When life passes you by in seconds - short story by M E Heed

Camille was dreading getting up for work. She was warm and cosy in the comfort of her bed, not ready to face the world. Snow had gathered at each corner of her windows forming beautiful concave patterns. The forecast for today was more snow and temperatures reaching below freezing. She could feel the cold air around the house despite the central heating being on since 5am. 

It had been snowing over the weekend, the driveway was frozen which meant she would need to get the spade out of the garage to clear the snow before even thinking of getting in the car. Then, she realised the car would also be covered in snow. Days like this when she wished their garage could be used for the car to be kept and not used as a storage room. She wasn't looking forward to clear the snow before leaving for work, though this is a great way to warm up on such a cold day. It would take her around half hour,  which on a non-snowy day would only be 5 mins to leave the house. She had to  get a move on otherwise she'd be late for work; surprisingly  she  left the house on time. 

She enjoyed the  driving through the countryside roads. This was  therapeutic for her, before joining the fast lane of life at work.

Although she had a few years left   before retirement there were times she wished she had retired. Whilst driving to work she enjoyed looking at the drastic changes of brightly coloured oak trees  mainly  during Autumn and Spring, her favourite seasons. However she could appreciate the beauty of winter too, particularly when it snowed. This morning everything was covered in a white blanket, simply stunning.

 

As she was driving through one of the villages, suddenly she hit black ice losing control of the car. The car spun around three times hitting a tree then double turned and flipped. At that moment her life ran through her mind like a movie, all the things she did, her time shared with her loved ones, the birthday of her granddaughter coming up soon, which most probably she  would  miss as her life was looking precarious at that moment.

Then thoughts came to her mind, she had struggled all her life and worked hard to have a comfortable home to which at this particular moment in time, lying upside down in the car, feeling a trickle of warm thick, sticky liquid running down her face; had no value at all. She had no regrets about what she should and shouldn't have done in her life. She knew deep in her heart she tried to be the best person she could, always trying to help her fellow friends in her own simple way. At that point realization also came to her thoughts about life in general,  the meaning of life, and that she couldn't  take with her what she built over the years with the sweat of her brow, like her  precious belongings; whenever the universe chose to take her she was ready, then ......  the lights went out - death is a  great leveller.