Keep It Safe

“Technology…is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other”

- Charles Percy Snow, British novelist and scientist
“New York Times”, March 15th, 1971

Chapter 1

I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular that night as I drove down that dark, desolate highway. I only remember little things. My mind was lazy, like the traffic. The gaps between headlights were getting longer and longer. I sang quietly to myself. Ingrid Michaelson. Her CD, ‘Everybody’ hadn’t left my car’s stereo since I bought it.

I remember it had been a long, boring day at work, which could be said for almost any day in my line of work. Typing reports, finding errors in co-worker’s reports, researching travel, sorting, filing, and endless organizing; nothing special, nothing overly difficult. It was just a job, nothing more. I only had a few more years of school left and then I was out of there. I’d just have to bite the bullet until I got my teaching certificate.

I remember having my window down that night on the highway because my hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The oncoming breath of autumn was in the air with that crisp smell that made me think of dried leaves and pig skin.

“That’s the best part about Iowa,” my father had always said. “We have four seasons and each season is different. Once you get sick of one season, along comes another. It keeps you on your toes. It’s great.” He was so philosophical some times. As a little girl, I hung onto my father’s every word. I was, hands down, a daddy’s girl. My father could do no wrong in my eyes. You know that old saying, ‘Mother is God in the eyes of a child’? Not in my eyes. Father was God and always would be.

I had turned onto highway 218, the final stretch. The street lights from highway 30 stopped there, creating a wall of black unknown. I was nearly home and my queen pillow-top was calling my name, practically screaming it.

This is where my memory is fuzziest.

Do you ever drive to work or school in the morning and you don’t really remember driving there? You obviously did drive there because you made it to your destination, but certain intersections or roadways escape your recollection. Your mind is so deep in thought, or completely blank like a mental auto-pilot, that you don’t even remember turning off your street or exiting the interstate. Your mind and body just go through the motions involuntarily without any thought process. It’s kind of a scary feeling. If you made it to work without actually thinking, how many other people did too?

At this point in my drive home, I was in that state of mind.

I hadn’t driven very far onto 218 when it happened. Thinking back on it now, it was the little things that mattered most. What if I hadn’t left work exactly when I did? What if I had decided to get fast food on the way home, rather than hopping right onto the highway? If I had only been a minute later, three minutes later, I could have avoided everything. If I hadn’t been driving seven miles over the speed limit or if another vehicle was in front of me, slowing me down, my future would have been written differently. I wouldn’t have a story to tell you now. I would just be going on with my day-to-day routine, untouched by the turmoil stirring behind the scenes. I would still be so naïve and oblivious to the evils and wrong-doings going on in this world. If I hadn’t been driving that particular stretch of highway at that particular time that night, I would still be completely in the dark about all of this.

The sun was completely behind the horizon. Even the stars were masked that night by light, airy clouds. I had just passed a car coming at me from the opposite direction and had turned my brights off. That was my first mistake. If I had turned them back on as soon as the car had passed, I would have seen him, but since I hadn’t switched the high beams back on, that part of the shoulder was draped in complete darkness as I approached him going 62mph.

It was at this moment, this exact point in my life, when I had one of those experiences you only hear about in haunting news stories or unrealistic movies. I had a real out of body experience that slowed my world down to a snail’s pace. Out of my peripherals, I saw a large object spring from the shoulder of the highway. Before I could react, before I could process what was about to happen, the object flew into the air and struck the hood of my car on the passenger side, rolling out of sight over the top of the car. It all happened so quickly, I didn’t even have time to scream.

I held my breath as my foot pounded the break. The tires took new life, twisting the car sideways as I came to a stop, halfway on the shoulder with the back end of my car still resting on the road. My hands gripped the wheel, turning my knuckles ghostly white. Even under that tight grip, I still felt my hands trembling.

It took me a second to collect myself. I took a few deep breaths, trying to shake off the tremors surging through my limbs. Once I had gotten the thought through my head that I was perfectly fine, I spun around and looked over my shoulder at the mass now lying in the middle of the northbound lane where I had been traveling. I didn’t know if I should run over there, call the cops, or move my car. I ended up pulling my car completely onto the shoulder.

Switching on my flashers and without grabbing my cell phone, I exited the car. This was my next mistake. If I had just taken a few moments to call the police from the safety of my car, my collision victim would have slipped away before I ever had a chance to approach. Plus, on this particular stretch of highway, I was stranded at the bottom of a shallow hill. Not only could a car come barreling over the hill and hit whatever it was that was lying in the middle of the road, but I could be hit as well.

I walked with a hurried pace towards the shadowed pile lying motionless in the middle of the pavement. As I got closer, my heart dropped out of my chest and my legs nearly quit carrying me. Every hair on my body was standing on end and I was beside myself. I realized the thing, the mass laying in the road, the object I had just struck with my vehicle, was a man. It wasn’t an animal, it was a human being. My mouth gaped and my pace slowed before speeding up to almost a run.

