Blinks | Brian O'Conner
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It was known throughout the entire crew that losing a car would hurt just as much as losing a person. We all knew that we had formed bonds with our cars in ways that no one would understand until they experienced it themselves. The second you sat in the driver’s seat; the car became an extension of yourself. The two of you were one, biological and material parts meshed together.
I’m on my knees, my hands are resting on top of my thighs, palms upward. The tears that seep from my eyes burn. Someone is crying so, so loud. There are hands on my shoulder’s keeping me from falling forward. I can’t even keep myself upright…
How had this happened? One second, I had been speeding down the mountain pass, and the next I was scrambling away from the burning wreckage.
The entire engine bay is in flames, thick plumes of smoke spiral up into the sky. His horn blares loudly. Both blinkers still flash at me and the last remaining headlight peers at me. I can smell my car burning, chunks of flames fall to the ground around it. He was so strong, holding on as long as he could. My car has reached its end though and the horn stutters before it cuts out completely. The remaining headlight goes dark, as if someone had just blown out a candle. Almost immediately, his blinkers go dark. The last blinks… his final goodbye as he went willingly to wherever the souls of cars go.
It's utterly silent now, except for the crackling of the flames and my sobs. The trees spiral high into the sky on all sides, almost sealing us from the world. A private death. He had sacrificed himself to save my life.
I can feel my boyfriend behind me, his fingers rubbing at the back of my neck soothingly. Brian had lost his eclipse earlier in the year, so he understood everything that was running through me. I had been building this car for just under two years. I had dumped thousands of dollars into it, replacing every part of a sixteen-year-old car that I could. And beyond everything, I had walked through life every day with this car by my side. My first car.
Every time I had needed a release, something to keep me sane, I would drive. There is no better partnership than a driver and their car. No one would ever know the car the way the driver would. But what is a driver without their car? Nothing.
~~~
Brian
She sobs, she’s desperate, just trying to get to her car. I tighten my grip on her, whispering to her. All she wants is to throw herself into the flames. She pulls and strains against my hold and part of me worries that she might bruise under my fingers. I can see the life slowly leaving her car. There would be no coming back from a fire of that magnitude.
“Please Brian. Please!”
It’s quite possibly one of the saddest things that I have ever seen. Her car holds on as long as possible, crying for help but proud that it had fulfilled its promise of keeping her safe. There was barely a scratch on her. She’s sobbing so hard that I’m worried she’ll forget to breathe.
Hopefully, the rest of the crew would arrive with extinguishers soon. Maybe then she would be able to save something from the car. We could build another car, but it couldn’t just be any car. When choosing a car there was a feeling, that if it was right, it would just feel right.
I had taught her how to drive manual in this car all those years ago, we had had out first kiss standing on top of it. All of that, ripped away in a single second. Gone.
“Stay with me. Stay with me. Stay with me. Stay…” She whispers, so quiet and broken by her hiccupping breaths that I can barely hear it.
When the crew finally arrives, she is just sitting on the pavement staring numbly at the still burning frame of her first car. Her eyes are dry, having already spent all the tears, but there is a haunted look to them. As if, a part of her burned right along with her car.
Thick foam from the extinguishers coats the engine bay and the front fenders. The flames do not give up easily, fighting to stay alight. She watches the whole process in the same spot that she had been in for over an hour now.
When the flames are finally gone and all that is left is the ash, she stands up. She picks her way over to the corpse and then lowers herself to the ground in front of the frame. Her forehead falls forward, landing on the car’s bumper. She presses her palm flat against it.
It’s a hauntingly beautiful picture. A last goodbye.
I let her take as much time as she needs but it is getting cold. I shrug off my jacket and approach her slowly. I drape it over her shoulders and lean down to press a kiss to her temple. I use the back of my hand to brush the tears from her face and then brush the stray strands of her hair away from her eyes.
“If you knew it was your last drive, would you have still gone?”
“Yes.” She whispers, without hesitation.
