Please Don't Go

He sat at his bedside table that night, staring out at the snow falling just beyond the glass. He wondered if she was looking at the same scene too.

He wondered who she would be today.
Who he would be today.

But just as quickly as those thought had popped in to his mind, he pushed them aside, pulling back to covers of his hotel room bed, crawling underneath and turning out the light.

“I’ll see you soon,” She smiled into the receiver before hanging up. She slipped her cell phone down into the cup holder next to the seat. She glanced up to her rear view mirror and checked on her precious cargo that sat in the back see.

A young boy was strapped in to his booster seat, bundled up in his winter coat and his little gym shoes strapped tightly to his feet so that they wouldn’t fall off when he kicked them around. He was turning four in just over a month.

A baby girl laid sleeping next to her older brother, holding her pink and white blanket to her chest. Her fluffy, pink coat cuddled her as she dreamt of princesses and magic. She was turning one in less than a week.

Their mother pulled up to a stop sign, being extra cautious since a fresh patch of snow began to cover the road that lay ahead of them.

The three of them were on their way home to their father, whom had just gotten back from a recent tour on the West Coast.

As she took her foot off the brake, headlights appeared out of no where on the left side, but their mother thought nothing of it. She had the right of way and went on with her right hand turn.

Then, there was a loud crash as the car that had just appeared, slammed in to the left driver’s side of the car, shattering glass everywhere. The two children were ejected from the car and thrown nearly fifteen feet away from the two vehicals. Their mother sat in the front seat, with a bleeding forehead half of her body falling through the front windshield.

----

“Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Mr. Zack Baker,” a young teenage boy announced, followed by clapping from the auditorium full of high schoolers.

Zacky cleared his throat, taking the microphone that was handed to him. “Thank you,” He said smoothly. “It’s nice to be here today.”

He looked over his audience, like he normally did, and began to tell his story.

“I want you all to picture a car. Picture a woman with dark brown hair driving this car. Now picture her being faced with a choice to make before driving this car. One night, a forty three year old woman made a decision. She had just gotten off of work from her corporate job and headed over to the local bar. There, she had a few drinks with some friends. Then, she made another decision. After the drinks that she had, she chose to get in to her car, and drive home. She had already gone to jail twice for DUI and she was avoiding the cops, so, she took all the back roads in hopes of not running in to them. She was swerving all over the road, fluctuating her speed by going faster and then slowing down. It was very clear that she had no control over her vehicle.”

“Now picture another car, except in this car, is a woman with blonde hair. She’s twenty seven years old. She had just picked up her two kids from her neighbor’s house. The boy’s name is Ryan; he’s about three and a half. The little girl’s name is Emma. She’s eleven months old.”

“Their mother had just called her husband, saying she was just about to turn on to their street. He said okay. She said, ‘I’ll see you soon.’”

“The car with the mother and two kids has just stopped at a stop sign, waiting to make a right hand turn. She put on her signal and checked both directions before turning. She had the right of way.”

“Out of no where, the car with the forty-three year old intoxicated driver comes barreling through the stop sign at seventy miles per hour. She doesn’t stop. She’s so intoxicated that she can’t even move her foot to touch the brakes.”

“She slams into the left driver’s side of the woman’s car, throwing her two children out the front windshield. They landed fifteen feet from the car. Their mother laid over the steering wheel, half of her body through the window.”

He stopped for a minute, surveying his crowd. He could read all of their faces like open books. He knew that nothing was going to prepare them for what they were about to hear next.

“The forty-three year old woman’s name was Jane. She worked a regular nine to five job at a high corporate office in Palm Beach, California. She had been charged with two DUIs before.”

He took a deep breath. “The woman driving with the two kids was my wife, Melissa. She and I were just getting ready to celebrate my daughter Emma’s first birthday. My little boy Ryan was just about to start pre-school.”

A nearly inaudible gasp could be heard throughout the crowd of high schoolers as Zack looked down at his feet, avoiding all eye contact with the people.

“I lost the loves of my life on November 6, 2001.”