Just Along for the Ride
Written By: Zehra Nasirali
Date: 13th May, 1997
Full of guilt, I three myself into the
truth. My heart was pounding for fear
of what would happen next. I climbed up
the steps and took the last breath I thought I will ever have. The lights were on in the kitchen, I
noticed. I was hoping no one would open
the door. The bell echoed in the silent
street. After a few seconds of madness,
someone answered the door. To my
amazement, that someone was Ken Benjamin.
My body and eyes froze for a few seconds. I wasn’t receiving any stimulus from my brain. Then I just jumped off my feet and gave my
buddy a tight hug, practically squeezing the lasagna out of his mouth. The smell of food from his mouth made me
wonder that how he could be eating at a time like this instead of being tense
and in shock. I knelt to my knees and
started blabbing out the story. His
‘what’s going on?’ expression had not changed since he had opened the door;
this made me frightened and I distanced myself from him. With tears rolling down my eyes, I explained
how it was not my fault and it was my friend’s idea. I apologized continuously examining his body for any attended
bruises or bandages. He just stood in
the doorway, inviting me in after I was done my reasoning. His face was sober but expressionless.
When I entered his house, I couldn’t help fight
off the invading smell of lasagna. He
told me to take a seat. With a blank
face, he asked, ‘What on heavens are you talking about?’ My skin made ripples on my forehead caused
by my frowning eyebrows, as I was trying to figure out the battle of confusion
that arose in my circular thoughts.
Then after a few seconds of silence I replied,
“then you know nothing? Wait a
minute. It wasn’t you? What?
It can’t be,” my mind baffled, “It has to be you, I saw you there. Where were you last night?”
“I
should be asking you that very same question,” he shot back.
“My brother and I were checking out this new
car, and when I saw you racing, we decided to follow and catch up to you guys,”
I asked him if he had seen anything before that and to my amazement I found out
that he wasn’t the one Harry hit. I was
so relieved that tears of joy filled my eyes.
Ken wanted to know why all this emotion and …. But I cut him off and
told him it was very late and I had to reach home. I thanked him for offering me some lasagna, apologized for all
the inconvenience and left. I was
relieved that he wasn’t the figure I saw and that he didn’t witness the
accident. However, I never got to see
the face of the man that we hit, whose face resembled so much like my buddy,
Ken Benjamin.