Contributor: Samantha Eaton
- -
It’s something you say thousands of times in the course of your life, but most of the time you don’t really mean it.
You didn’t mean it when you spilt your coffee all over the nice white table cloth at lunch. You didn’t mean it when you ran into that lady with her arms full of files. You didn’t mean it when you stepped on your friend’s foot.
However, you do mean it when you say it now. You look to your right and you look back behind you at the three sets of wide eyes that belong to your friends.
You all brace yourselves as you feel the car move on its own accord, or maybe the ice beneath was pushing the car off the road. The slim shoulder isn’t enough to stop you, your friends, and your car from tipping over the edge. Then you are in free fall, and you have never felt so trapped in all your life. Through the windshield, you watch the sky and the icy mountain stuck in an endless spin-cycle.
It could have been hours or it could have been seconds that you were tumbling, but it doesn’t matter because, though it really isn’t your fault, it is.
Are the lives’ of your friends replaying before their eyes? Did you remember to check if everyone was securely fastened in their seats before you took the car out of park?
Suddenly, the car crashes to a stop, tire-side down. You don’t yet feel the cold slowly seeping into the car because you are still wondering if you are alive.
You turn and check for the well-being of your friends before you check yourself. You can’t hear anything but a slow ringing in your ears. Or maybe you cannot hear because someone was screaming too loud.
Through the newly broken windshield, you look out and notice that the snow is still gently falling, as if nothing had happened at all.
- - -
I am an undergraduate student at the University of Northern Iowa. I love both reading and writing. I like sharing my work with others in hopes that they enjoy it as much as I do.
- -
It’s something you say thousands of times in the course of your life, but most of the time you don’t really mean it.
You didn’t mean it when you spilt your coffee all over the nice white table cloth at lunch. You didn’t mean it when you ran into that lady with her arms full of files. You didn’t mean it when you stepped on your friend’s foot.
However, you do mean it when you say it now. You look to your right and you look back behind you at the three sets of wide eyes that belong to your friends.
You all brace yourselves as you feel the car move on its own accord, or maybe the ice beneath was pushing the car off the road. The slim shoulder isn’t enough to stop you, your friends, and your car from tipping over the edge. Then you are in free fall, and you have never felt so trapped in all your life. Through the windshield, you watch the sky and the icy mountain stuck in an endless spin-cycle.
It could have been hours or it could have been seconds that you were tumbling, but it doesn’t matter because, though it really isn’t your fault, it is.
Are the lives’ of your friends replaying before their eyes? Did you remember to check if everyone was securely fastened in their seats before you took the car out of park?
Suddenly, the car crashes to a stop, tire-side down. You don’t yet feel the cold slowly seeping into the car because you are still wondering if you are alive.
You turn and check for the well-being of your friends before you check yourself. You can’t hear anything but a slow ringing in your ears. Or maybe you cannot hear because someone was screaming too loud.
Through the newly broken windshield, you look out and notice that the snow is still gently falling, as if nothing had happened at all.
- - -
I am an undergraduate student at the University of Northern Iowa. I love both reading and writing. I like sharing my work with others in hopes that they enjoy it as much as I do.
Author:
Samantha Eaton
This is such a beautiful piece of flash fiction. My favorite part is the last three paragraphs; I feel they are especially eloquently written. I also like how the author never writes "I'm so sorry" in the actual work, only in the title.
I love the profoundness of emotions this pulls when I read it. You don't anticipate how meanings vary with common phrases such as this until it really counts. Great job!
What a meaningful well written way of describing an event that happened so quickly. Well done Samantha!!