me of a miniature Ivy League college, with its bricks and cut stones, and little pathways twisting around the buildings. In the wintertime the trees were a convenient shelter, since it rained most of the time. I could walk from one end of the campus to the other using the trees as my umbrella. They always seemed to smell like Christmas. In the winter evenings, you could look down on the lights of the town as they gave off a light glow. The water of the river beyond would glisten with the reflection of the moonlight. You could often see one moon in the night sky and another image of it rippled on the water.
In the spring like now, the campus setting was just as beautiful. There were rhododendron and azalea blooming everywhere. Even the daffodils and tulips were poking their little heads above the ground to welcome me. As I walked across the campus, I enjoyed seeing the bright colors and the air smelled sweet and clean. It was almost a daily walk for me. I enjoyed mixing with the students at the college. I guess mainly because they didn't judge me on my age. How many 18-year-olds go to college and high school at the same time? But we had something in common. We each wanted an education, to do something better with our lives.
There didn't seem to be many people around for the evening classes so most of the common areas, which the students used, were closed. We had discovered a little courtyard in between some of the classrooms. It was covered, perfect for when it rained, and it even had a few benches and was well lit. It sat between our biology classes and the history classes. This semester Toby and Anna had biology and Kayla had history. I had history, and English lit as my last class of the evening but of course it was on the other side of the campus. The courtyard was our meeting place after our classes were over. We had it down to an art. Toby and Anna got out of class first. Kayla would sit and talk to her tutor, or some of her friends instead of leaving class right away. Since I had to walk around the back of Kayla’s classroom to get to the courtyard, I had a habit of banging on the back window as I passed by heading to our rendezvous at the courtyard. That would signal Kayla to get her bags packed, her things together and get moving as we raced to meet the others. But today they were all waiting for me, as I came around the corner.
“Sorry I’m late, got caught up in English lit. I’ve been trying to get extra work to turn my B to a solid A.” I had been pushing hard to keep my grades up. It was so important to me I found myself late for a lot of things recently. Even so I could still see that this was the best way to get where I wanted to be in life.
Kayla’s crooked little smile told me she wasn’t worried. “That’s ok, I don’t mind the extra tutor time.”
“What tutor?” Toby asked.
Kayla was giving him that look again, the one that said he should know better, when she answered. “Mr. Starr, and he is some nice eye candy.” That was Kayla’s way of saying he is very good looking. “He’s one of the under grads that do tutoring on the side. I see him twice a week if you must know.”
I had only seen him from a distance. He was taller than my dad, maybe six-three with dark brown wavy hair to his shoulders and he had a lean build with broad shoulders. He looked too young to be a professor, but he dressed like one, dark slacks and button down shirts. Something my dad would wear to work.
Kayla turned to Anna and I. “He’s helping me in history, Professor Noland asked him. And I need the help.”
Toby quietly asked, “With history, or guys?”
“Toby,” Kayla and I yelled in unison.
“Both.” I couldn’t believe Anna said what we were all thinking.
I felt like I had to say something to head this off. “I’m hungry anyone want to get some thing to eat?” In a very sheepish voice, “I’ll pay.”
“Sure thing I’m starving too,” Toby blurted out.
I couldn’t help but think why are guys always hungry? I swear Toby could eat 24/7.
As we piled into the ‘Boat’, I thought about the money Dad had given me and started to panic. “Where’s my wallet, I can’t find it?” Ten minutes later and a clean car we found it under the front seat. Now finally we could get something to eat. Fast food was calling our names and after a quick stop we were all set. We shoved the food in our faces as we drove home. Anna and Kayla had the stereo on singing to some country song. Toby and I sitting in back were listening to some of the new music I had just downloaded on my I-pod. I had one ear bud and Toby had the other. We were poking and making funny faces at each other. Toby and I could always make fun of each other and it never bothered us. That`s what best friends were for.
Then time stood still. The moment felt like forever, without end. I was watching Toby’s face as the laughter had turned to shock then horror. Then I heard a scream, “Anna!”. I was still watching Toby’s face. My eyes couldn’t look away from him. Then he screamed, “No!!!” I never heard his voice so angry and frightened in my life. I didn’t want to, but I looked away from his eyes and out the windshield. It was coming straight at us.
A logging truck was coming at us. I didn’t see a driver, just the grill. Why wasn’t he getting back in his lane? Why couldn’t he see us? Anna hit the brakes and the car started to slide sideways. The tires were making a high pitch sound that was deafening. I closed my eyes and it felt like my heart had stopped. I didn’t have time to do anything else, not even scream. Then I flew into the back of Anna’s seat. I could hear the screaming of metal being ripped apart. There was the sound of glass exploding. I knew it was only seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. I was halfway on the floorboard and the seatbelt made me feel like I was being cut in two. Something was pushing me down. Someone was laying on me. It was Toby. I could hear his soft moans. It was hard to breath, I felt as if I was being crushed. And I couldn’t see, there was something wet in my eyes. Not tears but blood, it was warm and sticky, running down my face. “Toby,” it was all I had in me, just a whisper. “Toby,” the pain in my head was unbearable. Everything felt as if it were spinning. My mind was blurry, out of focus, foggy. Where was I, how, who, I didn’t know if I remembered my name. Everything was slipping away. I must be dying.
“Hope. Hope you’re going to be alright.” A voice… no music… it seemed like both. One deep perfect note like a bow was being pulled across the strings of a cello. It was haunting and beautiful at the same time. It gave me a strange sensation, one I had never felt before.
“Hope, you’re going to be alright, but I need you need to keep fighting.” Fighting? I didn’t understand, what was I fighting? My mind couldn’t focus and the fog was turning into night, getting darker.
Then, blue, the darkness was turning blue. I thought I could see the most beautiful big ice blue eyes staring at me. They were filling me with love.
“You need to keep fighting Hope.”
I felt two hands encase mine. Someone was holding my hand, giving me strength, but who? I began to shiver, but I didn’t feel chilled. I just felt pain, unbearable pain. Then someone was wrapping me in a blanket. Holding me close to them.
“Hope, please hear me, believe me.”
I forced my eyes open with everything I had left in me. Then, I was looking into that dreamy set of big beautiful ice blue eyes, surrounded with dark lashes. Someone was holding me in their arms and holding my hand. I could see, I could see my hand. But I wasn’t wrapped in a blanket. It was a white glow, a white light, in the shape of wings? Wings that gave comfort, made me feel protected. I was wrapped in wings! I must be dead.
“Hope, you’re going to be alright,” the white glow, the white light, in the shape of wings, kept saying. And my mind was getting foggy again. My thoughts,
