One Second Can Change Your Life

By Xlibris US

Mary and Jacob Jerrs have the perfect life. They have been married for nearly twenty-five years and are the envy of the little town of Trenton, New York. All the girls wish they were with Jacob, and all the boys wish they were with Mary, but Mary and Jacob have their wish and are holding their vows and each other above all else.

Anyone who says clean, good living goes unpunished does not know the truth because what is about to happen to Jacob and Mary Jerrs, along with three other families of Trenton, is pulse pounding, heartbreaking, and an absolute tragedy. With Jacob unable to communicate and defend himself, Mary must now take on the role of protector and provider. A tragic accident has left many dead, and Marys husband, Jacob, has become severely handicapped. Mary tries to hold her life together as the walls of her home crumble around her. The one man who loved Mary unconditionally, the one man who did all for Maryher husband Jacobhas been stolen from her. Can Mary hold her life together as all the secrets Jacob held locked up for Mary come out? Can Mary survive financially with the loss of Jacobs substantial pay? Can Mary exist without the physical love Jacob gave her? Can Mary go on, having lost her prince? Only time will tell in this dramatic love story. One Second Can Change Your Life is the love story you cant miss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499067385

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Robert Spina.

Library of Congress Control Number:        2014915540

ISBN:        Hardcover              978-1-4990-6736-1

                  Softcover                978-1-4990-6737-8

                  eBook                     978-1-4990-6738-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/28/2014

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Contents

Chapter 1 Who Is Jacob?

Chapter 2 The Crash

Chapter 3 The Hospital

Chapter 4 The Ride Home

Chapter 5 The Morgue

Chapter 6 Strong Memorial Hospital

Chapter 7 Coming Home

Chapter 8 Church

Chapter 9 Jacob’s Best Friend

Chapter 10 Therapy

Chapter 11 Court

Chapter 12 Getting Jacob Professional Help

Chapter 13 Mary’s Dilemma

Chapter 14 Getting Jacob Back

Chapter 15 Mary Gets Pregnant

Chapter 16 Losing Mary

Chapter 1

Who Is Jacob?

Jacob stands up moaning. His left arm is held tight to his chest. His right hand is held up shoulder-high, and he is shaking it continuously. He walks around—closing and opening his eyes, constantly moaning. He makes his way to the front door and eventually opens it, gaining access to the front porch. He hobbles around on the front porch, moaning and shaking his right hand. He walks to the steps leading off the porch and paces back and forth. He looks down at the steps, moaning and bobbing his head like he is about to take on a huge challenge. He has horrific scars on the left side of his face and his left eye is severely deformed. He tries to step down the first step, but he cannot lower his leg low enough to reach the step. He paces back and forth, moaning louder. He tries again and tumbles down the steps. He does not have the sense to brace himself or even to maneuver to avoid injury. He falls face first down the steps, hitting his face on the sidewalk leading out from the porch. He breaks his two front teeth which slice through his upper lip. He scrapes his chin badly and stands up bleeding from his chin, lip and mouth. His moans heighten to cries as he walks away from the house to the road.

It is midafternoon on a hot summer day. The chatter of insects is loud coming from the tall grasses. Jacob walks down the middle of the road, shaking his right hand and his left hand held tight to his chest. The blood and saliva is dripping down his neck onto his shirt. He bobs his head—crying, moaning, obviously in pain. He walks aimlessly—sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left—but generally, he is heading straight down the middle of the road. A car approaches after a while and pulls off at the right side of the road, just before Jacob.

Bob, that’s Jacob out there.

I know. I see him.

Let’s go see what he is doing and get him back home.

An older couple in their mid-sixties gets out of the car and approaches Jacob.

Jacob, what are you doing out here, walking down the middle of the road? Whoa! Jacob, what happened to you?

Oh, Bob he’s hurt.

I can see that, Jen. Let’s get him in the car and get him home to Mary. Come on Jacob, let’s get in the car. Jacob starts shaking his hand more and crying louder.

Come on, Jacob let’s get you home and clean you up.

The elderly couple very patiently tries to coerce Jacob into the car. After a lot of talking and guiding Jacob with their arms, they get him into the backseat of the car.

Okay, Jacob we are taking you home now. You are going to the hospital again I think. Bob pulls into the driveway of the Jerrs home. Jacob starts to cry louder and shakes his hand and his head. The couple gets out of the car and tries to get Jacob from the backseat, but he does not want to get out.

Jen, you go get Mary. I’ll wait here with Jacob.

Okay, be right back. Jen goes up the step.

Bob, I see where Jacob fell right here on the walk. Mary must be sleeping. Jen walks up the step and into the house. The scene outside the house is quiet as you hear Jen yell, Oh my god! Bob, call 911!

Chapter 2

The Crash

Fourteen months earlier, a young teenage boy is driving a Blazer down a country road. It’s late and the only light is that of the headlights.

Ted, just take me and my baby home. Okay?. Saundra is in the backseat with her two-year-old baby who is in a baby car seat. Saundra is in the middle of the seat, with her friend Rose sitting to her right. Mike is in the front passenger seat.

Ted, we are not out joyriding. You said you would take me and my baby home. It is late, and I have to get her to bed.

Relax, Saundra. I am taking you home.

They are approaching a four-way stop, and Ted starts to speed up.

Ted, that’s a stop sign.

Come on, stop playing around, says Mike.

Ted, my baby is in this car, if you want to take chances with your life then you let us out right here, right now.

Ted steps on the gas and speeds through the stop sign.

