Trapped

Leah was unable to tell if she was awake, or even alive. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t move. The only sound was a hissing white noise with muffled tones trying to break through. A tension pushed on her from all angles. It felt as if someone had wrapped her up in a blanket made of sheet metal. The first thing she felt was cold. She tried to speak. But between the steel pressing against her jaw, keeping it closed, and the weight of the thing pressing on her chest, allowing only enough movement for very small breaths, all that came out were faint, raspy groans.

As the white noise began to fade, familiar sounds appeared. Muffled voices of friends. Manic Monday by ‘The Bangles’ on the radio. The dying 350 engine of a 1988 Chevy pickup. ‘Yes. Friends. That’s right’. She remembered. ‘I was with my friends’. They had been at Robbie’s parents’ lake house, celebrating the end of summer with a fire on the beach, before they all headed off to their first year of college. Leah was leaving to go to art school in New York. Robbie had been recruited by the Ohio State University to play basketball on a full scholarship. And Katie was off to be a Florida Gator. Danny was planning on going with Leah to try to be a writer.

Leah and Danny were sitting in fold up chairs. They both appeared in the same trance; beer in hand, staring into the flames. The waves crashing on shore in front of them were interrupted by a loud voice.

“Nothing!” It said. “No marshmallows, no beer, not a damn thing in the place.” Robbie chanted as him and Katie came down the path from the house.

“Some host!” Katie teased.

“Well, I’m gonna need food and more beer before long.” Danny said softly.

“I’m pretty near out, too.” Robbie agreed.

“And marshmallows.” Katie reminded them of what started this whole thing.

“Alright. DJ’s it is.”

DJ’s was the local pizza spot in Lakeview, and the only place open past 10 o’clock that served food and beer. It was notorious for its late-night clientele of tourists, drunks, and pugilists. And, even though state law required you to consume all alcohol sold on the premises, the nice folks at DJ’s would always let you buy a few ‘road beers’ before you left. The only catch was, they had to open it — that way, if the cop stopped you, who ever was working DJ’s could say you snuck them out. Smart folks would just bring caps from home. Others would walk out cradling six opened beers like they’re a newborn child. Marshmallows would have to come from the gas station.

“You guys coming?” Robbie looked at Leah and Danny.

“Sure.” Danny said. “I’ll drive.”

“Oh… ” Leah said. “Well I’m not staying here alone.”

“There’s lots of room in the ol’ Chev.” Robbie insisted. “We’ll just have to cuddle a little.”

They headed up the path to the truck, leaving the fire burning behind them. Danny, Leah, and Katie made it there first, while Robbie stopped to relieve himself, then fumbled about for his keys. They squeezed into the cab of the truck — boy, girl, boy, girl, and headed down the dirt road to town.

“Leah! Leah!” Danny yelled out. She tried to respond.

“She can’t hear you. We need to go!” Robbie said, panicking.

“We can’t just leave her here.”

“There’s nothing we can do.” Katie claimed, holding part of her hoodie against a cut on her head.

“You don’t know that!”

“I do know that if someone comes and we’re still here, we’re all going to jail.” Robbie said. “And I can say goodbye to my basketball career.”

“We can get help.”

“Where? The closest payphone is ten miles away. Even further to the closest house.”

“Look at that mess! Danny, there’s no way anyone could survive that!” Katie said, motioning to the upside down Chevy, now unrecognizable.

“We did!”

“We got thrown out. She was the only one who buckled up.. It fucking sucks but I’m NOT going to jail for this, Danny!”

‘They’re really going to abandon me.’ Leah thought to herself as they argued. ‘No. Danny would never let them.’

“So, what do we do, Katie?” She could hear Danny’s voice.

“We go back to the lake house, say Leah took the truck when we were sleeping.. it’s far enough off the road. No one will see it tonight. We’ll call it in in the morning before they find it.”

“I… I don’t know. I just need to check one more time…” Danny pleaded.

“Ok. Hurry up.”

