Auto

25

It was sad day. A sad day for everyone. No one even knew how it happened. One moment, everything was fine. And the next...

Gone.

It was killing Frankie, and Grim? Well, he'd disappeared again.

Couldn't be around, not without her.

Auto and Frankie were at the hospital when it happened.

***

Tonya was texting.

She was texting and driving. "Fuckin'!"

A car had cut her off.

"Are you fuckin kidding me, right now?! You've gotta be fuckin kidding me!"

She was driving 60 in a 45 mile zone, rushing to the hospital.

"Can't ya see me drivin' here?!"

A text came through. She looked down.

"Damn it!"

Tommy had been a through treatment. He was going home. Tonya was trying to organize a welcome home party for him.

But people kept cutting her off, and her phone was going fuckin crazy.

"I said get out the way!"

Then it happened. Out of the blue. A car crossed the median. It was so sudden. She didn't see it coming.

The car hit her full on.

All she saw was headlights. She looked up, eyes wide, frozen in terror.

In mid-scream, the cars collided. A scream was caught in her throat at the impact.

Everyone on the freeway was stuck in horror. The front end of the car was obliterated.

The person inside was dead. People jammed the lines reporting the accident, calling 911.

Only, when police arrived on the scene there was a problem:

The truck that hit her?

There was no one in it.

There never was.

***

Two weeks later...

The funeral was a solemn occasion. Auto had her mother flown in.

Her screams echoed the memorial home, bringing tears to every eye.

It was one tragedy after another.

"¡Mi bebe! ¡Mi pequeña hija! ¡Dios, ten piedad, mi bebé ya no está!"

(My baby! My little daughter! God have mercy, my baby is gone!)

Frankie cried in Auto's arms.

"Why does this keep happening to us?"

Auto was numb. "I don't know. I...I don't know."

Frankie started at the picture. There she was smiling.

Her best friend, her little sister was gone.

Gone. Pain welled up in her heart.

One thing was for sure. It was no accident.

Slowly, the church started to empty until only Frankie and her mother remained. Then her mother got up. Her fingers brushed on the back of the pew where Frankie watched her best friends memorial reef.

"It is time, you go home my child. Nothing can bring her back now."

Tonya's mother left, her head down, her heels clanking down the halls of the empty church.

Then they were alone. No.

Now, Frankie was alone.

And Tonya was still as dead as she had been for two weeks now.

***

Gone too soon...

Tonya Gustavo

1998-2018

May You Rest in Peace.