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1
ALICE
A funny thing happens when you smash through a barrier and descend into a ravine two hundred feet below.
Gravity ceases to exist. You float up out of your seat, held in place only by a flimsy seatbelt. Time slows and you have eons to think, knowing your end is approaching, and you can’t do a damn thing to prevent it.
Death waits patiently below, skeletal arms outstretched, ready to catch you the moment the minivan’s whining engine explodes and what had been your innards suddenly become your outards.
Even sound slows. In the passenger seats, your friends’ screams could be the mating call of distant whales.
What they told you about your life flashing before your eyes? It’s true. The only part they got wrong was it’s not the past that catches up to you but the life you could have had.
Believe me, that’s a good thing. My life had been flaccid and dull up til now. Getting chased over the edge of a cliff by a UFO is easily the most interesting thing to have ever happened to me.
I see all the things I could have done, all the things that might have happened.
That hot guy I spoke to at that bar that time who gave me the cold shoulder? He could leave me a message on my cellphone that I’ll read the moment I get home.
Oh, and that job I applied for last month? They could want me to start next Monday at a salary ten times what I currently earn writing.
And that upper-class private school I dreamed of sending my as-yet-unborn children to if only I had the money? Now, I can afford it.
A million avenues of possibility I could have taken, none of which can ever happen. Because in less than thirty seconds of real time, I’m going to be dead.
I find myself wondering if my girlfriends in the other seats are thinking the same thing.
Hazel in the front passenger seat beside me, whose wedding tomorrow we’ve been celebrating all weekend, will no doubt be thinking about her fiancé and the future she’ll now miss out on.
Sirena and Bianca, immediately behind us. They’ll be thinking about boys and—
Oh dear. The huge black rocks in the front windshield have grown so large they’re all I can see. I send my best wishes to all four girls in the back, held my breath, and stupidly raised my arms over my head—as if that’s going to help cushion the blow.
Out of nowhere, a bright light filled every inch of the minivan and I jerked forward in my seat, hanging suspended, my arms and legs and hair hanging down as if God pushed the Pause button.
We’re no more than a few yards from the rocks and certain death. I wonder if this was what happened the instant you died. Heaven—God, I sure hope it’s heaven!—sends a spotlight to vacuum up your soul. I’ve seen the movie, Ghost. Why couldn’t that happen?
Any second now, we’ll sail up into that light, zooming up faster and faster until we’re standing on fluffy cloud shores and basking in warm sunlight. I hope they serve alcohol up there.
Then the moment stretched a little too long, and I turned my head to peer at Hazel…
Except, I can’t. My head is frozen, trapped in place. I peered out the corner of my eyes at her, floating like a fat gob of oil in a lava lamp. Her fingers gripped the dashboard so tight they’d embedded themselves in the plastic.
Good luck getting the deposit back, I thought idly before recalling our situation.
A stray tube of lipstick hit me in the face. I tried to speak but my lips won’t move either. I can only grunt at the back of my throat:
“Id… ederybody… okay?”
“No…” Hazel and the girls in the back said.
“Why… are… ve… flotting… here?” Hazel said.
“I… don’th… know,” I said. “Why… can’t… ve… talk… proderly?”
The doors creaked, groaning loudly, then snapped open, the bolts pinging outside. We squealed in terror and struggled against our invisible bonds, but it was no use. We couldn’t move a muscle.
Hazel’s head bumped on the ceiling and she turned toward me. Her eyes were wide with fear. Even in her frozen state, I could tell she was terrified. I wanted to reach for her, wanted to grab her by the hand and keep her safe. But it was okay, I thought. The seatbelts would hold us firmly in place.
