Random Thoughts of a Twisted Mind

I am not normal, no not me, I have a twisted mind behind this smile that you see. Dark and gnarled images speed through my thoughts, I wonder if anyone thinks the way I do? You see I live an ordinary life, I am a mother and a wife. I spend my time immersed in the mundane and practical world, happily letting time tick by. Yet in my mind I play out scenes that would terrify even the hardiest of men, and always my dreams scream to be heard. Just las week while driving to the grocery store my mind took me that I shudder to remember even now. As I drove down a road I have driven many times before, I saw a small wooden cross that marks the side of the road. I wondered to myself what happened there, and then my mind took over and began to tell a story of terror and sadness.

The sun was begining to set on yet another humid day and you could almost taste the rain that was threatening in the sky above. Lightening began to fill the sky followed shortly by deafening thunder, yet the rain refused to pour and smother the heat that had fermented throughout the day. As the storm clouds swallowed up the sky, the horizen was cast in a reddish glow that seemed to foretell the coming of tremendous pain and sorrow. Vehicles littered the streets even though the weatherman promised strong winds and violent rain. One of those vehicles, a large black SUV, held a young woman and her friend on their way home after a long day of shopping. The Prom was only six days away and they were looking for the perfect dress. Just as they turned onto this road the rain began to savagely pelt the vehicle, it came down so fast and thick even the wipers could not clear it away fast enough. A more experienced driver may have slowed down or pulled of the road until the rain cleared but this young woman continued on as if nothing had changed. She kept driving down the road she had driven many times before. Never thinking maybe she shouldn't be speeding today.

She turned her head for just a moment to look at her friend and was met by a look of utter terror; her friend threw her hands up and braced herself against the dashboard and began to scream. There was no time to understand what was happening as the vehicle wrenched to a stop, glass violently showered down onto her as she watched her friend's boday fly through the windshield as if she was being sucked out by a giant vaccumm. The airbag slammed her into her seat with such force that she lost her breath; smoke filled her nostrils and her ears were ringing as she faded into darkness. She awoke to something cold sliding along her skin and realized it was the rain coming through the broken windshield. When she opened her mouth to call out to her friend no words could be uttered, she could not fill her lungs deep enough to speak. In the distance she could hear muffled screaming and when she looked out her window she saw it was coming from the other car, a baby! She could hear a baby crying hysterically from the other car.

She wrenched the airbag away from her face and released the sealbelt that had saved her life; throwing the door open she eased out of her seat and limped to the other car. Every step she took caused a stabbing pain in both her sides that grabbed the breath right out of her lungs. When she got to the other car she saw that it was occupied by three people besides the baby in the backseat, all of whom appeared to be in vary stages of unconsiousness, First, she threw the backdoor open and struggled with the babies car seat to release it from the seatbelt so she could remove it from the damaged car. After what seemed like an eternity of struggling she finally freed the terrified infant from the constraints and brought her safely to the side of the road to determine if the infant was hurt or just frightened. She appeared to be more scared than hurt and a sudden smile in repsonse to her cooing reasurred her that it was safe to leave the infant to check on the reamianing occupants of the vehicle.

In the backseat was a woman who appeared to be the childs mother; she had a steady pulse and visible trauma so she left her to check on the couple seated in the front. The driver, an older gentelman, was starting to come around as she circled to his door; he muttered incoherently as she jerked on the damaged handle. The longer she fought with the door the more he appeared to become aggitated; the airbag had him pinned behind it so she walked to the passenger side of the car so she could reach in and unfasten his lap belt. While leaning over the woman in the passenger seat she realized she was not breathing and was turning ashen, franticly feeling for a pulse she layed the womans seat back and watched as most of her color began draining from her face. Covered in blood and swollen from an impact with the windshield the womans face was swelling with each passing moment. Covering the womans mouth with her own she began breathing life back into the listless woman. Only a few moments passed before the woman began to cough and sputter for her own breaths of air, the girls heart jumped into her throat with relief.

Watching intently as the woaman slowly began to stir into awareness, she trusted that the woman was out of danger and once again went to the driver's door to help him free of the twisted mess that used to be his car. all three occupants were now consious and were making therir way to the side of the road where she had placed the infant earlier. In the distance she could hear sirens fastly approaching and her mind turned once again to the vision of her friend being flung for her SUV. Barely able to see in the darkened night, she made her way back to the SUV to turn on the headlights to search for her friend. Seeing nothing but broken glass and twisted metal from the collision she started calling out to her missing friend. So focused on finding her, she did not notice that the police had arrived and was motioning for her to come back to the scene. She caught sight of the gentleman waving at her from the road just as hse heard a muffled moan from a ditch about a yard away.

Ignoring the shouts of distress from the other vehicles occupants and the police officers she ran frantically to her friend; all she could see was a steep mud-slick ditch littered with large branches and a steady flow of rain that was filling the wide ditch at an alrming rate. She caught sight of her friends bright blue jacket beneath the largest section of the severed branch and began to jerk at the fallen wood to free her friend before she drowned. She felt herself being pulled out of the swampy puddle by hands that seemed from a different time and space, she had to free her friend no matter the cost to her. Further and further the officer drug her as she cried out to her friend. The rescue workers were already disappearing over the edge of the ditch when she looked up into the back of the ambulance that had arrived some time during her rescue attempt.

Eyes fixed on the ditch that held her fallen friend she began numbly answering question about her condition and recolection of what had happened. wanting nothing more than to run back to her friends side she nodded absently as the rescuers urged her to stay clear of the ditch so they could do their job and free her friend from the branches grasp. She leaned foward and was reminded of the pain that had crept into her sides and was once again stealing her air from her with even the slightest of movement. For the second time that night she faded into darkness.

The next time she opened her eyes, she was laying in a hospital bed clutching her mothers hand whowas sitting next to her bed with a look of silent relief. Pushing the call light for the nurse her mother stroked her forehead and whispered her love into her ear, several seconds later a nurse entered the room followed by a man who appeared to be the physician. The fussed over her; taking her pulse, shining a light into her eyes and asking a slew of questions that seemed ridiculous to her. After an eternity of poking and prodding the nurse and physician seemed satisfied that she would be okay and asked her if she needed anything. she only wanted to know how everyone else was doing and if she could see her friend soon. Her mother looked into the doctors eyes and then back at her and she knew that her friend was gone forever. Her mother shook her head and turned away and for the first time in her life the girl cried herself to sleep. Two days later on the trip home the rounded the bend and she saw the cross and flowers on the side of the road. she asked her mother to stop and reassured her it would be okay when she bagan to protest. Standing over the ditch the tears poured down her cheeks, just one moment had taken the life of her best friend and changed the lives of everyone she involved that night.