Impact II

It was late at night, surprisingly calm. One of those days where the daytime was bombarded by rainstorms, and completely dies out during the night. It was also one of those odd days where my friend and myself elected to brave the stormy weather to indulge in an outdoor activity. It was fun, though. Sport is all about the fun, especially when you don’t care about the results.

I was driving home from a friend’s house after spending two hours watching “Band of Brothers”. Regardless of one’s mood, the show can never be taken lightly; it is perhaps as accurate as it gets, in terms of a filmed war motion picture. But historical accuracy aside, “Band of Brothers” tells a story, a story of brotherhood, of compatriotism, of a bond that cannot be comprehended by the average citizen.

So I drove, emotionally drained and somberly entertained. I accelerated to merge onto the highway and onto the Port Mann Bridge.

And it happened.

I was halfway into the merging lane; I turned to my left to shoulder check, briefly seeing a car changing to the left lane so I could merge. When I turned back, I saw an image of a little girl walking right into the path of my car. She was clad in a white sleeping gown, long, dark brunette hair blowing in the air. She couldn’t have been older than twelve, oh gosh.

She was staring out into the distance, to my left. Then she turned and faced my car and our eyes met for just a split second before I drove through her. I felt the ghost of her body passing through me as I drove by. My eyes widened, I had trouble breathing, and I felt paralyzed. All I could enable myself to do at that moment was place both hands on the wheel and gasp for air.

I drove home like this the rest of the way, both hands gripping on the steering wheel as hard as possible, fearing that I might suddenly lose the grip and the car would go spinning and doing multiple flips.

I have never hit anyone directly while driving, so I am not sure what that was about. If it was foreshadowing a future event, then I might as well crash into a tree, get my license rescinded, to prevent an imminent catastrophe.

What especially haunts me about this incident is that it was not I who was the victim in this vision / hallucination; the person being crushed into oblivion was someone else, the facelessness of her signifying the fact that it could be anyone, anywhere, anytime.