They were driving too fast. The sun had set an hour ago the sky still colored azure fading to charcoal. Jupiter was high in the sky. An electrical engineer and a patent holder she followed the stars: she loved them she could never remember a time when they both felt more alive ; when everything seemed so 'in it’s proper place'. The top was down she looked at her husband in the left seat. Focused a slanted grin and looking damn good in his aviators. He touched her thigh and accelerated.
The kid was drunk double the legal limit. He had just lit a smoke when his back window turned blue and red. ‘Fuck’ If I get a ticket my ol man will skin me alive.’
He tried to think ¼ mile to the highway and ½ mile to driveway. ‘Fuck it’ He gunned it.
Inside patrol car 41 Officer Mac Leary muttered ‘ Don’t run asshole.’
She turned back in the passenger seat and saw their sleeping daughter. Legally she should have been in a booster but the small car had no back seat and they would soon have to trade in the love mobile. No hurry she was still small and there was time for one more run. She tucked the blanket under her sleeping girl’s chin amazed the child could sleep through the roar and the wind pulling strands of hair almost straight up. 'Life was so perfect' she thought before thinking again 'count your blessing but don’t count on them'.
The big block police dodge was just slipping into its comfort zone as the needle stretched to 90. The kid who was, way ahead, looked in the rear view. 'FAST’ he thought trying to coax a little more speed from the aging truck. ‘Come on girl come on.’ He spoke lovingly listening to rusted muffler parts banging the under carriage. He rolled the window down when a puff of air blew the ash from his smoke directly into his right eye.
They could not see on coming traffic as they ascended a gentle rise. She leaned back and saw the first stars coming out. Calling their names. Head back wind blown she flew through outer space. Just a few feet away her husband was in a different world.
The kid had his eyes closed for a good 20 seconds rubbing the right one when he looked up he saw just open road ahead but behind him flashing lights were filling more of the view. Close enough to the exit he knew so well he switched the lights off laughing to himself. The left front tire began to make a bad noise.
They were just feeling that weightlessness cresting the hill. When people speak of ‘They never saw it coming.’ They never did. The car came to pieces. The child bounced once hard tossed into the air still snuggled in her blanket then skipping harder across a muddy patch of grass and upside down into a thick bush at the side of the road. She woke 30 minutes later alone in the dark held in place by some unseen force she was not pleased, and began to scream.
Officer Mac Leary saw the bright flash but he saw the impact first’ TC TC’ traffic collision (They love acronyms for some reason) he yelled into the mike. He knew even before he rolled on scene this was a fatal. The smaller car was half a car and on fire. The kid would live though his back and legs would remind him of this night for the rest of his life. When he came too and for years after the full weight of 2 lives would show themselves, depression and guilt would hang on him. He would however survive and thrive have 3 kids of his own and love them in a way few fathers can. He lived every second as a gift because he knew just how fast things can change.
It was not until the fire was out that Officer Mac Leary heard something. He lighted the area sweeping as he had been taught, shouting out for the others to ‘ quiet I hear something.’ Then they all heard the screams and quickly found the source. She was alive ‘probably won’t remember a thing.’ one said as they cut the branches and stickers away ‘probably best for her’ he thought but did not say. Her face was bloody from a deep cut on her scalp but they knew for the most part scalp wounds bleed like hell but are rarely fatal.
In the ambulance they checked her eyes and pulse. No sign of internal injuries. She woke briefly tried to speak but fog over took her. Hours later there was a sort of impromptu conference. The admitting doctor wanted to know about the patient in 4. She came in with the TC she is stable laceration to the back of her head bruises and cuts mild concussion but aside from that she is ok to go anytime. Well where are her RA’s responsible adults (more anagrams) the doctor asked. The nurse did not frown but neither did she have her usual smile when she said they were both down stairs she pointed to room 4. The doctor marked his sheet saying ‘I’ll call social.’
About the 3rd thing out of the girls mouth was Mommy? The nurse sat on her bed and took her small hand laying it all out for her with all the professionalism she could muster. The girl cried but not a lot. At her age a sense that life was a one and only thing that it was precious and delicate did not register in fact she half believed in the morning like cartoon parents they would be alive. That and being tossed 50 yards and landing in a bush takes its price on even a young body. It would take time to be real for her.
It took social services 2 days to arrive by which time no living relative had been found so she would be put in a home temporally (and all that it implies) she had become a staff favorite. As detached as the staff preformed they looked in on her often and forward to doing so and even helping her though her tiny crying jags. Everyone had been nice to her not like mommy or daddy but nice. Everything will be ok they told her. She thought about her mom and her dad she thought of flying though the darkness as she walked from the hospital.
Copyright © 2011 J. V. Wilder. All right reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment