Flying

I slide across the sun-warmed leather seats and turn the radio volume all the way up. Pounding, thumping bass fills the interior of my small car. I bang on the steering wheel in time to the beat, pounding out my rage. Turning the key in the ignition, I peel out of the parking space and head toward the school gate with the gas pedal pushed to the floor.

"CRASH!" I blow through the white painted bars and jerk the steering wheel, then turn the corner on two wheels, taking the side mirror off a silver Honda. I can hear the security guard yelling alternately at me and into a walkie talkie through the open window. The wind blows empty McDonald's wrappers into my face and tosses them around the floor. The police will be after me soon, I know, but right now the pain is so bad, I could care less.

As I hit seventy miles per hour and blast through a red light, all I can think about is her. I can see her face, so angry and distorted as she tells me it's over. I hear her voice, harsh and unforgiving. How could she do this to me? After nearly three years! Heartless, maniacal woman. Does she even realize what she has done to me? What she meant to me? A wracking sob rips through my body. I let the hot, angry tears flow, not watching the road I fly down, not hearing the honking horns, not smelling the burning rubber of my tires, until I hear the sirens.

Reflected in my rearview mirror are red and blue lights. Good, let them come. They will eventually catch me, but why not give them a chase before they lock me away? An eerie smile spreads across my face as I whip the wheel to the left, cutting across two lanes of traffic and finally bouncing onto a neglected road. Rocks smack against the side of my little car in time to the music. The dust whips and whirls around the tires. "Why me? Why me? Why me?" I shriek into the wind, coming up with nothing except a mouthful of dust. "Who do you think you are, treating me like I am nothing to you? Do you think that you can just toss me aside like a rotten banana? Well I'm going to show you! You will pay for breaking my heart, I swear it!"

Now the police cars are closing in. I can just barely hear the sirens over the jouncing of the car and the music. I laugh like a maniac while I press down on the gas pedal with all my strength. The car and I leap forward like a cheetah on a hunt . A strange calm comes over me as I watch the police cars fall farther and farther behind in the whirlwind of dust I have kicked up. I am strong, they can't hurt me, yet I can hurt them. I am more powerful than them, just look at them fall behind like snails, bright flashing lights receding into the distance.

Suddenly my right front tire drops off into nothingness. I scramble for the brake, but it is too late. In the next instant, my entire car is launched into empty space. My thoughts of just a few moments ago dissipate like dandelion fluff in the wind as I fly off the deserted bridge into the deep canyon below. I feel my stomach turn, but, strangely, I feel nothing else. I like not feeling anything. I am flying, totally weightless, unafraid. The music is still blasting from the radio and now I can see flashing lights in the distance. The gaping void beckons me and I hurtle down, down, down into the nothingness. But I fly.