The day was going good so far, I was not entirely sure that I was even awake yet. Days like this were rare for me, where one thing bad had yet to happen by three o'clock in the afternoon. I had been soaring free so far, forgetting that I should be dreading every minute, because I never had such luck.

First of all, I had managed to get up in time for work, and was out the door and on my way. I had woken up early enough to even miss the rush hour traffic of the early morning. That was always a plus, as well as the fact with being up this early, I had time to get breakfast from the local fast food place. I would not have to rely on stale coffee and a candy bar from the vending machine. Then I had managed to get a good parking place at work.

To add to my good feeling so far for the day, I noticed that Dale was not on managerial shift today. Which meant that it would go easier for me. I knew that he never liked me, and would go out of his way to give me the worst jobs at work, like cleaning out the bathroom. For some reason, whenever it was his time as manager, I always got stuck with that job.

Then came around noon, and everyone that was scheduled to work had actually showed up, so we were overstaffed. This meant that a couple people got to go home, and I was one of them. So that meant my day had just gotten even better.

I was home by one o'clock, having had to deal with lunchtime traffic, but that was not that much of a worry. I was singing along with the radio, windows down completely to feel the wind go rushing past my face.

As I pulled into my driveway, I noted that my roommate had vacated to somewhere else, which meant I would not have to deal with him until later, if at all. Things had been rough between the two of us lately, and since I was the only one on the lease, it had been him that had been going to stay at other places. I did not have the heart to just up and kick him out, but he knew he was wearing out what little was left of his welcome quickly.

Once I got into the apartment, I flew to the bedroom to get out of my work clothes as quickly as I could, and to get into something more relaxing, like just a pair of old jeans and a tee shirt. I would dress up for the evening later. Right now, it's time to relax.

Then came the knock at the door. A knock, when nether of us were home, or rather, should not be. A knock at the door, in the middle of the afternoon; for some reason my heart leaped into my throat, and my stomach was suddenly in my shoes.

I moved to the door, quietly, just in case it was some bothersome college student who wanted to sell something, most likely a credit card that came with a "free" gift. Sure, they gave you the gift for signing up, but what they forgot to tell you was that you were selling your soul to their corporation for it, for filling out their paperwork.

As I looked through the peephole, though, I saw that it was anything but. Rather, it was my friend Trenton and he looked like he was about to explode from the way he tensed repeatedly with nervousness. Opening up the door, I was about to greet him, but he beat me to it.

"Dude, I am so glad you're here. You have to come with me, something's wrong."

Before I could even reply, he entered the main room of the apartment and grabbed my coat off the hook, throwing it at me. Blinking, and feeling some sort of nervous excitement, I was wondering what was going on. I was about to question him, but he was already back out the door, pacing nervously along the walkway.

Shrugging to myself, I slid on my boots and did not bother to tie them. Apparently he was in a hurry, and I slid on my coat, closing the door behind me, shifting home the lock. By the time I had that done, he was already flying down the stairs, and I hurried to catch up to him. By the time I got to his car, it was already started, and I swear he was ready to throw it into reverse as soon as he opened the door. Damn, I could have lost a leg. I thought about cursing him out, but the look on his face had me lapsing back into silence before I even broke it.

A second before my door closed with me in the car, he was already backing up and shifting quickly to drive, in a way I thought might just cause the old car to throw its transmission. Luckily, though I knew not what was going on yet, it did not, and we would not have to take my car to wherever it was we were going in such a hurry.

"So what's the damn rush, and what's going on? You're near to giving me a heart attack here," I finally managed to get out once I collected my mind. Trenton had been my friend since childhood, and I had never seen him in such a state. I had never seen him so agitated, as if the world were going to end. Perhaps it was, but I would not know until he told me, right now.

The words he spoke next, they shattered my illusion of having a good day, and I knew good luck always came with bad. Never could a good day be truly good, there always had to be some sort of balance.

