Wake Up, For Us

~3~

Another year gone, and you begin learning to drive.

Your patient instructor sits by your side.

It's your final test, what you've been waiting for, building up to.

You turn and you break, in all the right places, you know you're succeeding, then one unfamiliar sign throws your concentration.

You don't stop when the light is red, your foot still on the pedal and your eyes cast out of the driver's window.

You hear a shout from your teacher, and your eyes go back to the road, a car's horn accosts your ears and the lights of oncoming traffic shine in your eyes. You glance back to the sign.

It is no longer there.

You remember what it had said.

"Wake up," It said, clear as day, "For us."

The words sound familiar, hauntingly so, just beyond reach, so you ignore them and go.