at the ice cream store a few minutes later. There were a few people around, even though it was nearly 11 pm. They were all people of the neighborhood, out for a late night snake, and George and Frankie knew them all by name.

The siblings went up to the window. Standing there was Ross, and old man that had run the little ice cream store for as long as George could remember. He had more wrinkles then anyone else in the world, George betted, and he was also the nicest man ever. He never said a bad word about anyone.

"Alright Frankie, tell Ross what you want."

"Chocolate please, Ross."

"I'll have peanut butter crunch."

"George, I'm going over there ok," Frankie asked.

"Why?"

"Because I'm a space commander, and my ship is traveling through the delta quitrent, lost for years, and are trying to find out way home," was her answer.

"Alright, but don't go too far away."

As Frankie played her little game, George turned to talk to Ross before he scooped their ice cream.

"So, you guys and Will leaving tomorrow?"

"Yeah, our plane leaves at 6am."

"Ouch, that's way too early for me."

"Yes, but Frankie is so excited to go to Florida, and the Kennedy Space Center."

"I still can't believe that a 7 year olds essay won over someone who was a university student. That little girl is determined to be an astronaut some day. Tell me again what you'll be doing?"

"We'll get to visit with all 7 astronauts going on this shuttle mission, and go around the center to visit all the training facilities, and have prime seats for the launch next week."

"So you're staying a total of 8 days."

"Yeah. You should have seen Frankie today. She would not stay still when we were packing. She was jumping around everywhere."

"From what I heard before, that girl has been watching too much Star Trek."

George laughed. Frankie loved Star Trek. That was all she ever watched on TV. No kids programs for her.

Ross scooped their ice cream, and gave it to George. When he tried to hand over some money, Ross shook his head. "My treat, free of charge."

"Ross, I wouldn't feel right not paying you."

"Tell you what; use that money to buy Frankie a little souvenir down in Florida. Tell her it's from Ross."

George nodded, and pocketed the money. He then took the ice creams and started walking towards where Frankie was.

Before he got to her he noticed that his shoe was untied. Not wanting to disturb Frankie in her game, George took both cones in one hand and bend down, trying to tie the lace with the other hand. It was not going well. After several minutes, he at last got it into what could maybe be considered a knot, and stood up again to continue towards his sister.

Frankie was playing in the grass, standing in one spot and holding a little plastic space ship over her head, her lips moving slightly as she wove her own little story about the ship.

George suddenly realized that there was a big black SUV coming down the street. It was going way too fast, and was swerving a little to the right.

"Frankie," George wanted his sister as far away from the curb and that car as possible.

"What George?"

"Come over here."

"Why?"

"……….I have your ice cream."

"Alright."

Frankie started to pocket the little ship, but it was at that time that the SUV came level with where she was standing. It was also at that place where it hit the curb. But it was going too fast to just bounce. George watched in horror, the whole scene going in slow motion, as the car started to roll. Frankie looked up from her pocket just as the side of the car came in contact with her small body. George thought he heard himself screaming at the top of his lungs "FRANKIE," but he was never sure. The car continued to roll, right over his sister. Squashing her beneath its bulk. Before it pushed her to the ground, George was sure that he heard Frankie yell "George, help me." After rolling over her, the car continued rolling one or two more times, but George did not notice that. As he dropped the cones in the grass and ran towards the little form lying in the grass, all he knew was that Frankie was hurt and needed his help.

He got to where she was, and got down on his knees. This was wrong; this broken and bloody mess lying there could not be his wonderful little sister. Not Frankie.

At this point things stopped going in slow motion. Ross ran out of the building to see what had happened. When he saw he ran back inside yelling that he would call 911.

George knew that he couldn't touch her, Frankie might be hurt very badly, but he wanted to. He wanted to take her in his arms and say everything would be all right.

George paid the SUV none of his attention. He didn't care if the driver was dead; he even hoped he was dead, for what he did to Frankie.

He stayed like that until he heard sirens that said the paramedics were there. They gently pushed George out of the way, saying they needed to see how bad Frankie was. Then, for the first time since the accident, George looked over to the SUV. It had handed upright, and police were in the process of pulling a tall, muscular and dark haired man out of the driver's seat. George felt intense rage and hatred boil up in his stomach. He started walking over to kill the man there and then. It was then that he heard a little voice.

"George." It was almost too quiet to hear, but George knew it very well. The man forgotten, he ran over to where Frankie was being put into the back of the ambulance. He gently took her hand and started singing her a little song that their father sang to her all the time.

"Out of my window looking in the night, I can see the barges flickering light." That was Frankie's favorite song, and that always calmed her when she was distressed.

As they drove to the hospital, sirens blazing, George got out his cell phone and dialed their home number, to tell their father what had happened.

TBC

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Sorry this took so long to update. I just finished exams a little while ago.

This was an interesting chapter to right. I thought I would be different and write something in the perspective of the victims.

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