As Many Chances as You Can Get

It’s fifteen minutes past seven. He’s late, as usual. Nate lives ridiculously far from most things in town, so this happens often. I’m not bothered by him showing up late. We’re only meeting up at this fast food restaurant to catch up with each other. Nate’s one of my best friends, but recently, we’ve been so busy with our own lives that we haven’t gotten to hang out in a while.

Twenty minutes after seven, I see Nate pull into the parking lot. It’s always easy to spot Nate’s car because it’s bright yellow, like a highlighter. Recently, his car got clipped in a parking lot and his rear bumper was almost completely torn off. Instead of getting it repaired, he found yellow duct tape to hold the bumper in place.

Nate steps out of his car and says, “Sorry I’m late. Stuck in traffic. People drive like shit here.”

I always make fun of his car when I see it. So, I point at his bumper and ask, “Where the hell did you even find yellow duct tape anyway?”

“Shut up, Kane.” He said chuckling, “I had to order it online. Regular duct tape would have looked too sketchy.”

“Yeah, that’s what makes that thing look sketchy.” Both of us laugh and go inside to get food. We talk for a while about our college days and how different our lives are now. Eventually, we start talking about work. More specifically, we talk about my boss.

"Last time I talked to you, you said the guy was getting on your nerves but you never told me why. What’s so bad about him?” Nate asks.

“Oh, Eric is the worst! He struts around the office like it’s his castle and stands next to our desks just talking about his diet and all the exercise he gets. I never get any work done when he’s around cause I feel like I always have to pay attention to him.” I explain. Nate chuckled at different points when I was talking.

“Seems like he doesn’t care whether you listen or not. Why don’t you just put your head down and ignore him?”

“I wish I could, but he always asks me about what I do to stay active-”

“Which is not a damn thing.”

“Well yeah,” Nate and I laugh, “but still. It’s like he’s showing off to the women in the office or whatever. I don’t know, he just creeps me out and I’m sure the women in the office feel the same way. He invited a bunch of people to go hiking with him this weekend and he wants us to bring friends.”

“Hey, that sounds like fun, actually. Why not go and bring me?”

“I would, but I know he’s just doing it to spend more time with Maria.”

“Oh, that’s right. You told me about her.” Nate suddenly seems more curious.

“Yeah, she’s into the outdoors and shit. So, Eric is definitely taking advantage of that and that’s why I don’t want to go this weekend. I’ll just be watching my boss flirt with the girl I like while also trying not to die.” We laugh again. We spend about an hour just eating and laughing. It seems like Nate likes his job but wants to do “bigger things” in the world. He’s always been pretty ambitious, but he also just wants to help people. Nate has always been one of the nicest and smartest guys I’ve ever known.

We start walking back to our cars and right after I split off to mine, Nate calls out to me. “Hey, Kane.” I turn to face him. He fumbles his keys around between his hands. He looks at me and says, “Uh, I forgot what I was gonna say. Oh, yeah! Just because you don’t like someone, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try new things. Who knows? Maybe you’ll actually like hiking. Take as many chances as you can get.” It seems like there’s more on his mind than what he just told me, but that might be for another day.

We say goodbye and get to our cars. Nate starts his car right away and drives out of the parking lot. I sit for a minute to pick some music. Right before I pick a song, I hear several car horns blaring at the nearby intersection. I look up and see a large truck barreling into the intersection when their light is red. It smashes right into the driver side of a bright yellow car. The car spins with no control and pieces brake off in every direction. It couldn’t be. I look around the intersection and see no other yellow cars. I step out of my car and start shaking as I see the back of the yellow car holding up its bumper by a few pieces of yellow tape. A few people jump out of their cars and sprint towards the scene. Some people walk out of the restaurant to see what’s going on. I’m frozen. I can’t look away and I can’t stop shaking. Every time I blink, I expect Nate’s car to turn into a different car. Something that’s not his, somewhere that’s not here, someone that’s-

“Kane.” A familiar voice clutches my soul but the hand belonging to this voice gently grabs my shoulder from behind. I turn around and see Nate completely unharmed and completely…here.

My head starts spinning as I turn back to the crash and see the same cars in pieces on the road. One car is a yellow car with yellow duct tape on the bumper so why? How?

“Can you drive? We should probably get out of here.” Nate says. There’s no way he ran over here that fast. There’s no way he got behind me without me seeing him. There’s no way he survived that crash.

“How…what…I thought-” I can’t figure out what to say.

“I’ll drive. Just get in, I’ll explain.” Nate says in a completely calm tone. He’s focused and alert but not nervous at all. I get into the passenger seat of my car and Nate drives us away from the scene. We sit in silence for a few minutes. I still can’t process what I just saw or what’s happening right now.

“You saw the crash didn’t you?” Nate asks.

“That was your car…there’s no way.” I mutter.

“Yeah, I guess it was a pretty big cra-”

“How are you alive?! What is going on, Nate?!” I gave up trying to figure it out on my own and now I want to know what Nate has to say. He takes a deep breath and continues driving down the highway.

“Recently, I’ve been having these really weird dreams. In these dreams I’m talking to some sort of shapeless being. They talk to me. They kept telling me I had been chosen to be a protector and how my life was going to change soon.”

