Chapter 7: Route 66 Kicks

It was August 1^st when they continued southbound on Hwy 64, leaving the Grand Canyon behind them and reveling in the memories of the three days they spent exploring one of the seven world wonders. The temperature was exceeding 110 degrees and the pavement seemed to waver in front of them as they intersected with I-40 and turned East once more, hoping to make Flagstaff by evening.

“Babe, we are starting to overheat again,” Kathy commented as she watched the engine temperature slowly creeping toward the red. They had only owned the Fleetwood for a month but had accrued over 5,000 miles in that time and the engine was beginning to show signs of wear. When they stopped for an oil change in Salt Lake, they asked the mechanics to check the radiator and coolant to make sure everything was okay. They first noticed the temperature fluctuations whenever they began climbing up to the steeper mountain passes. After the oil change, things seemed to be working smoothly until it started getting hotter outside. That and the higher altitude with its thinner air, seemed to be straining the F-350’s engine more than usual.

“Alright, turn off the AC, crank the heater, and let’s open the windows again,” he grumbled. It was miserable driving with the cabin heat on but by diverting the hot air out of the engine compartment the temp gauge dropped significantly allowing them to continue. He grabbed their Rand-McNally and studied their course plot. ‘It was going to be a long 36 miles to Flagstaff,’ he thought sourly as the sweat began beading along his face and neck.

“We seem to be holding steady as long as I don’t go above 45 miles per hour,” she noted. At least the sun was behind them, if just barely.

“We can always stop in Bellemont if we have to,” he replied, speaking up to be heard over the hot wind that shrieked past the open windows.

“Guess what?” she asked him with a bright smile, reaching across the console for his hand. He couldn’t see her eyes behind her aviators but he guessed by her tone it was an innocent query.

“Chicken butt?” he replied taking her hand and holding it loosely.

“We are traveling down old Route 66!” she answered and began humming the Bobby Troup classic,

“Get your kicks ... on Route 66.”

“Are we really?” he asked as he glanced back at the atlas in his lap.

“Yeppers,” she replied swinging his hand to the tune in her head. “From Chicago all the way to Santa Monica. We are rolling over pure American nostalgia, my love.”

“We should do that sometime,” he suggested. He had to shield his eyes suddenly when the windshield of an oncoming car reflected the bright sun for a second. It was a tall tour bus heading west.

“That Greyhound is kinda swerving, don’t you think?” she mentioned seriously, taking her hand back to steer with both hands.

The passenger coach overcorrected after wandering toward the median less than a quarter mile ahead. Peter sat forward suddenly as Kathy stepped on the brakes. “Babe, he’s really hauling!” he stated as it fishtailed back into its lane before...

“Holy Shit!” she cried as the huge bus swerved toward them once again. This time it crossed into its left line and struck the divider causing it to careen further out of control. Kathy screamed and swerved to the right sending the Fleetwood onto the shoulder and beyond. Even at only 20 miles an hour they left the asphalt and careened onto the hard-packed sandy ground, bouncing and jolting violently. Even though the ground sloped gently it felt as if they were tilting precariously — on the verge of rolling over, as she skidded them to a halt in a large cloud of yellow-orange dust.

The Greyhound loomed massively as it skidded past them, within yards of their motorhome. They could see the horrified expression on the driver’s face as it continued to slide further out of control. It was perpendicular to the highway, with the front end scraping the metal barrier that divided the highway when the entire left side began lifting off the asphalt.

“Oh Fuck!” he yelled. “It’s gonna...”

With their windows down the sound was deafening as the screaming engine competed with the squealing tires, as they lost their purchase with the asphalt. They gazed in horror as the 13-foot-tall motorcoach tipped away from them and rolled onto the passenger side. Bursting glass and shrieking metal added to the chaotic cacophony as the bus continued sliding away from them. The large black tires were still spinning.

“Oh my God!” Kathy cried out. It only took seconds for the 45-foot bus to slide to a stop less than a hundred feet from them.

“Can you get us back on the road?” Peter asked as he gazed at the smoking wreck in disbelief.

Kathy straightened the wheel and slowly moved forward until she was able to steer them back onto the shoulder before turning around and pulling onto the opposite shoulder. Peter was fumbling with his cell phone.

“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?” a female voice answered.

