I stepped into the front-seat of my hand-me-down car after school. The day had been overwhelming. It was the end of the year. My days were crammed full of exams and last minute lessons are teachers had forgotten. All I wanted was to escape. As I sat in my car just starring out the dashboard the parking lot emptied; leaving only me and the people at practice for sports teams.


I turned on the radio, as the loud, meaningless music drowned out the rest of the world I began to become like an empty vase with a lid. You would think it was full, but if you opened it darkness would meet you. That is what I was, an empty vase I was there but only in the physical state. My mind was absolutely blank.


I didn’t need to be anywhere, so I drifted to the land of dreams. For awhile I slept, and then I thought I woke up. I ruled out that I was awake, because the scene that unfolded when my eye lids fluttered open was to horrible to belong anywhere but in a nightmare. I knew it had to be a dream because the horrible images ceased to exist there was only blackness again.


Then instead of me being like an empty vase, I was like to liquid that was once inside of a vase but was spilled everywhere when the vase was broken. I was present mentally, but not physically. I could think and wonder, but I could not feel. I would compare it to being a soul.


After this trance-like state I began to feel. This physical ability was not in the form of feeling your toes wiggle, but just a pain that slowly gained strength. I no longer could think of anything but the pain. I knew there was movement and sound going on around me but all I could feel, hear, see, and think about was the pain.


I felt a small prick on my left arm, and then slowly, thankfully the pain receded. I was overjoyed until I became only a soul again, a bodiless being floating in space. Then slowly I regained my feeling. I cringed internally at the thought of the extreme onslaught of pain, but the pain was milder, less defined.


I began to regain all of my senses and realized I was not in my car anymore. My mind began to race as I thought of what horrible thing must have happened to me. Then I remembered the nightmare; the reality that I had thought to terrible to be real. I new what had happened to me and where I was.


I was in a hospital; probably the ICU. I painfully went thorough the events that had led to this tragedy.


I had sat in my car listening to music after school, and I had fallen asleep. An enormous van had rammed into the side of the car I was sitting on and then spun and hit the front. I had been trapped in my car. The EMTS had struggled to pry me out of the mangled heap of metal my car had become. Then I had slid into unconsciousness.


I heard voices, but couldn’t quite put the words together. Then I heard the words, and unfamiliar voice said, “Her brain waves are increasing she should wake up”. I happily thought I’m alive! Then came a voice that was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The mystery person said, “Honey, squeeze my hand if you can hear me” I wanted to yell I’m here, but I couldn’t. Instead I tried to find my hand and move it. I found it and felt the presence of someone else’s hand in it but I couldn’t squeeze. I tried desperately to squeeze the hand, but I all I could muster up was to wiggle a few fingers.


I didn’t think it would be enough, but it was. I heard tears flowing down a cheek and felt each warm drop on my hand. The voice said, “Baby open your eyes, if you can”. I immediately tried to obey, and sent all of my strength to my eyes and at last, with a great deal of effort, they opened. I then new who the mystery person was, it was my boyfriend. He said, “We’ve been waiting for you” and I replied with a smile as I noticed my parents standing behind him.


I dug inside myself to find the energy to whisper, “Why did the van hit me?” Edward gently answered, “She was texting, we didn’t think you’d remember any of it” I said, “Who was it?” He answered solemnly, “It was Jenny”. I didn’t need any more of explanation, as soon as I heard my best friend’s name she’d been forgiven all I wanted to know was if she was okay. I quickly gasped, “Is she okay?” Edward looked to the other side of the room and then back, but he just sighed.


I turned my head to look, and saw my best friend. She was covered in bandages, tubes, and braces. I gasped and sunk back to my pillow. Edward gasped in shock and quickly brought me back and said, “She will be okay!”


He then said, “She’s not much worse than you”. That was the first time I’d noticed the bandages, tubes, and casts covering my body. The next day I awoke to find my friend missing and said in a panic, “Where is she?” Edward slowly replied that she had died. I froze and became the empty vase again.


Edward quickly pressed a button and nearly screamed, “Help!” Nurses came rushing in and revived me to myself again. I had gone into shock.


I was released from the hospital a few days later, but I was confined to a wheel chair. Edward was trying to lift my spirits and said, “I push you anywhere you want, even up the Eiffel Tower!”


The next day I went to Jenny’s funeral and everyone there asked how I was doing and how badly I was hurt. I remained silent so Edward answered most of these questions.


A few days later I was nearly back to myself except for all the casts, and Edward held good on his promise. He pushed me everywhere that I wanted to go.