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There once was a fourteen year old girl and boy who while living in the same farm county
had never met. At least not that they ever knew.
Two years prior they had passed each other
on the village sidewalk. She quite taken by his lean body and handsome features, and he quite flipped out, at her blue eyes and yellow hair.
Their eyes met and held for a moment, and lumps jumped into their throats, as a sunshine-like warmth melted their hearts. Zap! Then the moment was gone as they passed on down the side-walk. It might as well have been two trains headed for different far-off destinations, at least as far as they thought that day.
Two years passed by and both had done many things and grew in stature and wisdom. Both had now found steady dates and had exchanged mementos of endearments
and vowed their commitments. But she never
forgot the slim boy in tight jeans, and
Matt day-dreamed every day of her loving blue eyes.
His father worked for a rescue squad and Matt helped him out sometimes with small first aid treatments.
One day, while riding with his father, the phone speaker blared, "School bus accident, Dale River bridge." With amber light flashing and siren wailing,
The gold and white rescue truck carrying Matt and his father sped off toward the Dale River bridge.
The scene at the bridge was enough To turn stomachs of steel, but Matt had become accustomed to seeing similar sights, and he had been trained by a professional so when he saw the twisted wreckage
of school bus and bridge railing his thoughts darted immediately to the occupants of the vehicle.
As he checked pulses and listened for heart beats
he came across a young girl lying face down and motionless. Quickly he jumped to attend to her.
Matt carefully turned her over until she was lying face up. He put his fingers to her wrist
and his ear to her chest. He felt and heard nothing.
With the utmost of urgency he pressed his hands down hard on her chest, then moved up to her face to
breathe into her mouth. Matt had never felt so frightened. His pulse rate was climbing sky high.
Sweat began forming on his forehead. He felt faint and very hot.
Time seemed to have stopped stock-still.
He felt for her wrist, there it was. Her artery seemed to be registering a faint throb, then stronger and stronger. Slowly she began to breathe, than faster.
He put his head to her chest and was greeted
with a strong, steady heart beat. Matt sat there a few moments, his body shaking from top to bottom.
Then he regained his composure and let his eyes fall on his patient's face.
Gina woke up to find a face a few inches above hers. At first she was shocked until a low gentle voice said, "Take it easy, you're OK now." They were both in a semi-state of shock. Gina recognized those eyes
from somewhere, but at that moment she was too far
out-of-it to remember. Soon, she fell asleep.
Matt's eyes were stuck to her like she
was covered with crazy glue. Those sea-deep
blue eyes and her silken golden hair seemed to envelop him. He stared with incredulity. This couldn't be happening. But it was. It was her, the girl
he had been dreaming of for the last two years.
He could reach out and touch her. His hand moved slowly toward her face. Then he stopped. He didn't want to wake her. What if something was badly wrong with her? He called for his father who brought
a stretcher and they placed her gently on it
and into the truck and with siren blaring they lost no time reaching the hospital.
Unknown to Matt, he had been observed by a newspaper reporter, and it wasn't but a few hours until He became the hero of the hour with his face all over the front page. The picture captured him looking over the
body of the girl with whom he had just fallen madly in love.
Now Matt knew where she went to school. He went there and casually asked around until he located her friends.
He was filled with bitter disappointment
when he found out she had a steady boyfriend.
He felt as though a chip had just been cut from his heart, like he wished the ground would just swallow him up. But the world kept turning.
Matt longed to escape life, but he knew he couldn't, and he couldn't go on this way anymore. He was in love
with another girl. Gina was always on his mind,
as she had been ever since they had passed
each other on the sidewalk in the village.
Ashley was his steady, but Gina was in his heart.
Whether or not she loved him, or ever could,
Matt knew what he had to do.
Gina had been released from the emergency room
at the hospital and admitted as an inpatient
for observation. She had two broken ribs and some
chest contusions. Other than that she seemed to be OK.
She had a vague recollection of the accident and
a boy kneeling over her. A misty image of his face
stood out in her cloudy mind. A feeling of familiarity
hung about her like an old comfortable jacket, but
she had no inkling of why this should be.
The next school day Matt went to Ashley first thing
in the morning and told her the whole story.
She handed his ring back to him, and with tears
forming in her eyes, ran quickly down the hall-way.
Matt felt like Hell. He couldn't believe what he had just done. He had just given up a wonderful
girl whom he cared for very much. He felt as lost
as a stray dog by the side of the road waiting
for his master to return. He felt as though he had just
done an unforgivable thing. But what else could he have done? Matt had found his true-love in Gina.
What he felt for Ashley he knew to be not love, but
warm tenderness. Matt went to his classroom
with his feelings in mutiny.
The nurse at St. Johns hospital wheeled a cart with
a television set into Gina's room. "Here,"
she said, "Perhaps this will take your mind off the
pain for a while." Gina took the remote
from the nurse's hand and clicked on the TV.
She let out an astonished scream inside her head.
"Oh my god," she said to herself, "oh my god!"
She looked toward the TV screen where a clip about Allentown's teenage hero was stealing her attention.
A fourteen year old boy who had saved a teenage girl's life by administering artificial respiration was receiving a medal for his bravery. "It was him," she said in a loud unbelieving whisper. The boy she had passed on the sidewalk in Allentown two years ago. It was him. He had saved her life,
and she had found him again.
Then she remembered Daniel.
Matt wanted to run away. The award presentation ceremony dampened his spirit.
He felt like he'd been lying in the rain for a week, soaked through and through with sad feelings. He hated himself for hurting Ashley. He wanted to run to Gina and scream, "I love you," but to bring her grief
was unthinkable. She was probably very happy.
Besides she most likely didn't even remember that day in the village. He thought about his problem. His dad had always wanted to move from Virginia to Texas, but he knew that Matt liked it here and he didn't want to take him out of his school and away from his friends.
Matt would go to his dad and ask him to move because he couldn't handle the publicity. But first, he wanted to go to the village, to the spot where they had stood, just for a few moments. Just to remember and to say goodbye to her and his memory.
Matt was standing on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. His spirit had sunken to the murky green
depths of oblivion. Like a mirage, he imagined that he saw an image of her face in his mind. Wait!...... That was no image. His heart almost stopped, then jumped to his throat. He felt tongue-tied and paralyzed unable to speak. Then he heard the sweetest voice he had ever heard in his life. Like a song bird's melody she said, "Hi, hero, how you doin'?" He blushed and said, "Gee, you really make it hard for a guy to be humble. What are you doing here?" She replied, "I could ask you the same thing!"
He lowered his eyes, she lowered her eyes, but for an infinitesimal moment. Gazing softly into each others eye's lovingly, then questioningly. They both started to ask together, stopped and smiled While each one held out a hand, two rings exchanged hands. They tenderly kissed, clasped hands with fingers intertwined, turned into the sun, and slowly walked away, into the rest of their lives.
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