I was taken to hospital with John and the other casualty, who, appallingly, was pronounced dead on arrival. After I was checked over and given the all clear, I stayed with John for a few hours. The doctors had put John on life support. He was in a coma.
As I got the bus home I thought of nothing else but sleep. I wanted to be swallowed up akin to the Titanic being swallowed by the sea.
I was woken up the next morning by the doorbell ringing constantly. Surprised that I had been able to fall into as deep a sleep I shot up in bed and quickly got changed into a simple set of clothes. Two police officers in uniform were standing at the door wanting to ask some questions at the local station about John’s accident. Willing to clear any confusion out of their minds I agreed to go with them.
On arriving at the station I was asked to wait for them to clear up some paperwork, to my utter surprise they put me in a small cell that wrenched of urine and old men.
My first thought, most surprisingly, was not about “How can I get out of this mess?” But “What next?”
Then it happened, my thoughts engulfed me like a storm engulfs a city. Images of people I knew well and loved flashed across my minds eye, I thought of John, my family, my friends, Shona – my girlfriend – was going to see her parents in Thurso today. What if I wasn’t there to say goodbye?
Emotions running as wild as the winds in a hurricane I fell on the cold, uninviting floor and for the first time since I had stayed at my Grandparents house over eight years ago, I prayed.
“Dear God, help me.”
And as if all my life’s tiredness had fallen onto me at this one time I fell asleep, a dreamed.
I was on a beach in the middle of a great storm; with every flash and thunder crack of thunder and lightening I saw scenes of my life flashing before me. Amazing colours filled the sky: red like my blood, orange like the flame, yellow like the sun, purple like the robes of kings passed. Rain was falling on my skin, but I did not shiver. I felt warm.
Stepping up unto a rock I looked from the sky to the sea. In amazement I stared at waves pounding against the rocks with more force than I could ever imagine possible. Further out, beyond the great rocks water spouts beyond recognition twisted and turned between each other; the sight was breathtaking.
I turned my head back inland to see a great cliff face of sandstone with seams of quartz running through it. As I stepped down from the rock and walked towards the cliff face I noticed that the dazzling colours of the sky were being reflected off the quartz. The warm light made by these reflections rebounded off my face as I came closer. I looked at my hands to see that they too were coloured in these amazing colours. It was as if I could feel the colours soak into my very being and light up inside me.
I then looked back at the sky where things I had thought about and saw were showing themselves like a movie. I saw the crash happen all over again and what led up to me being put into the cell at the police station and to me having this dream, and there I was lying on the ice-cold floor of the cell dreaming of this. I could see myself sleeping. I felt a tingle down my spine as I remembered the cold floor I was lying on. I shivered for the first time.
I started to walk along the beach thinking, “Why am I dreaming about this?” It was the strangest feeling ever. I suddenly realised that although I was asleep I felt as though I was conscious. I knew I was dreaming. I knew I was asleep. This dream seemed more than a dream – it was more like real life.
Then I suddenly realised, I was trapped, but the strangest thing was, I knew how to escape, it was to wake up. But how to wake up? That was my problem.
I didn’t particularly want to wake up but I felt the need to have my life back to the way it was before the crash. I wanted to be able to go shopping with my girlfriend and friends. In the short period of time I had been dreaming I had come to realise what was most important in my life. Not anyone else’s. I realised in that moment that the most important thing to me was my friends and family. I had been so busy racing around trying to live my life the way I wanted to that I had paid little or no attention to what my family and friends wanted my life to be like.
The sky cleared, the colours disappeared. And it stopped raining.
The storm was over.
The waves had stopped pounding and I could only just hear the sound of the sea.
Then there was a click as if a lock was being unlocked and a creak like a door. I heard someone call my name. “Mark, Mark!”
Then suddenly, I woke up; I was back in the cell, the door open and in the doorway stood my Dad. He smiled. The two police officers who had brought me here stood with him, one of them stepped inside
“Please, come with us, Mr Buchanan” His voice was stern but subtle. Not harsh the way I had imagined it to be. He turned and walked out of the cell. Reluctantly, I followed…
4 YEARS LATER…
The rain was horrendous. I watched it wash down the windscreen of John’s new Rally car: hand made from America. The Mitsubishi Team had sent it yesterday. And today John was racing for the Championship. He came up to the last hairpin and glided round to face the finishing line; with a switch of gears he was on the home stretch. As he crossed the finishing line I hear the crowd go mad with enthusiastic cheers for the new World Rally Champion. That was John’s dream, of course, and he had finally achieved it.
John had fully recovered from the accident four years ago. But the memory is still there. I sometimes think of the dream I had back in the cell. The colours in the sky, the water spouts in the sea, the colours reflected off the quartz in the wall. I realised one very important thing that day. My life was nothing without friends and family to help me through bad times and to laugh with me through the good. Family is everything.