A car sped down the highway in the darkness. It wasn't a very impressive car and not one that would be given a second glance under normal circumstances. It was a five-seating sedan painted a cherry red color. There was nothing important about it in any way. A song played over the stereo as I drove.
I am thinking it's a sign
That the freckles in our eyes
Are mirror images, and
When we kiss they're perfectly aligned.
I bobbed my head to the beat of the song as I pressed the brakes slightly and turned the wheel to make it around the corner. I glanced in my mirror once I'd rounded the bend to make sure the car behind me wasn't getting too close. Satisfied that it wasn't I turned my attention back to the road ahead of me.
An inflating sound and a subsequent *pop* reminded me of my passenger sitting next to me. A 14 year-old boy sat to my right. His hair was cut short and looked a bit silly when matched with the dress shirt he was wearing. He was staring out the window with his headphones on, listening to some obscure techno band as he chewed his gum loudly. I could hear a bit of the bass-line over my music as we continued our way towards home.
I have to speculate
That God himself did make
Us into corresponding shapes
Like puzzle pieces from the clay.
I gave a little sigh of annoyance at the kid and looked back at the black asphalt ahead of me. I was a little bit cautious driving tonight, and for good reason. The county was repaving the road and I could hardly even make out the surface on which I was driving. This, along with the fact that there were no painted lines yet, made it damn near impossible to see what was ahead of me.
As we continued down the highway my mind began to think back to events earlier in the day, and only served to remind me of the annoyance I felt towards my brother for making me take him home. I thought about my friends who were waiting for me to show up so that they could start movie night.
And true, it may seem like a stretch, but
Its thoughts like this that catch my troubled
Head when you're away,
When I am missing you to death.
I sighed a little bit and let my thoughts drift for a second or two. The sooner I got my brother home, the sooner I could be on my way to a fun night with my friends.
When you are out there on the road
For several weeks of shows
And when you scan the radio
I hope this song will guide you home.
My mind was still wandering when I noticed the car starting to drift right. I turned the wheel slightly to try to get going straight again. It was because of that that I didn't notice the bend in the road until the car's right tires fell off the side of the new pavement with a dull *thud*. I let out a quick swear and jerked the wheel to the left. The car swerved back onto the road, but continued swerving into the other lane. I turned the wheel right again to get back into my lane. The car swerved hard to the right and ended up skidding sideways on the highway.
Before I knew it the car had gone off again and began to roll.
They will see us waving from such great heights,
"Come down now," they'll say,
But everything looks perfect from far away,
"Come down now," but we'll stay.
Three things went through my head in the few seconds that the car was rolling. "Where is my phone?" was the first thought. "Who's going to tell my friends?" was the second one.
The final thought was, "Is my brother going to be okay?"
At the very edge of my hearing I thought I heard laughter.
I heard the crashing sound. Then I blacked out.
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: The car accident I wrote about in this chapter is my memory of an actual event that happened to me just days ago. My brother and I rolled our car on the highway coming home from the county fair on August 31. We are both fine. I have a bit of a headache still and some bruises, but I'm fine. My brother cut his hand open on the windshield when we were rolling, but that was the worst that either of us got. I didn't actually black out during the crash, and neither did my brother. Actually, as soon as the car stopped rolling the first thing out of either of our mouths was concern for the other one.
The song playing in the car is Such Great Heights by The Postal Service. It was the song I was listening to during the accident. I had my iPod hooked up to an FM transmitter and I was listening to it on the car's stereo. Strangely my iPod disappeared in the accident. Maybe it fell out the window. I'm sure it will turn up eventually.]]
[[EDIT: Nope. Hasn't turned up yet. We stopped looking a month or so ago. Oh well.]]