She wanted to tear off the tight black velvet shirt that held her in. Her breath came fast and short. Her lungs made a strange sound that was neither a humming nor a scream. It was unearthly and scared her. Her body was hurting. Every joint in her nearly six foot frame ached. Her chestnut-haired head was throbbing and she couldn't see out of her blue eyes because the tears came too fast. She began to wail. A scream of anguish filled the small car. Her throat was dry and with each scream, her voice became more hoarse. After the sixth emission of sorrow, her voice broke and died, refusing to allow another wail. Her body sunk. Feeling like a child's swim ring with all the air let out, everything in her collapsed. Her torso fell to her knees. She gasped for air and hid her red and quickly swelling face in her ebony velvet pants, saturating them with her tears. She began to tremble. Her legs jumped by themselves and her head was quivering so much that it looked like she was stuck shaking her head "no." Slowly she sat up to a sitting position and pulled her long legs up to her chin then fell into a fetal position. Her hair covered her face and created a curtain that allowed no light to penetrate. She felt like she was about to die. Her fingers trembled as she tried in vain to make her legs stop their spastic movement by massaging her calves as best she could. For a few short seconds, her legs calmed and her normal breathing returned. Then the reality of the tragedy hit her again. She shot up and yelped as though she had been stabbed in the back by a tiny person inside the seat. She began to stomp her feet on the floor of the car and sob convulsively. She could not breathe. In a panic, she rolled down the window of the car and shoved her entire head outside into the icy night. The cold air hit her in the face like a sheet of steel. She deeply inhaled the oxygen she hadn't been able to get before. The frigid air stung her lungs and chafed her throat. Gasping and heaving, she opened her eyes and looked at the sky. It was ethereal. It looked to her like a huge black sheet that had tiny holes poked in it so that only small streams of light could shine through. She had never seen the sky as she did then. For several moments, she was calm and soaking in the beauty of the sky in front of her. She
remembered his face and began to shake even more than she had before. Suddenly, she could see herself as though she was floating fixed above the car. She saw her blotchy, red cheek out of the side of her hair. The wind removed the shroud for a split second. She gasped in horror when it revealed her twisted, maniacal, bugged-out eyes and her mouth curved into a sardonic, insane scream from which no sound came. From her position above the car, she put her hand over her mouth to muffle a screech. As suddenly as it had happened, she returned to her body and was inside the car shaking like a leaf. Her entire body was tingling. Asleep. She moved her hands over her numb body, trying to figure out what was happening in her. As she touched her stomach, her fingers fell asleep as well. For the remaining ten miles, she laid lethargic and crying in the backseat. Her eyes were fixed out the window, rarely blinking. In her mind's eye, she saw him again. As real as he had been just the day before. In her silent open-eyed dream, he reached his had out to her with his usual playful grin. She came to him and embraced him. She towered above him in her black pumps, so she knelt and removed them. For what seemed like hours, they embraced. They spoke no words but the words only a touch can say. She cried softly into his neck, but her sobs where gone. As she drew a deep breath, inhaling the comforting familiar scent of him, he pulled her closer and whispered "Please don't cry, I'm happy now" into her ear. She lightly pushed him away so she could look at him. His cocoa eyes were clear and bright and sparkled like black diamonds. She opened her mouth to ask him how he could be happy under the circumstances, but he pulled her closer than he had before. His grip loosened as he meticulously faded into the background, leaving her standing there alone. Right before he vanished completely, he said ever so quietly, "Remember, don't cry, I'm happy and waiting for you."
