The nightmare stretched on and on, seemingly forever. The twisted metal, breaking glass, screeching tires were all her mind could sense. She fought to escape the car, but it seemed her mind wouldn’t connect with her body. She wanted to turn and run, run until all was quiet and peaceful

Just as her mind seemed ready to snap, the bad dream started to fade. She couldn’t quite appreciate the following wave of silence, as her consciousness slowly flickered and went out.

Relief. Peace. The nightmare had ended. All she could sense was a wonderful stillness. It was quiet. The air was cool. She was resting in a soft bed. Her vision was blurred, but she was aware of the soft lights in the room. She detected a faint, strange smell. It was very familiar but she could not place it exactly.

A hospital! Oh my god, she thought. With the shock of that realization, her mind started to clear. The accident started slowly unfolding in her memory. The driving rain, the whiny section of Highway 101 north of San Clemente. Idiot boyfriend Jimmy doing 85 when you could hardly see past your hood emblem. The mudslide blocking the road. A terrifying plunge through the guardrail and down the hill.

Christ, she thought. I wonder where Jimmy is? Where am I? I don’t feel any pain, yet I can’t seem to move. Am I dead? Am I in the morgue? Maybe I’m just sedated. Who knows?

She drifted off to sleep.

An orderly making the wastebasket rounds entered her room. He was always very quiet and seldom woke even the lightest sleeper. As he passed her bed, he looked down and saw how inviting she was. As she lay on her back, her breast rose and fell slowly with deep, even breaths of sleep. Her pubic hair made a soft little mound further down. Long legs reached to the end of the bed.

“Man,” the orderly thought. “I sure bet she ain’t in here to get her figure worked on, damn, good thing I need this job so bad or I'd get myself in trouble for sure real easy.” The money he made from illicit drugs that he occasionally stole from the store kept them in fine shape when it came to meaningful overnight relationships.

Doctors Johnson and Endicott slumped into their chairs in the lounge and started shipping their umpteenth cop of machine coffee

“Man,” Mike Johnson sighed, “but be glad to get his residency over and get out of here and make some money.”

Ralph Endicott looked at him over his cup of coffee. "Mike," he said. "you're a dyed-in-the-wool yuppie, aren't you? You got a BMW and a condo in Aspen, and you're still worried about more.

"Damn right." Mike retorted, "What do you think about the crash victims we got tonight?"

"Pretty bad," Ralph said. "I wish we could have saved the guy, but there wasn't enough left to work with. His girlfriend isn't doing too good either. She looks like she crushed a third and fourth cervical vertebrae.

“Damn shame, ain’t it?" Mike replied. "She hardly had any other scratches on her left most of god are from one to other roles the car took.

Mike reached into his pocket for a cigarette. He knew what the Surgeon General said, and he figured that sort of thing never happened to doctors.

Ralph drained the last of his coffee. "Well, later on this week they're bringing in a specialist from L.A. to look her over, but I bet that she is definitely paraplegic material now."

"You know I hear he's really good," Mike said, "But still, she's a real foxy babe. I hate to think about much good female flesh going to waste."

"Mike, you have the couth of a jackal and the compassion of a camel. I think you're beyond hope when it comes to caring. Let's get back to work."