Trading Places - by Stephanie White

Trading Places

Author’s Note: This is essentially a true story. Several months ago, a Columbus, Ohio police officer was killed while directing traffic by a hit-and-run driver. There will be a rather unexpected twist to this story. According to news reports, this twist is allegedly true.

Ponch and Jon were sitting on their motorcycles on the side of the road. It was a beautiful sunny day and the two Highway Patrol officers were enjoying the sun...and the lack of speeders in the rush-hour traffic.

“I’m telling you partner,” Ponch said, flashing his impossibly white teeth. “This is the sort of day where you’re just glad to be alive.”

Jon chuckled at his partner’s good mood. But then, he reflected, Ponch is almost never in a bad mood. “What’s the occasion? You seem awfully chipper this morning.”

“Why does there need to be an occasion? I mean, it’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and Mary Jo Talley agreed to have dinner with me tonight!”

“Mary Jo Talley?” Jon thought for a moment. “Oh, isn’t she that blonde at that Mexican restaurant? You’ve been chasing her awhile, what’d you do to finally get her to change her mind?”

“She just couldn’t say no to the ol’ Poncherello charm!”

“In other words, you followed her around like a puppy until she said ‘yes’ just to get you to stop asking.”

Ponch put on his best hurt-little-boy face. “Jon! I’m hurt! Do you think I have so little restraint as to not take a girl’s word when she says ‘no’?”

“When it comes to sex, no. When it comes to getting dates, yes.”

“Honestly, Jon!” Ponch tried to look cross at his partner, but he was in too good a mood. Very soon, the toothy grin came out again.

Jon returned the grin with one of his own and turned his attention back to traffic. That’s when he saw her.

“Hey Ponch, check her out.”

Ponch followed his partner’s line of sight until he saw the attractive redhead in an MG midget. He flashed her a grin, which she returned wholeheartedly.

“Hey, what about Mary Jo?” Jon said as he nudged Ponch in the ribs.

“Who?” Ponch was captivated.

Unfortunately, so was she. She didn’t notice that traffic ahead of her had stopped until the hood of her car wedged itself underneath a rather large pick-up truck ahead of her. Both motor officers winced at the sound of twisting metal as the two vehicles became one. Then they moved out into traffic to render aid as Jon called for help.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” The man in the pickup jumped out and ran to the driver’s side of the MG.

“I am doing my best to get out of my car,” she snapped, embarrassed at her lack of attention and the results. “Something I don’t seem able to do at the moment.”

Ponch and Jon ran over and immediately began tugging on the driver’s side door. It wasn’t moving.

“Are you hurt?” Jon asked the woman.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “Just stuck.”

“Hey partner,” Ponch said affably. “Why don’t you go direct traffic while I try to help this little lady out of her car.”

“I got a crowbar in the back of my truck,” the other driver offered. “I wouldn’t mind contributing to ripping this car to shreds...even if it IS to help her.”

The woman gave him a withering look. “Thank you...SO much.”

“Hey Ponch, it’s your turn to do traffic,” Jon said as he tried to get his partner’s attention off the attractive girl. “Besides, what would Mary Jo say?”

Ponch shot his partner a glare. “She’ll probably stand me up anyway. Come on, Jon! I’ll buy you lunch...”

“And do my reports for the next week?” Jon said with a grin.

“Two days,” Ponch countered.

“Three.”

“Deal.”

Jon chuckled and carefully moved into drivers’ lines of sight to direct them around the accident until they could clear it up.

Ponch returned his attention to the accident and took the crowbar from the man who was, at that moment, clumsily trying to get the door open.

*******************************

Mike Thomas was tired. He had been up all night cramming for his exams at UCLA and he was starting to wonder if he’d be able to stay awake long enough to finish the drive to school.

The answer was no.

*******************************

Jon was directing traffic when he noticed the car veer towards him at 55 mph. He just had time enough to notice that the driver seemed to be asleep at the wheel before the car hit him.

******************************

“Oh dear GOD!” the redhead in the MG screamed as she saw what was going to happen to the attractive blond officer.

Ponch swung around just in time to see his partner go airborne.

“JON!!!!” Ponch screamed as his partner went flying over the car to land hard on the ground, where he rolled a few times before being tossed off the bumper of another car that was unable to avoid hitting him.

