15 minutes (standard:other, 1191 words)
Author: LOWKEY	Added: Apr 18 2001	Views/Reads: 4096/2319	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
See the difference 15 minutes can make in a life

Jack was getting sleepier and sleepier as he drove his 69 mustang down
the winding country road. He estimated only 20 miles to go before he 
would reach his grandfather's house. 

A  slight  drizzle had begun to fall and was forming a haze on the
windshield. This combined with his drowsiness made driving this dark 
night, on a road he'd been on twice in the past 27 years very 
difficult. The curves seem to come out of nowhere, yet he couldn't 
force himself to slow down and he skidded slightly in every turn. He 
figured the quicker he got there the quicker he would be off  the road. 


It had been his grandmother's funeral the last time he'd ridden in a car
on this road. He was only 12 at the time. Yet he could clearly see in 
his mind the funeral procession as it returned from the church cemetery 
like a slow moving convoy. He hadn't known his grandmother, but after 
she died, he had spent that next summer  with his grandfather. 

After that his dad got a job further into the city and they moved away.
His grandfather had visited them at some holidays and he noticed him at 
funerals, but he never got to have the long talks with him as he had 
that summer. 

Now after all these years he was returning to live with his grandfather
again only now he was a full fledged adult. 

Jack had just been through a messy divorce, and the stress of it all had
left him feeling that he needed a restful vacation. Since his parents 
lived in the city near his ex, he figured the best thing to do was 
visit his grandfather, and kill two birds with one stone. Get away 
where he could relax and rest, and have no contact with the she demon 
from hell. So after a brief call and hurried packing here he was 
motoring down the road back towards the most peaceful place he had ever 
known. 

Jack rubbed his eyes repeatedly as if the sleep would somehow come out
of them, but it only seemed to blur his vision more. He rolled down the 
window slightly trying to shake the cloud of drowsiness that had 
descended on him like a cloud of gas. 

Then suddenly out of nowhere appeared a young woman in the middle of the
road. Jack reacted quickly, slamming on the  brakes  and guiding the 
car into a skid as the girl stood steadfast in the path of this 
hurtling mass of iron. The car screamed to a halt and threw Jack into 
the windshield as the force of inertia slammed him forward. 

He slowly opened his eyes to see the windshield had been shattered by
something, he figured it was his head. He opened the door and stepped 
from the car. He was still groggy but he managed to stumble to the 
front of the car. 

He expected to find the mangled, bloody body of a woman, but there was
nothing to be found. No body, no dent in the car, no shred of evidence 
that anything was ever in front of the car. 

After examining the car and the road all around including the bushes on
the shoulder of the road, Jack found nothing. He then returned to the 
driver's seat of his car. He turned the ignition switch and the car 
whined a few turns before finally starting. He gunned the engine one 
final time then continued on down the road. 

He was fully awake now. There was no sleep in his eyes now. He scanned
the road on both sides and eagerly searched the darkness for any sign 
of the young woman he had almost ran over. 

He began to wonder if it had all been a dream, but he could clearly see
the face of the young mysterious woman in his mind. It was a kind, 
gentle, and honest face. And somewhere in the back of his mind she was 
so familiar. She had seemed to be smiling, and waving at Jack, just 
before he slammed on the brakes. After that she just disappeared, or 
she had been knocked completely off the road into the thick bushy 
growth of trees. 

Jack looked at his watch, and noticed he had lost about 15 to 20 minutes
with the incident on the road. He figured he had about 5 miles left to 


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