Oh my god, Ted, you let me and my baby out right now. We will walk.

Hey, Ted that’s not cool man.

What are you guys all chicken shit? Where’s your sense of excitement?

You’re crazy, Ted. Doing what you are doing isn’t excitement—it’s suicide.

It’s not suicide. We have good luck with us. God won’t let anything happen to us because we have a baby in the car. I bet I can blow through all the stops between here and your house, and we won’t even see another car.

Ted, let us out—let me and my baby out right now.

I want out, too.

Ted, stop the car.

The three passengers are getting loud, trying to get Ted to stop the car.

Ted, let us out right now.

Ted, stop the car man.

Jacob is driving his wife Mary home from a play they just went to. They are in a nice 2006 light blue Mustang, having a conversation while driving home.

I can’t believe they are going to take $210 a week out of my check for healthcare. What do they think—that people can give 50 percent of their earnings away and that we are going to be able to survive financially?

It’s not 50 percent of your earnings, Jacob.

Not mine but it is 50 percent of other people’s pay. This is unbelievable. This is going to break all of us—not just me but all of us.

At least we have a peace of mind knowing that if anything happens to us we will be covered.

Peace of mind is not being broke all the time. So now we are broke for the next twenty years of our lives, and you mark my words when we do need it, the help we are expecting won’t be there. If a catastrophe was to happen to you or me right now and 80 percent of the bill was covered, the remaining 20 percent that we would have to pay would still be more than we could cover, so it’s a lose–lose situation.

Oh Jacob, you just know everything, don’t you?

Yes, I do know everything. I wish everyone was like me, and the world would be a much better place, damn it.

"Oh, calm down. Since you took me finally to see The Phantom of the Opera, when we get home I’ll show you that the world still is a pretty nice place."

I did not say there is not beauty in the world, and I was smart enough to marry it. I’m allowed to be a little cranky now and then, too. Jacob smiles at Mary.

Meanwhile the three teenagers are begging Ted to stop the car and let them out.

‘Ted, I’m scared,’ is that what you want to hear? Why don’t you let me drive?

What? Let you drive, Mike? I don’t think so. If you’re scared then buckle up.

Mike and Rose check their seatbelts which are secure.

Ted, I can’t buckle up because it’s holding my baby’s seat in place, says Saundra. I should not have to be scared for my life, you moron.

Shut up all of you. There is only one stop light in town, and then you will be home.

Ted, if that light is red you stop—no more games with our lives.

Well, there it is and its green. We better speedup so we make it.

Ted, slow down—you know you won’t make it, and there is always a cop in town.

You want to get a ticket?

Ted, slowdown man. This is no joke; you’re going to get us hurt man.

Here we go, Ted steps on the gas.

Jacob and his wife are driving up through town to the one stop sign in the small town of Trenton. Jacob starts to slow down for the red light which turns green, and he gently steps on the gas to maintain the thirty mile per hour speed limit.

He looks to his wife, So when we get home—

The Blazer slams into the side of the Mustang, hitting Jacob’s side door. The Blazer is going seventy miles per hour, and a very violent crash happens. The Blazer pushes the Mustang forward with its momentum, crushing Jacob’s left shoulder and arm. His head impacts with the door’s window, and the grill of the Blazer impales glass into his head. Jacob and Mary are wearing their seat belts but the impact is great. Mary is thrust into Jacob’s right side and then slammed back into her seat, smashing the right side of her head through the passenger door window. The Mustang does have airbags that deploy, preventing serious injury to the front of the Jerrses’ bodies; however all damage is from the sides.

The Blazer pushes the Mustang all the way across the intersection and hitting the curb, bringing the vehicles to a stop. The Blazer has one airbag that deploys on the driver’s side. Saundra flies between the two front seats and smashes through the windshield. Mike smashes into the windshield with his face and is pulled back to his seat by the seat belt.

Saundra actually lands on the roof of the Mustang and tumbles over the car. As the cars slide across the intersection, she is dragged and rolled under the car, crushing her to death. Mike hits the windshield with such great force that his face was shattered and his neck broken. He also broke both his legs as his body slid up almost out of the seat belt. His knees were bent the wrong way and both broken. Rose slammed into the passenger front seat and her neck was also broken. The seat belt she is wearing pulled her back to her seat where she now sat dead.

The baby seat was actually held in place and held the baby in the seat, but the impact crushed her chest and she suffocated. The driver, Ted, was wearing his seat belt and impacted with the airbag. The force of the impact carried him to the windshield but Saundra had taken it out first. Ted was pulled back to his seat and did not even break a bone—he was the only one in the Blazer to survive.

There is a police car sitting in the corner, and Officer Maurice Donnelley saw the whole accident happen. He immediately calls 911 and rushes to the scene. Mary opens her eyes and what she sees is very blurry and distorted.

Jacob, Jacob, she mutters.

Mary has blood dripping down the side of her face and has severe cuts in the right side of her face and head. She tries to raise her right hand but there is a great pain in her right shoulder from impacting with the door on her side of the car. She raises her left hand and feels that she is bleeding badly. A sense of panic and fear overwhelms her.

Jacob, Jacob I’m hurt.

She has to concentrate and blink her eyes to regain her vision. Looking to her left she can see Jacob leaning to the right, motionless. He has shards of glass stuck into the left side of his head and is bleeding badly. The sense of fear and panic heighten to horror as Mary sees this.

She cries out, Help! Help us! Somebody help us!

Officer Donnelley approaches the driver’s side of the Blazer.