The car that hit Jon as he went rolling into traffic stopped and the driver got out in hysterics.

“I couldn’t stop! He came from out of nowhere! Oh God! What have I done?” She was babbling uncontrollably.

*****************************

Mike Thomas snapped to attention as he heard something hit his car and felt the jolt. ‘Hope that doesn’t leave too big a dent,’ he thought to himself. ‘Don’t know how I’d explain to Terry how his car got trashed - especially since he doesn’t know I borrowed it!’

Then, without bothering to see what he hit, he swerved back into his lane and continued driving towards UCLA.

*****************************

Just as Ponch was vacillating between his radio and his partner, Grossman rode up on his bike. Ponch took that as a sign and bolted for his partner yelling at Grossman at the top of his voice.

“GROSSIE! JON’S DOWN! CALL FOR AN AMBULANCE! NOW!”

Grossie’s eyes widened as he saw the motionless form in the middle of the road and reached for his radio.

***************************

Ponch came skidding up to his partner’s limp form and dropped to his knees. Jon was lying on his side and Ponch hesitated to move him...until he noticed Jon didn’t appear to be breathing. He quickly took off his gloves and felt for a pulse. There was none.

Gingerly, he rolled Jon onto his back and removed his helmet. Then he tilted his partner’s head back, opened his mouth, pinched his nose and blew four short breath’s into Jon’s mouth before beginning CPR.

“1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15,” he counted compressions out loud as he worked. “Come on partner,” he said as he moved to blow into Jon’s mouth. “Don’t do this to me!”

“Ambulance is on the way,” Grossie came running up. “How’s...” He trailed off as he saw Ponch frantically pounding on his partner’s chest.

“He’s dead, Grossie! That’s how he is! That bastard killed my partner!” Ponch looked up briefly with tears streaming down his face.

“You’re not giving up on him yet!” Grossie ran forward and knelt down beside Ponch. “Come on, we’ve got to keep this up until the medics get here. I’ll take half.”

Ponch nodded as he moved down to blow into Jon’s mouth. Grossie took over the compressions, counting out 5 before Ponch took a breath for his partner.

Just then, the men’s sergeant, Joe Getraer pulled up on his motor. When he saw the two men doing CPR on the third, he couldn’t tell who the victim was immediately; until he saw the blond baton. He suddenly got a sinking feeling as he saw Ponch and Grossie not having any luck reviving the fallen officer. He went to assist before he realized that no one was directing traffic and that cars were backing up as the rubber-neckers drove slowly by to watch the desperate first-aid efforts.

Joe forced himself to concentrate on traffic, but it was an uphill battle. He wanted to run over and help his men.

“What the hell happened?” He yelled over his shoulder.

“This guy came out of nowhere and hit him!” the redhead yelled from where she was still trapped in her car. “He just veered straight into him and then kept going like nothing happened!”

“Yeah,” the guy from the pickup truck yelled over his shoulder as he continued to work on the woman’s car door. “Knocked ‘im straight into the path of another car.”

“And I hit him!” the woman was getting hysterical again. “I couldn’t stop! He just came from out of nowhere! I’ve killed him! What have I done? I killed him.”

“Lady,” the man with the crowbar turned to her. “You didn’t hit him that hard. Just winged him. The other guy did all the damage. I saw it.”

“Did you get the license number of that other car?” Getraer briefly turned his attention away from traffic.

“I got the first few letters. He was movin’ too fast for me to get the whole thing.”

Just then, much to everyone’s relief, the paramedics arrived and relieved Ponch and Grossie of their task. Ponch moved to stand up to move out of the way, but he found his legs wouldn’t cooperate. The best he could do was scoot out of the way and watch the battle for his partner’s life take a new, hopefully more effective direction.

Within just a few minutes, it became clear that Jon wasn’t going to improve lying on the pavement like he was at that moment. The paramedics decided to ‘wrap and run’. Grossie had his hands full pulling Ponch out of their path.

************************************

Less than an hour later, the emergency room’s waiting area was filled with CHP officers. Grossman, Bariksa and Bonnie were pacing, passing each other with such precision, one would swear they had rehearsed it. Ponch was sitting on a chair with Jon’s helmet in his lap. The impact of the crash had cracked it all the way through. Every time Ponch looked at it, he realized it could have been his partner’s head and at that thought, would start shaking again.

