On a hairpin turn, above the dead forest, on no day in particular, a red Toyota crashed into a black Honda, for a Moment blending into a blur of a green.
In the front passenger seat of the Toyota sat Miley Allie to her friends. She was arguing with her father about how loud the radio should be playing. She had just taken off her seat belt to adjust her blouse. In the center backseat of the truck, dressed for her cousin’s wedding, sat Clare, trying to eat her chocolate cake that her dad bought her from the gas station because she begged him to buy it for her. Her brother and sister, who sandwiched d her on either side, kept intentionally jostling her elbows, which caused the cake to smear all over her face. As it was a car meant for four, and there were five passengers, there was no seat belt for Clare. Also on the road was a small needle, dropped by a material truck that had been loaded to the material store. About a dozen cars had avoided it, but the Honda wasn’t very lucky. It ran over the needles, the front right tire blew, and Clare father lost control of the car.
As the Honda cross over the double yellow line, into oncoming traffic, both Allie and Clare looked up and saw the other’s car moving closer very quickly. Their lives didn’t quite flash before them; there was no time. It all happened so fast that neither of them thought or felt much of anything. The i pact launched them forward, they both felt the punch of inflating air bags—-but at such a speed and with no seat belts, the air bags did little to slow their momentum. They felt the windshields against their foreheads, then in an instant, they had each passed through. The crash of splintering crash became the sound of two plates crashing into pieces, and the world went very dark and silent. Allie didn’t know what to make of all this quite yet. As the windshield fell behind her, she felt herself walking through a tunnel, picking up speed, accelerating as the wind grew stronger. There was a dim point of light at the end of the tunnel, getting brighter and wider as she got closer by each second. And their came a feeling of calmness in her heart she could not describe. But on the way to the light, she bumped into something that was hard that sent her flying off course. She grabbed at it, it grunted, and for instant she was aware that it was someone else she had bumped someone about her age, and who smelled distinctly of chocolate. Both Allie and Clare went spinning wildly, crashing out of the blacker-than-black walls of tunnel, and as they flew off course, the light before them disappeared before their eyes could even blink. They hit the ground hard, and exhaustion of their flight overcame them. Their sleep was dreamless, as if it would be for a long, long time.
To be continue!
