Joshua had two cracked ribs, his left leg and ankle were broken, sore wrists, a concussion, an aching back, 2 black eyes, a broken nose, a lot of minor cuts, a pretty decent one above his eye, a slightly ticked farmer complaining about his irrigation ditch and a few feet of barb wire fence, and a cop who was telling him he might face a possible DUI charge. He kept hoping his smashed car would fall through the roof and smash the officer. Since that was not likely to happen, he utilized his right not to incriminate himself and sat there silently. A call had been made to a lawyer friend earlier. His friend lived in California, the state where Joshua was and the state he had almost made it out of before falling asleep behind the wheel and flipping his car into an irrigation ditch. His friend had told him to request a toxicology report be taken by the hospital staff and not to say anything at all to anyone about what happend or didn't happen. He was to refer all questions to his friend, who was now his lawyer.
The police man sighed with frustration as he realized Joshua wasn't talking. It was an overly dramatic sigh as far as Joshua was concerned. Close as he could tell, other then the cop's irritation over people exercising their rights, the man had nothing to be exasperated about. It wasn't as if the officer was in a hospital bed, in pain, stranded far away from home and his intended destination, and feeling delayed grief over his missing wife. Nope, that described Joshua, not the cop. Yet this guy sighed like Joshua was unreasonable for keeping his mouth shut instead of helping him make his case. Joshua wasn't going to open his mouth and get himself hooked with a stickable charge, especially a false one. Why couldn't this man just go away?
Then, like magic, the officer did. He promised, as he left, to be available when Joshua "felt like telling the truth." Instead, Joshua called for the nurse. He was starting to feel the injuries again and just wanted to sleep.
-------------- A day later ------------------------
"Josh! You look like someone dragged you through Hades, face first." Tom said in greeting. Tom had come down from San Diego to pick Josh up and get him the rest of the way to Flagstaff. He had apparently stopped at a few places first, one of which had been the police station to get a copy of the incident report. Tom was taking his job as lawyer seriously. He had managed to keep Josh out of jail when he got released from the hospital and was preparing a case to fight the DUI charge. He told Josh not to worry about it too much as he would be kept in the loop as the case progressed. He had also advised Joshua to not head out of reasonable range for the next month as he might be needed back here.
"Tom. It looks like you slimed your way to the top! Check out that tailored business suit!" He said in a mocking response. This was the first smile Joshua had given in days. It was good to see Tom. It was even better to be leaving the hospital, and soon the town.
"C'mon! You know me I'm too manly for suits off the rack! Let's get you out of here!" Tom grabbed the wheel chair reigns from the orderly and wheeled Joshua towards the exit. "Will get something to eat before we hit the road. This town has a great little burger place. I stop here every time I pass within an hour's drive of here...." Joshua just nodded his assent as they headed out of the hospital.
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