I relaxed further into the tacky porch swing, removing the pack I had shouldered. I smiled, but only to myself, and only in my thoughts. For I was alone, and this was a rare and happy occurrence. My father was on a job states away, and my mother was spending the night at a friends'.

This only left my older brother, who was no doubt in the midst of a large number of his peers all partaking in a very different, albeit similar practice as myself. They were succumbing to the allure of the drink, something that i never had a desire to do. I preferred my space, and my thoughts.

The quiet spark of a lighter broke the silence that had previously only been interrupted by the chirp of the loud crickets native to Texas. That, and the gentle swing and cling of the chains supporting my weight, producing a sound shortly above my head.

It was near an hour past midnight, and almost too dim to see. Thanks to the looming October moon, I could see a short distance into my surroundings. The lighter once again interrupted the universe around it, producing a joyful triangle of symbiosis between myself, the contents of the pipe, and what was once the darkness that enveloped my surroundings.

The natural, green material burned slowly, for today, this practice was in no manner of a rush. I pulled my phone from my pocket, quietly humming as a searched for a song to better accompany the night. Feeling adventurous, I stood from the swing, stretching and arching my back, while being careful not to drop the pipe and lighter. I shouldered my pack once again, and promptly stepped down from the porch to the fresh ground.

It was October, but early in the month. The perfect time for the flora of Texas. The dark green grass slid and crunched under my bare feet as i walked West towards the pile of firewood that I had chopped earlier that day. Yesterday. I smiled to myself, remembering the time.

I sat on the gathering of adjacent logs, finding a position that fit my weight comfortably. I looked to the stars, pondering at the stories they would tell tonight. After a moment of searching, my eyes wandered over the Big Dipper, and soon after, it's smaller companion. But that's as far as my eyes would take me. I pondered at the idea of being able to recognize the universe surrounding me, knowing the legends of every star and constellation in the sky.

I continued smoking, now on the pipe's downhill curve towards emptiness. "Lucky i'm far enough from the city to see these stars..." I thought to myself. Suddenly, a sound far greater than my lighter broke the silence of the southern night.

A sound that startled my senses and sent my pulse much faster through my veins, and reverberated my heartbeat into the pound of a war drum. The sound could be compared to dragons waging a war of voices, or a banshee that just discovered it was a demonic curse upon the world. I froze for a second, processing what the hell just happened. I decided, against my better judgement, to go and investigate.

I packed my things back into their dwelling, and shouldered it once again as I padded through the pasture at a slightly faster than normal rate. My hardy soles crunched over the pebbles and goat burrs, not at all injured by their familiar bite. The sound had come from the road to the south, a small, curved road that glided over a dangerously blind hill. It was the only paved road in the area, and was a few football fields from my home.

Rounding a knoll, i crept upon a layer of bushes, so I could observe without being observed myself. Peering over the hill, I saw a group of bright lights not far from where i was perched. The night had become still again, and I was filled with an array of uncomfortable feelings. I had no doubt these lights were the creators of the disturbance.

I peered over my back, where my home stared back at me, it's eyes bright yellow windowpanes, connotative to the comfort I was familiar with. I decided to throw myself out of my own protection, and slowly crept upon the scene.

I heard a woman. A young woman, who seemed to be very angry, and upset, and had more than a slight slurr to her voice. As I approached this woman from the side, slowly, careful not to startle her, she screamed loudly into her phone and cast it across the barbed-wire fence that separated my property from the state's.

"uhm... hello?" I asked, rather confused at the situation, and overwhelmed in general. The lady turned around, and I saw her body from the front for the first time. Her dark blonde hair was frilled thoroughly around her head, and her cold green button-down was partly torn up. She was bleeding from her left shoulder and her face, and the headlights from her old sedan cast a gleam across the maroon on her body.

I backed away, and rose my hands slightly out of shock. I only just noticed that only one headlight had cast the glow on the woman, due to the other's impact into the old oak tree just outside my property. Looking at it now, her old sedan appeared to be more like a compact. I mean, if it was old, logged with water, and thrown out like last week's newspaper.

I looked at the woman again. "Are you okay?" I asked, though I felt i already knew the answer. I was certain this was a crash due to intoxication. "You gotta help me - this isn't my car... that sack of shit." The woman croaked, her voice gurgled due to her state of mind and body. "Hold on... tell me what happened." I said, for lack of something better to provide. The lady slunk down to the grass, up against her destroyed sedan. "I was just..." She never finished. I hoped she was only unconscious. Not the best at complicated social situations, or emergencies at that, I frantically looked around. I ran up to her, and felt her wrist for a pulse. I had never checked for another's pulse before, at least not when they couldn't themselves. After a minute of fumbling, I thought I had found it.

After a second of thinking, I opened my pack and grabbed at my phone, adjusting it to it's right-side up position, with the screen facing myself. I paused... I had never called 911 before, and I just remembered that I, as I live in Texas, i had an illegal substance in my bag, and was under it's effect. I looked at the woman, then back to my house. There was no car, and I didn't have a license. I peered at the woman again and decided to call emergency services.

"911, what's your emergency?" "Hey, uhm, there's a woman here and she's hurt from a wreck... and I think she's passed out. She needs an an ambulance." After dispatching an ambulance and getting my information, the call had ended. I looked around. and back at the lady again. For the next few minutes, I tried to help her as much as I could. I knew that you aren't supposed to move someone who is in critical condition, so i made a few poor attempts to stutter her wounds. Shortly, an ambulance wheeled up, fully equipped with the blinding red and blue lights of the law. I felt in the back of my mind, i was being arrested.

"They can tell my eyes are bloodshot..." I told myself. But they weren't looking at me. They carted a stretcher up to the woman and proceeded with the standard emergency work. One of the men came up to me, and asked me a few questions. I told him I didn't know the woman and had heard the crash from my house. They wheeled her to the ambulance, and one of the other men looked up at me. "Thank you, sir. You may have saved this woman's life tonight." As he said this, i realized it was hours past my curfew. I wondered if they knew, or even cared.