“Hi! A huge Greyhound bus just swerved out of control and rolled, right in front of us!” he yelled as he fumbled with his seat belt. “It’s lying on its side right in the middle of the highway!”

“What is your location?” the operator asked.

He shook his head as his mind went blank. “I ... I don’t know,” he stammered. “Wait! We were heading East on I-40, towards Flagstaff! We just left Highway 64. And I think we are about seven or eight miles west of Bellemont. Hurry up and send help! There are gonna be a lot of hurt people in there!”

“Standby,” he heard and shook his head as he opened his door and jumped out. Kathy followed suit and stared at the stricken motor coach. “Babe, grab the fire extinguisher!” he called to her.

“Do you see a mile marker post anywhere nearby?” the woman asked him calmly.

He spun around as he jogged toward the bus. “No, I don’t! Fuck just send them west from Flagstaff,” He yelled back. “There is no way you can miss it!”

“I’ve dispatched Fire and Aid. State Patrol is responding as well,” she informed him. “I need you to stay on the line...”

He ran up to the bus’s rear and tried to look inside but couldn’t see through the dark tint on the glass. He slapped his hand on the window. “Hey!” he yelled. “Is anyone in there? Can you hear me?” The air reeked of burnt rubber, diesel, and hot motor oil. Kathy joined him and beat against the tempered glass with the extinguisher.

“Hey!” she cried out. “Can anybody hear me?”

“I hear crying!” he yelled. “Here!” he tossed her the phone and took the extinguisher from her. Bracing himself he began hammering repeatedly on the glass. It fractured into a spiderweb pattern every time he struck it but refused to break out. After a dozen hits, he noticed it buckling inward and he stepped back to kick it with his titanium leg. The rubber gasket around the metal frame began to peel away and after several more blows, he was able to force the shattered window aside. The sound of terrified screams and moans assaulted his ears and he was promptly knocked backward as a male passenger burst from inside, tripping and falling onto the asphalt.

“STOP!” Peter roared at the remaining passengers. “Take it easy! Help each other out!” He dropped the extinguisher and stepped into the toppled bus to help a woman who had fallen from the driver’s side down onto the right seats. She was bleeding heavily from her head. Another passenger tried to shove him back but he punched out, striking the man in the face and knocking him backward. “I SAID STOP!” he screamed angrily as he bent over to help the woman back to her feet. She was unable to stand but another younger boy helped him pull her up and assist her to the window where Kathy took her arm. After handing the woman off he turned back and glared at the panic-stricken passengers. “Let’s work together!”

“Momma!” a nearby child shrieked, distracting everyone near the back.

He grabbed the man he had struck and pulled him back towards the window roughly so that he could step further into the coach. He had to step over an elderly passenger who lay moaning across a pair of seats. The child’s hysterical cries were just beyond the next row. He saw at least a dozen passengers struggling to climb over the seats below them. At the very front, he could see the driver hanging motionless from his safety belt.

“Somebody, check on the driver!” he demanded as he crawled further forward so that he could look over the next seat. He found a little girl lying on top of her mother who was pressed against the shattered glass and asphalt.

He heard Kathy yelling behind him for someone to help her lift the unconscious woman and pull her from the bus.

“Hey!” he called out softly to the child below him. “Baby girl! Up here!” He reached down as he lay across the row of seats and managed to grab the child by one of her arms. “Come here, sweetheart,” he crooned as he lifted her carefully. “I got you, baby.” He looked back and found the youth who had helped him with the bleeding woman. “Here!” he called out and handed the child to him. The boy took the girl and crawled back out towards the rear as two other passengers crawled past him, bumping and kicking his body as they scrambled to escape.

“Ow!” he yelled as he was struck in the head by a knee. “Goddamnit, people take it easy! We’re all gonna get out of this!”

“Get off him, Fucker!” Kathy screamed angrily behind him and he felt a weight lift off his back. He turned to look back down at the stricken woman below him and found her looking back up at him with wide terrified eyes.

“Hey,” he smiled at her. “You’re okay. We’re gonna get you out of here, alright?”

“Jacali?” the woman cried out as she lifted a bloody arm towards him.

“Pardon?” he replied as he scooched himself forward enough to lean over the seat back toward her. She appeared to have Hispanic features and he wondered if she spoke English.

