Don't lose a minute

Picture this.

You are driving the family back from a birthday dinner out for your youngest. Everybody is tired, but in good spirits. Traffic seems to be moving without issues and considering it is DC, and raining, and it was kind of a miracle just to be moving at the speed limit. People around here just seemed to lose all sense when the roads got wet. You son is clutching his latest favorite toy and isn’t even aware of it in his left hand as he raises the right one to move it along with the beat as his older sister is doing. You silently think to yourself that it is times like this that make life worth it when time seems to turn into molasses.

Some part of your mind had taken note of the unusual patterns in the oncoming traffic. If you had perfect recall, you would be able to rewind the entire thing and see the white SUV drift into the next lane. The driver had a phone plastered to her face and was laughing so hard that she had her eyes closed. The big rig in this lane sees the developing trouble in time and moves slightly over and begins to break hard. The SUV barely clears the bumps of the truck and jerks hard as the horn blasts her back to her senses.

She overcorrects and begins skidding into the oncoming lanes.

Our car is also in those lanes.

We are about to be hit by a car weighing more than our own and going in the opposite direction. You instantly see one chance at not killing everyone in the car and jerk the wheel to begin your own spin. Trusting instincts you have honed your entire life, you wrestle with the thousands of pounds of force at work in the wheels, the car, the steering system and even the slipping of the wet road under the car. You have entered an alpha state.

Still working from some deep need, you sense the timing is right and both stomp on the brake, and pull the emergency brake. The front of the car dips as forward momentum and force of the braking war push the front down a number of inches.

Those inches were crucial in a way you don’t understand but can sense are needed. Your spouse you notice is screaming and trying to turn the wheel but the oncoming SUV is now less than a foot from the bumper. The SUV moving as if an elephant through honey shutters as the front tires are hit a 2x4 that was sitting on the road right next to the lane. This tiny bit of lift is transmitted through and the SUV ends up striking your car as it is lifting and the angles match enough to launch the SUV into the air missing several cars on its way to the vegetation on the side of the road.

Your car comes to a sudden lurching stop as much of the energy from the SUV is transferred into negating the momentum. Your car comes to rest barely 10 feet ahead of where the SUV struck. Your family is alive. Very shaken, very injured, but alive. Your family no longer includes you however. The SUV collapsed the car around you as it slid up the angles you brought about.

Before your last second actions your family had a 2% chance of 1 person making it out alive but injured for life. You gave all 3 a chance where before there was no lingering damage.

You lose awareness still worried, but exalted at making the needed survivable situation for the rest of your family.

You now find yourself seemingly standing. You are standing by a lawyer handing you a large sheaf of documents.

“Great job out there.” He congratulates you.

Still confused you respond: “Um, thanks. Look what is going on?”

He beams at you and begins: “You died a hero and now have a wonderful opportunity to keep watching your family as they deal with this accident and your death.”

I am still very confused, but this sounds like a good thing so I say. “Ok, what do I need to do, what will this cost?”

He grins ear to ear that somehow seemed to be the first real expression that he allowed himself so far. Something about that grin seemed predatory though.

“If you will just sign right here, we can get you started on your guardianship role and talk about what that will do for your powers and abilities to care for your still living family members.”

The words sounded normal enough, but alarm bells were going off in my intuition. Still feeling a kind of shock at the sudden changes, I started reading the contract papers that I was being offered. A profound silence seemed to fall as I tried to concentrate on each word and keep the meaning behind the words in mind before I got to the next line. It was almost as if my short term memory was refusing to hold onto the words. I could read them, but they had no permanence beyond the echoes in my mind once the next word was being read.

Something felt wrong. I didn’t know what it was, but something about this whole thing was not what it seemed.

My skepticism must have been evident as the lawyer, as that is how I now thought of him, told me “ Better hurry up now. They have no one watching over them now and might be hurt or dying right now while we waste time on this paperwork. Just sign now and we can go back later and talk about the terms.”

My mind seemed to become less and less clear. All of his words made sense, but my reactions to them seemed to be muffled. I knew I was going to say something, but what it was seems to have slipped my mind. I found the pen in my hand and had to fight harder and harder to keep my arm from moving on its own towards the contract.

Screams and the sound of burning are now deafening and all pervading in their power over me. I am trying to make everything stay still and gather my thoughts to understand again what is happening when the lawyer punches me in the head. I feel dazed and feel my entire body being forced to grab the pen and move towards the contract. I feel like a sock puppet being moved as my entire body is floating over the ground as this lawyer tries to keep only my hand on the pen and bend my arm to make it write.

All of my energy and will are now concentrated down to the struggle between the pen and the contract. I am all but curling my body around the pen to keep it from coming into contact with the paper. I am feeling battered now as if this struggle has been going on for much longer than the few moments that it seems. The lawyer's voice I notice is becoming more guttural and deep as it growls at me to just sign the thing.

“Sign it damn you” he shrieks at me in a near hysterical fit.

I am again shaking my head and trying to come up with the words to explain why I don’t think that is a good idea when the most lovely sound I have ever heard begins to come through. The man who I before thought was just a normal guy, I now saw had a body much too large and disproportionate to be human. His skin was also deep blue and had glowing red lines and marks seemingly tattooed along his body. The suit and tie I saw before, was now clearly just skin that vaguely had the lines of a suit. Golden bells pealed through this nightmare. Every note seemed to weaken and make the illusion I was under become more and more unnatural.

The golden bells now permeated everything and a sense of happiness and belonging replaced the confusion and fear that was gripping me before. I could feel the power of this place and let myself open to it and wash over me. glancing back I laugh at the pitiful attempt that the deceiver had made. What seems so obvious now, was almost my choice only because I did not know there were more than one choice available.

That was the test.

You passed.