Our lives slid to a grinding and near impossible stop that day. My senses flashed off and on as if a child played with a light switch, enjoying the flickering bulb.
One moment, I could taste something bittersweet building just under my tongue and in another moment I could feel pain radiating through my chest.
Switch those senses off, I could no longer feel or taste, but I could hear. Maybe I had already heard these sounds and my mind was just catching up. My ears picked up on the sickening clash of metal twisting together and rubber screeched against asphalt.
Switch.
My eyes slowly opened or maybe they were pried apart by fingers; time was a distortion. A man or maybe a woman appeared in my vision after bright lights. Maybe it’s mouth was moving or it was growing two heads, I blinked and the sight went away.
Switch.
Pain finally grasped my being and I began to twitch, trying to get comfortable or lesson the hurt. Everything hurt, I concluded as my senses dulled again. Or maybe nothing hurt at all.
Switch.
I wondered briefly what happened to my passenger. Was he okay? Did he feel the same way I felt? I hoped not. The taste came back but not as fast as my hearing did. Loud wails, screeches, screams and incoherent noise blasted against my sensitive ear drums. I just wanted the sounds to stop but, they only got louder.
Smell hit me suddenly and I felt I could even taste that too. Burned rubber, asphalt, blood and sweat filled my nose. I began to gag at the array of smells and taste that flooded through me.
Switch.
Everything turned off. The small child playing with the light switch left his post and I drifted weightlessly in an ocean. When did I get to the sea? Was my lover close by, or did he stay home? Did I turn my flat iron off? Did I take a shower today? Questions like these seemed so important to me I began to tear up. All of these little things were so embedded in my mind that I didn’t know how to react. What if I turned on the oven just for fun and forgot it was on? What if my house burned down at this very moment and I’m stuck floating in the ocean.
I wasn’t floating anymore to my surprise. A weight fell deep into my stomach and I sank quickly. I opened my mouth to scream but the water engulfed my lungs just as it had my body. In a matter of seconds I kicked my legs as hard I as I could, thrusting against an invisible force.
