One summers' Day

I walked over to the refrigerator and helped myself to the orange juice. Sarah was in the laundry room adjacent to the kitchen. She was talking to me about something, but I don’t think I was listening. I poured the orange juice and found my usual seat in front of the television. On weekend afternoons, if we were at Sarah’s house, we always watched MTV, no matter what else was actually on. We had just returned from the beach. Sarah recently bought a new couch and it was so comfortable. It made watching MTV like a glass of ice, cold water on a fiery, hot day.

Sarah had a small, but everyone else hears roomy house and everything that happened in it in the house, perfectly. Mostly because she had wood floors, but also because the walls are pretty thin. Her living room, where I was, had a new couch, a new stereo, and a new entertainment system . . . the works. Windows all around you facing the streets surround Sarah’s living room, which really unnerves me. Not only do the walls have windows but the front door is all windows too. When someone comes to the door, not only can you see who it is, they can see you. I was particularly fearful about this that afternoon because we were on our own for the weekend.

Sarah lives with her step dad, Nolle, and her mom, Deborah (who happened to be out of town this weekend), on the west side of Santa Cruz. She has a stepbrother Willy, who lives on his own but sometimes stays at Sarah’s house. Willy is a skater and graduated from Santa Cruz High about 4 years ago and now goes to Carrillo. Whenever I see him at Sarah’s, which is about 90% of the time, he’s skating out in front.

Sarah and I met through a volleyball club around 3 years ago. Since then we’ve been best friends. She’s a ...

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Sarah and I met through a volleyball club around 3 years ago. Since then we’ve been best friends. She’s a year younger than me, and also goes to a different school. So although we’re almost always together, we do have some time apart. We have many mutual friends that we have introduced to each other over the years. Sarah is a very attractive girl; one would say she has a perfect body. But I don’t see her in that perspective. Once you know someone really well, you can’t say or think about how they look, you just know. Their looks aren’t what attract your attention it’s their personality and that’s why Sarah and I get along so well.

As I was watching the daily episode of TRL, I noticed a van pull into her driveway. I peered out of the living room windows to see if I recognized the man getting out of the driver’s side door and running toward the house. It was the kind of van I imagine a rapist would be driving or, when you watch scary movies, the vans that pick up little kids off the neighborhood streets. He ran up the steps of Sarah’s porch and started to bang on the glass of the front door. As if I couldn’t see, him and he couldn’t see me. The second his fist hit the glass was the same second my heart hit my rib cage and my stomach plummeted to the ground. What should I do? I thought for a split second.

I looked into eyes of the man and saw the whiteness around his pupil grow. Cautiously, I walked over to the door and turned the knob slowly. The man had dark hair and dark skin. He started to talk to fast for me too comprehend.

"Sarah! Do you know where Sarah is?" almost yelling.

"Yeah, she’s right-," before I could finish my sentence Sarah walked through the kitchen and into the front room. I worried for a second, had we done something wrong? Are we in trouble? Sarah saw trouble in his eyes

"What happened?" she asked in terror.

He started to answer before she was finished; he knew what was going to be asked.

"He’s on Almar, he had a seizure!" his voice filled with fear and anxiety.

Sarah ran to her room and gathered her phone book and the keys. I felt a little confused about who this guy was, but now was not the time to ask. We got into the car and raced to the scene of the accident. I drove fast but what seemed not fast enough. I could feel my heart beating rapidly inside my chest as if it might try to jump out. I tried to remain calm in front of Sarah. She needed me. Sarah sat next to me in the passenger’s seat and started to panic, which triggered her asthma.

"Sarah just breath," I kept reassuring her, “it’s going to be all right."

I stopped the car and we walked over to where he was lying on the street. The police, paramedics, and firefighters seemed to swarm us. Willy’s bike was lying next to him as the paramedics prepared him for the ride to the emergency room. One of the policemen explained to us that Willy must have started to have a seizure while he was riding his bike and then fell off and probably hit his head. Willy looked distant and confused and he wasn’t all there.

He kept asking, “Where am I?" and persuaded them to let him go. He pulled at his wrists, which were tied down, so he couldn’t move in case of another injury. It was an episode from ER, all drama and suspense. Sarah glanced into Willy’s eyes and her cheeks became a stream of salty water. Willy was probably handling the whole ordeal better than Sarah.

As they lifted Willy into the ambulance, Sarah and I ventured back to my car. We drove to the emergency room and called Willy’s mom and brother. I could tell Sarah felt hopeless and alone without her parents there to take care of the situation and comfort her. I was there, I held her hand, and told her it would be all right, but I knew I couldn’t compare to her mom. We walked into Willy’s room to find him recovering faster than the previous seizure. He regained consciousness and became aware of his surroundings. Sarah later told me the man that came to the door was, a family friend who lived by where Willy had fell.

After Willy’s mom arrived at the hospital, we went back to Sarah’s house. Her parents arrived home shortly and we explained the whole story. We were there for him when no one else was. We realized that it may not have been a fun experience, but it was definitely one to remember and to help us with future decisions and encounters.