The marigold stood too perfect, too serene, too beautiful for the devastation around it. I watched in silent horror as the ground wrenched itself apart in front of me, unforgiving, swallowing the only place I'd known as home. I stumbled, lost my balance and crashed onto the stones of our cobbled path, my head exploding in pain. Like a whirlpool, the world spun around me turning trivial objects of everyday life into deadly weapons as the world trembled from within. I got up tentatively – like a toddler taking her first steps – I stumbled, fell and my will evaporated. I lay there, mesmerized by the dance of the marigold… I waited for death.
A minute, a second, a day; time meant nothing as I previsioned the inevitable…Then, something broke through.
"Leslie!" he shouted my name.
My heart leaped and my head whipped from side to side as the sound burst back into my eardrums. I saw him lying across the street and the desire to live was revived inside of me. I remembered why I couldn't die…Why I had to fight… Why my heart had to keep beating. His eyes locked into mine, his gaze intense, captivating then suddenly broken by a grimace of pain. That's when I really saw him. He wasn't lying on the ground as I'd thought before but was dragging himself towards me, his eyes concealing what the rest revealed – he was in excruciating pain. His muscles bulged, his rounded face and caramel skin dripped sweat but still, his intense gaze, his eyes like deep blue oceans, found mine. Without realising, I was on all fours, crawling to him, determined to find a way to end his agony, his own personal hell. Two things happened at once: I screamed as I saw a snake, no, not a snake but his leg – broken in too many places to count – drag behind him. I fought, with all my being, to keep the burning acid searing up my throat down. His face changed then – an unknown realisation dawned on him as a sound to his left broke his concentration and demanded him to glance towards it. My eyes followed his and my face mirrored his terror as agony ripped through every cell in my body. Coming towards us, rolling on its side was a bus, careening at an impossible speed down the nearly vertical road. My life, our life flashed before my eyes.
My hopes, my dreams, our passion. Twenty years into the past, twenty minutes then suddenly 120 seconds, an eternity ago. When life had just been laughter and love. Frantic my eyes found the marigold again, bringing me back to reality. Still it stood, too perfect, too serene, too beautiful for the devastation around it. Finally…My eyes rested on Rodney's. "I love you…" I mouthed.