Leah could hear Danny’s footsteps approaching. His Zippo gave off a faint light that bounced around the wreckage. As it flashed under the twisted metal, Leah got the first glimpse of her fate. However brief it was, she thought, was too long. Her left eye was either completely covered or missing, as it offered no reaction to the light. And the other showed her nothing but a confined space comprised of scrap metal, broken glass and shards of plastic. The only opening was a hole about 6 inches wide where the passenger window used to be. It was feet away and at eye level to her, which was on the ground. As the light from the Zippo approached, Danny’s face appeared in the 6 inch opening. Leah tried her hardest to make a noise, any noise, but was drowned out by the music, still playing. This time, it was Summer of ‘69, by Bryan Adams. With her one good eye, she could see his eye peering at her through the opening. She blinked to let him know she was conscious.

“Leah. We’re getting help.” The Zippo clicked closed and she could hear his footsteps getting further away. She waited to hear an argument with Katie or Robbie, but it never came.

‘Thank God’ She thought. ‘He saw me.’

It wasn’t long until the engine stopped running. A few hours later, the battery died, finally killing the radio just after Disarm by Smashing Pumpkins. It was quiet. Rural Ohio. It could be all night before someone drove by. Leah kept thinking about what she’d heard Katie say, that even if they did drive by, no one would be able to see the crash from the road. ‘I have to stay awake.’ She thought to herself. ‘Help is coming. They aren’t abandoning me.’ She knew Danny would get help. He saw her. He saw her blink. It would be a few hours, but they were coming. The pain wasn’t so bad now, knowing that she’d make it. ‘Just make it through.’ She kept telling herself. ‘They’ll be here soon.’

As Leah tried her best to keep her one functioning eye open, she noticed the ground outside of the hole getting bright. Then she heard an engine. The lights got brighter. The engine got louder. At one point it felt like it was on top of her. The lights became so bright that Leah had to squint a little as the car approached. ‘This has got to be help. They have to see me.’ She felt a relief so deep, she thought she could cry. But it was short lived, for as quick as they car approached, it disappeared into the night, getting quieter and dimmer as it passed.

After that, she struggled to remain awake. Three more cars passed, each with decreasing degrees of hopefulness. Her mind wandered. She thought of Danny. The likelihood that he would abandon her here to die. The others, Robbie and Katie, she couldn't be sure. But Danny? They had been best friends since fifth grade. It was an impossibility, she thought. ‘He saw me, he saw us.’

Then, she thought about them moving to New York and starting their new lives; her, coming home from a show at an art gallery. Danny, on the couch, typing away at his typewriter. The three of them playing at the park on the weekends. She had thought that moving together, being away from Robbie and Katie, would bring them closer together. ‘Soon… I just need to make it out of here. They aren’t abandoning me..’

The night got colder and darker. Between bouts of unconsciousness, Leah’s mind raced. ‘Why’d we get in that truck? Robbie’s a bad driver sober… And Danny, I should have told him. I wanted to tell him. Not at Robbie’s party. I didn’t know if he’d be upset.. or be happy for me… For us… Maybe he’d think I did it on purpose, to trap him… He’s not coming back…’ These thoughts exhausted her, but her mind wouldn’t stop. She felt alone. Abandoned. She always felt this way without Danny. Her mom died in an accident when she was young, she didn’t know her dad. And Danny had always been there.

‘If he hadn’t started hanging out with Robbie, it would have been different. He’s changed so much since they started working together at the park. I hardly see him. And when I do, Katie and Robbie are right beside him. I’m losing him. I’ve been losing him. I guess that’s why I offered him a place to stay in New York. That’s why I asked him to come over that night. It’s why I wore that cute dress. I didn’t want to lose him. We were just friends but I wanted so much more. I should have just told him.’ She was getting dizzy and colder.

‘What if he didn’t feel the same? Sure, he agreed to move with me, but he’d be kind of dumb not to - a free couch in Manhattan? What aspiring writer would pass that up? It doesn’t matter now. He stopped coming around. He didn’t call anymore. He didn’t stop by the diner. Why’d he invited me to Robbie’s tonight? At least we got to see each other. One last time. I should have told him. Let him decide for himself…I wonder what time it is. Almost morning probably. Please, let me see the sunlight. One last time.’

As the sun rose to expose the havoc of last night, a small amount of light shined through the hole into the area where Leah remained. She took in as much as she could. She couldn’t see the dewy grass, or smell the country morning, but she could picture it just as well.

It took the firemen six hours to remove Leah’s body from the wreck. The funeral was closed casket. Danny didn’t go.