Collide

Collide

Wrong Love?

         He slammed the door shut behind him as he stormed out to his car. He and Amy got in another fight. This one because he was home late and hadn’t called. Amy was not a very trustful person but when it came to her boyfriend and the possibility he could be cheating, it was more potent than ever. John had explained that the job required an extra hour of work that night. He was working on a large garage for a client and his boss required him and his team to have it finished by tonight. Over the past several weeks when his story remained the same for this project night after night, Amy began to think he was at the bar drinking, hitting on some woman with a bigger chest than hers. Although, when he came home he never smelled of alcohol. His boss had set the project down in steps and each step took a certain amount of time and had its limits. When his team ran slow they finished up on the last day no matter how long it took.
         Amy screamed at him before he even got both feet inside the door. Tears already flowing freely from her eyes for ten minutes since that country song came on. He never liked country music much but he tolerated it for her. He figured she would scream for a while then he’d kiss her and calm her down then they’d eat supper and head off to bed.
         He moved across the kitchen trying to explain the situation to her, but she refused to listen to the same one again. He moved close trying to hold her and calm her down. She screamed in response and shouted for him to get out! He reluctantly said okay and mumbled some blasphemy under his breath at her as he slammed the door. He walked down the steps and opened the door to his cavalier, but before he got in he turned and looked at the house almost giving it one last glance and saying his goodbyes. He knew Amy only needed twenty minutes to calm down. He would go for a little drive to cool his temper a little and then give her a call. He sat in his car and cranked the ignition. His heavy metal playing on the CD player fueled his anger. He sped out of the drive way and hit the open road. Even though it was only about eight, it was warm for a January night. There were oddly few cars on the road.
         He drove and turned down his music to call Amy. It had been about fifteen minutes since he left and, hoped she cooled down enough to make peace. He Picked up his phone and dialed. It rang three times before she answered, sobbing. She began to argue when he began to apologize. The phone conversation ended abruptly when a car heading the opposite direction moved into his path. The road was wet with dew and he attempted to turn the wheels but his efforts were useless. He muttered “I love you” before the cars collided.

Old Love?

         She slammed the door behind her as she headed out to her car. Becky was in her forty’s with three kids and a husband who had just yelled at her. She took care of the kids all the time. Her husband Rick worked all the time. Rick came home expecting dinner on the table and his clothes washed and pressed for the next day. He was in no way abusive towards his wife. In fact, he loved her. He just had a stressful job managing a large computer business and brought some stress home with him. She had been out of work since their first son was born, five years before.
         They now had two boys and one girl. Rick came home and did his usual except the boys had played outside since it was unusually warm for a January day. They had gotten muddy and she had to give them each a bath before they tracked it all over the house and before she started dinner.
         He yelled at her harshly and directly in front of their kids. She responded by moving into the other room and speaking in a lower tone than he did. He continued to follow her from room to room while drilling her with questions about why dinner wasn’t ready, why the boys were dirty, why they played outside in the mud, etc. She continued to answer with her steady calm voice as she had done the past several years of being married to Rick.
         He yelled her one final question asking if she was tired of this. She blew up then. She screamed her head off at him, saying things such as I am tired of you yelling at me all the time, and so forth. She ended her screaming rage with a final goodbye statement and a slamming door. She walked off the porch and out into the warm January air. She looked up at the stars and thought she was finally free. She opened her Camry door and stopped for a moment and looked back to the house. She saw Rick holding their youngest son, Thomas, trying to calm him down. He looked sad and realized that this may very well be goodbye. He mouthed I love you to her as she got into her car and shut the door. She backed down the driveway and headed out for the open road.
         The road wasn’t busy at all. Maybe two cars had passed her the whole twenty minutes she had been driving. Tears began to swell up in her eyes as she moved down the road at five miles over the posted limit. She thought about how much wrong she had done tonight. She was ready to turn around, to head back to her loving husband. She told herself that she would turn back in five minutes. It never occurred to her that five minutes would be too late. Thirty seconds later she saw a teen on the right side of the road. The headlights of the Camry reflected off the metal on the teen’s chains freely falling from her pants. The girl turned and glanced at Becky then had faced down the road looking at the car heading in the opposite direction. Becky kept moving not paying attention to the girl. She reacted as fast as she could turning the steering wheel left dodging the girl. The oncoming car screeched as they pushed their brakes. Becky muttered softly “I am sorry.”

Young Love?

         Courtney was walking out on her mother. She was fifteen and angry with her mother’s response to her honesty. Courtney’s parents had always tried to raise their only child right. They taught her the morals they had grown up believing. They taught her not to try drugs or alcohol. They had even taught her to practice abstinence. That was why Courtney was walking out. Courtney had recently met a boy. His name was Dillon. Dillon had only known Courtney for about four months and proceeded to take things too far. Courtney had told her mother that she had had sex with him. She was enraged at this and told her to get rid of this boy. She responded saying that she was in love with him.
         The few minutes while her mother was retaliating saying that she was too young to know what love was, Courtney was trying to gather her emotions into something she could use to her advantage. Her mother was probably right however, Courtney did not want to admit anything to her parents. She had even reached a point where she refused to tell them that she loved them.
         Her mother stopped and just stared at her daughter. Courtney turned and stormed upstairs and grabbed her backpack. She packed undergarments, toothbrush, a pair of black pants and a black shirt that mimicked the ones she was wearing. She wore the black to upset her mother and she knew the chains hanging from the loops of her pants really pissed her off. They jingled as she barreled down the stairs and out the front door slamming it behind her. Her mother called to her but she did not hear it.
         Courtney moved to the main road and walked north. Her thoughts lingered thinking about what just happened and what her mother had just said. She steadily moved on not desiring to look back. She thought about what her mother said about being too young to love. She thought that her mother just didn’t understand. She thought that her mother no longer loved her. She felt that nobody really loved her. She felt alone on this open damp road. The breeze blew a little carrying the rumble of a car moving up the road behind her.
         She turned and saw a midsized car moving quickly towards her. She turned and continued to walk on. There was another car heading the opposite direction. She suddenly stopped and dropped her bag to the gravel of the side of the road. She thought Its Not Worth It. She stepped out into the street directly in front of the oncoming car. She closed her eyes and braced herself for impact.
         The impact didn’t come. The tires screeched as the car maneuvered around her directly into the path of the oncoming cavalier. Everything then went into slow motion as she envisioned a tremendous crash. She could see the cars collapsing on one another and the glass shattering. She looked at the expressions on each of their faces. The woman expressed regret, and the man expressed sorrow. Then the image paused and she saw the crash scene from all angles outside of her own body. She realized two innocent people would be living, had she not been so stubborn or selfish. She realized what was going to happen and she waited for time to regain speed and destroy the cars and the people inside. When time regained it speed she stared in awe as the cars barely swiped each other and halted to a stop. The man got out of the car and ran over to the woman.
         The woman was all right. The man pulled the door open and helped her out of the car. They moved to Courtney and asked if she was okay. Her mistake hit her in a wave of tears and nausea, that caused her to sit on the cool wet pavement clutching her knees and shivering as tears streamed her face. The man called the police on his phone then called her mother who showed up shortly after and wrapped her arms around her daughter. Courtney said: “I am not too young to know what love is. I love you, mom."