City Of a Thousand Crimson Lights **Part 1**

**Wouldn't fit into one, so i had to split it**

The street lights are glowing overhead
the gas pedal is pressed against the floor of the car
no hand upon the steering wheel
one is wiping tears from beyond the blue eyes
that no one has ever understood
and the other is clutching onto a best friend
one that she has always counted on
the bottle of vodka that has never let her down.
Until this day
she doesn't remember how it had happened
even to this day
but there was a time
when she told her story to me
before she had landed herself in this hospital bed
seventy years later...
It was the fifth of October
the yelling was too much for her to handle
parents were supposed to get along and love one another
but in her house, it was a different story
as it was most of the time
she wanted to get away from the catastrophe
so she grabbed her keys and walked out the door
closing her whole life behind her
she drove and drove and drove and drove
and she drove some more
she came upon a set of lights and they turned red
she stopped and grabbed a CD
put it into the player and waited for the light to switch back to green
it did, eventually and she started driving again
she turned down a back road, pulled over and grabbed the bottle that she was saving
saving for her graduation party
and opened it up
she took a sip
put the lid back on and started driving again
half an hour later the bottle was half empty
and her tears were falling
it started raining outside
and the roads were slippery
her vision was blurred
memories were fading along with her heart
and she took a curve too fast
she hadn't seen it coming, she was on her way back home
her car rolled eight times
landed on a pole
smashed in half
and the windows broke
one shard of glass
stuck into her chest
where her heart was supposed to be
was this a sign?
she asked herself
she couldn't move, she couldn't see, she couldn't feel, she couldn't talk
lucky for her, a tow truck was driving past and he saw it all
he called for help and got her out of the car
saw the bottle of vodka clutched in her hands took it out and saw that it was empty
he had not known for sure if she had drank it all or not
it could have just spilled
he would not know until the cops came
and investigated this tragic scene
he checked for a heart beat
there was one, it was faint, but it was there
the girl was about his age
first wreck he had seen in the beginning of his career.
he saved his first life today, a memory he will never forget

© Jenna.Elphick
January 3 2006