Lost Treasure

Prologue

I raced home as fast as my 1997 Chevy would take me. I had previously explained to Carmen that I'd have to work today but I already know she will be beyond pissed. I quickly swerved into the drive way. Silence. Eerie silence. Every single supply of even the littlest light had been cut off. It was almost as if no one was home. I slide my key into the lock quietly and seeped into the darkness. I closed the door quickly, me wincing as it screeched and howled. I peeped into the living room. No sign of Carmen. My head crept into the kitchen and the downstairs restroom; No Carmen. I carefully danced up the stairwell. My fatigue was overwhelming and I wasn't trying to get into any arguments with anyone. As if someone had pressed a button on a remote that was specifically titled 'pop-off-with-the-drama', the light switch at the beginning of the staircase fluttered on. I swore to myself. "Heeey sweetheart." I said, trying to smoothen out what was to come. "Don't do it, Chresanto. Don't you dare." My shoulders slumped timidly. Here we go.

"You didn't show up at my graduation. Why?" "You couldn't take one freaking day off to come and see your girl achieve something this monumental?"

"It is not a big deal, Carmen. That wasn't my intentions. Besides, Friday's are the busiest days. I made alotta money today." "It is a big deal, Most Black females don't even get to graduate college but I did. That's fucking huge!" I eyed her for a plump moment. It was coming. I could feel it. The impact that was to come was so intense, my body reacted before my mind.

My feet dissolved into the cold snow as I was introduced to the bone-chilling weather. I clasped my arms around myself, shaking my head in disbelief of what occurred inside of our shared home. Unlocking the door with the click of a button, I quickly sat into my leather seats of my beloved car. I reached for the door and pulled it shut. Pulling out of the driveway, my vision was taken away from me forcing me into a horrid flashback.

Impact. A cacophony of sounds hit my ears like a tidal wave. The crunching of metal, the tinkling of glass as it shattered. My mothers scream. Then the pain, horrible, excruciating pain, crushing me in and claiming me for it's own. As my vision faded, I caught a glimpse of my mothers broken neck before everything went dark. You wouldn't expect the radio to work afterward. But it did. The car was eviscerated. The impact of a four-ton pickup truck going sixty miles an hour plowing straight into the passenger side of my mothers car had the force of an atom bomb. It tore off the doors. It flipped the chassis, bouncing it across the road and ripped the engine apart as if it were no stronger than a spiderweb. It ignited bits of the gas tank, so that tiny flames lap at the wet road. And there was so much noise. A symphony of grinding, a chorus of popping, an aria of exploding, and finally, the sad clapping of hard metal cutting into soft trees. Then it went quiet, besides the sound of the song "How to Love" by Lil Wayne playing smoothly. The noise is what awoke me from slumber. I remember hearing the sirens farther in the distance but it didn't appear to me that they were coming to save me until I looked over and saw my frail mother. My mother's head was against the steering wheel, blood streaming down the side. 

"...Mom." I whispered trying to reach out and touch my mother but my arm was stuck in something. I tried to free my arm of whatever was trapping me but it wasn't budging. "Help!" I cried out, along with my mother's name. "Someone please help me." Finally after a few more tugs my arm came free, I tried waking up my mom again but she wasn't opening her eyes. "Mommy, please." I begged her, I was only 13 at the time. 

My vision was a tad obscured and for a moment, I didn't see the figure that was in the middle of the road. I hit the brakes, my body jerking forward. Fortunately, the bumper of my car only caused the figure to jolt outward a bit. Once the figure was on it's feet, I was able to get a clear look at it. It was a female. Her hazel obsidian eyes locked into mine for brief a moment. She continued to run. Even after I frantically called for her. It only made her run faster.