IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE by Madi
“I don’t want to die.”
I lay on the hard asphalt, repeating those five words in my head. From the corner of my eye, I saw the brake lights of the car that hit me glare brightly in the darkness metres away.
With nothing else to do but wait for help to come, I did a quick assessment of my body.
I tried wiggling my fingers and toes, but all that did was cause sharp pains to shoot up my arms and legs. I lifted my head to see the bone of my right leg protruding from the skin, and my knee at a grotesque angle.
The bone in my left leg was thankfully still on the inside where it should be, but from the size of it, it was heavily swollen and most likely broken as well.
My left shoulder had popped out of its socket and a few of the fingers on my right hand were bent awkwardly.
I had road burn on nearly all of the exposed parts of my body from where I had rolled across the street upon impact of the car slamming into me. Plus, the giant stone digging into my back was awfully uncomfortable.
I pushed past the pain, which was rapidly turning to numbness, and tried to remember how I got in my current predicament.
All I could recall was walking home from work. I’d been in the middle of crossing the road when a car veered around the corner without its headlights on.
I think I might have passed out while I was rolling across the road, because I couldn’t remember anything between being hit and waking up in pain.
The driver staggered out of the car and clumsily walked over to where I lay. The driver dropped to his knees next to me, jolting my right leg in the process.
My vision went blurry with pain, and stayed that way, so I was unable to get a good look at the person who had caused me so much pain.
The stench of alcohol permeated the air with every shaky breath the driver took.
“I…didn’t…see you,” the driver slurred drunkenly.
I would have scoffed had I been able to draw in a proper breath, but from the crushing pain in my chest each time I inhaled or exhaled; I suspected one of my ribs had punctured a lung.
The driver awkwardly got to his feet and stumbled back to the car. He got in and drove away, swerving down the street.
With every moment that passed, my breaths turned from shaky into great heaving gasps.
Tears streamed down my face as I coughed up blood and thought about my family.
It only took another minute for me to die.
