Whiplash

I could feel the wind whip around my hair and see the flush-like spiral of the ball, in a throw that, if played in a real football game, would probably be a thirty to forty foot throw.

Dang, JJ was good.

It was coming straight at me and I could actually catch it! I was so excited, until I felt like an actual football player being tackled on the field, when Andy, the preacher’s only son, reached up to catch it at the same time, knocked my neck backward and pushed onto the yellowing October grass in front of the church.

                My first thought was “owww” and crying as I reached my hand to hold the back of my neck. The second was “Daddy was not going to be happy”. The third was, “Tyler is going to be pissed”.

                I laid flat on my back, crying and listening to sounds of “Caitlin!”, “Andy!”, “What did you do?”

“I didn’t mean to! Caitlin, I didn’t mean to.”

Seriously, no “I’m sorry”. Even trying to apologize, this boy was annoying. Though it had been a few years before, why had I ever had a crush on him?

Callie, Andy’s oldest sister of five sisters, and JJ quickly pulled me off the ground, trying not to move my neck. They started walking toward me toward the church and my father.

“What did you do to my sister, Andy?”

Crap, Tyler. Seriously, how did these things get around so fast? He was just playing dodgeball inside.

This was not going to end well.

Luckily for everyone, my brother hadn’t reached Andy yet. He had only just reached the grass and still had at least half of the yard to march before he reached. Andy, for once in his life, was showing some intelligence and self-preservation by slowly backing away. Of course, he might have been doing that subconsciously, looking at Tyler’s face.

(I mean, this was a boy who had marched up a hill to the tee ball field with a baseball bat in his hand, because two boys had been insinuating that I was making out with another guy, Alex. Tyler had only been eight and I had been eleven. Alex and I had been in Chorus together and such good friends that the idea of being together was appalling. I don’t know whether Tyler planned to use the baseball bat or not, but his growl of “Where are they?” was enough to make me stop him and lead him away.)

Needless to say, with his anger at two boys who had been insinuating that I was making out being to that level, I could only imagine the fury at knowing Andy might have actually hurt me. Hence, my earlier thought:

This is not going to end well.

JJ, being the calmest of the boys, had already let go to run get my father from the church and was replaced by Sarah, the fourth of the Miller children. Sarah, bless her, was the one that, in my mind (never out loud, because I was sure people would look at me funny), I called my “bosom friend”. I was highly addicted to Anne of Green Gables at the time and saw her as my Diana. Sarah quickly grabbed me and didn’t utter a word, probably well aware that I had a headache and that Callie was talking enough for the both of them.

“Are you alright? Can you move your head? Caitlin, you have to try!”

But it was so hard to listen to her and pay attention to Tyler too, especially with the pain I really wanted to ignore. I quickly tried to move my head…and immediately regretted it, letting out a hiss of pain.

“I don’t think she should try to move her head anymore, Callie,” Sarah interjected quickly.

Bless her.

Callie quickly nodded.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed that Tyler was half a field closer to Andy.

Lord, help us.

I couldn’t decide whether it was a good thing or not. It had been an accident after all and Tyler could only get in trouble, but Andy was usually very spoiled. He was the only boy in the family and he tended to think he was entitled to things because of it. Both he and Tyler had been at odds for a long time, but Andy never seemed to get the point of leaving Tyler alone.  

Callie was now ordering me not to move my head and I was still crying. Sarah, however, met my eyes and rolled them at Callie. She and I both tilted our heads to the right and tsked our lips without sound, unanimously saying with expression alone:

“Like we didn’t know that already”.

I was grateful to Callie, though. For the most part, she was her true self: calm, older, and immediately taking action. She walked with a confidence that came from having to help raise five younger siblings. It was a confidence I had wished she use more often, because with that confidence came a certain amount of insecurity as well. She spent so much time helping her siblings and everyone else that she sometimes struggled with who she was. It was a confidence that I was happy to see developing the older we aged.

But, we already knew not to move my head and she had been the one to suggest it in the first place, so exasperation sank in.

By the time I had reached the church steps, Tyler had reached Andy and I cringed. Sometime during the chaos, Hannah, the third of the Miller children, had started yelling at Tyler to stop. It wasn’t like that was going to do any good. Tyler found Hannah just as irritating as Andy. They were practically just alike.

“Tyler, that’s enough. Go inside. It’s almost time for AWANA to start anyway.”

Oh, thank you, Daddy. You came just in time to prevent the Apocalypse… or at the very least, World War III.

I looked up to see him. JJ was standing to the side, apparently when he left, he left to find my father. Thank heavens. Not only was my father there, Brother Raymond was too. The only problem was now I was almost completely focused on the pain.

“Are you okay, Caitlin?” Brother Raymond quickly asked, apparently leaving his son for later. I almost nodded but remembered the hurt that would bring.

“For the most part. My neck just hurts.” But, the problem was that I could barely move it and that worried them.

“Andy, go inside.”

“I’m going to take her to the emergency room, Raymond, just in case.” My father told him and he nodded.

“Do you want me to…”

“No, I’ll tell you what happens. There’s still the lesson to consider after all.”

During this conversation, the fifth of the Miller children, Emma, came up to me. I gave a small smile.

“No monkey climbing today, huh, Emma May.” She frowned. Emma loved my piggyback rides, but I had a hard time standing up when she just climbed on my back, so I actually had to pick her up on my side and she would then climb around to my back, where I’d grab both her legs and bounce her up, so I would have better grip. I always told her she looked like a monkey. Emma May was also our little game. Her name was actually Emma Ray (after her father), but when I first heard it, I thought they said Emma May, so that was what I called her. The whole family was together when they finally corrected me, but I was so used to saying May that I didn’t stop and Emma would just giggle when I did.

“Are you okay, Caitlin?” I grinned and made sure not to show her any pain.

“Of course, I’ll be back soon. You should go inside.”

She frowned but nodded, and I could tell from her eyes that Andy was not going to enjoy when she finally had a chance to talk to him. I turned back toward the men.

Brother Raymond hugged me without touching my neck.

Daddy walked me to the car. Apparently, he had had enough of a conversation with Tyler to feel comfortable leaving him there, so I was the only one on the journey to the ER.

I waited for two hours. It was more annoying than getting hit by Andy. The only bright side was American Idol was on the TV and come to find out I had a brilliant case of whiplash.

That was how I was stuck in a white brace for three weeks.

The only bright side to that: Andy gave me that apology. Brother Raymond drug him to the ER after AWANA was over.

Sarah just looked at me and up to the ceiling, grinning, with me grinning right back to her.

All this nonsense over whiplash.