“Hey, Jon’s strong,” Getraer’s voice cut through his reverie. “He’s gonna be okay.”

“Sarge, he was dead! His heart had stopped! How okay could he be?”

“I overheard the paramedics as they brought him in. They had gotten his heart started again. Frank, you have to keep a positive outlook. You can’t give up on him like this. He wouldn’t give up on you.”

“Do you know what it’s like to have to do CPR on your best friend?”

“No, Frank. I don’t and quite frankly, I don’t think I want to know. But I think I understand where you’re coming from and you’re gonna drive yourself crazy like this.”

“It’s just hard, you know?” Ponch looked up at his sergeant with frightened eyes. “He’s the best friend I got and if I lose him...”

“Frank, just keep saying to yourself ‘Jon needs me to be strong for him’. Because he does. Okay?”

Ponch gave him a pale imitation of a smile and sat back in the chair.

********************************

“Ponch, wake up,” Grossie’s voice came from out of nowhere.

Ponch started and sat up. He didn’t even remember falling asleep. “What’s goin’ on? Is it Jon? Is he okay?”

Grossie shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but the doctor just came in. We thought you might want to hear what he had to say.”

“I’ll say!” Ponch leapt out of his chair.

Ponch took one look at the doctor’s face and knew.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?”

The doctor dropped his eyes to the floor before looking up into the eyes of one very scared motor officer.

“I’m so sorry. There was nothing we could do. The damage was just too much.”

Ponch felt a knife go through his heart. His legs gave out from under him and he fell back, missing the chair by a few inches and ending up on the floor with Jon’s helmet still in his hands.

“No,” he whispered quietly. He clutched the helmet to his chest, put his head down and sobbed.

***********************************

The examining room was eerily quiet as Ponch entered. He stared for a long time at the sheet-covered body before moving forward. He gently pulled the sheet down from the head and looked at the peaceful face of his partner and best friend.

“They said I could come in and say goodbye,” Ponch struggled to keep his voice steady, as though he were afraid that Jon would worry about him. “But how do you do that? I mean, how can I say goodbye to you, Jon? You were my best friend. The only one who always believed in me. How can I hit the streets again without you by my side?”

Jon had no answers for his grieving friend.

Ponch took a deep steadying breath. He could feel himself starting to cry again. He closed his eyes for a moment and then looked down at the still figure on the bed. He leaned down and gently kissed Jon’s forehead before whispering, “Bye Partner.”

He replaced the sheet and slowly walked out of the room.

**********************************

Ponch looked out at the sea of faces in the crowded funeral home. He recognized friends, fellow officers, and some family (including his own mother).

He took a deep breath and began speaking.

“We’re here today to say good-bye to Jon Baker; one of the best Highway Patrol Officers ever to ride a motor. I...I had a speech prepared, but it doesn’t seem like enough. I mean, it’s all flowery nice things that people say at funerals about people they hardly know.” he chuckled mirthlessly as he looked at his notecards. “The priest’s speech is probably really close to this. Jon Baker was my best friend. I know everyone who knew him has a memory of Jon that they’d like to hang on to. I’ve got about a hundred thousand. He was a good man and a great friend and I know I’ll probably never find another one like him again. The day of the accident, I was supposed to be the one directing traffic. I convinced him to trade places with me and, like the friend he was, he did. It should be me in that box today. It should’ve been me...”

Ponch looked out at the crowded funeral home and suddenly he couldn’t stand it anymore. “I’m sorry. I can’t...he’s...”

Getraer was out of his seat and standing with an arm around the distraught man within seconds. “It’s okay, Frank. Come on, let’s go sit down.”

Ponch nodded glumly and allowed himself to be guided to a seat.

******************************

“Ponch, wake up,” Grossie’s voice came from out of nowhere.

Ponch started and sat up. He didn’t even remember falling asleep. “What’s goin’ on? Is it Jon? Is he okay?”

Grossie shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but the doctor just came in. We thought you might want to hear what he had to say.”

"I'll say!" Ponch leapt out of his chair.

Suddenly, a dreadful feeling of deja vu swept over Ponch. He looked over at the doctor and said, “He’s dead, isn’t he?”

