Scrap: Under Us - Eliza

         "Well Mom, it's raining today.  Your favorite I guess.  I remember you used to always make me hot chocolate whenever it was cold outside."  Eliza seemed to be alone in the cemetery as she looked around at the wet grass and winding streets running in between grave sites.  Not that it mattered, she hadn't had much use for company lately.  School was more trouble than it was worth, her friends were all married now and seemed to want nothing to do with a single girl, and she couldn't catch a boy on a hook if she were right in front of him.  Everything seemed like it was wrong, and it couldn't get worse, and then it did.  Gazing down at her mother's headstone, she saw a small chip on the edge. "Oh Mom, how could somebody be so careless?"  She brushed it with her finger and another piece came off in between her finger and her thumb.  Eliza looked at it.  "Well isn't this just the greatest day ever."  She said out loud, angrily, as if somebody cared to listen to her.
         Eliza sat down on the wet grass.  She didn't care that her pants were getting soaked.  "Four years is too long Mom, I can't, I need.  I'm sorry Mom.  I miss you so much," she said without feeling.  "I can't get through, but I wish you were here.  Life is so hard.  I know we never talked much, but I guess just knowing that you were there made a difference."
         Eliza closed her eyes.  She could imagine what it use to be like coming in from the cold, changing into dry pajamas from her wet school clothes, and sitting on the couch.  Her mom would bring her a nice warm knitted quilt and a mug of hot chocolate with two big marshmallows floating in it.  Her brother Joey was there too.  He was always making a mess and pulling things out, but on those days he'd just want to sit next to Eliza and cuddle, and steal sips of her drink.  Suddenly there was a loud crack, and several bolts of lighting flew across the sky and then there was another loud crack.  The rain got harder.
         "Oh," screamed Eliza, "I hate this weather."  It used to be her favorite.  Eliza ran over to her car and pushed her key in the door lock.  As she tried to turn it the key jammed against her slippery wet fingers.  She jiggled the key but it wouldn't turn, then she pulled it out and looked at it.  It was bent a little bit on the tip.  She slid it carefully back into the lock and pulled it toward the bent tip, then turned it slowly, and it unlocked the doors.  She hurriedly opened the door and jumped inside to where it was warm and dry.  Several more flashes of lightning displayed in the sky, and another loud crack of thunder screamed through the cemetery, rattling the windows on her car.  Eliza started the engine and drove to the cemetery exit.  She looked both ways before pulling out, left, then right, and then she started to go, and as she turned to look left again a large SUV was suddenly right next to her.  A loud crash sound echoed through the car and her ears began to ring.  She felt jolted into her door as her arm was twisted under the steering wheel.  She looked up at the SUV that was now directly next to her, and saw a woman with tear-filled eyes in the passenger seat looking back down at Eliza.  Everything seemed to slow down for what seemed like hours, but it was only a few seconds.  Eliza blinked and she was suddenly sitting in her car getting ready to pull out of the cemetery again.  She looked left down the road, then right, and she suddenly felt deja vu.  That wasn't a good sign.  Then she looked left again and slammed on the brake pedal as a large SUV sped past her, and swerved out into the road to avoid hitting Eliza's car.  "Stupid driver!"  She screamed like we all do even when we know that what would have happened was our own fault.
         Eliza caught her breath, put her car in park, and leaned back into her seat for a moment, combing her her with both of her hands.  "Thanks Mom," Eliza said out loud as she looked up at her car ceiling.
         "I love you Eliza," came a reply.  Eliza was startled.  Did she really hear her mother just talk to her?
         "Mom?"  Eliza looked around her.  Deciding she was probably just stressed out and thinking about what her mother would have said, she put the car back into drive as another car pulled up behind her.  Eliza pulled out onto the road next to the cemetery, and checking her rear view mirror to see which way the car behind her drove, she could no longer see the automobile.  Eliza decided that she should just drive home to her apartment.  It had been a long day after all.