Mutations

November 20, 2014

November 20, 2014

I step off the curb to walk over to my apartment across the street from Collage Park in Maryland. I'm a sophomore, majoring in engineering. I'm already failing three of my classes and it's only November. My name is James Baker, I'm shorter than most the people in my class. My hair is short and brown, I normally keep it longer in the front and shorter in the back.

I push my key into the lock on my door and push it open. My apartment is small it has three small rooms, a bedroom, living room and kitchen. I throw my bag on the couch and walk into the kitchen. My fridge is almost empty except for a couple bottles of water. I guess I'll eat after I run. I change into a pair of athletic shorts and a sleeveless shirt even though it's thirty degrees out. I grab my keys and lock the door. I start to run around the campus, I normally run through the campus but today I decided the run through town. My friend Justin runs with me sometimes, he said he had to study for a test so he couldn't come. Then he won't be here until Monday because thanks giving break starts tomorrow. My dad pulled out a map my senior year in high school and drew a circle, with a radius of two-hundred miles, around where I used to live in Seattle and said, "Go to a college within this circle or see you in four years." It's not that I wanted to get away from him it's just he knew how much I wanted to go to Maryland, so I packed up my things and left.

The light turned green at the stop light for cars and red for me, so I stopped and tried to catch my breath. Hands on my knees, eyes closed. I heard a cars breaks screech and cars collide. I opened my eyes a car was on its side glass was scattered all over the road. "Holy shit," I breathed to myself.

I find myself running over to the car on it's side. The windshield is shattered, glass was on the road. I looked through the hole where the windshield was, a woman is sitting in the drivers seat. There is shards of glass in her face blood coming from the cuts. Her eyes are closed. I try to unbuckle her seatbelt to get her out of the car, but it's jammed. There is a car seat facing the back, an infant. I pick up a bigger piece of glass and start to cut the seatbelt. I get about half way through it and my hand starts stinging and it feels wet. Bloody starts to run down my arm. I push hard on the glass and it rips the rest of the seatbelt. I run it through the buckle part, she's leaning fully against the side of the car. I push my bloody hand between her and the broken glass, my arm stings from the glass digging into my arm. I lift her up and hoist her over my shoulder.

Her foot catches on the steering wheel, I almost fall. She's taller than me. I step back and lift her leg above the steering wheel. I walk her over to the side walk and lay her down. I hear as siren, but I also smell gas. I run back over the the car, ducking through the windshield I climb back to the car seat. There was a baby in it. There was three clips holding him in. A pop rang through the air and smoke rose above the car. I undid the straps as fast as I could and picked him up. I have one hand on his head the other on his bottom. I press his head against my chest. I hear a fire extinguisher go off on the other side of the car, I step over the seat and jump out of the car. A fire truck and ambulance speed around the corner and stop in front of the flipped car. I don't move, the baby opens his eyes and starts crying when it realizes I'm not his mother. I pat his back lightly and shush him softly. He has deep brown eyes and a brown fuzz growing on top of his head. I sit down on the curb.

Two firemen run out of the truck and look inside the car to see no one in it. I raise my hand and yell, "Hey!" both firemen turn towards me, "A little help here?"

People in the ambulance come over with a stretcher and lift the woman onto it and rush off. The baby has stopped crying and fallen back asleep. A fireman walks over to me, "You okay, man?" I nod, I look down at my arm. "I'll send someone over," the he walks over towards the ambulance. A couple minutes later a woman with long brown hair and glasses walks over toward me carrying a first aid kit. She sits down next to me and puts the box down in front of her. She's wearing a black North Face, but under that she's wearing her uniform.