Made to be Broken

You sighed. The forecast had promised rays of sunshine through patches of cloud. Looking at the sky now, all you see are dark grey clouds, heaving with the water that will undoubtedly change your plans for the afternoon. You had promised her you would go to the playground. It has been three months since she was on that zipline. If you break her little heart again, there is an incredibly good chance that she will not forgive you.

You unplug your charger and put it into the black laptop case. Tomorrow you will be working from home again. You unclip the laptop, bid farewell to your colleagues and head out of the building towards your car. It is not raining yet, but the humidity is high, and rain is certainly on the way. Do they ever get it right you wonder about the meteorologists? Pulling out on to the main road, you look left, then right. As you ease off the clutch, the car edges on to the road. You look left again, and as you turn your head to look right, you see a flash just as your world turns black.

When you open your eyes again, there are two worried faces looking down at you. You feel the heat, and can smell the smoke, but cannot hear what the faces are saying. You try to move your arm; it will not budge. You try to move your left leg; it is stuck against something. Was something on it? Was something under it? You cannot make out this strange feeling. It is nothing like you ever felt before. Then suddenly your head is screaming at you to fight, get out of there. You can feel your breath catching on your chest. You want to speak but you cannot get the words out. Then your hearing rushes back and you can hear the two faces.

“He just came out of nowhere” you hear the girl say. “I do not know this lady, but I think she was coming out of this gate.”

Then you hear the sirens. The lady holds your left hand and the other person leaves your side. You tell yourself you should know where you are, but you are not able to focus your eyes long enough to see anything familiar. Your head faces the sky and when you try to turn it to either side, it hurts. The sky was beginning to get darker. It reminds you of something, but you do not know what. You feel that there is something important that you need to do.

A man now stands over you, surveying the area around you, and shakes his heads a few times. “Why is he looking so worried?” you think. He moves away and brings another man with him. They both start moving a few things around you, and one movement sends a sharp pain up your back. You scrunch your face up in pain but cannot get the words out. You want them to stop, but you cannot tell them. Just as you feel your back is going to snap, the lady holding your hand shouts at them to stop. She is looking into your eyes now. She can see the pain. The other two men come over to look at your face now too. They are even more worried looking now.

They move away and you can see the sky again. Drops have started to fall. They are the heavy kind, the type that fall when there is a thunderstorm. You can hear a loud grating noise. It is coming from somewhere near your feet. One jolt into your back, and another to your shoulder and suddenly you are lying flat on the ground. You can hear metal scrapping along the ground as another face peers down at you from the dark sky. The face looks familiar, but you cannot place it. The face manages a small smile, one you cannot help but feel is forced. Your eyes open wide as you remember what you should be doing. You are supposed to be picking your little girl up from school. You promised you would take her to the playground.

You try to move your arm to get the attention of anyone around you. With great difficulty, through searing pain, you manage to bring your right arm closer to your body. The lady is holding your left hand and you want to squeeze it, but it is failing you now. You pull your right hand onto your torso. The lady notices it. She looks into your eyes. You try to communicate by opening them very wide and moving your mouth. She puts her ear to your lips. You try to speak. “Sch” you manage.

The lady pulls back from your mouth and looks at you with a frown on the face. She tells everyone to quieten down as she moves her ear back to your mouth.

“Girl. School.” You manage again.

Again, with a worried look on her face, the lady is peering at you. She calls for the other person to come over, the face that looked familiar. As she explains to him what you just said, he looks down at you and asks the question:

“Is Ella Louise waiting for you to collect her from school, Lisa?”

You try to nod, but you manage to say “Yes”.

 The man orders the lady to leave me and go collect your daughter.

The rain falls faster now, and your face is soaking. Your cries of relief that your daughter is being looked after are washed away as quick as they stream out of your eyes. Then they put you on a trolley and into the ambulance. Your Fiat 500 lies in three different pieces on the side of the road. The van that hit you never stopped. The face you recognised was your boss. He was coming back from a meeting when he saw your car all smashed up on the side of the road. The lady who stayed by your side was out for a walk. She was nearly a victim of this hit and run also but managed to jump into the ditch in time.

As they closed the doors of the ambulance, you hear a clap of thunder. The lightning was sure to follow.

There will definitely be no trip to the playground today,” you think “and she will not be happy!”