“What do you mean? How does that relate to what just hap-”

“Kane, please. I’m getting there.” Nate hasn’t taken his eyes off the road since he started talking. He continues, “I saw the truck right before it hit me. I thought for sure I was going to die but then everything sort of…stopped. My car stopped moving. The truck stopped moving right before it got to my door. It was like the whole world stopped moving. I could still move, though. When I got out of my car, There was a woman standing by the door to the truck. She looked at me, smiled, and said, ‘Nathaniel, I’m sure you’re surprised now. Just follow me and my instructions and this will all make sense soon enough.’ So, She told me that there’s a bunch of other people like me who were chosen to possess this ability. To protect good people from bad people. She told me to take the guy driving the truck and move him to my car. This guy’s truck was filled with alcohol and he was covered in puke. The woman told me that I was allowed all the time and space I needed to put him in my place and go somewhere safe. I could move things around, but nothing moved on its own. I put the truck driver in my car and walked to the restaurant. I leaned against the wall near the front door and then suddenly things started moving again. I watched the crash and then saw you watching it.”

We sat in silence a bit longer after that. “So you can stop time?” I ask.

“I think it stops whenever someone is about to be killed and I can start it again whenever I want. But, the victim needs to be replaced with someone else. At least that’s what I think she told me.”

“And the woman?”

“No idea who she is…or what she is.”

We sit in silence again and it stays this way for the rest of the ride. Eventually, we arrive at Nate’s house. He asks me if I’m okay to drive home and I nod my head.

“So, what are you going to do now?” I ask.

Nate shrugs. “Wait to save some more people? Not sure.” After a few moments of silence, I think of something to take full advantage of Nate’s power.

“I want you to go on the hike with me this weekend.” I say. Nate stitches his eyebrows.

“What?” Nate says with a clear tone.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about Eric. Maybe not now, but I feel like soon, he’s going to try to hurt somebody.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“I just have a gut feeling. I looked up this trail and there’s a point about halfway up where people fall from all the time. Website said this is the most dangerous part of the trail if you’re not careful. But, with this power that you have, we can use that to take care of him.”

“I’m going to stop you right there, I’m not using this power to kill people.”

“You said it yourself, it’s to protect good people from bad people. That drunk driver that almost killed you wasn’t trying to intentionally kill you, but he was better off dying than you. So, if we activate your ability, you can put Eric off the cliff and then it’s problem solved. Bad person dies, good person lives.”

“How do you plan to activate my power on purpose, Kane?” Nate has his arms crossed and his voice is direct and stern.

“Just trust me. This is the best way we can use your power now. What if you never end up saving anyone? What if you put the wrong person in place. This’ll work.”

“No, Kane. I’m not helping you with this.”

“Looks like you’ll have to when time stops.” As soon as I say this, Nate steps back, shakes his head, and says, “Don’t even think about trying. I was chosen to protect people, not kill them.”

“Oh, fuck off with that altruistic bullshit!”

“Kane, this is the last time I’m going to tell you. Don’t try it.” Nate turns around and walks into his house, slamming the door on his way in.

The weekend comes and I go to the trail head to meet up with Eric, Maria, other coworkers, and their friends. There’s about eight people here including me.

Eric gathers everyone together. “Alright, how awesome is this? There’s a lot more people here than I was expecting. Well this is going to be awesome. Everyone, make sure you’re prepared, uh, if you need snacks or anything, Maria’s got you covered. She brought way too many.” Both Eric and Maria laugh when he says this. This is a sight I hate more than anything else. Eric led the group from the start with Maria close by him. They spent the entire time talking and laughing. I hate him so much. Maria looks beautiful outside of the office. If only he wasn’t in the picture, things would be so much easier. Soon enough. We get about halfway through the trail and my lungs feel like they’re going to collapse. We get to the cliff and everything in my mind is clear and focused. I know what I have to do and I’m certain that Nate knows what to do. It doesn’t matter where he is, he will have all the time he needs to get here. He has to chose someone to go off of this cliff. Nate will choose Eric because as far as he knows, the rest of these people have done nothing wrong. Nate doesn’t want the responsibility of his power, but I’ll make sure he takes full advantage of it.

On the side of the cliff, the trail only has enough room to walk single file through it. I understand now why so many people have fallen from this place. It seems so easy to fall if you’re not paying attention. I look ahead to the rest of the group and see that everyone is so focused in the path they walk on, that they don’t see the person in front of them. There’s only one person between me and Maria. The conditions are perfect. I call ahead to Maria. “Hey, Maria! Do you have a granola bar or something? I didn’t prepare as well as I thought I did.” Maria turns around and lets the person between us squeeze past her. We stop so she can go through her bag. Such a beautiful face.

I take one step towards her and with a slight shove, Maria loses her balance and is about to topple over the edge. This is your time, Nate. You’re not just going to let this girl fall, are you? Save her so that instead of her eyes, I will see Eric’s eyes widen helplessly as he falls.

However, the next thing I see is not Eric falling over the edge. It’s not one of the other hikers either. Instead, I see the top of the mountain and the sky. My body is not supported by anything. I understand. Nate has made his decision.

I’m falling.