The Silence

There is a certain silence that occurs after tragedy strikes. It may be in the silence that one hears when one is the victim, how all the sounds become a sound track that are shut out. Or there is a silence that is similar to the silence in the eye of a hurricane. It is the same either way.

After the final jarring of metal upon metal, cracking glass, and human screams, when the vehicles finally came to a collusive stop, such a silence followed. There must have been the sounds of breathing, the heart beat, of vehicle destruction dying down, or the wind amongst the leaves in the trees. But what those three people involved in the crash heard was nothing at all. Silence had descended like time frozen on the edge of a precipice.

And then there was slow but subtle movement, first within the tractor trailer. The least damaged of the two vehicles, the driver was merely shaken up, though the pressure of the situation may have caused him to have a very subtle heart attack that currently felt like bad indigestion. Life in the car or what was left of the smashed metal that had once been a car, a car thriving with life, was now motionless. Soundless. A body slumped over the wheel, blood slowly seeping out of a wound caused from the impact of hitting the windshield. The body laying sprawled awkwardly beside this bleeding body was also in a state of stasis.

Slowly the bleeding head moved. Eyes opened, seeing the world in a blurry, impressionistic way. The head raised up and felt the impact of the accident and lowered again. At first this body did not hear the wheezing of the other body. But then it did. Again the head came up and it moved to focus on the other body. It could do no more.

The driver of the tractor trailer had now managed to climb down from the cab and was trying to open the door of the car wreckage. He seemed to be saying something but the body slumped on the wheel was too tired to listen.

A ringing sound was coming forth from somewhere. A phone. A phone was wringing. Rog knew the sound of it. It was not coming from his car, but from somewhere outside. The man heard it too, but ignored it. He was in no position to take phone calls at the moment.