“Babe I’m right behind you,” Kathy said and he felt her shimmying up beside him.

“My baby,” the woman cried. “Jacali.”

“We got her out,” he replied encouragingly. “She is okay. Now let’s get you out of here, okay?”

Suddenly the woman’s face went pale and she emitted a strangled cry of pain and anguish. Her eyes closed and she grimaced as her bloody arm fell back to her belly.

“Oh God!” Kathy cried out fearfully beside him.

“What?” he asked, trying to tune out the chaos around them as other passengers scrambled to help each other crawl over them to get out.

“Baby, she’s pregnant!” his girlfriend screeched. “She’s gone into labor!”

“Oh fuck!”

“Let me by,” she grunted and he felt her crawl over him until she was able to carefully lower herself over the woman.

He looked up to find a bunch of frightened faces gazing at him. “Can anyone open one of those top windows so you can climb out that way?”

“It’s okay, momma,” Kathy called out soothingly as she crouched over the injured woman. “Breathe through it, come on!”

The woman gritted her teeth and howled in dismay as the contraction wracked her body.

“I hear sirens!” someone shouted.

“Jacali!” the woman cried out again as the spasm eased.

“She’s safe!” Peter assured her again. “Segura,” he added trying to recall his high school Spanish. “Habla ustedes ingles?” he tried.

He was shocked when she rewarded him with a withering glare. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she snapped. “Do I look like a fucking ‘beaner’?”

Kathy’s eyes were a mixture of disbelief and humor as she peered back up at him with her mouth opened in surprise.

“Um,” he stammered. “Alrighty then,” he studied how she was lying and pulled a large duffle bag away, revealing her legs and feet. “What’s your name?”

“Lenna,” she replied with a painful hiss. “Get me out of here!”

“Working on it,” he muttered. “Can you move your legs?” She was wearing a dress of light cotton and he reached down to tap her bare feet. “Feel that?”

Someone was calling out from outside the bus and voices drowned out her reply as they all started yelling at once.

“QUIET!” a loud voice boomed. And the voices quieted.

Peter looked over his shoulder to see a uniformed cop gazing into the rear of the Greyhound. He made eye contact with the man and waved his hand.

“You okay there?” he asked.

“We have a pregnant woman going into labor, officer!” he yelled back. “I’m not sure about the driver.” He turned and gazed at the other passengers toward the front. “They need to evacuate out the other end so they don’t trample us!”

“Fire and rescue are on the way,” the cop assured him. “Is she conscious?”

“Get me the fuck out of here!” the woman screamed.

“Shhh,” Kathy soothed. “Calm yourself, you are stressing your baby,”

“Oh yeah,” Peter replied as he shifted his body so that he could crouch protectively over her facing Kathy. “She’s awake alright!” He turned to look back at the officer. “Her name is Lenna and she is most definitely NOT Hispanic.”

He felt the bus shudder and then heard footsteps walking above him. He saw the shadow of a figure as it stood over the windows closer to the front.

“Everyone, cover your faces,” the cop called out. “We’re going to bust one of the windows out.” More sirens could be heard approaching.

Peter leaned over the woman protectively, placing his hands on either side of her face, and pressing his palms painfully into broken glass shards. He stared into her frightened eyes and kept his expression calm as he felt Kathy lay over his back to further shield her. “Hang on sister,” she called from above him. “We’re gonna get you out of here.” She gazed back into his eyes and gasped in fright when a loud crack sounded above them. There were several more repeated blows and then the sound of shattering glass. None of the fragments landed near them.

“Hold on!” another voice said and they heard the broken window being pried out of the frame. Peter felt Kathy’s weight shift off of him and he raised himself to give the woman breathing room. He noticed his girlfriend’s legs straddling the woman’s head as she delicately stepped down until she could touch her face. He raised himself higher until he could see over the side of the seat.

Someone was directing the forward passengers to climb through the opened window and assisted them as they evacuated. He looked back towards the rear of the bus and saw an ambulance approaching. The cop was gone. He turned to assure the woman that help had arrived when her face went pale once again. She uttered another strangled scream and he felt sick as he watched her body contort.

“Babe, we have to straighten her body!” Kathy cried as she gripped the woman’s shoulders to lift her into a recumbent position. “Pull her legs out.”