I dropped to my knees beside the crumpled body. He had landed on his side, his head resting on his arm, facing my car. There was blood all over his clothes, pooling up underneath him, and dripping from his nose. His chest moved in jolts. The man was taking short, quick gasps of air. His body twitched slightly as if electricity was being pumped through his body sporadically. My hands shook as I hovered them above his body, unsure what I could do to help, and frankly too frightened to touch him.

“Oh my God,” I mumbled. My hushed words seemed like a scream in my own ears.

The man shook at the sound of my voice and looked up at me. His left eye had a broken blood vessel; the white of that eye was almost completely crimson. His face, his eyes, everything seemed so calm. He seemed to be comfortable; almost at ease. It was unnerving and unsettling.

“Can you hear me?” I asked, lightly putting my hand on his shoulder, hoping not to cause him any more pain than I already had. The man didn’t answer. He just continued to shudder, looking up at me, seemingly unaware of what had just happened to him.

I had to figure out a way to keep him alive long enough for the ambulance to get to him. I was still ten or fifteen miles outside of the town the ambulance would be coming from and then it was another ten or fifteen miles back to the nearest hospital. That was probably a half hour to 45 minutes, if not longer, before he would be safely secure in a hospital suite.

If that were the case, I would probably be better off driving him to the hospital myself. How was I going to get him into my car? How could I move him? He could have a spinal injury. What would I tell the receptionist? “Excuse me. I just struck this man with my car on the highway. He’s pretty beat up, as you can imagine. Could you get him a doctor?”

I pushed myself to my feet and was about to make a run for my cell phone when I heard the man moan. I dropped back down to his level. “You’re okay. You’re going to be fine. I’m going to call for help,” I cooed impatiently.

He grunted as he tried to heave himself upright awkwardly. He shifted all his weight onto his shoulder, trying to sit up. I pushed him back to the ground gently, trying to keep him in place. “Don’t move. You could have injured your back. Help is going to be on the way. I just need to go get my phone.” I looked up the hill and I prayed to a God, that I didn’t believe in, to keep us safe. I could surely be killed sitting there.

“Don’t…leave…me,” the man managed, groping the air with his hand, trying to reach out to me. His jaw and lips barely moved as the words were forced out.

“Please, I need to call an ambulance. It will be two seconds. I will be right back.” I tried to stand up. Every fiber of my being shouted to stay by his side and comfort this man but I knew it wouldn’t solve anything.

“Here,” he whispered, pulling his other arm off the pavement. I cupped his unsteady hand in mine. “Take…it,” he offered.

“What is-” I started to say.

He interrupted me. “Take…this. Hide it. Please,” his voice broke as he tried to speak. He dropped a pinky-sized object into my outstretched hand. I could barely make out a small plastic flash drive. “Keep…it…safe. No one, no one can have it. Promise me. Please,” he whispered.

I looked down at him. His once calm face was now twisted in concern and desperation. He wasn’t looking at me; he was looking into me, freezing me to the core. How could I say no?

Before I could respond to him, his body went heavy. I heard him exhale deeply before his head fell onto his arm and his eyes rolled backwards. The twitches subsided. He was gone.


Chapter 2

My eyes stared dazedly at the red and blue lights quickly flashing over the black pavement. I sat in the back of an ambulance wrapped in a blanket. My mind replayed the accident over and over. I had given my statement to three different officers at the scene. The first one, a young kid, not much older than I was, whose badge read Richards, didn’t seem to believe me much, which made my stomach turn with guilt and resentment at the same time. The other two officers seemed more seasoned and left their personal judgment to themselves. They insisted I be checked out by the EMTs, even though I felt fine. Three ambulances and four patrol cars later, the site was blocked off and officers began searching for any evidence.

Evidence of what though,: a homicide, a suicide, or something even more sinister than that? I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to ask, keeping the suspicion pointed anywhere but at me.

The only real piece of evidence the police probably wanted was still safely in my possession. Being the movie buff that I am, I knew the police would instantly suspect driving while under the influence of either alcohol or drugs as the cause of the accident. I knew they’d do a battery of tests on me and search my vehicle. I had shoved the flash drive into my loose, yet thick ponytail before the police had arrived, hoping to conceal it there. Keep it safe.

His voice rang in my ears.

I didn’t even know this man. I didn’t understand why he had used me as a way out of his life. I didn’t know what was so horrible in his life to make him jump into traffic but I did know this flash drive, this little piece of plastic, was his one dying wish and I wasn’t about to so easily turn it over to the authorities. I think if he had intended for the police to get the flash drive, he wouldn’t have given it to me in the first place. His eyes, those wide, dying eyes, were burned in the back of my retina; an image I am quite sure I’ll never

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: The cover is not meant to be sold. It is only to enhance the reader’s experience. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the events, characters, and/or persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Copyright ©Jessica Wygle
Bildmaterialien: ©Jessica Wygle
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.10.2012
ISBN: 978-3-95500-390-6

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Widmung:
To Dad for enjoying this adventure the most.