Fuck the redlight. I wish I could keep driving into the distance, I wish the road would never end and I could pass up the airport and not have to say goodbye. Her favorite song was playing. But it was my favorite because it was her favorite. She didn't sing well, but she didn't care and neither did I. She simply sang and it made the most beautiful noise I would ever hear or care to hear. The airport was getting ever closer with each revolution of the tires, and I tried shoving thoughts into my head as long as they didn't make me go back to the only truth: she would be leaving soon. What was the acceleration of my feet as I ran so many miles in so few minutes? Could you calculate the velocity of my heart beating the closer we became to each others lips? It was foolish to try and mask my thoughts so I emptied my head and just listened to her voice some more. Her words didn't make much sense but they were hers.

And there was the redlight.

I waited for the longest minute of my life for the light to change from foreboding red to telling green, which soon became jealousy. Jealous that the flight attendant would see her and I wouldn't. Please buckle your seat belt as we prepare for take off. Please turn off all electronics. And who would be sitting next to her? What chance of conversation would they strike up, and in that time she would forget about me?

A warm touch brought me back to my senses, and she was looking into my eyes a strange and sad look. It wasn't until too late did I realize she wasn't sad about leaving but rather looking in horror at the headlights heading toward us in the middle of intersection. The metal curled with an agonizing shriek; or maybe that was her screaming. The shattered glass was flying around like confetti at a child's party yet it stuck all the same to our faces. I could hardly move to look at her, but she wasn't conscious. And from my inverted position, my fuzzy vision, I could see a green light switching to red.

Labels: fiction junction