He looked back at her feet and grabbed her ankles to slowly pull them forward while Kat settled herself behind the woman allowing her to rest against her body. Lenna was too distracted by her contraction to object as he shifted her hips until she lay mostly straight. He shifted back to give himself more room when he noticed the dark stain between her legs. He felt his body go cold as he glanced back at his girlfriend.

“Help her bend her legs and open them,” she ordered him. He stared back at her in disbelief and she shot him a scowl. “Do it!”

“There’s ... there’s blood everywhere down here!” He gulped.

“WHAT?” Lenna screamed hysterically. “I’m bleeding?”

“Peter!” Kathy barked. “Lift her dress out of the way and look!”

‘Oh, fuck me!’ he thought as he carefully pulled aside the woman’s skirt, making a terrible face as he peered between her legs. The fabric was soaked and her tanned legs were damp with a putrid-smelling viscous fluid that collected around her butt. She wasn’t wearing any underwear and he felt a wave of nausea as he saw her birth canal stretched open.

“What do you see?” Kathy hissed at him as she stroked the woman’s sweating face.

“Um,” he gasped for breath and shook his head as the impact of it all weighed struck his mind. “It’s not so much blood as ... um ... icky stuff everywhere.”

“Her water broke.”

“Hey!” a voice called from the outside. Peter looked over and felt immediately better when he saw a black-haired woman in a white uniform shirt. “I’m Helen,” she said calmly. “I’m a paramedic. Tell me what’s happening.”

“Uh,” Peter gulped. “I think we’re um...”

Kathy stretched her neck and looked over the seat at the medic who was leaning inside the bus. “Hi, Helen,” she said excitedly. “I’m Kathy. That’s my boyfriend, Peter. And we have Lenna here who seems mostly unharmed but she is very pregnant and having contractions.”

“Pleased to meet you, Kathy,” the woman replied. “Lenna,” she called out. “Can you tell me how far along you are with your pregnancy?”

The woman replied by sucking in another ragged breath and shrieking for all she was worth as another contraction gripped her.

Peter turned back to gawk at her crotch and blanched in horror as he saw her dilate even further. “Oh, holy shit!” he cried out as he leaned back. “I see hair!” he gasped. “Oh Fuck! It’s coming out of her!”

“Baby, get a grip!” Kathy snapped at him.

He glanced up at her and found her gazing back at him expectantly. “Calm down and breathe!” she told him firmly.

He sucked in a deep breath and looked back down.

“Tell me what you see!” Helen demanded.

“Uh, she’s ... um. Well, her thing is stretched out. And there is a bunch of hair...”

“How far is she dilated?”

“I don’t know!” he replied frantically. He turned and made a circle with his hands. “About this far.” He watched in horrified fascination as her belly seemed to move in wavy undulations while she cried out at the top of her lungs.

“Give me a second,” the paramedic replied. “I’m coming in there.”

“Yes!” Peter agreed. “Yes! You should do that!”

“Peter.” He jerked his eyes up to see Kathy gazing back at him intently. “Take your shirt off and put it down between her legs so the baby doesn’t touch the glass or pavement.”

He quickly stripped off his top and leaned over to do as she told him. He balked as he watched the top of the baby’s head push even further out of her. “Holy shit! Oh, Jesus!” he cried out, instinctively reaching forward to support it. “She’s having the baby!”

“Yep, she’s crowned,” the woman stated calmly from above him. She turned her head to address the others outside. “Pass me the OB pack! We can’t move her now.” She turned back and placed a gloved hand on the woman’s belly, feeling the last wavering spasms of her contraction. “Breathe now Lenna,” she said calmly.

“Hurry up and get down here!” Peter urged her as he shifted himself to the side.

“Hold on a second,” Helen replied as she reached back for the bundle that was being shoved toward her. “Get the backboard ready!” she called. They were all startled when Lenna emitted another strangled cry and turned a dark shade of red as another contraction hammered her. “Wow! That was quick!” the medic gasped. “Lenna! Listen to me! PUSH!”

“WHAT?” Peter screeched with wide eyes as he stared up at the woman.

“Come on baby!” Kathy encouraged her as she held her head against her breast. “Push, momma! Push!”

