FORBIDDEN IDENTITY

COLLISION

Joanne lay unconscious in the crashed car. She was surrounded by shattered glass and debris. The right side of her face had blood flowing down from the open wound on her forehead. She slowly opened her eyes but a few seconds later lost consciousness.

A blue car stopped near the scene of the accident. A man and a woman came out of the car and ran to Joanne's car. Joanne's car had damage to the front left side and the front window was shattered. The man tried to open the driver side door, but it was locked. He reached into the half open car window and unlocked the door. When he opened the car door, Joanne was in her seat belt, unconscious with her head leaning forward. Joanne's blue sleeveless top was covered in black blood stains. The man unbuckled Joanne's seatbelt and as slowly as he could, pulled Joanne out of the car. Blood landed on Joanne's bright red skirt and flowed down her right leg. The woman took hold of Joanne's legs and together, the man and woman carried Joanne to the sidewalk.

"Careful, I think her shoulder's dislocated," the man said. Slowly, the man and woman set Joanne down on the sidewalk. The man got a cloth from their car and covered Joanne's head wound to stop the bleeding. "Hold this here, I'm going to get the other driver," he said. The woman kept her hand on the cloth as the man went to the grey car. The grey car was a Toyota Corolla. The front was smashed in with smoke coming out of the engine. The man feared the car could blow up, so he wanted to get the driver out as fast as possible. He unlocked the door after reaching inside and opening it. Inside was a short Asian woman in her mid to late 20's, unconscious in front of a deployed airbag. She had shoulder length black hair and was wearing black shorts with a blue shirt.

The man unbuckled her seat belt. He could see her left leg had an open fracture. The bone was breaking through the skin a few inches below the knee. The smoke from the engine was becoming a fire. There was no time to be gentle with the injured driver. He lifted her up from the seat and carried her out of the car. The woman's left arm appeared to be broken as well. He sprinted away from the car as the engine's fire got more intense. The tear in the broken leg increased as more of the bone was exposed from the man sprinting away from the car.

The man reached the sidewalk and gently set the injured woman down next to Joanne. "Oh my God! Her leg!" the woman put both her hands over her mouth in shock at the sight of the driver's broken leg. "I know, the ambulance is on the way, don't worry, they will be okay," the man said. He looked up at their car. "Get the beach towel from the car," he told the woman. She got up and ran to the car. She returned with the towel and handed it to the man. He wrapped it around the open fracture to stop the bleeding. Since he didn't have any medical training, he didn't know how else to deal with the injury.

Suddenly, the Corolla exploded into flames. Everyone was far enough away that no debris reached them. The Corolla was completely engulfed in flames. Joanne and the driver laid unconscious on the sidewalk, side by side, completely unaware of each other and how their lives were now connected.

The woman looked at them both as they laid there. She then looked at the man. "You know we can't pretend we didn't see what happened." "Yes, we can," he said. "Honey, the grey car was speeding and turned on purpose to hit this girl," she started to explain, "she tried to kill her." "No! we didn't see that." "We can't hide this." The man gave her a firm look and said, "If we tell the police what we saw, that will make us involved. We would have to testify we witnessed an attempted murder." He looked at the injured women. "If we say, all we saw was a speeding car lose control, we can walk away from this and go back to our kids." The woman looked at Joanne. "If something happens to this poor girl again..." The man took the woman's hand. "We can't worry about that...we have a family to get back to." He looked her straight in the eye. "It was an accident. We say that, we can walk away." The woman slowly nodded. "Okay, you're right," she said.