Jack hadn't seen the truck with the semitrailer. Hadn't seen it coming. He didn't know what had hit their car, what had happened and how. But he remembered the feeling, unreal, slow-motion like, and he saw what happened after the crash. He saw the street swirling around them, when in fact it was their vehicle spinning on the asphalt. He saw the edge of the street and the slope behind it coming closer. His eyes closed reflexively, as like they didn't want to see what followed.
The car slid down the slope, overturned a few times, finally laid still on its roof. It took him a moment to reorientate, then he untangled his limbs and looked after his passenger.
"Ennis?"
Ennis laid beside him. He looked fine, no blood to be seen. But he was too still. He didn't move, he didn't say anything, his eyes stayed closed.
"Ennis?"
Within a split second Jack panicked.
"ENNIS!"
The grunt he got in return from his man was the most beautiful sound Jack had heard in his life.
Eight weeks later, another truck hit another car at the exact same spot on Wesner's Creek Road. A whole family of five was extinguished.
When Jack read it, he dropped the newspaper, ignored Ennis' puzzled look and went to the bathroom. He looked closely at the little scar their accident had left on his temple.
Ennis followed a few minutes later. They embraced without words. Life was precious.
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