Jersey Girl

By Rona Laban

The snow was coming down at a hard clip. Rachel pulled on her scrubs and was rummaging in the dark, so as not to wake Derek. Where are those damn ugly Sorels he bought me last xmas? she thought to herself.

“You best take the new car," Derek mumbled from the pile of bedding. “We won’t go anywhere til you get back."

“Sorry, did I wake you? “

“S’ok, I’m sure our boy there will be cryin for his mama any minute.”

“See you round one then”, she said, quickly kissing him on the cheek.

Rachel slipped down the stairs quietly, hoping not to wake Jake; she hated saying good bye to him, seeing her sweet boy cry.

Next house has to have a garage, she thought as she cleared off the car. Not many people on the street at 7 AM on a Saturday in the middle of a snow storm. Her next thought: might as well stop at Dunkies -- it’s gonna be a long ride.

Now I wish I had my night job back, she thought, tuning in the radio. And nice having a radio that works and heat. They were actually supposed to go looking for a new car today to replace her old Lynx - a total piece of junk that Derek inherited when they bought the dreaded wagon when she was 8 months pregnant with Jake.

She remembered the perky Ford salesman bringing them out to pick it up. “Aren’t you excited, a brand new car!”

"Not exactly," sassed Rachel back, “not exactly my dream car,” and Derek poking her in her ribs, saying,”Easy on the guy, jersey girl. You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl.”

Wow, I’m gonna be late, Rachel thought as she made her way through the slushy snow on the highway; damn plows -- not even out yet.

Then without warning, the car skidded hard to the left. She couldn’t pull it out and before she even realized it, she’d crossed two lanes of traffic and was perpendicular to the highway. As the guardrail came looming up on her, her life as they say was passing in front of her eyes. Not for long because when the car hit the rail, she spun around into the oncoming traffic and a pickup truck hit her head on. The air bag deployed, but she didn’t know that. All she saw was smoke in the car amd, panicking that the car was on fire, she grabbed for her purse and jumped out of the car.

The guy in the pickup truck got to her first. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think I’d hit you. I thought you’d pull out of it."

“Well, I guess you thought wrong.” said the jersey girl under her breath.