Afterlife

I was almost eighteen. I was almost legal; I was so close to freedom I can still taste it. I can still feel the air that streamed through the open windows of my car. I can still hear the chorus of the song I was listening to, as if it was blaring in my ears. I can still feel the acceleration of my car and my heart as I went to pick Alex up.

Alex; The name still brings stillness about me, still makes my breath come short, and still makes my stomach quiver. It makes me miss my heart more than anything, because if it still beat, it would go crazy at the mention of his name. But, Alex and I had a problem. The big problem, the problem every teenage girl fears until she settles down. Alex and I had done IT. The big I-T. And I was with a child. Only far along enough to go to a couple of doctor’s appointments, all of which Alex had attended. I was so worried about what my parents would have thought. I had tried so hard for so long to make them happy. But I knew Alex and I could work it out with them. Because we were in love. The love people dream about, the love people in novels write about. I needed in him an easy passion, the fire in his eyes matched the fire in my soul I felt when he kissed me. The way I wanted to scream out my love for him, or dance in the rain, or hold his hand. Still, I love him more than anything. But, Alex can wait for now. First you need to know how I was put in the situation of dying.

  I was driving my navy blue Challenger, my pride and joy, to get Alex. We had planned everything out the night before. He and I would show up at my annual birthday barbeque, and tell me parents how it was. If they didn't like it, well, I was to turn eighteen in three days and I would leave and go with him. It was about two thirty in the afternoon. I was driving down a hectic freeway, singing along to “Oh Darling" by Plug in Stereo. Alex had always told me not to listen to music as I drove. He said it would distract me. I guess he was right. I had on my new sunglasses. They were an early birthday present from my uncle. There was an eighteen wheeler driving in front of me. I might have been speeding, this detail I'm not sure of. Of all the details for me to forget, I forget the important one. I think I was.

I was excited to see Alex, jittery and anxious to see how my parents would react. I was reading one of the random signs on the back of the eighteen wheeler in front of me (It said "Rate my driving, am I good or what? “And another that said “I’m riding with Jesus!") When, the eighteen wheeler stopped. But the funny thing is... I didn't. I remember thinking, “Stop the car, you Idiot!" but the car didn't stop. I slammed head first into the back of that truck. I heard the thumping and crunching before I felt it. But when I did feel it, I only felt the pain for a very few moments.

Then everything was gone. There was a ringing in my ears; a soft blue light cradled me on the nonexistence. There was no bright light; there was no tunnel, there was just nothing. Then, just like that, I was shoved back into the real world. There were a bunch of people on the scene. Some were prying my baby, my pride and joy, from the back of the giant automobile. Others were huddled by the ambulance. I walked over to them, grinning, expecting to say something like” Look guys, I'm still in one piece!” On the stretcher, where I expected to see an over weight, balding truck driver, there was a young, curly headed teenager, with the sunglasses her uncle gave her, broken, pushing at her nose oddly. And she definitely wasn't in one piece.