“Stay where you are Peter!” the medic ordered. “Here comes the head! Reach under it with your hand and support it!” She dropped her feet into the row of seats behind them and leaned over the seat back with a large bundle of cloth that she opened and draped across the woman’s belly.

“I got it!” he yelled frantically as he held the warm wet head in his shaking hands. “Oh shit! I can’t believe this is happening!”

His complaint was drowned out by the pregnant woman’s cries as she suffered through the wave of muscle spasms. Then she relaxed and lay gasping tearfully against Kathy as she tried to recover.

“You’re doing great Lenna,” Helen told her as she blew a lock of hair out of her face. “Peter, move your arm so I can clear the mouth and nose.” She could barely reach the baby as she calmly used a blue bulb syringe and methodically sucked the mucus from the baby’s airway. “You’re gonna have to push like crazy this next time, okay? Is this your first baby?”

“No!” the woman panted. “Second.”

“Good. You can do this. We are right here with you.”

“Oh God!” she began crying hysterically. “Reggie did this!” she wept. “I know he did. He said he would kill me!”

“Shhh,” Kathy soothed, sweeping her long hair out of her face as she held the woman. “You are safe, momma. Nobody is gonna...”

Another contraction cut her off and she felt the woman convulse in her arms.

“Push, Lenna!” Helen barked. “Push as hard as you can! Come on!” She hovered over the scene as the girl wailed in agony, struggling to force the baby out of her.

“It’s coming out!” Peter yelled. He felt the baby coming toward him and he kept one of his hands beneath it as its shoulders appeared. “Oh, man! Here it comes!” For some reason, he began laughing hysterically as the small body suddenly emerged from inside the mother and slipped into his hands. “Oh my God! It’s a freakin’ baby!” he yelled excitedly over the mother as she gave a final scream and collapsed back against his girlfriend.

“Of course it is!” Kathy snorted. “Did you expect a puppy?”

He couldn’t help himself as he laughed and cried simultaneously. “It’s a baby!”

Suddenly the newborn squirmed in his arms and let out a cough before it started crying weakly.

“Here,” Helen said softly as she held up a small blanket and wrapped the infant in it. She straightened and moved herself around the back of the chair until she could kneel beside him. “Keep holding her while I tie off the cord.”

He sniffed and accepted the bundle, gazing at the tiny face as it cried at him.

“It’s a girl?” Lenna asked tiredly. He met her gaze and grinned, sheepishly.

“I dunno,” he replied. “I ... I wasn’t paying attention.”

“There you go,” the paramedic sighed as she cut the umbilical with a pair of stainless bandage scissors. “You can give her to mom now.”

Peter did as he was told and helped the woman take the child in her weak arms. He unconsciously stepped toward the front of the bus, making way for the medic to coordinate with her team. He leaned over the seat in front of them and kissed his girlfriend. Kathy beamed up at him proudly and reached up to wipe a tear from his cheek.

“What are you going to name her?” he asked the weary woman as she held and kissed her daughter’s face.

“Abigail. Abi for short,” the woman replied.

A plywood backboard was slid across the row of seats.

“I think we can get you out of here now and deliver the placenta on the way to the hospital,” Helen stated as she placed several thick pads over the woman’s crotch. “Close your legs for me. There, good.” She stood up and nodded to a firefighter who was looking down at them through the busted-out window. He lowered himself into the coach and moved over to them to assist. “Okay Lenna, I’m gonna have you give your daughter back to Peter so that we can get you up and onto the backboard, okay?”

Peter tenderly accepted the baby and held her to his bare chest as the rescue team got into position to lift the woman. Kathy helped and between the three of them, Lenna was quickly lifted off the ground and set on the thick board. Several straps were secured around her and she was slid back out toward the rear of the bus where a gurney waited. The baby was handed off from one set of hands to another until she was rejoined with her mom and loaded into the ambulance.

Peter and Kathy were helped out of the toppled bus and applauded by several bystanders as they straightened and hugged each other. Kathy kissed her man’s cheek and turned to seek out the little girl who had accompanied her mom. “Where is Jacali?” she called out. “Where is that little girl?”

“Right here,” a voice said and they turned to find the young man who had helped Peter remove the first victims. He was sitting on the ground cross-legged with the wide-eyed child in his lap. Kathy stepped over and crouched before them, touching the boy’s cheek warmly.

