Day 344 - Connection

Connection

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Julian’s eyes stare out into the whiteness, a sense of mystery reflected back. The snow came down harder, more furious. Julian’s vision began to blur, coming in and out of focus with the falling snow.

Sara’s eyes were half shut. The world was upside down. She gasped and moaned in pain for a moment, the world becoming clear. The ground was sparkling like tiny little stars. Then she realized she was looking at broken glass. She followed the trail of ruin until it led her back to Julian.

He had a kind face with kind blue eyes. But there was blood on his face and the left side was beginning to swell. She couldn’t make out the shapes, but it looked like something was on top of him.

She opened her mouth to speak, but only a low creaking noise came out. She tried to cough to clear her throat and there was a slow gurgle and something think rolled down the back of her throat.

Julian opened his mouth but she couldn’t hear him over the wind. Their separation seemed like infinity. The cold wind struck her face as tiny needle daggers screamed out from her bones and joints.

The fear kicked in. It was suffocating, unbearable. She should have been able to move. To get up. To run to his side. But her body was pain and something damp made her afraid to look down.

She feared she was dying. She had been sick and been in pain before, but this was nothing like that. There was a strange serenity, a calmness. It would happen. Poor Julian, so close and so far. He looked terrified and terrible. It was likely he was in a similar situation. She wished she could reach out and comfort him. So close but the vast reach of white snow lay in between.

Look at him, she commanded as they stared into each other’s eyes. They had stared at each other for an eternity. She had been looking into those beautiful blues eyes for ages. Years and years and a decade more in a blink. She loved those eyes. It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. In another world she would have been happy to stare into those eyes sixty years later. But not now. Not like this.

Julian was crying. She wanted to cry. Sara jerked through the motions, but no tears came. Just convulsions. Maybe that was her body going into shock. Maybe this was the end.

What is the soul, she wondered. Hopefully she had one. Hopefully there was somewhere for it to go. There was no time to beg or negotiate. But if there were just a little more time, she would do just that. Dying people should be given the time to beg and barter, to speak and to pontificate.

The wind was so loud and both their voices so weak. Just a gasp of air and a low guttural noise. Hardly anyone’s choice of last words.

Julian could barely focus, but he was fairly certain that Sara had closed her eyes. Wake up! He wanted to scream. Grab her. Shake her. Make her stay awake. But his legs were pinned under some portion of the car and there was no getting free.

Julian thought he had gone mad. He could hear voice. The notes and words as she sang a peaceful song of life and love and freedom. She had a beautiful voice. She could have been a singer if things had worked out differently. But life was seldom like it was in movies and shows. It had been one of his favorite things, to listen to her beautiful sweet voice.

Julian closed his eyes and dreamed of Sara’s song.

The wind kicked up and the snow fell heavy, amassing and obscuring. The past and their accident buried together. Her voice flew free, her song spread into the night.