AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then it happens.
Our little car comes around a bend into the frame mere moments before a large truck comes swerving from the other direction and slams into its side. There’s no sound to the tape, but I can still hear the vivid crunch of metal as our car is slammed through an opening in the trees before coming to an abrupt stop, the large truck blocking most of it from view.
Another set of headlights appears at the edge of the screen before a figure races towards the payphone. I see her frantically gesturing with her hands as she speaks to what I know is the emergency line, her light-colored hair blowing slightly in the wind with the phone covering her face, but she never turns towards the camera.
That’s when I notice that our little car has started to fall out of sight, the weight of the metal frame dragging me and my father into a perilous spin down the edge of the cliffside. The truck still hasn’t moved and I see the woman slam the phone down and race back to her own car before backing away, the small view of her headlights disappearing completely.
The scene is still for a minute or more longer, only the bright white buzzing of insects in front of the camera and the time lapse in the corner showing that any time is passing at all. The driver’s side of the truck finally slams open and a young man stumbles to his knees on the ground, immediately emptying the contents of his stomach before falling to his face and not moving at all.
After another twenty minutes passes with nothing of note occurring, sped up on the screen for our viewing pleasure, the video ends.
We sit in silence, digesting what we just witnessed. My chest is tight and painfully sharp as I struggle to hold back the torrent of sobs that are pressing against my throat. It’s like a wound has just been reopened after being scarred for so long. Every moment of fear that encapsulated me when it happened is racing through me now, as if it’s still happening in real time.
If she had stayed…
If the man hadn’t passed out…
If someone had done something, anythingat all, my dad would still be here. They could have saved him. There was time to find us, to stem the flow of his blood, to give the paramedics time to get there. But they didn’t.
She didn’t stay.
He was too drunk.
The knowledge makes my tongue taste of ash and despair, my mouth so dry I can’t even swallow. Every miniscule part of me is screaming out in pain as if acid were burning a trail through my veins. To know–to see–that there was time for someone to come to his rescue wreaks havoc on my heart, splintering the broken thing and shoving the pieces into my bloodstream.
Instead of a hero coming to save him, he died alone at the bottom of the cliff that could have easily been scaled on foot. Instead of being held or reassured, he succumbed to his injuries and he had to pass on without the comforting knowledge that I was alive.
One fool’s drunken mistake led to the end of my sight, but one selfish cunt’s motivations led to his death.
“Well then…” Kai is the first to speak, his tone solemn and even.
“Yeah.”
“That really didn’t give us more than we already knew, did it?” Kai states the obvious and I straighten in my seat, only now realizing that my connection with Ezra has cut off and my head is pounding with the effects of my overexertion.
“Other than the fact that there was plenty of time for someone to save my dad, but they didn’t? Nope, not really.” My tone is bitter and cold, not an ounce of joy left in me, and I don’t sound like myself at all. It shocks me out of my stupor, breathing a little life into my limbs as if to remind me of the men surrounding me, the ones who have somehow become integral parts of my life.
I’m not alone.
“Where do we go from here?” Kai questions, voice solemn, and I sigh deeply.
“It’s time for us to visit dear old Uncle B.”
“Who?” Nic is the one who answers me and I turn in his direction.
“My dad’s best friend, Walker Brooks, AKA Uncle B. If anyone would know anything about the car wreck or anything pertaining to my dad that isn’t public knowledge, it’ll be him.”
Please God, let him know something.
20
“Kai, can you come here?” I yell out to the hall from my bedroom.
Tomorrow is a big day. I got a hold of Uncle B and he’s meeting us for brunch at my dad’s old stomping grounds. Apparently, they went there together at least once a week before he passed away. But for now…I have a wrong I need to right.
“I swear it wasn’t me who left the seat up!” Kai rushes into the room and I wave his words away, stepping to the side and shutting the door behind us. “Ooh, are we getting frisky? I’m down!”
“Oh my God, Kai. No!” I giggle leaning against the door, my pulse frantic, blood rushing through my eardrums, making it hard to hear. “I just want to talk to you.”
