The thunder was scaring the hell out of me. I got into the backseat of the car and my father drove off as soon as the door closed. I was looking out the window, keeping my eyes as far away from the front as possible. When our eyes met, my father’s gaze pierced through mine, revealing his hatred for me. Outside, dark clouds gathered together, heralding the rain. A few seconds after it became brighter, the sky rumbled again. Startled, I leaned my head back against the seat to calm myself, closed my eyes, and tried to keep my attention away from the thunder. When I came to my senses a little, I heard a rattling noise coming from the roof of the car. It was getting louder and faster every second.
I opened my eyes. I was facing a pair of eyes looking at me through the twin mirrors. They were burying me in the seat of the car. I quickly averted my eyes out of fear and looked at the window. Drops were falling, hitting the glass of the window. One was leaving and another was filling its place. As I watched the drops drip, I sat up and started to look behind the drops. Streetlamps illuminated the darkness of the night.
At the end of the street we turned right. This road led to where my mother worked. When we reached the middle of the street, my father pulled the car to the curb. I looked up at the lights where my mother worked. I could see a silhouette at the half-open door. My father’s patience was quickly wearing thin. He honked the car horn fiercely for my mother to come to me. At the last honk, a second silhouette appeared in front of the door. As they stepped out of the half-open door, the silhouette on the right opened the umbrella in his hand. Both of them were coming towards us under the umbrella. As they got closer, I could make out that the person on the left was my mother. A man who worked with my mother was escorting her to the car so she wouldn’t get wet. When they came up to us, I saw my mother’s warm smile through the window. She had a smile in her eyes. She thanked him and opened the front door. The man took wide steps back and she closed the door behind him.
The car had just started to move when my father started to roar.
“Didn’t I tell you not to be with another man?”
“William, I wasn’t with another man.”
My father swung his right hand toward my mother wildly. “What the fuck was that earlier!”
I couldn’t see where he was hitting her. It was one of those arguments he always had, for no reason. He was hurting her in the name of jealousy.
“He was just trying to be nice…” My mother’s voice was shaking.
I was looking at the rain hitting the glass. Every drop seemed to hit me. My father was hurting my mother. Hitting, bang… Yelling, bang… He made her cry, bang… My eyes were getting teary. Mom was hurting, I was hurting.
My father was still yelling and screaming when we turned onto the path leading to the house. He grabbed my mother’s arm and started tugging her, not wanting to waste any more of her breath. “I’m talking to you!’’
My mother was trying to get her arm free. While my father was tugging on my mother’s arm, he was occasionally looking in front of him, trying to control the car with one hand. I could have continued to stare at the window, doing nothing, watching the rain drip away, ignoring it all, but I didn’t want to hurt my mother. So I grabbed my father’s arm from the back seat, helping him let go of my mother’s arm as best I could.
He let go of my mom’s arm and pushed me into the back seat. “Stay out of this!”
As the interior of the car lit up, I locked onto the white light that filled my eyes. My father’s words were losing their importance. As the light filled my eyes, I couldn’t stop them from getting bigger. A very loud honking horn, which I couldn’t understand where it was coming from, surrounded the car, ringing in my ears. I couldn’t take my eyes off the light source. As the horn sounded one after the other, I noticed that the light wobbled a little. When the light passed in front of my mother through the right window, I felt the car make a hard stop.
My father had lost control of the car, and we were speeding towards the trees off the path. When we hit the tree, I was thrown forward with a big crash. I hit the front seat before I could protect my head. When I bounced back on the seat, I was lying motionless. I had a big headache. I couldn’t find the strength to move. I was looking around with my eyes, trying to comprehend what had happened. We had been in an accident and… and here I was lying motionless. My heart was racing. Had something happened to my mom? I wanted to call out to her, but I couldn’t. My lips were trembling. Please don’t let anything happen to her. From the center of the car, I looked at the tree we had hit, the shattered glass and the smoke from the engine. As I ran out of strength, I found it hard to keep my eyes open. I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, the sound of the engine growling and the rain mixing. I wanted to hear my mother’s voice, I wanted to know that she was there, that she was okay.
The last thing I saw before my eyes closed was my mother’s arm falling between the cars.
Don’t just stand there and ask God for help. She’s dead, realize that simple fact.