Kathryn Ogbata | Is This It? | Flash Fiction

I

S T H I S I T?

Kathryn Ogbata

The night sky is the same coal black as the water I’m hurtling towards. Technically, that my car is hurtling toward, with me strapped in for the ride. My ears are filled with the powerful gusts of wind as my car cuts through the air like a knife. However, I am calm because of the silence. It’s not like home where I can’t catch a break between my parents bothering me about school or my brothers just straight bothering me. However, the serenity of silence leaves as my car slaps the water. Something that might seem similar to a droplet falling into water knocked the wind out of me. I panic. I’m all alone in a sinking car, and I don’t think anyone witnessed me stupidly fall asleep at the wheel and swerve off the bridge. I try opening the door but it doesn’t budge. My palms feel sweaty. I try to break my window with my foot. It doesn’t work. I start to cry. In a last attempt, I try to elbow my window out, and after a few hits, I notice spider weblike cracks spreading across the window pane. This gives me a newfound hope of escape and I begin to attack my window like a battering ram. Fortunately, my window breaks. Unfortunately, I don’t know what to do next as my car fills up with water. I take a deep breath and pull myself through my broken window. Leaving my sinking car behind, I desperately swim to the surface. I’m not moving fast enough, and I can feel the icy water seeping into my skin. I start to wonder if saving my life is worth all this hassle. What am I going to do when I reach the surface? I’m in the middle of a freezing lake in the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, I don’t want to be remembered as the girl whose body was found in the lake, or even worse, wasn’t found at all. With all the strength I have, I pierce the surface of the freezing lake and tread water. I don’t know which way land is, and I don’t want to waste energy figuring it out. Either I swim to the left or right. Dejectedly, I look up at the bridge and let the sporadic traffic make that decision for me. After observing more cars speeding to my left, I muster up my remaining energy and start to swim. My body is numb, and my vision is blurring, and then the world turns white. Am I dying? Is this it? Why am I still cold? I snap out of my stupor and realize that the blinding whiteness is unmoving boat lights. Frustrated, I wave my heavy arm and start yelling, anxiously awaiting some sort of reaction. But as I look closer, I realize that the stationary lights are now speeding right towards me. And they aren’t slowing down.