Life as we know it
Can change in a less than a heartbeat.
Raindrops. So many.
I was driving home earlier. It was not a less or a more significant drive than usual, not counting the pouring rain.
The road was clear, just a few cars. I like to guess where are people headed to, what they are up to when I see them.
Going home from work?
Going to a party?
Simply driving around with friends for fun?
Driving to their lovers?
Coming home to an empty house?
I let my thoughts wander, as I see the blinker signals of the car just ahead of me. I am thinking about the lovely day I’d just spent with my mom and gran. About the paintings we created. About the pouring rain, and think that there is possibly a flooded area ahead.
Now as I slow down, I hear the raindrops even more clearly, ticking on the roof of the car. I note how pretty it looks around with all the blinking lights, and the colours from the banners in town.
We have come to a fullstop on the highway, and I see people coming out of their cars, going ahead and later getting back in. I am not surprised that they are not inclined to stay out there in the pouring rain. I decide to ask the closest to me group what do is happening out there. And they tell me.
There is a car crash ahead. It had happened just moments before, just a few cars ahead of me. As I pass through the ruins after we’d let the emergency teams pass through, I cannot even tell how many cars are ruined.
Bright yellow jacket on the lane. Bumpers. Tires. Unidentifiable for my untrained eye car parts. Shattered glass… are scattered all around. One (or two?) cars are smashed against a tree next to the road, and there is another one further ahead on the lane. It looks like a large piece of scrap.
I don’t linger. I cannot help with anything else right now. Anything but leave as soon as possible, free up space for those who can.
Briefly I consider the people whose job it is to come and see such scenes every day, every night. What could be going through their heads?
All I know is, I am here, now. Life can change in a heartbeat.
Enjoy the sun, that yummy heat on the skin.
Enjoy the coffee in the morning.
Enjoy waiting in that queue.
Enjoy being bored.
Enjoy the feeling of breathing, of being whole.
Enjoy life — the rain. The sound of key strokes in the room. The dropped glass. The leaking sink.
Yours truly,
A.
