Time

Chapter 2 - Time to Run

Los Angeles, CA

As he slowed his car to a stop at the red light, something caught his ear and attention. Peering to his left, what he saw made his breath hitch, constricting his lungs. The bright neon yellow Caution! Driver Singing! bumper sticker made him chuckle to himself. Then the voice hit his ears. A beautifully singing voice.

Could it really be her? I'd recognize that voice anywhere!

His eyes flicked to the smiling face of a young girl in the back seat. Tears of joy glistened in his eyes, lips curving slowly into a soft smile, fingers wiggling into a shy wave at the little girl of 5 years old. His heart raced, thumping unsteadily in his ears with a realization. As his eyes went back to watch this woman sing with her angelic voice, he was yet again mesmerized with the crystal clear sound gracing his ears.

Finally.

The light turned green and his heart lurched as the car next to him began to move. He can't follow from this lane. What would he do? The loud screeching of a cars brakes desperate to stop tore his attention away. His heart painfully sank into his stomach knowing what he was about to witness.

Oh God! Erin!

After throwing his car into park, time decelerated to a drastically heart wrenching slow rate. The sounds of the crash were dulled as metal on metal violently collided. He watched Erin's car spin several times, the other car shoving hers mercilessly along toward the middle of the intersection. Finally, both cars came to a stop. Suddenly he released a breath he didn't realize he was holding in the midst of deafening silence.

Immediately he went into action, darting from his car over to the back passenger door. He had to get the child first. The drivers from a couple other cars were not far behind him.

"You! Call 9-1-1 and get an ambulance here, NOW!" he ordered the nearest person to him, never stopping his run toward Erin's smoking car. The woman nodded immediately getting her cell phone and dialed.

He came up to the window. forcing a smile for the precious cargo in the back seat. A sweet, precocious girl who wouldn't know him.

Yet.

"Hi, sweetheart," he greeted, as warmly and calmly as he could. "What's your name?"

"Hi," she replied shakily, tears streaming down her face between sobs of understandable fear. "I'm Ashlynn. My mommy won't answer me. Is she okay?"

"I'm gonna check on her as soon as I get you out of the car, Ashlynn. I need you to try and get out of your seat belt while I try your door, okay?"

She nodded, pushing down determinedly on the button for her seatbelt. He sighed in relief that it released. That relief faded quickly though when her car door wouldn't open. Clever girl Ashlynn was, noticed.

"Mommy has an emergency hammer over here." Ashlynn informed as she reached for the center console, grabbed the hammer and slipped it to him through the opening in the window.

He was grateful the hammer fit. "OK, cover your eyes, Ashlynn. I'm gonna break the glass."

She did as he requested, curling forward into a brace position and with a shattering crash, glass splattered everywhere inside the car. Ashlynn straightened reaching her arms up then crawled through the window to him as he wrapped his strong arms around the girls waist to pull her out. Quickly, he swung her onto his hip, rushing the girl clinging to his neck to the corner on the sidewalk. Another woman who witnessed the accident hurriedly followed him.

"I'll watch her, while you get the driver," She offered. He nodded and ran back to the car, hammer still tightly gripped in his hand.

His stomach twisted at the sight of Erin's limp, bloodied body in the driver's seat. The gash on her left temple still oozing crimson. At least the other car wasn't blocking her door. He called her name over and over, banging his flattened hand on the glass of the window not caring she wouldn't know him. His heart clenched and sank deeper each time she didn't answer.