Part 1    

A bright flash shines through the windows, followed by the loud clap of thunder. Crash! The entire house shakes. Rain is hitting the window panes in an unsynchronized pattern. However, mom seems unfazed by the commotion going on outside.

“We have to hurry!”

Mom is scrambling around the house, running back and forth between rooms looking for the car keys. Dad is struggling to put his shoes on in the doorway. My little brother Tyler is crying on the floor in the kitchen, an action figure lay broken beside him. The tears were making puddles on his lap.

     Amidst all the noise and panic, there I stood, donning an academic robe and black cap. Today was the day that I would be graduating high school, top of my class, might I add.

However, the thing I looked forward to the most was seeing that girl. Her hair was golden hazelnut, and it had light-blonde highlights. Her eyes are like emerald mirrors, staring back into your heart as you look into them. She was short and cute, and that’s just the way I like them.

Mom finds the keys and rushes us into the car, dad still tripping on his shoes. She cranks up the car and takes off before anyone can put their seatbelts on. She spins out of the driveway, slinging water on the windows.

“Slow down! It doesn’t matter if we’re a little bit late.” I say this while trying to put Tyler’s seatbelt on, although he is not obliging, hitting me in the chin with his fat fingers.

“We have to be there on time! I can’t wait to see you graduate!” Mom is really pumped up, running almost 20 mph over the speed limit.

“This is dangerous, mom!”

“Hold on!”

Mom grabs on to the steering wheel really hard, cutting the corner, barely staying on the road.

“MOM!” Tyler’s seatbelt still wasn’t on, and that turn almost put him on the floor.

Mom keeps bobbing and weaving, somehow staying on the road. Dad doesn’t even seem to care, only looking up from his phone to check the time on the stereo.

As I am just about to finally click Tyler’s seatbelt, I feel the car shift to the left. The car was in the long lane and mom was trying to turn to the right, only for the slick surface of the road to reject her efforts. A car was coming!

In instinct, I cover Tyler with my body, hoping to protect him from the impact.

“Why are you hugging me?” Of course, he would say that. He doesn’t understand the situations at hand, and he has never really liked me that much. I feel the impact and the shards of glass slicing through my body.

Part 2

I wake up on a swing tied to an oak tree, slightly swinging back and forth to the rhythm of the wind. Looking up, I see a playground. In fact, it looks just like the playground that was at my elementary school. It’s empty, besides a young boy, curled up in a ball under the jungle gym. That little boy is me.

Soon after, another young boy comes up to my kid-self, taking my hand and leading me over to the basketball court. Other kids are waiting there. That was my first friend, Timothy. He died of cancer in middle school.

He looks over at, my actual self, and tells kid-me to wait. He smiles as he runs over to me, waving that old ‘Timothy wave’.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” I haven’t heard that voice in almost 6 years. “So, you died, too, huh?”

I can’t even speak to him. I just know that I’m so happy to see him. I finally find the strength to speak to him.

“Heh, I guess so.” He laughs at me while I say this.

“You sure got tall. Very handsome, indeed.” He winks at me.

“I’ve missed you.”

“Are you sad?”

“Huh?”

I look at him puzzled. I’ve missed him so long, but I can’t find any trace of sadness in my soul.

“Well, looks like you need to go. See ya later!”

He runs off back to kid-me and the other kids at the basketball court. I reach out my hand, but before I can say anything the setting changed.

Now I was in a room. Toy cars covered the floor and posters of Lamborghinis and Ferraris plastered the walls.

This was my room from my old house back in Montana. We had moved away before I had graduated middle school so that mom could work in California. I didn’t want to leave Tyler behind, so I hid under my bed, hoping they would never find me.

I look under the bed, and there I am, little-me, crying in a ball under the bed. I guess I did that a lot.

I hear footsteps in the hallway, and soon emerges my mother.

“Come on, honey. I know you don’t want to leave, but we have to. We can always visit again.” We never got the chance to.

She then looks at me, locking her eyes with mine.

“I’m sorry. It seems like I ruined your life. First, we had to move because of me, then I killed you in a car wreck.”

“At least we died together.” I say this with a slight chuckle, but mom doesn’t seem to think this to be amusing at all. “You don’t have to be sorry. You were just excited to see me graduate. I still love you.”

She smiles, tears streaming down her face. I reach out to her, but everything starts fading to white. Before I know it, I’m floating in nothing. I am aware of everything, I am part of everything. I feel my soul fading, expanding.

So, this is it, huh? A car wreck isn’t one of the worst ways to go.

Before I fade, the face of that girl appears in front of me, but she isn’t aware of me. She is still alive.

Tyler better be okay. I’d hate to have saved him and lost that chance to be with that girl.