Over
the Edge
Speeding, rushing, knowing I was
running late. It became that moment I had
quickly realized what I saw wasn’t a dream. It all seemed so
blurry and everything
happened so quickly; too quickly. In front of my jerky car
sped another straight
towards me unable to stop. The driver had panicked looks
smeared across his
ghostly pale face as they bumped up the road. It became
obvious one of us had to go.
The child contently seated in the car seat seemed oblivious
to everything and
everyone except his new transforming toy he continued to
tinker with. He didn’t
know what was happening, he couldn’t know, and I didn’t want
him to know. I
hardly knew. Too many thoughts had just raced through my
head. It seemed that for
a second my hands became paralyzed and I was unable to steer
the car. In front of
me I had just realized that behind the wheel of the dirt
covered minivan were faces
and expressions that couldn’t be put into words. So it just
hit me that the next choice
I was forced to make was life or death.
All those thoughts soared through
my mind and only one second crawled by.
I wasn’t able to give my son any calm notice; there wasn’t
time. Not even to turn
around. But I could scream. No, I shouldn’t. It would scare
him. Unwillingly, I
shrieked out his name and his head shot up throwing back his
long blonde mane.
Immediately, another second flew by. The thought of where we
were speeding
became drowned within all the new feelings that flashed back
and forth. It became
clear that a big squished-in family were about to drive themselves
over a cliff, but
maybe they didn’t have to. Inside my car sat my son, only
six years old, and me. I had
a chance to save a family, but at the same time I would have
to sacrifice two very
valuable things, my life, and the life I created. He was too
young. So innocent. Has
this type of thing happened on TV before? Sure. Like my
favorite show. Wait, was
this was real life? I had to make my mind up fast. But I
suddenly knew what I had to
do. I knew in just a couple more seconds I would be where I
wouldn’t want to leave,
a place I could live happily with my child, and a place I
would meet my family once
again. It wasn’t over.
It was the fastest decision I had
ever made. With my hands still feeling paralyzed,
I quickly jerked the steering wheel off to the side and
couldn’t let go. My wet hands
felt glued to the leather. Turning off the side of the cliff,
our car blocked out and
stopped the minivan of the poor terrorized family, but it
didn’t stop us. I felt the
color in my face flush as we dropped. It was only three seconds
ago that I was on my
way and running late to the funeral. The feeling came as
soon as the front wheels left
the dirt road. It was far different from any roller coaster
ride. Yet it was similar. I
didn’t have time to check on my son. No time to see is face
again. I didn’t know if I
would want to. I could just imagine the pain in his intense
blue eyes. And no time to
tell him I loved him. Well, at least not now.
My heart seemed to have stopped
for a minute as a sharp shriek from the back
pierced my ears and my heart. In midair the thought came
that my life was just
beginning. The shrubs at the bottom seemed so far away, but
we were getting closer.
Maybe we would become heroes. Maybe no one would ever find
out. Maybe we
would be forgotten and no one would know what happened to
us. I knew we didn’t
have much time. The blackness of the surrounding leather
slowly crept its way into
my vision. That became all I saw. There were only few
seconds left to live, but that
didn’t matter. We were leaving the life of death and we were
on our way to a place
omiGOSH!! That is awesome!!!
ReplyDelete--Rachel M.