The Otherkind Book One:Heart

~*~ 4 ~*~

~*~ 4 ~*~

The day started out like any other except that it was warmer than it had been all week. Dad had left for work already. I was listening to the radio finishing the last of my toast. I heard Matt in his old trans-am rumble by just barely keeping within the speed limit.

"Shoot!" Hastily wiping my fingers on the dish towel on the counter I grabbed my backpack and cell phone. I'd been caught wool gathering. If Matt, my chronically late friend was already passing by, I knew I was going to be late. Jumping into my car I raced to catch up with him. You just did not want to be late for Ms. Murray's class. She was the kind of teacher who fervently wished for the old days when you could slap hands with rulers, or sit students in corners with dunce caps on their heads.

My cell phone chirped beside me. Probably Sarah wondering where I was. "I'm coming, I'm coming." I spoke to myself not having time to answer it. Following Matt we raced up through the foothills. The road to town was about eight miles. I concentrated on not scraping up the passenger side of my car against the rail that kept wayward cars from careening down the cliff. I hoped my uncle wasn't out and about so he wouldn't bust me for speeding.

I was right behind Matt when he suddenly turned sharp to the left, heading down a side street to park in the over-flow lot. I took my chances that there would be a spot in the main lot and drove down Main Street for another block. I was in the left turn lane with my blinker on just initiating my turn.

It took a second to realize what was happening and I froze. There was nothing I could do, nowhere to go. In my rear view mirror all I could see was a massive chrome grill of something big and black. In that odd moment time seemed to slow way down. I could hear the sound of breaks squealing. A sickening sound that was very loud echoing in my ears. Metal screeching and succumbing, crumpling in angry folds, the clattering sound of glass shattering.

Clenching the steering wheel, my foot stomping on my brake pedal, my body tense I held my breath. Some idiot had just tried to drive right through me! I was hit so hard my little car was forcibly propelled forward the rest of the way through the intersection, heading straight for the large brick sign on the corner, the one that had the bronze and black school sign.

There was a very loud bang as my car slammed nose first into the brick. A kind of dull sound that kept echoing in my head. My head ricocheted against the steering wheel. Things faded black for a moment. Time sped back up, blackness faded, light returned, and then everything got all jumbled up.

When I looked up, the only thing that registered in that fraction of a second was another car speeding across the parking lot to my left like Bonnie and Clyde in their get-away car, shooting across the main lane in the parking lot barely in control. Probably late for Ms. Murray's class too. I saw Matt sprinting across the lot heading for the door and then stop. I could see him looking over at me in horror. I think that is the moment when I truly realized my tin-can had just been crushed. The urge to laugh was incredible.

Brick wall one, car— none. What was left of my car was buckled up in a pool of leaking car fluids, the front had been flattened and from what I could tell, the hatch was mostly gone or had been shoved under an over-sized bumper.

Matt dropped his books running hollering to some kids already at the school door to go get help. He was going to be really late today. I felt bad for him. He'd been late for everything, probably even for his own birth even. What a stupid thing to think about when my car had just been crumpled into a mangled mess. My head hurt.

And then not just my car got messed up.

I heard a boy asking me in a gorgeous voice, a voice of soft tenderness and silken whisperings. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I hit you! Are you okay?"