“Why don’t you just call your ag teacher?” my mom yelled from the kitchen.

I sighed.

“But I was asking you about math. I would think that you would know about math!” I shouted back from my room angrily.

It seemed like every question I asked was answered with the same statement: call your ag teacher.
I guess it was because I had been spending so much time with him the last few months, but it wasn’t my fault. We had to have my pig, Pinky, ready by Saturday, two days from then.

I glanced at the unicorn shaped clock that my dad had given me before he left for New York City, 11 years ago. 6:05 on the dot, five minutes past the time I was supposed to feed Pinky. Mr. Young would be furious with me.

In a fast attempt to get out the door, I ended up knocking down my chair, a stack of books, and a card table. This didn’t stop me. The last time I had been late, Mr. Young made me clean all of the pig pens on my own, and I did not want to go through the misery again.

I quickly ran down the steps and on to the driveway where my car was parked. Then, I rushed into the driver’s seat and turned the key without worrying about buckling my seatbelt.

Just a few minutes later, I was on the county road headed towards the school barn. The speedometer needle pushed its way up to 80 easily. I knew the road well enough, after all.

Suddenly, a deer darted out in front of me and stopped with a deer-in-the-headlights look on its face. Using my instincts, I swerved to miss it, but I didn’t notice the quickly approaching bridge. My car tumbled off the side of the road and sent me flying through the window. What happened next, I may never know…

“I need an IV, stat!” one doctor yelled while I was hooked up to machines and wires.

“Here it is, sir!” a nurse replied and handed a clear bag of liquid to the doctor.

The doctor stuck a needle connected to a long tube into my wrist and then twisted the end of the tube into a connector in the bag.

I opened my eyes groggily to see a swarm of doctors and nurses all around me. My head was throbbing, my arm was in immense pain, and I couldn’t feel anything below my waist. I picked my head up off of the pillow just enough to see my blood covered body. It seemed as if blood was on every part of my body. Suddenly, I felt lightheaded, and the world began spinning all around me in a hazy glare. Just as quickly as I had woken up, I slipped back into the unconscious state that I had just been in.

Three hour later, I woke up to find myself in the Intensive Care Unit with my mom, my little sister, and Mr. Young at my side.

“Wh- wh- where am I?” I asked groggily as I lifted my throbbing head up just enough to see my mom pacing back and forth beside my bed.

“Jordyne!” she exclaimed and rushed over to my side.

I laid my head back down on the pillow and lifted my unhurt arm to my forehead to relieve the pressure that was causing the throbbing. There was a long line of stitches running horizontally across the middle of my forehead.

“What happened?” I asked while still rubbing each separate stitch.

“You ran off the bridge on County Road 218 and flew through the windshield. Your head hit a tree and busted.” Mr. Young replied as he walked over to my mom’s side, “You’ve lost 3 or 4 pints of bl-“

I groaned and almost instantaneously became woozy once again. The room became hazy and somewhere in the distance I could hear someone calling for a doctor.

“Jordyne… Jordyne… Jordyne…” I heard someone calling out my name, “Jordyne, wake up.”

I groaned softly and flittered my eyes slightly without opening them. There suddenly was a light shining into my eyes. First, it was my right eye. Then, it was my left. Just as it had come, it disappeared.

“Jordyne, can you hear me?” a kind voice asked, “If you can hear me please lift your arm.”

I followed the voices command and lifted my unbroken arm up slightly off the bed.

“Jordyne, I need you to wake up.” the voice commanded again.

I fluttered my eyes slightly before opening them completely. There were two people that I had never seen before standing beside my bed. One of them was changing my IV, and I guessed that she was the nurse. The other must have been a doctor from the looks of it.

As I tried to sit up, I was stopped by a surge of pain and collapsed back onto the bed. I lifted my good hand to my head and pressed softly trying to relieve the pressure.

“Where am I?” I asked without lifting my hand from my head.

“You’re in the ICU at the Scott & White Hospital.” The doctor replied calmly.

“Ugggggh!” I cried out in exasperation, “What day is it?”

“Friday.”

“Where’s my mom?”

“Home.”

“What time is it?”

“Midnight.”

We continued our question and answer segment until a knock came from the door. The doctor stepped out of the room for a little while, but then, he came back with my best friends.

“How are you?” Kylie asked cheerfully.

“She is in critical condition and is lucky to be alive.” The doctor replied before I could answer.

Kylie gasped.

“Will she make it to the fair on Saturday?” Madison asked with worry in her eyes.

The doctor looked at Madison with disbelief and shook his head. Immediately, tears began slipping down Madison’s cheek. Then, Kylie’s. Then, mine. We had been planning for the fair for over a month, and now, it was all ruined.

Kylie wiped her tears and looked up at the doctor solemnly. She searched his eyes for any look of sarcasm or hope, but she found none.

“I’m sorry girls, but she has a cracked skull that is mending, a broken arm, three broken ribs, and is paralyzed from the waist down. She can’t go anywhere.” The doctor said, “I’ll leave you three alone for a little while, but don’t get her riled up.”

With that the doctor and the nurse exited the room. Kylie sat down in a chair and looked down at the ground.

“What’s going to happen to your pig?” Madison asked no one in particular.

I gasped. What would happen to Pinky if I couldn’t show her? She couldn’t just walk herself into the show ring.

“We shouldn’t be worrying about the pig with Jordyne in a state like this,” Kylie replied lifting her head up so her eyes were level with mine.

“Well, we have to do something!” Madison exclaimed, “She has worked so hard!”

“We can’t do anything until Jordyne is better!” Kylie shouted back.

The two girls continued arguing without noticing me. Suddenly, the machines began beeping, and the doctor that had just been in the room thrust his way through the doors and began checking for my breath and pulse. My heart raced as I gasped for even a slight breath of air.

“I need a nurse in here!” the doctor shouted before pushing my bed out of the room.

Two nurses and another doctor joined us in the hall.

“Her airways are closing! She’s suffocating!” somebody yelled.

I couldn’t tell one thing from another as my bed was pushed down the hallways and into a room. Finally, the world went black, and my heart rate slowed to almost a stop. Had they lost me?
I opened my eyes slowly to find myself standing in front of a large, majestic gate.

“Welcome, Jordyne. Please have a seat while I look at your life’s records.” A kind man sitting behind a desk said.

“Excuse me, sir, but do you mind me asking where I am?” I asked as politely as possibly.

“You’re in Heaven’s waiting room. That is the Gates to Heaven.” He replied motioning over to the large unopened gates.

“HEAVEN!!! I’m dead?” I exclaimed in awe and terror.

“Yes, ma’am, you are. You had your final fall right there in that hospital. I can replay it if you’d like me to.” he replied before returning his gaze to the computer screen.