On Ice

OI Chapter 8

Friday, July 13, 2012

The night slipped darkly past and occasionally I’d catch a glimpse of a road sign in the headlights as we travelled along. Dad and mom were talking quietly in the front, an 80s rock station was playing lightly through the car speakers and the faint slap of the windshield wiper blades kept time with the song on the radio. A damp breeze blew against my face where it rested against the rear passenger window. I’d cracked it a little earlier, as the car had grown a bit sticky. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I’d immediately dug it out to check the read out.

‘He’s so dense, still didn’t ask me out. I swear Calla, I’m gonna have 2 beat him over the head b4 he notices me.’ Jules had written me.

I’d laughed softly and rolled my eyes. Jules had been trying to get Nick Anders to notice her for over a year. Personally, I couldn’t understand why she hadn’t just put on her big girl panties and asked him out already. I’d typed back, ‘Just ask him out.’

My mom had turned a bit in her seat then, laughing at my dad’s comment about how a teenage girl couldn’t go five minutes without checking her phone. We’d been laughing and smiling at each other in that last moment. Then things had gotten all distorted. There had been a really bright light and the sounds of metal groaning as it bent and gave. Shattered glass had flown everywhere. I’d lost my phone. My body felt like it’d been run through the dryer, it didn’t know which way was up and my mind couldn’t process what had just happened.

I could hear something metallic clattering constantly and it was so dark. The rain was still coming down and in the distance thunder rumbled ominously. My head hurt a little, but nothing else seemed to be badly injured. I’d remembered with a start then, that I hadn’t been alone. “Mom, dad,” I’d called, “Are you alright?”

Lightning began to flash. It was quick, so by the time my eyes adjusted to the sudden light, it disappeared just as quickly and I couldn’t see anything in the silent darkness around me. I tried to shift, but found that I couldn’t move my legs; they were pinned by the front passenger seat. I couldn’t move my upper body around much either, so trying to change the angle to pull my legs free wouldn’t work. I was stuck.

Blindly I leaned forward and groped, hoping to find one of my parent’s shoulders. My fingers encountered sticky warmth on the side of my mother’s neck. Shaking her, I said, “Mom, mom wake up!” But she didn’t respond. My jaws had clamped together and I’d pursed my lips, the tears already stinging at the backs of my eyes. I tried one last time, “Mommy?” I could feel the tremors in my hands now and I stretched, Lord how I’d stretched that hand out, fingers seeking to feel the comforting strength of my dad’s shoulder. My fingertips barely crept across the fabric of his shirt and I’d sobbed, “Dad?”

The thunder and the lightning raged on around me, the rain pinging against the twisted metal remains of my parent’s car. At first I’d stifled my cries, praying every time my chest heaved with a silent sob that I’d hear something from one of them. A breath, a moan, a scream, anything would have been better than the silence. But I waited a long time and my poor tumbled brain finally realized that they were dead. I’d screamed until I was hoarse then, but still help hadn’t come.

　

_-_

Sunday, October 7, 2012

I’d heard Calla’s screams inside the house, I’d just pulled a t-shirt over my head and whipped around without thinking about it. I hadn’t even taken the time to shove shoes on my feet. I’d just taken off out the backdoor. They hadn’t even made it all the way to the street where Russ’s car was parked; he was just over three quarters of the way there. He had Calla dumped over one shoulders like a bag of potatoes. I gaped at him. What the hell was he doing? Obviously from the fight that Calla was putting up, not something that she liked.

“Please stop,” she screamed. She tried to rear up, shoving at his back, but I became a little unhinged at the sight of tears streaming down her face. “Don’t make me get in the car, please?” The level of pure terror in her voice spurred me back into action. By the time I caught up with him, he’d already opened the door and stuffed a now very docile Calla into the backseat. Her head slumped against the back of the seat and she wasn’t crying any longer. In fact, she didn’t seem to be doing anything any longer. Her entire body was limp, her blue eyes were open, but they were staring sightlessly ahead, at what I didn’t now.

Shoving Russ out of my way, I bent down to lean into the car, “Calla? Calla are you alright?”

I tried a couple more times, thinking maybe she was in a snit and just ignoring me, but it wasn’t like that. It was like she wasn’t even here with us. I tried snapping my fingers in front of her eyes, but she didn’t even flinch, much less blink. I gently shook her shoulder. Rounding on Russ, he glared angrily at me.

“What the fuck were you thinking,” I shouted at him. “Look what you did to her! You couldn’t just leave it alone, no, you had to be an asshole and force her into the car because you’re bigger and stronger than her, right?”

“What difference does it make how I got her into the car, she’s in now. There’s nothing wrong with her, she’s just pissed off and ignoring you,” Russ yelled back.

I wanted to haul off and belt him. Flipping him the bird, I turned back to Calla and tried to shake her again, still no response. When she started screaming, a loud, mournful cry I bashed my head into the roof of the car with a start. She still didn’t blink, but her mouth opened and the most desolate, heartbreaking sound I’d ever heard spilled from between her lips. Gathering her into my arms, I pulled her out of the car and sat down in my front yard with her. I stroked the side of her face and rocked with her, I tried every comforting thing I could think of to make her stop, but nothing worked.

My best friend was staring down at his sister like she was an alien species. Narrowing my eyes, I shouted over her screams, “Oh yeah! There’s nothing wrong with her. You’re such an ass Russ! Wouldn’t you be terrified of cars if you’d spent hours trapped in one while your parents were dead or dying in the front seat and you weren’t able to help them?”

He looked remarkably guilty and afraid, really afraid for the first time. Grunting, I pushed to my feet with Calla still in my arms. Returning to my house, I did the last thing I could think of to help her. Striding through the kitchen, dining room, living room, and bedroom and into the bathroom, I sat on the edge of the bathtub and turned the cold water tap on. I waited a moment, before stepping in; yanking the shower curtain closed and turned the shower on. As the cold stream rained down from the shower head soaking us both, Calla’s scream sputtered and died. It took her a little longer to blink up at me. She looked a little dazed, but when she noticed me, she wrapped her arms around my waist so tight I thought she might crack a rib. I caught a glimpse of a small, sad smile before she buried her head against my chest, her sopping hair hiding most of her face from me. I sighed with relief, happy that the cold shower had snapped her out of it. I’d seen my mother do it once, when my little brother had had a nightmare she couldn’t wake him from. I smoothed a palm over her wet hair and hugged her back.

Author Note:

So there's the big reveal, the horrible tragic reason that Calla hates cars, thunderstorms, silence and darkness.