Road Trip Part 2

Here's Part 2 of the trilogy in my series


The windows on the Leary household rattled from the strong winds that were blowing off the water, in addition to the usual creaking noises pretty much made Dawson a wreck, especially since he was worried about Joey, who had gone to visit her father at the prison.

He paced around the house mumbling, and generally not thinking clearly. His scrambled thought processes were interrupted when his father barged in, soaking wet. “Dawson, can you get me a towel!” His dad called out, “Oh, huh, ok Dad.” Dawson stuttered as he went to a closet and threw his dad a towel.

As Mitch dried himself off and put down some of the paperwork he had been carrying, on the table, it was obviously destroyed. “Damn, I spent two weeks on this.” He muttered as Dawson resumed his worrying. Mitch looked up and saw Dawson pacing around the house with a very nervous look on his face. “What’s wrong Dawson?” he asked, and Dawson began quickly and aimlessly spouting out just about everything on his mind in the matter of ten seconds. “Joey went to see her father at the prison and this storm came and she’s on the bus and I don’t know if she’s alright and I’ll never forgive myself if she’s not ok and I should have gone with her and I….”

“Whoa boy, calm down” Mitch interrupted after taking in that long-winded rant from his son. “Ok, Joey’s on a bus going to the prison. I’m sure the driver would have pulled over or stopped at the first sign of trouble.” Trying to calm him down, but also noticing that Dawson had never worried about her like that before. “Yeah, I guess so,” Dawson concluded as he began to calm down. “Go check the windows upstairs, make sure they’re all closed and get some candles, we may be in here a while. Your mother is staying at the station until the storm clears.” Mitch told him, so it took his mind off of his worrying.

Mitch then realized how much his last sentence worried himself, “She’s at the station with Bob, great.” he thought, but then dismissed it as he felt that the problems were pretty much over. He hoped.

In the hours that passed, only a window breaking managed to distract Dawson from his worrying, Mitch even talked to him, but it did nothing to calm him down. The storm eventually did blow over, and the TV station reported that the storm had gone out to sea. Dawson had crashed on his bed watching the news when his mother came back on with a breaking story. “This just in, a Shoreline Bus collided with a fallen tree earlier today during the peak of the storm. Right now all we know is that the injured are being treated at Capeside County Hospital. We currently have no information about the injuries or a passenger list, but we will report that as soon as it is released. Stay tuned for more information on this breaking story.”

Dawson stood up with sheer terror on his face, shutting off the TV and then he began to panic. He bolted down the stairs, shouting, “Dad! I’m borrowing the truck! The Bus, Joey!” Mitch stopped him and said, “I saw it on the news, I’ll drive you to the hospital. I’m sure she’s alright.”

The two Leary men jumped in the truck after leaving a message on the Potter’s answering machine, and drove to the hospital as fast as was possible with the roads being still slick, Mitch knew that any speed he drove wasn’t fast enough to ease his son’s concerns. Something had definitely happened between Dawson and Joey, but he couldn’t be sure. Neither said a word during the drive to the hospital.

Dawson ran into the ER and stopped at the desk. “Bus… crash… Joey Potter, is she here?” He demanded. “I’m sorry sir, you’ll have to calm down.” Said the woman at the desk. “Is Joey Potter here!” he shouted. “Calm down!” she responded with a little irritation in her voice. Mitch caught up and pulled Dawson back a bit. “Excuse me miss, is Josephine Potter on the list of injuries from the Bus Crash?”

The woman was glad to see that Mitch was calm about it, and she punched the name up on the computer, “Yes, she’s here, you’ll have to see the attending ER doctor for information about her condition, though.” The woman replied.

Just the knowledge that she was on the bus pretty much sent Dawson into a panic, but instead of screaming, he became very silent, though if he say something it wouldn’t make too much sense at this point. “Well? Who is the attending doctor, then?” Mitch asked. “Doctor Miller, but he’s in with one of the other crash survivors.”

“Thanks, you’ve been quite helpful” Mitch answered with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Mitch walked over to Dawson and lead him to a seat, “Come on, sit down before you fall down” he told his son as he could see that Dawson was a complete wreck at this point. “Look, I’m sure she’ll be alright. She is strong willed, she’ll pull through, now you need to be strong for her.” Mitch said, trying to calm him down. Dawson eventually did calm down, but didn’t say a word.

”Mitch! What happened? I got the message on the answering machine” he heard as he turned his head to see Bessie storm in with Bodie and the baby in tow. “She was in that bus accident, and the woman at the desk is pretty much useless, she can’t even tell us if she’s alright.” Mitch told the obviously worried Bessie.

She stormed over to the desk, gave a look to the woman at the desk that would turn hell cold and demanded “Look here. My sister was in that accident and I want to know where she is… NOW!”

“You’ll get nowhere screaming, miss.” The woman replied, trying to keep her calm, but she was pissed off beyond reason. “I will see if the doctor is out of surgery, if you’ll just calm down,” The woman finally agreed. She paged him and responded “now if you’ll have a seat the doctor will be with you shortly.” Bessie reluctantly sat down, but was still obviously steamed that she couldn’t get a quick answer, she was also worried to tears about her sister.

After what seemed like an eternity, a typical looking doctor approached Bessie, “Miss Potter? I’m afraid I have some bad news, during the accident Josephine took quite a hit to the head. She is in a coma.”

To be concluded….


If you have any input on how this story should end, please email me


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