“Thank you so much!” she said softly as she smiled at the boy. “I’m going to take her to her momma, now.” She picked up the girl and hugged her tightly. “Come on sweet girl, let’s go see your new sister.” She carried the child over to the ambulance, with Peter close behind.

Lenna had been transferred from the hardboard to a gurney and she was sitting up with the baby in her arms. Helen was working between her legs once more. She burst into tears when she saw her older daughter being held by Kathy.

Peter saw the police officer who was first on the scene, questioning one of the passengers, and stepped over to speak with him.

“You did a good thing,” the cop told him, noting the pair of metal rods that connected his shins to his shoes.

“Thanks,” he replied noting the man’s name tag, Carlton. “Um, Officer Carlton. The mom said something while she was trapped and in labor,” he added quietly. “Something about a guy named Reggie who she said threatened to kill her.”

The officer pulled him aside and nodded. “Our initial investigation suggests that the bus lost control after the front right tire was shot at a few miles back. Did you happen to see anything?”

Peter shook his head and began relating everything he could remember about the events that led up to the crash. “Kathy was driving at the time and she first noticed the oncoming bus slowly drifting into our lane,” he said. “When it lost control we were forced off the highway and honestly we were a bit preoccupied trying not to wreck ourselves.”

Kathy ended up riding in the ambulance with Lenna and her daughters, while Peter followed in the Fleetwood. The young boy who introduced himself as Jonathon Delgado rode with him. He was 15 years old and was traveling unaccompanied to Lake Havasu to go live with his aunt. Peter let him call her with his cell phone to explain what had happened. Before disconnecting Peter spoke to her and reassured her that he would make sure that her nephew made it home even if he had to deliver him personally. He gave her his cell phone number as well before hanging up. He learned during the short drive that Jonathon had run away from his troubled home in Sedona and made it to Flagstaff before he was caught shoplifting and taken into custody. When CPS tried to contact his mother, they had to conduct a welfare check finding her too drunk to offer any meaningful explanation about their home situation. She hadn’t even known that her son had been gone for nearly a week.

“Sorry to hear that man,” Peter offered to the boy as they followed behind the ambulance. “I feel ya though — my childhood wasn’t all that great either.”

The boy scoffed bitterly. “Yeah right,” he muttered.

Peter slid his foot back to the center console and rapped on the titanium post with his knuckles. “I was your age when I lost both of my legs,” he said dryly. “My old man took off on us and my mom died a year later.”

Jonathon kept his thoughts to himself after that.

“Listen, buddy,” Peter said after giving him a few minutes to think. “I’m gonna share a little secret with you. Think of it as a little pearl of wisdom that I picked up over the last few years.” He paused for a minute before continuing, “First of all — nobody cares. Get that through your head right now because the sooner you realize the truth of it, the sooner you will stop waiting for someone else to give a shit about all your problems and take care of you. Self-pity won’t get you dick. You can live your whole life playing the poor little victim — waiting for someone else to come along and save you, and all you will do is die an empty, bitter old man.” He reached over and touched the boy’s temple. “Everything you need to live your life to its fullest is right in there between your ears. All you have to do is get your priorities straight so you can harness that brain of yours to accomplish the goals you decide on. The only person on this planet who can take care of you is staring back at you in the mirror.”

He followed the ambulance off the freeway and into the medium-sized city. “I was faced with a similar situation. I could’ve run away,” he chuckled thinking about it. “Would’ve been more challenging for me in a wheelchair but I could’ve tried. But I didn’t. Instead, I kicked myself in the ass and decided right away that the only person who was going to take care of me — was me. Once I unloaded all that unnecessary emotional baggage from my head, I sat down and began prioritizing myself as numero uno.” The ambulance continued northeast on Historic Route 66.

“Gee thanks for the pep talk,” the boy quipped sarcastically. “I feel so much better.”

Peter laughed lightly. “Yeah, that’s exactly how I would have responded at your age,” he grinned. “Look, you have what it takes, kid. And despite what I just said, we — as in Kathy and I, will do what we can to help you out a bit. You showed me something back there that impressed the crap out of me. Something I certainly didn’t possess when I was your age.”

“What was that?”