Invincibility and Frailty

(this was submitted to Long Story Short, an ezine. the restriction was 1,000 words maximum)

I put the window down, letting the cool air roll across my cheeks, whipping my hair wildly as my black Honda CRV charged down the back-road. I turned to my right, and my best friend Dean, who was sitting in the passenger eat, smiled and laughed as I turned the radio way up. The song on was one of those "party hard, get women" rap songs. 

"Mike, we are getting wild tonight boy!" Grayse, my other best friend, said from the backseat. She leaned forward and poked her head towards the front, right across from Dean and I.

We had gotten back from a movie, and we were charged, electrified by the night, and prepared to make it as memorable as possible. It was one of those nights nothing could bring you down. Whatever is wrong, it fades away into the background and is washed out by the present feelings of perfection. On this night, we were invincible.

We arrived at the top of a hill, one of the steepest around, with the road beckoning to feel our tires screech down upon it, and lay waste to the rules of the road. I slowed the car down to a complete stop. I sat there for a few moments. Grayse and Dean were both looking at me, examining my face for some sort of sign as to what I was doing. My eyes were focused further down the road, about two tenths of a mile down, at the stop sign. The road was deserted. We were the only prowlers on this night.

"What if we just....didn't stop?" I said, and without any suggestions to the contrary, I hit the gas and the car roared forward, quickly picking up speed. Ten miles per hour, twenty miles per hour, thirty miles per hour, and by forty we were just twenty or so feet away. During this time of acceleration, Dean had been freaking out, and Grayse was goading me on.

"Go, go, let's do it!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, as I hit forty-three miles per hour. I had originally been planning to do it, but paranoia, most likely the cause of being raised well, caused my hesitation, and ultimately, my decision to slow down. I hit the brake, and the CRV jolted to an abrupt halt. We were just a few yard short of that bright red warning of impending danger. Dean began to breathe again, and Grayse's was disappointed. Although I couldn't yet see entirely on the right side of the intersection, as we hadn't fully passed the house that impeded our vision, I saw no lights pouring onto the road. I accelerated again, ignoring the stop sign.

It's like I knew it was going to happen before it did. An alarm went off in my head, and suddenly, the car was slammed, the metal twisting and shrieking as the right side of the car was pushed inwards. I don't know exactly what happened to everyone in the moments from the impact until the car finally took its last breath in the farmland on the left of the intersection, but I myself was hurled from the car, out the window and onto that same farmland.

I was out for only minutes, but when I came to, I was completely out of mind. Where was I? Who was I? What was I doing here, and why did I wake up in the middle of some crops? When I turned and saw the black CRV, now just a hunk of useless car parts, everything that had happened snapped back into my memory. I rushed to the car, and saw Dean on the other side, holding his head. He was bleeding, and there looked to be pieces of glass spliced in his forehead.

"I'm OK, I'm OK, are you alright?" Dean asked hurriedly, his voice more high-pitched than usual. Adrenaline had overtaken him, and he was worked up. I nodded to him, insinuating I was OK, and then started to the back of the car, where some residents in nearby houses had gathered. One of them said something about opening the trunk, and confusedly, I agreed to the request. I reached inside the car and hit the button to open the trunk, and then made my way to the back to see about the commotion. What I saw next was absolutely horrifying.

Grayse was sprawled in the trunk, with her body contorted in an unfathomable manner. She looked broken. Tears began streaming down my face as I called out to her wildly, continuously pleading with God. She wasn't moving, but she was grunting, moaning violently, obviously in a tremendous amount of pain. Ambulances came rushing in, first reaching the other car involved, where the man and woman from the car were sitting on a ledge in someone's yard. Cops and paramedics approached us soon after, hurrying me and Dean away from the scene, as some stayed behind to look after Grayse. I passed out soon after.

The night I spent in that hospital was one of the worst nights of my life. My parents arrived sometime in the night, and they told me both Dean and Grayse were also there, and while Dean was just dealing with some cuts and bruises, Grayse had dislocated her hip, was in pain, and would need surgery. I felt dreadful, and cried the entire way through my explanation of what happened. My parents said we could talk about all of that later, right now my overall wellness was most important. I knew I would never forgive myself, but I also knew if I learned nothing from this incident, then it was a wasted experience. It is often when we feel most invincible, that we are actually at our most frail moments.

Oh, and always wear your seat-belt. Don't forget to stop at stop signs as well.