Thursday, December 16, 2010

Flash Fiction: The Soaring


She heard the mailman leave five minutes prior. How did she know it was him? The angry bell on the mailbox sounded whenever it was opened and closed. Afterwards, Raven Burke walked out of the front door to mailbox on the other side of the sidewalk near her home on Jericho Way. The mailbox was a twenty-five foot journey Rachel took daily.

A block away an elderly man named Chuck Perry was driving a U-Haul truck safely but with eagerness. The morning streets in the small town of Warrenville, California was as smooth an empty sheet of clean paper as he drove with wanting. Granted the old man's new green house on Jericho Way hadn't feet to walk; nevertheless, Chuck couldn't halt the stampede of his heart's impatience. He'd just signed the documents granting him ownership of the home. Not often does a man own property, let alone an old black man at 85 years young. And since no one was on the road he sped faster to shave his patience by seconds.

Now Chuck's speed increase was perfect and easy when he bent the corner of Jericho Way. But his cellphone's ringing spooked him slightly and quickly, he grab the it from the passenger seat while he finish bending the corner on Jericho Way.

"Hello?" He answered before bringing the phone to his ear. What happened next requested the attention. For the premature hello prior to the phone meeting his ear delayed his eye's return to the road, where a woman stood at a mailbox in front of him. The truck finished rounding the corner and began rushing in pursuit of her safety; it was Raven. Chuck immediately dropped the phone near his feet and he slammed the brakes while assessing the honesty of the steering wheel to no avail. Raven pulled the mailbox's handle and reached inside in time to be startled by tires screaming as a hungry child. And when the truck attacked her, she was sent twenty-six feet in the air.

It seemed an eternity but the truck finally stopped.
The screaming tires hushed.
Raven continued flying.
Chuck witnessed her amazing soar.
Raven finally dropped from the air like a bird killed in mid flight.
The old man lost his breath.
Raven slammed on the sidewalk and Chuck died immediately following.

The death of Chuck came not by injury, for he hadn't one bruise or scratch. But his old heart closed silent the moment Raven's body slammed on the sidewalk. For right before they died he bore witness of a miracle, one of few he'd ever encountered in his long life. He became an eyewitness of a black woman flying without wings. And in mid-flight her eyes met his eyes in fear minutes before both met the eyes of God.

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