The Glass Passenger

“Unfinished business.”

Alex let the two words echo around his head, letting them ricochet from wall to wall causing a slight migraine to start stirring at the front of his head. It felt like he was trapped inside a Supernatural episode. He didn’t like it one bit. Not one bit at all.

Alex was about to ask another question but the girl in the yellow dress, who was still perched lazily on the window sill, spoke before he had the chance to, as if she had read his mind.

“You’ve still got something to do before you move on Alex, something you have to finish,” the girl said softly and in a way that was almost reassuring, all things considering.

A hefty sigh heaved through Alex as he turned away from the strange and melancholy girl to look at Rachel and himself. He couldn’t help but be proud of the fact that despite everything that had happened to him two hours prior, his hair was still perfectly styled. It coaxed a smile onto his face and somehow he knew that Rachel was thinking exactly the same thing.

He chose to ignore the girl’s mention of unfinished business as he carried on looking at Rachel, and his eyes fell on the promise ring he had given her exactly a year ago.

“What an anniversary eh?” Alex said more to himself than the girl by the window.

She just ignored what he had said but her eyes were pleading with him entreatingly.

“I can’t tell you what you have to do but one thing I inform you about, is that the unfinished business has something to do with your girlfriend.”

Alex laughed softly, a warm but ironic rush of emotion searing through him and it was more painful than even the impact of the car had been. His love for her and his current personal suffering collided in a painful way.

“It’s always about her,” he said softly and turned away. “Today was meant to be perfect you know?” He said as he turned back towards the girl, who still didn’t have a name to place with that angelic face.

She nodded patiently and let him carry on.

“You never get the chance to have another two year anniversary,” Alex said with some difficulty. The words to explain his emotional predicament were coming with increasing hardship considering he was a songwriter.

The girl nodded entreatingly again as if signing to him that he could continue. She held a strange sense of authority that should have unsettled Alex had he not been too absorbed at looking anywhere but Rachel’s bloodshot eyes.

“I was meant to give her this charm bracelet I’d been getting together today,” Alex said softly more to himself than the other girl, but once the words ‘charm bracelet’ had fallen from his lips the girl on the window sill suddenly sat up, far more alert than before.

Alex Gaskarth noticed this and turned his gaze from the unmoving form of Rachel to the brown haired girl whose eyes were dancing with some sort of emotion that Alex couldn’t read and it frustrated him to no end.

“What?” He asked sharply, some irritation clear in his voice.

“The charm bracelet…” the girl said, lost in her own thoughts. “Where is it Alex?”

The last sentence sent a panic through Alex Gaskarth and the total agony that it caused was indescribable. In a mad rush he patted his jeans pocket and shoved his hands into the slim side pockets of his dusty black waistcoat, but his fingers never found the medium sized navy jewellery box that held the exquisite silver charm bracelet that he had pulled together for Rachel.

He looked back up at the brown haired girl but she simply smiled a sad smile, one that she had given to many people before Alexander William Gaskarth.

“I need to get it to her,” Alex said breathlessly, knowing at once that this was his unfinished business. Before he could look the girl in the eye he fled the claustrophobic hospital room, leaving the brown haired girl sitting on the windowsill and Rachel sat unflinchingly next to the immobile body that belonged to him.

With unbelievable speed Alex ran around the hospital trying to shout at the hospital staff asking anyone if they had seen the blue box that should have been lying next to him at the scene of the accident, but nobody heard him. Nobody could see him. He was invisible to everyone with the exception of the strange melancholy brown haired girl that was in the room with Rachel.

Coming to a sudden standstill in the middle of the hospital reception Alex let out a roar of frustration as visitors glided past him on the way to see someone, the hospital staff wheeled people around him and family members who were fussing about health insurances for a loved one were stood next to him. The roar of agony from Alex fell upon deaf ears.

But that was when he saw a gray plastic tray in the reception office that had his name printed neatly and in bold letters on a white sticky label. Without any hesitation Alex strode into the reception office where a young red headed nurse was whispering down the phone to someone, obviously her boyfriend as personal phone calls were not allowed during work hours.

Making sure that the red head was looking the other way so she wouldn’t notice the navy box being lifted by an invisible hand, Alex peered into the grey box and looking back up at him were the possessions of his that were found at the scene of the accident: his car keys, sunglasses, iPhone and to his great relief the navy box that still felt heavy when he lifted it out of the tray, reassuring him that the bracelet was still present.

Relief washed over him and he let out a long breath, realising that he had been holding his breath the whole while of the panic. Letting the calm and contentment wash back over him, he made his way to the hospital room that was designated towards his well being. Rachel was still sat in exactly the same position. She hadn’t moved an inch. Her hand was still clutching his, but this time he could see the tears streaming down her cheeks, rather than shining in her eyes.

The girl in the yellow dress was also still in the same position but as Alex came in she looked up and smiled comfortingly at him.

“If you had just waited for a few more minutes you wouldn’t have had to have that panic attack. In exactly three minutes a nurse is going to come back with your grey tray and give the possessions to Rachel,” the girl said soothingly, but Alex shook his head.

“I don’t want a random nurse to give this to Rachel,” he said dejectedly as he clicked open the navy box and showed it to the girl, who gasped appreciatively because inside the velvet padded box was the most beautiful bracelet she had ever seen, and she had seen a lot.

The shining silver linked bracelet was sitting inside the box proudly; ten charms were attached to different links, even spaces between each charm. The first charm was a cup cake, the second a small silver peep toe shoe, after that followed a silver full moon, a pair of dice welded together, a four leafed clover, a tiny Scottie dog with a black nose, a ‘watch over me’ eye, a tiny quilted clutch bag, a globe and lastly a tiny frog that had a delicate crown on his head.

The charms were unique and some of them had tiny shining stones, for example the cherry on the cup cake was a tiny but gleaming red stone. The care and thought that had gone into the preparation of such a splendid gift struck the girl right in the middle of the chest and she suddenly understood why Alex did not want a nurse to give this to Rachel.

“Every charm tells a story you know?” Alex said suddenly breaking the silence that had fallen around them. “A story about Rachel and me.”

The girl was completely enthralled and delighted by this idea.

“Tell me,” she whispered, almost like a toddler who was eager to hear a fairy tale.

“It’ll take a long time,” Alex said with a crooked but sad smile jerking at the corners of his mouth.

“Time is the one thing we do have Alex,” the girl said looking at him imploringly.

“I want to know your name first,” Alex demanded. The anonymity that the girl held so far was beginning to grate on him.

The girl smiled but satisfied his curiosity.

“Annie,” she said with a bright smile. “Annie Marchetta. But now it’s time for your story Alex.”

Alex looked at the box that he was clutching in his shaking hands, anger boiled up inside of him because he knew that this was not how it was supposed to be, it wasn’t meant to have happened like this. From the box he looked back up at Rachel who still held the same stance, she was not going to be moved and it was this assurance that made Alex swallow his anger, his distress and total loss.

He cleared his throat and began.