“You can’t see anything going that fast, especially at night.”
“You can see everything going that fast, especially at night.”
Nora has no idea what Jack means. He drives the speed limit back to her apartment and drops her off.
Jack doesn’t have plans for the rest of the night, so he decides to drive to Matt’s. There’s always something going on out there. Zooming onto the dark highway again, this time alone, Jack blasts his music.
Nora… She and Jack talked at school, but tonight was their first time to see each other outside of that. She’s smart, nice, pretty…
Jack loves the straight road to Matt’s. It gives him a chance to really see what his new car can do. Knowing a great stretch is coming, he turns up his music even louder and presses the gas. Hands 10 and 2, he lets himself float into the music, feeling the world blur into him, both under his control and completely out of it.
He checks his speed. 145. This is the fastest he’s gone yet, but he wants to make 150. About 15 more seconds until he reaches the fork where he’ll curve right for Matt’s road. He presses the gas a little more…
And then the yellow reflection of the sign marking the fork flashes. He slams the brakes and whips to make the turn. The horizontal world becomes vertical, horizontal, vertical, horizontalvertical horizonvert horizon–
His seatbelt bites his hips and shoulder. The window slaps his arms and something punches him in the face. He can’t see. His ears explode with banging and crunching –
Then everything quiets. He still moves forward, though, body unfurling, flipping feet over head again and again. A whisper kisses his ears, and a whoosh caresses his skin. Wind’s fingers brush through his hair. Messy somersaults turn into slow front flips and then he finally levels out to a prone position.
Still blind, Jack realizes he might just need to open his eyes. When he dares try it, he sees a blur of night-time green. Grass? No, trees, and they’re split by the empty blackness of the highway. From here, reflective safety paint and signs dull to the moon and stars. Flying forward, Jack looks over his shoulder and sees a long scar of dirt ending in a mess of metal, crumpled branches, and a splintered trunk.
He dips his fingers up into the sky, forming ripples like a midnight boat ride. He reaches down to pet the soft treetops. He can’t help but chuckle as he tries to zoom along faster, wanting to see more.
In the distance, Jack sees the streetlights of town and thinks of Nora, worries she’ll miss him. He wishes she could see all of this with him now too, but she’s not ready. Nora still has enough energy to remain under the fluorescent lights for many more years. Jack illuminated the darkness, created and burned all his energy in a single burst, taking only a quarter of the time Nora will need to burn her fire one year at a time.
Image: Steering Wheel and dials in a red sporty car from pixabay.com
literally stories 
Kayla
The sudden transformation from a human meteor to debris is very well done. His still “flying” afterwards is true to his nature.
The cliche live fast, die young (maybe omitting the good looking corpse part, all things considered) means more to some than something written on a tee-shirt. Many feel that way, but most never do it.
Leila
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Sharp and sudden, just like a real accident and what I liked about this was that it wasn’t morose or a tearjerker, that was refreshing. Still though – drive safely and all that. Well done – thank you – dd
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‘He dips his fingers up into the sky, forming ripples like a midnight boat ride’ – a stupid teenage traffic fatality is transformed by fine writing – thank you.
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Well crafted and descriptively bang on, the passage where the car flips over in particular. I’m not a big fan of the ‘live fast die young’ ethos myself, but Jack’s demise was nicely handled. Another good read to kick off the week!
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The accident is vividly portrayed yet restrained. The description of dying also is well done. Best of all: the excellent ending.
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Yes. There was Jack. And there was Nora. After a while, she wouldn’t be, either. What’s left?
“That which is, is. That which is not, is not.” – Parmenides. But he sure doesn’t write like you, Kayla! — Gerry
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A case of “Hit The Road, Jack,” come to life, literally. Wistful and lyrical ending to a car crash. I had a friend who experienced something like this, the slowing down, the surreal sensation, although he lived.
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Hi Kayla,
The live fast die young has been mentioned a few times.
Is living slow and choking on your Horlicks any better??
We all know what we should and shouldn’t do but the shouldn’t is a damn sight more fun!!
This says a helluva lot in so little words!!
Excellent!!
Hugh
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This was like a song! Great writing to make a car crash poetic and melodic like this.
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Thank you so much for all the comments! As my first publication, it’s been amazing seeing Jack’s story come to “life” through readers.
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Sharp, suitably clipped writing – a good, somehow winsome story that is kind of the definition of ‘going nowhere fast’.
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This story is so powerful and so beautifully written. Wow! Great job!
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Just read this and am so proud of the way it’s written. Your imagination turns a horrible tragedy into an intellectual magnet. You certainly have become a wordsmith… Keep writing young lady, it becomes you!….
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