Running and crying

My breath was puffing, which felt good on the sweat dripping down my neck and arms. My chest was heaving and my feet a blur. The leaves in the trees were just a green background to my eyes. Sticks and twigs slapped against my tear strewn face as I ran, but I didn't care. I didn't feel a thing.

The only thing my mind could comprehend was run. Get away from there. From it. I couldn't even think the word. All I could do was run and cry. Run, cry, and think, but the only thing my mind could think was run. Run and cry. And in this way I was only caught up in my running and crying. Running and Crying. Running and crying.

My mind was caught up in running and crying, so that when the creek appeared in my path, appearing out of nowhere, I didn't see it. Well, I did see it, sort of a tear-blurred version of it, my eyes saw it, told my brain what it was, told it to stop, but my mind couldn't. My mind didn't tell my legs to stop running, or even to jump. It just kept thinking Running and Crying. Running and Crying.

When I came to the creek, I didn't stop. I just ran. I ran and I tripped. I tripped on a stone in the creek and fell. Slowly, slowly I fell. Landing in the water, with a small clunk. The cold water rushed over me and, and, and strangely I didn't feel it. Couldn't feel it. I just let it wash over me. And over me, until I was numb. Until I was only a wet, crumpled mass in the creek. Crying in the creek.

When my tears ran out, so that I couldn't cry any more, the cold water did something to me. Finally did something to me. And I finally came to my senses. I shouldn't have done it. Shouldn't of Run. Why had I run? All of a sudden I sat up. Yeah, I thought. Why had I run? My mind had pulled a blank. As if I was playing 'Apples to Apples' and I had drawn a 'create your own' card. We never knew quite what to do with those cards. We always threw them back in the deck and drew another one. Everyone did that except my boyfriend.

It came to me. My boyfriend. I had left him. Abandoned him. It suddenly all came back to me. We were riding the motorcycle. The Candy Orange Harley Davidson Motorcycle. I loved that motorcycle, mostly because it was my favorite color. It had just come out of the shop. Something was wrong with the brakes. It was supposed to be fixed. But maybe it wasn't. He did send it to the cheap shop, and I'm pretty sure the guy who gave it to us was drunk.

That was it. The brakes. That is why we had crashed. We were going too fast around that corner. I knew it was too fast. I had told him. But he didn't stop, He couldn't stop, I mused. The brakes must have still been out. We had fallen. Slowly, so slowly. I didn't know time could go so slow. And then we scraped across the pavement. He was pinned beneath me. I had tried to move my leg, but I couldn't. I could feel his blood seeping into my jeans.

And then we had stopped. I called out to him. He didn't answer. I lifted him up, out from under the bike. And I dropped him. The blood. Oh, the blood. It scared me, so much that I had to get out of there. And my feet were set in motion. They didn't stop. They didn't stop until I fell in the creek. I was still in the creek. I shouldn't be in the creek. I had to go to him.

I got up so fast, I almost slipped again. I stumbled as fast as I could back the way I had come. When I finally reached the road, he was just where I left him. The sun was setting in the west. That can't be right. That much time couldn't have passed. I checked my watch, which, ironically, I trusted more than the sun. It read 4:48. I must have been in the creek for at least an hour. My boyfriend groaned. Stop checking your watch, Your boyfriends in trouble! My mind screamed. I ran towards my boyfriend, whipping out my cell phone as I did. I started crying. Running and crying.

Again, I was running and crying. With shaky fingers, I dialed 911. The operator picked up. I told her my situation and she said to me,

"Help is on the way." Finally, the tears stopped.