Time Changes

He sat in the car going over the day that had passed. It had been hot and far too long but the day still seemed like a blur. There were conversations going on all around him. Rebecca his eldest sister sat in the front talking to Momma about girly stuff and it seemed too uninteresting to even keep listening.

Then there was Angie sitting next to him peacefully, too peacefully. He stuck his hand out in front of her face and waved. She yelled at him and then it wasn’t long until they were fighting poking and pinching each other in the small confinement of the back seat.

The roads were dark around them and there weren’t many cars on the small road. He and Angela were still fighting and by now Momma had started yelling at them to quit it before he pulled the car over. Rebecca went to turn around and tell us to quit it when the unthinkable happened.

Bright swerving lights was all Fred saw. The day had gone by so fast but in those few seconds, the time had stopped. At this point, two cars heading opposite directions met to create chaos.

He could see as the glass shards flew all around him and embedding themselves in his skin and glistening in the lights. The warm blood trickled down his body, arms, legs, and head. He glanced at Angela just as she glanced at him and he knew at that moment that he would never forget that image. The look of fear on her face. The fear of the truth. The fear that they could die at that moment.

Out of all the screams, there was one in particular that he had yet to hear and that was the screams of the girl sitting in front of him. Rebecca had not made a sound and yet he could still see her body in front of his. The more he noticed her movement though was the more he noticed how relaxed they were.

He could hear the screams all around him. They were coming from every corner of his mind. He could feel his body jerking around and saw the world outside the now windowless car spinning in endless circles. The smell of rubber burned his nose. The screams never-ending he could no longer keep his mind awake in the seconds that felt like hours and just like that everything went dark.