Bits 'n' pieces

Crash

There's just something about the moon, I don't know what, but there was something. It was beautiful, that's for sure. No one could persuade me otherwise. Maybe it was the way the rock glowed, lighting up the sky and casting its diamond-blue glow down to earth and to my eyes, shimmering across the childish gleam in my eyes. Or maybe it was the way it made time seem like a forgotten memory.

Unfortunately, not in this case.

We had been on the road for hours. I don't know how dad did it: driving all day with only a few ten-minute breaks in every couple of hours. But what I don't understand is why we're on this road. I could be at home, in my bed, curled up in my blankets. But no. We just had to go on a father-daughter bonding trip to the Sunshine Coast. Lame!

I turned to the grey-haired man in the seat next to me.

"Are we there yet?" I complained.

"Not yet, Honey. But we're close," he replied, taking his eyes of the road for a second. "Just think of all the fun we'll have. The beaches, the shops, the sun. Who knows? You might find a boyfriend."

I rolled my eyes and turned away, once again looking out the window at the moon.

"I prefer the night sky," I told him. "And my friends back home."

I heard him sigh. "Listen, Honey. I'm sorry this isn't some night club for you to get drunk, but I just want to spend some time with my daughter."

"Well, maybe if you didn't spend so much time working, I could see you at the dinner table, or before school."

He didn't say anything, but I still had some words left. "Maybe Mom wouldn't have left."

I heard his sharp intake of breath as he swerved a little to the left. He hated talking about my mother. He knew he was the reason she left, and he hated it. When he drove her away, he didn't care that she was my best friend, he didn't care that she was my support when the darkness came. He didn't care that she never came back from the motorway. He didn't care that to me she was the moon in the night sky.

And he was the darkness.

"Now, you listen here. Your mother left on her own accord. I did nothing- "

"Exactly! You did nothing. You just sat at that office working your life away. You just sat at that office watching as we lived without you. You sat at that table and watched as Mom left. But it should have been you!"

"Cassidy! That is enough! I will not have this sort of behaviour in my car. You are the teenager and I am the father. You will listen to me."

"I hate you!"

If he was going to say something I'd never know. I may have known; had we not been interrupted by the sudden jerk of the car. We were both thrown forward into the dashboard. I couldn't feel the impact due to my being high on adrenaline. But everything was starting to blur, colours started to mix and blend together. I couldn't make a definite shape out of any of them.

However, before I could recover from the first jerking of the car, horns roared as the sounds closed in on me. They ignited a fire in my head, burning brighter and brighter, like the lights heading towards our car.

I couldn't even open my mouth to scream before we collided with said lights.

Much of it was a blur after that. I just remember feeling the wind throwing me in every direction like I was an old, torn up rag-doll.

Now, I lay here in the passenger seat in the car, somehow looking up into the sky. I was alone. I could tell from the lack of movement next to me, though the metallic stench couldn't be missed, even in my semi-conscious condition. Things were fading in and out of focus, everything would go black then light up again, but there was one thing that always stayed.

The moon.

It shone down on me, brighter than it was before. But it looked different. The craters seemed to form a shape. Focussing in on it I could see a face. The face of my mother. She was as beautiful as the day she left us.

Something grabbed at my arm, gentle and soft, the ice cold feeling only sent panic through my body. In my lifeless state I slowly turned my head side to side. I was standing on the motor way, surrounded by pale bodies. They ranged from child to adult, but most of them consisted of young teenagers around my age. They had suffered the same fate I had. I turned around to see who had dragged me out of the wreckage.

"Mom..."