The doctor dropped his eyes to the floor before looking up into the eyes of one very scared motor officer. “No, he’s not dead. We managed to get him almost stabilized. That’s still not a good thing. He’s in serious condition and quite frankly will be lucky to survive the night.”

Ponch wasn’t listening by that time. All he heard was ‘he’s not dead’ and that was enough for the moment. His legs gave out from under him and he fell back, missing the chair by a few inches and ending up on the floor with Jon’s helmet still in his hands. He looked up and whispered quietly, “Thank you.”

*******************************

Mike Thomas walked into the campus coffee shop and sat down. He turned and saw a group of people huddled around a small radio. He got up and walked over.

“What’s going on?” he asked the group.

A girl looked up, “Some nut job ran over a Chippy who was directing traffic on the freeway.”

Mike didn’t make the connection. “Wow, they know who it was?”

“Nah,” another guy piped up with a dirty look on his face. “The creep just kept driving like nothin’ happened. I mean, I hate cops as much as the next guy, but he didn’t deserve that.”

“When did it happen?”

The girl looked at her watch. “Probably about 4 hours ago or so...every cop in the state is on the lookout for a navy blue compact...”

“Navy blue compact?” Mike asked. He was starting to get a very bad feeling about this.

“Yeah, they said the guy was going too fast for anyone to get a make or model. One guy DID manage to get a few letters off the license plate. They’re looking for anyone who might’ve witnessed the accident.”

“Uh...” Mike suddenly knew what it was he had hit on his way to class. “Is he gonna be okay?”

The girl shrugged. “They said he was in serious condition. In hospital talk, that usually means he’s gonna die.”

“Oh God,” Mike whispered. “What have I done?”

“Hey, Buddy,” one of the other guys around the radio said as he looked at Mike’s suddenly-ashen face. “You okay?”

“Uh...” Mike suddenly had to get out of there. “Yeah. I...I just need some air. See you guys later!”

He bolted for his car and when he found it, immediately began inspecting the front fender where he knew the (at the time) unidentified object had impacted. He felt his stomach fall to his feet and his heart leap to his throat as he found the small shred of light brown fabric caught in the hood of the car.

***********************************

The small room was eerily still as Ponch entered. The only sound in the room was the quiet, steady beeping of the heart monitor and the gentle hiss of the respirator. The fair-haired figure on the bed was dwarfed by all the equipment surrounding him.

“Hey partner,” Ponch said softly. “You know you scared the hell outta me out there today. I think I aged about 20 years today.”

Jon was unrepentant.

“Of course, Mary Jo said she liked her men more mature,” Ponch attempted to lighten the mood, not wanting his partner to get upset.

“That redhead in the car is doin’ fine. She broke her ankle, so she won’t be dancing anytime soon. And before you say it, I’m not going to ask her out. Apparently, the guy she hit beat me to it.” Ponch chuckled. “Can you believe that? She totals the back end of his car and he still wants to go out with her. Of course, she’s awful cute. I probably would too even if she totaled my ca...well, maybe not if she totaled my car.”

If Jon had been awake, he might have laughed. As it was, he remained stubbornly silent.

“That other lady that hit you after that creep drove off has been really worried. She was convinced she killed you. As many times as anyone tells her it wasn’t her fault, she won’t listen. Don’t suppose you’d consider waking up and telling her not to blame herself, huh?”

Jon decided to hold off on making that decision.

“Hey, you know, you got a really cute nurse lookin’ after you. If you want a crack at her, you’ll have to wake up before I decide to ask her out.”

Ponch watched his partner for a few minutes; allowing himself to be reassured by the gentle rise and fall of Jon’s chest.

“You know, I fell asleep in the waiting room and I dreamed that you were dead. Jon...man...that was a nightmare I don’t want to live for real. You hear me? You gotta wake up! I don’t think I could go through that again. I mean, yeah, it was just a dream. But it was so damned real! Don’t leave me like that, huh Partner?”

Jon made no promises.

************************************

Mike Thomas was sitting in the dark when his roommate Terry Henderson got home.

“Hey Mike,” Terry called good-naturedly. “Are we in the dark for a reason? You forget to send the check to the electric company or something?”

“I like the dark. I had a headache.” Mike answered quietly.

