Autumn-
“Autumn!” Sings my best friend, Jordan. We sit in the Loft at Church waiting to be picked up for a Youth Trip.
“Jordan!” I sing back. “What’s up?”
Mia sits next to me. Katie, Emily, Sophie, and Anna follow.
“I think my mom is driving,” Mia says, frowning at her watch.
“Cool,” I say. “I like your mom.”
“Who do you like?” Sophie asks teasingly.
“Carson Walker!” Katie smirks.
I roll my eyes. “Not true. He’s my friend. And anyways, I don’t like guys.”
Emily has been fake gagging this entire conversation. She still acts like a fourth grader when it comes to this stuff. All the others just raise an eyebrow at me, except for Mia who prods her watch insistently.
“What’re you doing?” I quickly ask.
Mia frowns. “I think I got some water inside of it. It’s broken.”
At the mention of the weather, we all turn and glance out the window. Rain batters against it, struggling to break in. Maybe some people would call it unsettling. And I guess I’d get why. But it’s only a little surprising. We live in a small town in Texas called East Creek, and this is the most rain any of us have ever seen. The heavy rain has been plaguing us all week. No trace of sunshine has left us all slightly depressed.
Emily, the designated worrier of the group bites her lip. “The flash-flood warning at my school was pretty bad. I got sort of scared, and I didn’t even want to drive home.”
“So was ours,” Jordan and Anna agree. They go to Cliffside Academy. Mia goes to Apple Ridge, Emily and Katie both go to Freedom Christian, and I honestly have no clue where Sophie goes. She doesn’t like to say. I have nothing much to contribute to this conversation, since flash-flood warnings don’t scare me at all. I have other fears.
Jordan nibbles her thumb nail. “I hope my family will be okay driving home in this,” she glances at her mom and dad and two little brothers. Out of our friend group, Jordan, Mia, and I are the only ones without permits. Anna even has her license already. She’s sixteen, but got held back.
“Yeah, I guess it is worse than usual.” I study the window.
“Hi everybody!” Says a pretty adult with long, shimmery brown hair, perfectly plaited. We all perk up. It’s Cara Sleighs, the Youth Pastor’s wife.
“My twin!” Emily laughs. It’s a long story that goes back to when we were all five and involves a rather explosive can of shaving cream.
“My twin!” Cara repeats. She’s all smiles, but then again, she always is.
They begin to talk about plans for the P.S.A.T. and Jordan looks nothing short of terrified. I try to pay attention, but thoughts are nagging in the back of my mind. Thoughts that have to do with the hour right before my mother dropped me off. That argument…Explosive words and despised glares. I felt so hated in that moment...
“Hey,” Mia nudges me. “Autumn, it’s time to go.”
“Huh?” I look up and see all the girls from 6th-12th grade lining up at the door.
“Here,” Cara Sleighs hands us each a list. “These are all the different activities you guys can go to.”
“Thanks,” I say, skimming over mine.
Mia’s mom, Mrs. Camden, motions for our group to follow her. The group actually just consists of Mia, Jordan, Sophie, and me. Anna, Katie, and Emily are in a different car.
On our way out the door, we share two umbrellas and run, laughing, to Mrs. Camden’s Honda. We all slide in, with Sophie and Jordan in the back, and Mia and me in the middle. Mrs. Camden starts the engine and is about to take off when Cara Sleighs appears, holding her purse over her head and shouting, “One more! Hang on!”
“Buckle up,” says Mrs. Camden with a grin.
And then we’re off.
•••••••
About thirty minutes into our drive, the rain starts pounding harder. I take a deep breath and catch a quick glimpse of my reflection in the window. The rain distorts the figure I see. I look away and sink into my seat.
“I’m a little worried,” admits Sophie.
So am I, I think.
“Yeah, I hope my family’s okay,” adds Jordan.
Me too, I think.
But I’m not thinking it for the reasons that they are. The rain doesn’t concern me. I don’t worry for my family because of it. I worry what they will do while I am gone. I worry they’ll get into a huge argument like the kinds they sometimes get in to. But unlike the other ones, I’m worried they won’t get over themselves. I don’t want to come home to my little brother Samuel sitting angrily in his room while my big brother Kyle is out on one of his drives. The forty minute kind to clear his head. Or my parents leaving a note on my door.
We divorced. Couldn’t work things out. Kyle will give you the schedule for where you’ll stay over the week.
-Mom
Sorry, Angel. We got into an argument too big this time. It’ll be okay, though. I’ll see you on the weekends. Love you, Angel.
-Daddy
These are the things I worry about.
I’m hoping that the trip will calm me down.
“How about some music?” Mrs. Camden suggests.
“Let It Go!” Mia cheers.
“Ed Sheeran!” Jordan objects.
“LET IT GOOOO!”
“Fine,” Mrs. Camden laughs and hands her daughter her phone. Mia scrolls through playlist after playlist. She clicks on a blue square that says FROZEN.
None of us are into Frozen.
We just like being goofy every once in a while.
“The snow glows white on the mountain tonight,” we sing in needed vibratos and horrible falsettos.
“Not a footprint to be seen!”
Mrs. Camden swerves a little and turns the volume down. “Maybe not so loud.”
“A kingdom of isolation!” Cara Sleighs joins in.
“And it looks like I’m the queen!”
Mrs. Camden honks at a rude driver in front of us who is obviously texting.
“The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside!”
I think briefly of the secret fears I’m harboring about my family.
“I couldn’t keep it in, Heaven knows I tried.”
And then it happens.
A car slams into ours from the side and shoves us. A dent appears in my door and I jerk my leg away quickly, but pieces of splintered plastic and metal cut through my jeans and I bite back a scream. I feel my skin tearing and the hot stream of blood flowing down my leg. The pain. The pain. The pain is more than I can handle. The scream exploded from inside me, reminding me of a horror movie. Exchanging frightened looks with Mia, I hear Jordan wail behind me. All the lights in the car flicker and then shut off. The windshield wipers freeze. But the music still plays. Mrs. Camden utters a gasp.
Then there’s another boom of thunder and something forceful bangs into the back of the car. The noise draws horrified yelps of terror from all of us. The impact has our car shifting. Ours goes skidding across the road, until we’re on the edge of this tiny little bridge. There’s a long way to fall, I note, staring out the window in terror. A tiny crack appears. Mia grabs my arm, tears sliding down her face. I glance down at my leg and choke. All I want to do is cry.
“It’ll be okay, girls,” Cara says. But there is a huge tremor in her voice.
Mrs. Camden desperately tries to start the car, but it won’t start. We’re trapped on a bridge with a blurry windshield and a broken car. This is a formula for bad. Better knock on wood, I think.
A crack of thunder has us screaming and holding onto each other, Following that is the biggest lightning strike I’ve ever seen. It shoots downward. Onto a semi-truck. Impossible!
What the heck is a semi doing on a bridge this small anyway?
Its like slow motion. The semi catches fire and the blazes burn bright red until they seem cemented into my vision. The truck shakes violently. It topples to its side and the impact rocks the entire bridge. The jostle moves our car even closer to the edge.
Closer. Closer. Closer.
The fire slowly melts the wood on the bridge and I feel it breaking before I can hear it.
We are falling.
We are falling faster than I’d ever thought possible.
The airbag explodes as our car shoots down into the dark oblivion below.
I vaguely hear Elsa finishing her song.
I wish I could be so carefree.
Comentarios