Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Drifting
The rain turns from heavy to deadly. What was a heavy sheet of rain is now thousand of jagged ice spears.
He knows that he should slow, he doesn’t care.
The tires are good, he’s gone this way thousands of times. He’ll be over the pass soon, in 15 minutes there won’t be any more curves.
Up the mountain he goes, steady on the gas around the curves and switch backs. No sudden action, no jerky steering, no touching of his brakes.
He’s confident, stable, capable. Yet down comes the ice, covering the tarmac in a deadly beautiful shine.
The temperature drops further. The moisture that was already on the road hardens. It’s invisible in the dusk. The only thing that shows that the road might not be safe is the glint of his headlights.
Through the pass now, on his way down. Danger averted. Eyes to the side slightly to see down into the valley.
One second too long.
The curve he’d been following to the left keeps going left. The tires loose all connection with the road, now covered thickly in ice. The car goes right.
The guardrail, so sturdy looking, shears off instantly, slightly slowing the car, jarring the man who had just been driving. Now he was merely a rider, no control, nothing he can do.
The airbag goes off, the car already tilting down the incline. Whiteness, powder, the smell of plastic long package, instantly deployed with a gas charge.
He feels the drop.
He knows the car is falling.
He can’t hear anything but the lack of a heart beat.
The car hits a tree, the seat belt clicks loose. It never worked right, he never really cared.
He cares now.
Another tree, he feels the car spinning now. Rotating, rear over the front.
He’s floating, the car spins, he remains in the same position.
Then the car is past its apogee, and he’s against the back window.
Then he and the window aren’t with the car.
Sight returns, murky, red. Stuck against the back window, miraculously whole. He watches the car careen off yet another tree, spinning away from him.
The ground comes quickly, but not as hard as he thought it would.
He slides with the window, stills somehow whole.
A tree halts his progress.
The window doesn’t make it through this time.
There is no pain. There is no feeling.
He hears his heartbeat again.
His eyes close, there’s only darkness.