There was so much blood.
Everywhere.
Tara Singer scanned the carnage of the massive train wreck, searching for the little girl hugging a teddy bear. In the eerie night scene, helicopter spotlights illuminated the wreckage high and low, highlighting jagged gashes in the thick steel that crumpled like paper discarded in a trash can. Glass crunched underfoot as she sidestepped puddles of oil and blood.
The smell of burnt flesh tinged her nose. Smoke rose from uncontained fires which had broken out in several of the passenger cars. The shock from the impact still hadn't worn off; otherwise, the pain from the deep gash in her arm would have been worse.
Moans and cries for help pierced the darkness. Rushing toward the source, she stumbled over a beheaded corpse. Lifeless eyes on the severed head stared back at her. Choking back the urge to vomit, she forced herself to keep searching. She dared not give up hope.
Then a miracle!
"She's alive, but she's got a concussion and most likely some internal injuries. We need to get her to the hospital." He called to one of the rescue workers standing nearby.
"Get an ambulance here now!"
Tara allowed the tears to flow unabashedly down her cheeks. Fear for the child's life choked her heart. So young, so innocent. It just wasn't fair.
"You're bleeding. You need medical attention. too. Sit here for a moment while we patch you up. We need another medic here!"
A young man in his early twenties responded to the call. He knelt beside her, looked at the gash in her arm and opened his emergency kit.
"I'll get you wrapped in a moment."
Tara watched in a daze as the child was placed upon a stretcher and lifted into the ambulance. Once her wound was tightly bandaged, she was allowed to get into the vehicle. Sirens and red flashing lights announced their departure. Tara sat in stunned silence in the back of the emergency vehicle, watching the paramedic work on the child.
"Over here. I found a little girl," a rescue worker called to the paramedics as he dug through the rubble to uncover a blonde-haired child.
Amy! Tara could see the little girl sprawled out across a torn seat, her little, limp hand resting upon a teddy bear with exposed stuffing. Her sweet oval face was smudged with dirt, her eyes closed and her beautiful pink dress torn to shreds. Pain pierced Tara's heart.
"Oh, dear God! Please say she isn't dead!" She dropped to her knees and stroked the child's head.
"She's my daughter. Will she be all right?" The words came out strangled with emotion.
The paramedic checking for a heartbeat took the stethoscope out of his ears, then gingerly felt the back of the child's head.
The image faded and Tara slowly came back to the present. She hadn't been physically at the site of the crash. She was seated in her office listening to a patient in front of her. With her gifts of empathy and telepathy, Tara had opened her mind to see and feel what Dan Turner had experienced while he related the details of a recent accident which put his five year-old daughter into the Intensive Care Unit at St. Mary's Hospital. As a social worker, she used her gifts to help her understand what patients went through. She sighed and handed him a tissue, then placed her palm on top of his hand as his body shook with sobs.
An Excerpt From:
LEAVES IN THE WIND
Copyright © by
GAIL DE YOUNG 2007
Electronic e-book ISBN#:9781419980107
Release date: August 21, 2007
print: ISBN#: 9781419980091
All Rights Reserved
Cerridwen Press Books
A subsidiary of Jasmine-Jade Enterprises
