My eyes took in the road, the guardrails on both sides of the pavement, the trees beyond that. I knew this stretch of road. There was no place for me to go until Denise Street and Colerain, and that was nearly a half mile ahead. I’d never make it.
The light of their high beams crept up the pavement, first behind me, then even, then they lit up the road ahead turning the rain into a white curtain, a wall.
The SUV revved again, it sounded like it was right on top of me and I dared not look back.
The driver hit the horn and held the button down, a shrill scream.
Then they hit me.
They hit me hard.
The SUV slammed into the back tire of my bike and jerked to the left with a force strong enough to launch me from the road and over the metal guardrail. Everything got deathly silent, and the next second seemed to drag on for an hour.
With the impact, I lost the radio as well as my grip on the handlebars. The seat disappeared beneath me. I crashed into the ground, landing on my right shoulder with a sickening crunch. My leg folded up under me, then got yanked back out straight as I rolled. I’m not sure what happened after my head hit the ground. All went real quiet.
2
The dream.
Daddy fastened me into my car seat.
Chocolate milk.
Outside Auntie Jo’s apartment.
Daddy opened my door.
Daddy removed something from the seat beside me, gave that something to Auntie Jo.
Something.
Unknown something.
Driving again.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, Jack?”
“What was in the box?”
“What box?”
“The box you gave Auntie Jo.”
“Oh, that box,” he dad replied. “Nothing, Jack. Nothing at all.”
White SUV in our path.
White SUV blocking the road.
“Why would you give Auntie Jo a box of nothing?”
Awful squeal of tires.
“Not now, Jack. Daddy’s busy.”
3
