Chapter 12
She was still waiting to breathe. But under the water she could not open her mouth. She could not unwind her seatbelt.
Her chest no longer burned. She blinked calmly. Above her, and not a foot distant, was the shattered glass of the windshield. Crepuscular rays sliced at the trees’ canopy, the broken branches, the surface, and the flooded interior of the little blue car. She could see Sam in her periphery, floating like her, eyes seeking hers for acknowledgment.
How long they floated she did not know anymore. She felt as though she must have known. But when she knew was not so long past. She must have forgotten recently. Perhaps in the crash.
Floating in the car’s shallow pool, she was caught in the shifting sun. It slipped over her cheeks. Her nose tingled under its hot inf