"Julie, man, she got into a car accident." Julie, that was Trenton's girlfriend. I could see why he was so eager to pick me up and get out the door so quickly now. But, then another thought hit me. Kim, my own girlfriend, had been out shopping with Julie today. In fact, they had planned on spending the entire day together. Suddenly, this went from me simply sharing in someone else's problem to having the problem for myself.

In that instant of realization, my hands grew cold and my sight dim with the noise of the world outside the car abruptly becoming an echo, as if far away. I fought to keep a hold of reality around me and to not let the world go spinning around me at a winged pace. I didn't want to pass out, not here, now.

I wanted to be with Kim, I wanted to see her, to hold her. To feel her skin against mine as we held hands, to know she was there with me. So much had happened the last time we saw each other that I was worried now. I was worried that I'd never get to say I was sorry, that I didn't mean to yell at her, that I loved her. I didn't get the chance to, yesterday, before she stormed out of my apartment.

I didn't have the heart to ask Trenton how bad it was, what exactly had happen. I didn't even know if he knew. I didn't want to risk knowing. As much as I cared for Kim, and for Julie of course, I resisted the urge to ask. I wanted to at least have some hope that everything was okay, that everything would be okay, that I'd be able to say what I needed to say. I wanted to have that hope, as small as it might be that they were okay. I didn't want to know if they were not, if they were hurt, if she was hurt, if she was? I couldn't even bring myself to think it.

"Come on, man, can't this thing go any faster?" I muttered out, tension starting to creep into my voice. I was shaking now, sitting there in the passenger seat, my hands wringing at each other. Without a reply, Trenton had the car going faster, and faster. The only close hospital was a good forty-five minutes away from my apartment, and we had left only ten minutes ago. We were both feeling every second tick by like eternity.

As I watched out in the window of the tense silence, neither Trenton nor I feeling like holding a discussion, I watched life pass me by. Couples were walking down the street, holding hands and laughing together, happy. A mother was pushing her baby carriage along on the sidewalk without an apparent care in the world, other than watching for traffic. A group of friends, probably either out of school early or skipping for the day, wandered out of the local arcade, blinking in the sunlight as their eyes adjusted slowly from the dim interior of the building.

Each of these things I saw second by second, as if the car were barely moving along, as if I were outside of the car looking close up. Time felt like it was moving that slowly, that I could study the people on the street while Trenton was edging the car to do near sixty miles per hour.

How could life be so fickle? How could things be so different for groups of people who were so close in location? I was near to pissing myself with worry; quite sure that Trenton was the same way, while everyone else outside of the car had no problems. The looked like shiny, happy people, going about their normal lives. Why was it like there was a small universe of bad things here in this car? Why did it feel like it was centered on me?

Staring out the window, I didn't even notice the sharp turns at high speeds, the near running of red lights and stop signs. Not until it was too late. My head lifted at a booming sound of metal scraping on metal and time slowed completely. Out of the driver's side window, I saw a car had collided with us on that side, and the look of undeniable terror on Trenton's face, and I was sure that there was one to equal, if not surpass, it on my face. I watched as if inch by inch, we were pushed from the straight path in which we had been following, to a veered off course.

The car, which had been going a good speed, was pushing us off of path to the hospital. That was the only thing in my mind at the time. Not the fact that we were in an accident, not the fact that I had forgotten to put on my seatbelt. Just that Kim was so far away, and I was so close to experiencing what she must have earlier today. Then everything went black.

When I woke up, I came to on the pavement feeling cold; my head turned to the side. I saw a crowd of people gathered around, and a pool of some odd red liquid. I saw the group of what must be teenagers, I saw the mother and her baby carriage, and I saw a few of the happy couples. I wondered where I was, what had happened. I couldn't remember, and I tried to move, I tried to stand up, but I was stuck somehow.

I tried to call to them for help, and I felt something warm running over my lips, and more red stuff pooling by my head. Then I realized the people who were gathered around were leaving. Wait, no, not leaving. They, and the world around them, was fading out of my view, as if in a movie, or in a dream. Yes, that's what this must be. A simple dream, and I'll wake up any minute now, to go to work. So I just closed my eyes against the fading world, and waited to wake up.

::December 22, 2002 10:13 AM

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