Ride Of Life

Samantha Smith

Ride Of Life

         

         Justice was on her way. She didn’t know where she was going and she didn’t know how she would get there. They wouldn’t tell her. No one would tell her anything. Justice screamed and screamed, but no one could hear her. Whatever she was sitting in was moving, so it was probably a car. This wasn’t good, she knew it wasn’t.

         Justice stopped screaming because her voice gave out. Her life was coming to an end soon and there were so many things she hadn’t had the chance to do. She was in the middle of listing her goals and dreams when suddenly the car came to a stop.

         “Get out,” a deep voice commanded when the car door opened. As soon as she stepped out of the car she noticed that the street was almost completely run-down.

         There were three buildings visible. The street was long and narrow and it was the only one as far as the eye could see. All of the buildings were spaced apart at least fifteen miles. They were all so far apart that Justice could only tell what the first two buildings were.

         “Go,” the voice told her. She couldn’t figure out where the voice was coming from. Was it the sky? That’s what it sounded like. Justice felt like she was going completely insane.

         She had no clue what it had meant when it had said go, but she did what she thought the voice was telling her to do and went to the first building. This was the place she had spent all fifteen years of her life living in. Justice tugged on the silver handle of the door, which just happened to be unlocked. The house had an eerie feeling to it.

         It didn’t feel right walking in the house without announcing herself, so she yelled, “Hello?”

         There was no answer, but her mother walked around the corner a second later and called up from the bottom of the stairs, “Justice! Come down here for a second.”

         “But I’m-” Justice was cut off by her own voice that was coming from upstairs.

         “Okay, hold on would you?” she heard her own voice say very rudely. A minute later she saw herself walk down the stairs and put her hands on her hips. “What do you want?” Justice remembered this conversation like it had happened yesterday… because it did.

         “I… I just need your help with something,” her mother hesitated with saying. Justice ran between herself and her mother.

         “I’m sorry mom! I should have helped you yesterday and I should have been nicer to you. I’m sorry!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

         It was no use though because her mother only heard what the other Justice was saying. “No. I’m busy, so find someone else to bother,” she heard herself yell so meanly to her mother. This conversation brought tears to Justice’s eyes and she ran out of the house, before she could hear the last words she had ever said to her loving mother.

         She made it to the black limo which she had arrived in. As soon as she closed the car door it began to move. It felt like the car was going so slow! Justice wanted it to move faster and faster. It felt like the car was moving fifteen miles per hour. If it was going so slow, then how was the car already pulling up at the second building?

         “Go,” the voice repeated for the second time.

         “No, no I’m not going in there. There’s no way you can make me,” she sobbed loudly. Then in the blink of an eye she was inside the second building. The bright, white fluorescent lights burned her eyes and she had to blink a few times before they adjusted. Justice looked around her where she found she was standing at her locker.

         “Hey!” a voice that couldn’t be mistaken said from behind her.

         “Oh my gosh! Jamie you can see me?” she asked her best friend ever.

         “I can’t believe you totally bailed on me this morning,” Jamie replied sadly.

         “I wasn’t here. It must have been like a dream or-” Justice was cut off by herself talking.

         “Um, I was busy?” she heard from behind her.

         “No, no, no! Jamie was talking to me, I know she was! There’s no way this is happening again,” Justice yelled violently. Her heart sank and any hope she had of this being a dream vanished. She tried to run away from this conversation but her legs literally wouldn’t move. Justice was planted there to listen to this conversation.

         “Who is so cruel that they would do this to me?”  Justice thought to herself.

         “What were you so busy with that you left me to get busted?” Jamie asked the other Justice. She turned around from getting a book out of her locker and looked at her best friend Jamie as if she were a three-year-old.

         “Um, how about not getting busted and being a good person?” Justice answered smartly.

         “So now I’m not a good person? Who’s idea was it to go and-” Jamie was cut off by a loud speaker.

         “Jamie Hall please report to the office,” the speaker boomed.

         “Thanks a ton. Best friends until we die, huh Justice?” were Jamie’s last departing words. Justice saw herself turn from her locker, roll her eyes obnoxiously, and head off for class.

         Finally her legs would move from the spot on the floor at which she was pinned to hear that awful conversation. It was her only chance to make things right, her only chance to feel like she even tried, so Justice ran as fast as she could to her best friend.

         “Jamie I should have been there with you! I’m sorry I made this happen and I’m sorry it ended our lives. I ruined everything. I thought that I wanted to live my life and go. I would do anything to take that back now, anything!” she told her friend. Jamie couldn’t hear her and she couldn’t see her, but it made Justice a little bit more at ease with herself knowing she had tried to apologize. Jamie walked through the office doorway and everything around Justice went black.

         The car was moving, moving ever so slowly. Justice now wanted it to go as slow as possible. She wanted to live and be free. It was too late for that. This ride was coming to an end. The car felt like it was moving slowly, but it wasn’t. It never had been! All of these years this ride had been a rollercoaster, not a merry-go-round like she had thought. Justice wasn’t going in slow, pointless circles. She had many loops and twists ahead of her, but it was too late for her to realize that because the ride was at it’s end. Stopping at it’s last stop, the limo’s black door swung open.

         “Go,” the now dark-sounding voice told her.

         When she stepped out of the car she didn’t recognize the final building. It was black and very shiny. The whole thing was a round sphere, except for it’s cubed door. Step by step, Justice made her way up to the dark entrance. She put her hand on the round knob and hesitated before opening it.

         “Go,” the voice boomed for the last time.

         “Yes. Go,” Justice thought, “Go to where there is no light to help me find my regrets.”