The car slammed with such a force the rear driver side caved in and a piece of the door's frame shot out and pierced his thigh. A car had run the intersection light and nearly bisected his own SUV.
Boyd looked at his leg, mesmerized at how a rusted piece of metal could go so deep and through without blood pouring. The paramedics would later tell him that it missed nearly all blood vessels and punctured not a vein and went through muscle. Boyd would recall his biology class where they had to dissect a frog and he remembered where the hunk of steel had gone between tendons.
What luck.
Boyd gasped for air and stared up at the bloody pulp which was the other driver's face. It had launched through his windshield with such force the glass caved in but cobwebbed into his cabin. The man was young. A neck tattoo was the first identifying mark that it was even a human face. Though the glass had already carved gashes in its face. A faint breathing came from what was once a nostril. The eyeball drooped low but laid pressed to the glass. He saw something glitter against the web pattern and later remembered it as teeth. Broken from impact which grinned like a jack o' lantern. The face sucked in air, as Boyd watch it slowly take its last breath. The face had expired.
There.
Right next to his own face.
The impact was so sudden he didn't have time to realize all the change in his ashtray was scattered. Boyd struggled over to pick up a quarter. With pained effort, he flat-ended the change and pressed it against the jagged metal pole that stuck out from his leg for leverage. Nothing. It would not budge. There it stuck. And there it remained.
He heard some voices outside his car. Boyd caught a glimpse of his left ring finger bent back awkwardly. Relieved that his marriage band was still there.
"oh my god!" he heard muffled voices.
"Call someone!"
And it was late at night. Or was it early morning. Time froze at that point. Boyd replayed the accident over and over again. Yes, the dead body ran a light. But where did it need to go? Were people expecting him? That neck tattoo would most likely come in handy now. He laughed to himself. Anything to take his mind off his own condition. Sickened a little that he had survived where another had died.
Then he heard the familiar voice.
"Oh my god Boyd!"
It may have felt time slowed during impact but after a catastrophic accident, time doesn't make sense...
it was his girlfriend Paige.
A buxom brunette with sad clown eyes peered through the wreckage. Her mouth contorted to a look of absolute horror. Paige. A pretty girl with a pretty name. He could smell her shampoo from here. Lilac summer and lavender. It comforted him. The warmth of that scent. Feminine.
Boyd could hardly speak. The steering wheel was jammed against his chest. And he was gasping for air. Slowly as to maintain oxygen flow. Something he learned during trauma, is to not panic. Thank you Boy Scouts.
But it didn't matter much as he felt like a blob of jelly at this moment. Every bone ached as the brain began to scale back on adrenaline. Something on the floor had had his most attention. The focus most likely saved his life. His phone laid open. He loved vintage flip phones. It was open and it had autodialed Paige. He concluded that it must have been the impact that did so. He wasn't about to look a miracle in the mouth.
Slowly the fire department pried the door from it's hinges. A crowd of homeless had gathered next to a few drivers that stopped to gawk at the corpse from the other car, now impaled in his windshield.
Boyd felt something warm go down his leg, a blood trail began a dripping puddle beneath him and he felt faint.
The EMT got in his face "Stay awake...you cannot pass out...we'll get you out soon"
The firemen edged into the crushed metal and deftly removed the door. Boyd collapsed into the EMT's arms. They hurriedly fastened him to the gurney. Secured his neck. They had left the trimmed metal in his leg as the pressure was the only thing keeping him from bleeding out. Along the short distance, Stephanie looked down from her crystal green eyes "it's okay honey. I'll wait for you at the hospital. I love you."
Boyd had no voice to speak. Had no energy to do so regardless.
Once in the ambulance, the EMT that talked him through his consciousness hooked up an IV.
"You know where you are?" Yes.
"You know who you are?" Yes.
"What day is it?" Sunday
And so it went.
They seemed to have relaxed once the siren blasted on.
The guardian angel EMT patted Boyd on the shoulder "brother, this is your lucky day. Someone was watching over you."
It's not their fault they didn't know.
The secret that died in that twisted car.
Boyd was on his way to murder Paige. Earlier that day he had accidentally switched phones with her and received a phone call from one of her lovers.
One of them. Out of many.
As Boyd searched her contacts, the more men's names popped up. None of which he was familiar with in the 10 years they had been married.
The very same phone that autodialed his number.
Drugs will later make him forget that he felt the cosmic universe speaking to him as the odds of the phone calling her to alert her of his accident. That this may have meant they were meant to be together forever. Though she may have thought it was some other lover.
Or the fact that she had his phone and felt a sense of fear once she realized he had her phone. Flip phones. Who could tell back then?
It most definitely made him forget the murderous rage he felt the instant he realized how short life is and how quickly it could be taken away.
Flip phones...
...
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