Beside Serenity

A

 With one hand, he wrapped his fingers around the leather steering wheel. His heavy foot pushed against the speed limit. The straight road, broken up by gaping potholes and large cracks, seemed to go on forever. On one side of the road was a large, grassy field. Each edge of this field was lined with thick forest, as the opposite side of the road was. Wildflowers overwhelmingly dotted the field with color. Through the newly bare trees, a bright, setting sun cast gorgeous shadows. Everything that wasn't covered in shadow was golden.

Beer, which flowed over unshaven stubble dripped from his chin's tip, landed on blue denim. He bellowed out in distracted laughter as each drop hit his thigh, causing the big red truck to weave in and out of its own lane. At the end of his other arm, the drunk man held firmly a bright blue pull-tab can. He put the can to his lips and sipped often, drooling all over himself when he pulled it away.

After twelve hours of standing and working at the local diner, a young woman was relieved to be finally sitting in her car. In the seat behind her were two young children, her son and daughter. The two of them created a game, where they would poke each other and shriek with laughter. The woman looked back at her kids through the rearview mirror and smiled. This was the first genuine smile she'd shown all day.

And for the rest of the day, the woman was scheduled to be genuinely happy. The children didn't know it yet, but she'd borrowed a Disney movie from one of her coworkers. The new one, that both the children had been begging to see for weeks. Popcorn and blankets were waiting for the three of them at home, just ten minutes up the road.

The setting sun's rays blasted the woman in the face. Instinctively, she held her hand up to the windshield to block the light, only, she saw no street in front of her. Just a speeding, oncoming, red pick up truck.

Two cars ricocheted off one another. Glass flew through the air like sand in a windy desert. A lonely wheel from the single mother's sedan, a car she'd spent months of savings on, rolled away from the terror and found peace on its side in the field across the street.

Trapped in the backseat of the car, the young boy and girl screamed. Both had scrapes from flying shards of glass, but the two of them would survive. Their unconscious mother, in front of them, was crushed under the car's front which had folded into itself like an accordion. They pleaded for her to wake up. She didn't.

The drunk man stumbled from his truck, holding the half empty bright blue can. Clumsily he accompanied the lonely wheel into the field. After tripping over every twig and pebble in his path, he found himself sitting on the wheel, vomiting and crying all at once. Puke dripped down his face and landed in his lap. He threw the can at the ground and looked towards the sun, screaming.

A near deaf elderly woman was strolling through the field when the accident happened, and she called for help. By the time she reached the scene, the man had his head in his hands and was hunched over, staring at the beer he'd just wasted. She consoled him.

Meanwhile, a growing amount of cars waited impatiently for the mess to be cleared so the people inside them could go about their lives.