“Oh, sorry,” Terry said, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Hey, you take my car to be washed today?”

“Uh...yeah. I...uh...borrowed it to take to class, so I figured I’d get it washed for ya.”

Mike didn’t mention that he had driven the car through no less than 6 car washes on the way home. The line from MacBeth running through his mind the entire time: ‘Out, out, damned spot!’ It didn’t work for Lady MacBeth and it hadn’t worked for Mike Thomas. He still felt sure that there was blood on the hood.

***********************************

Ponch looked up from where he was filling out the incident report.

“Hey Bonnie, any luck tracking that driver?”

Bonnie sighed as she sat down. “Nope. The numbers we got off the license narrow it down to about 5,500 blue compact cars in the greater Los Angeles area.”

“You’re kidding!” Ponch groaned.

Bonnie shook her blonde hair. “I wish I was. That’s narrowed down from 83,203 blue compacts.”

Ponch gave a rueful sigh. “I guess when you put it that way, nice job.”

“Yeah,” Bonnie said with a decided lack of enthusiasm.

“Yeah.”

Just then, Molly Carron walked in. Ponch looked up and gave her as big a smile as he was capable at the moment (which wasn’t very big if you want to get technical about it.).

“Hey Molly, how’s life on the switchboard?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to Getraer about. He in his office?”

“I think he’s at the hospital checking on Jon,” Bonnie answered. “Why?”

“I just got the weirdest call,” the petite brunette said as she plopped into a chair next to Ponch. “It sounded like a kid...well, teenager...he just kept saying ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I didn’t see him’.”

Ponch sat up at this. “You think it was the guy who hit Jon?”

Molly shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s why I wanted to talk to Getraer.”

“It sounded like a kid?” Bonnie asked.

“Yeah, I guess that’d be about the way I’d put it. It was kinda hard to tell though. He was absolutely sobbing. If it was the guy who hit Jon, it sounded like he felt awfully guilty about it.”

“He should feel guilty about it,” Ponch said darkly. “If I ever get my hands on him, he’ll wish he ONLY felt guilty.”

“Ponch, if it WAS a kid, he probably got scared,” Bonnie said. “You can’t blame the kid for panicking.”

“Yes I can,” Ponch said angrily.

*********************************

Ponch was walking down the hospital corridor when he noticed an awful lot of medical personnel and equipment rapidly entering his partner’s room. A cold hand gripped his heart as he ran forward. He stopped just outside the door and watched, petrified as his partner violently convulsed on the bed.

Ponch stopped a nurse as she was leaving the room. “What happened?”

“What’s it look like?” She said impatiently. “I’ve got work to do if you want them to save your friend.”

Ponch was left standing, gaping like a gagging goldfish as he watched his best friend shudder, muscles drawn so tightly it was a wonder his bones didn’t snap. The heart monitor was beeping at an alarming rate and every breath Jon took made him sound like an asthmatic who had just run a marathon.

The nurse that had run out of the room now returned with a loaded syringe. The doctor grabbed it and injected the contents into Jon’s IV line. Gradually, the spasms eased and Jon’s body relaxed, his breathing and heart rate slowly returning to normal.

Gradually, the medical personnel trickled out of the room. Ponch grabbed a doctor on his way out.

“What the hell happened?”

The doctor shrugged. “Convulsion. Not really sure why it happens, but it sometimes does happen in comatose patients.”

“He’s gonna be okay though, right?”

The doctor sighed. “Long as he doesn’t have any more episodes like that, he’s got a shot.”

As the doctor moved on, Ponch started to enter Jon’s room, only to realize he was shaking almost too badly to walk. He leaned against the wall just outside the door and stood, breathing deeply and silently thanking God and whatever other deity he could think of for his partner’s life.

“Ponch? Is something wrong? Is it Jon? What happened” Grossie’s voice broke through his reverie.

“Grossie? No, he’s okay for now. He had a convulsion just as I got here. It kinda scared me. I’m just standing here trying to avoid a heart attack before I go in.”

“Just KINDA scared you?”

“Okay,” Ponch gave him a rueful grin. “Scared the hell out of me. Better?”

“Not really. But it’s probably more accurate than ‘kinda’.”

Ponch gave his friend a more honest smile as he clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go say hi.”