Mystery at Devil's Elbow

Three months after the electric shock, Lewis was running late driving the girls to an after-school appointment. It was a beautiful day with blue sky and plenty of sunshine. The light caused Lewis to squint as he drove. They were driving on a back road with small houses on either side. Lewis looked down to see the time on his pocket watch, it was 4:00 PM. He looked back up…

Bam!

His truck collided with the side of another truck directly in front of him. He was jerked forward, his pulse thundered, and the taste of blood was in his mouth.

The entire front end of Lewis’s truck was smashed in about six inches. The hood was bent up and liquid pooled on the ground. The other truck was crushed in the right passenger side.

“Are you okay, girls?” Lewis asked as he looked to his right.

“I guess so,” Mary said.

“Are you okay, Lisa?” Lewis asked.

Silence.

“Lisa…!” yelled Lewis.

Lisa was picking herself up from the floor of the pick-up. He could see blood running down her cheeks. There was blood on the metal dashboard of the truck.

“Lisa, are you okay, honey?”

“My head hurts.”

“Is everyone okay?” a woman asked through the passenger window. “I just happened to drive up on the accident.”

Lewis recognized the woman as a friend and coworker of his wife’s.

“Gayle glad to see you. Can you help Lisa?” asked Lewis. “She hit her head, and it’s bleeding. I bit my tongue. I think Mary is okay.”

A lady in a house at the intersection hollered out to them that she’d called the sheriff and an ambulance.

“Thank you,” yelled the other driver as he stepped out of his truck.

Lewis and Mary stepped out of the truck and sat down on a guard rail out of traffic.

“What’s your name?” asked Gayle

“Lisa.”

“Good, what day is it?” asked Gayle bending over Lisa in her nurse whites. She had a warm personality that brought out a weak smile in Lisa.

“It’s Tuesday.”

“Good now lie her while we wait for the ambulance.”

“Gayle, I got the man in the other truck,” said a nurse who had been riding with Gayle.

Just then two sirens could be heard approaching from behind them.

“It sounds like help is just a few moments away,” said Gayle. “You just lay there on the seat until the medical technicians with the ambulance get a look at you.”

The sheriff’s deputy arrived at the scene first and quickly looked at both vehicles.

“Who owns the truck hit on the side?” he asked.

Deputy Sheriff Mike Shaffer was a short man with a matter-of-fact personality. He spent a few minutes with that driver getting his side of the story. The deputy then walked over to Lewis.

“I understand you drove the truck over there.”

“I was in too big a hurry and didn’t see the sign,” Lewis said.

“Looks like the only one hurt is that girl there. Is that your daughter?”

“Yeah. Her and her sister— “he pointed to Mary”—are both my daughters.”

The ambulance arrived on the scene. The deputy said to the driver of the ambulance. “Get the girl laying on the truck seat right there.”

“Let me see your license and insurance,” said the deputy.

“Let me get them from my truck,” said Lewis.

Lewis walked over to the truck and grabbed a folder from above the sun visor. While there, he saw Gayle changing the bandage on Lisa’s head as the medical technicians looked on. Lisa had an inch and a half long gash on her forehead that was bleeding badly. He couldn’t help but think this was all his fault. His hand was shaking as he wiped a tear from his eye. He walked back to the Deputy.

At the hospital, the ER was crowded and noisy. Everyone seemed to be anxious and in a hurry. Lewis and Mary sat in the treatment room with Lisa. Both were very upset and crying as they watched the doctor conduct the examination. The doctor cleaned and stitched the wound on Lisa’s head.

“Mr. Fisher, when was the last time your daughter had a tetanus shot?” asked the doctor.

“Sorry, I don’t remember.”

“Nurse, please give Lisa a tetanus shot just to make sure there’s no infection,” said the doctor. “Are you hurting anywhere else, Lisa?”

“Just my head.”

“Did you black out or fall asleep between the time you hit the dashboard and when nurse Gayle started speaking to you?”

“No, I was awake the whole time.”

“Does this hurt?” The doctor felt around her neck and upper shoulder.

“No.”

He felt around her abdomen. “Does this hurt?”

“No.”

“Well then, the nurse is going to clean your head and face now, young lady, so you won’t have any blood on you. I just want you to lay here for about an hour so we can make sure nothing else is wrong. The nurse will also give you some aspirins for a headache. But don’t fall asleep. Can you step outside with me, Mr. Fisher?”

Both men stepped out into the hall, where people milled about in the way of a janitor trying to sweep the floor. The doctor explained that Lisa had a superficial wound on her head. He further explained that if nothing else developed in an hour, she could leave. The doctor warned Lewis that if she had any more headaches, neck aches, or other problems, he should return her to the hospital immediately. With that, the doctor walked off to see the next patient. Lewis stepped back into the room.

“Good news, Lisa,” said Lewis as he took a seat next to his daughter. For the first time since the accident, he was smiling.

“What, Daddy?”

