The Last Ride

He holds her to his chest, visibly shaking as tears cascade off his face. He rocks her as she grows cold in his arms. Headlights intensify as an unknown car drives past them, unknowingly she is taking her last breaths.

“Hold on baby, please hold on,” he whispers into her ear as the sounds of sirens wail in the distance.

“They’re almost here. Just hold on. They’re almost here,” he continues to choke out.

A flickering light to the right of them catches his attention. He watches the light as it grows from a small flickering flame into a raging fire as his beloved motorcycle burns.

She opens her eyes and frowns at him. “Your bike,” she says, barely more than a whisper, “what happened?”

“I’m so sorry baby, I should have listened to you. I was going too fast,” he says quietly, his sobs interrupting him from going any further.

“Why are you crying,” she asks him quietly.

“You’re bleeding so bad. I should have listened,” he quietly admits.

“Shh, shh, shh…It’s okay. I forgive you,” she said before closing her eyes and exhaling.

The flashing red and white lights come to view as she spasms in his arms. “No..No..NO…HELP!” he begins shouting at the lights.

He raises his arm from across her stomach, blood dripping off it into the ditch under them. He waved it frantically as the ambulance came to a stop, smartly behind the engulfed motorcycle.

The paramedics came running down, red and white bags in their hands. The run their hands over her body. One of them begins cutting away her jeans, the crunch and tearing sounds magnifying in my ears with each downward push of the scissors into the blood soaked fabric.

“Ma’am. Are you okay Ma’am,” one of the paramedics asked.

A pained voice came through, “Yes, just please help him. Save him!”

I see the accident as if I was floating above it. The paramedics hovering over a body, and my beautiful wife crying, her arms crossing, clutching to each other.

“Wake up baby, please…PLEASE…wake up,” she says almost to herself.

I open my eyes a final time, finally understanding that I was living my worst nightmare. I was hearing her say all those things to me…but my mind twisted it around as the blood drained from my head.

“I’m sorry ma’am,” the paramedic said as he stood up from his kneeled position. “He’s gone.”

Her screams was the last thing I heard before fading into the night