“It’s just the cut above your eye. It could’ve been a lot worse.”

“Daddy, can we have soda?” asked Mary.

“Sure, honey. Let me talk to the nurse outside while you wait with sissy.”

Lewis stepped outside the room for a few minutes and returned with two small paper cups of soda.

“Here you go, girls, one for each of you. The nurse only had grape soda. That’ll do, won’t it?” Both girls nodded yes while they drank from the paper cups.

A family friend and coworker Stephanie dropped Martha off at the ER entrance and parked the car. Martha headed straight for the nurse’s station of the ER.

“I’m Lisa Fisher’s mother. She came in here from a traffic accident. Can I see her?”

“She’s in room two. Her Dad and sister are with her,” said the nurse.

Martha walked straight there.

“Hey, baby, I’m so glad to see you,” said Martha as she stepped into the room.

“Oh, Momma,” Lisa said with a pouty face as she reached out for a hug.

Lisa’s hair was matted against her face, and she had a dazed look. Martha felt butterflies in her stomach as she looked at her daughter. She couldn’t help but think how close Lisa came to death again.

“What happened, Lewis?” Martha asked with a scowl on her face.

“Well, Martha I ran a stop sign,” he said as he hung his head. “I T-boned another truck just this side of Devil’s Elbow Bridge,” Lewis explained rubbing the back of his neck.

“Are you and Mary okay?”

“Yes, Mary and I are okay. The doctor said that Lisa has a superficial cut above her eye. He put stitches there to close the wound, and the nurse gave her a tetanus shot. He is holding her an hour for observation, just to make sure it’s nothing more serious.”

“What about the truck?”

“Well, that’s another story, dear. The truck was totaled. I got a ride here from your friend Gayle.”

“How did she find you?”

“She came upon the accident. I was relieved when she took care of Lisa right away and checked on Mary and me.”

“Stephanie brought me here to the hospital. Let me ask her if she can give us a ride home,” said Martha just as Stephanie stepped into the room.

“How’s our little girl?” asked Stephanie.

“I’m okay,” Lisa said.

“Well, I’m glad to hear it. How are you, Mary?”

“Good.”

“Don’t ask me, Stephanie. I can’t remember a worse day since Lisa received that electric shocked,” said Lewis.

“Now Lewis, it’s not that bad, is it?”

“Yeah … it is.”

“Stephanie, can you give us all a ride home? The truck was totaled in the accident,” said Martha with that scowl on her face. Martha was upset that Lewis didn’t pay as much attention as she would have with the girls in the truck. The good news is she never stayed mad at Lewis long.

“Sure Martha, when can Lisa leave?”

“I think she has about half an hour left,” said Lewis.

“Sounds good. We’ll just wait until she’s released and then we’ll head home,” said Stephanie.

“Thanks again, Stephanie. We always seem to depend on you a great deal,” said Martha.

“Glad to do it, Martha. You guys are like family to me and Pete,” said Stephanie.

Stephanie had been there for Martha a couple of other times when the children had accidents by helping with the trips to the hospital. She also helped when the girls were sick in bed by bringing warm soup for them.

The examination room was small and filled with equipment and devices. It was cold and smelled of alcohol. There was a lot of noise coming from outside the room. About a half hour later, a nurse came in wearing nurse’s whites with a few papers in her hand.

“The doctor released Lisa,” said the nurse.

“We’re glad to hear it,” said Lewis with a sigh of relief.

“If you just read and complete these forms, Lewis, you’ll be ready to go.”

“Do you have aspirin at home to treat her headaches, Martha?” asked the nurse.

“Yeah, we do.”

“The doctor told me you should give her children’s aspirin as directed on the bottle for aches and pains. If problems occur overnight, you’re to bring her back immediately.”

“Okay,” said Martha.

“Well good then, let me collect those papers, Lewis, and you can all head home.”

Stephanie left first to get her car and pulled up to the ER door. Everyone got inside, and they headed home. Once there, Martha took Lisa to her room and made her get in bed. She gave her a bell to ring if she needed something.

“Momma, I saw the Watchers again today,” said Lisa as Martha turned to walk away.

Martha turned back slowly and stood there looking at Lisa with her eyes wide for a few moments before speaking.

“What, baby girl?”

“The Watchers, Momma. The ones I saw when I was shocked,” whispered Lisa and she leaned toward her mother.

“What were they doing?”

“They were with me in the truck, Momma. Then they were with me in the ambulance.”

Martha’s brow furrowed, and she leaned toward Lisa. “Did you tell anybody?”

“Not a soul, Momma. You said not to.”

“Did the Watchers speak to you?”

“Yeah, they told me everything’s gonna be alright.”

“What did they look like?”

“They look like a person inside a light, Momma. You can see their outline, but not their face. They look pretty.”

“Keep this with you, me, and Daddy.”

Lisa shook her head and picked up one of her favorite books to read.

As Martha walked out of the room, she stopped in the hallway and thought, she’d have to speak to Lewis about this.