Life

I saw the smoke in the distance early in the morning just before we took off in the jeep.

Then I saw the flashing lights.

Because the roads are windy and narrow, we could not see what was holding up the cars and trucks and we took our place in the unmoving lineup of vehicles.

Our engine was turned off. We speculated as to the holdup.

The sun was just making its way up over the horizon and was already producing an intense heat.

That’s when I saw the smoke right in front of me. It was rising up into the sky, creating sparkling shadows in the sun’s rays.

I heard a woman cry. She cried so hard it made her retch. She retched twice.

I felt immediately compelled to exit my seat in the car and I moved silently with the shuffling mob toward the smoke.

Around a bend in the road I saw it. A truck half-dangling off the cliff... burnt to blackness.

The road leading up to it was completely covered in charcoal and I could see the footsteps of everyone who walked in front of me.

I couldn’t go any further. I looked down at my hands instead of approaching the smoldering vehicle.

There was a chilled sense of calm among the gathering crowd in the hot sun.

Panic and tragedy loomed only a few feet in front of me.

He still sat in the drivers seat. He was dead.

He looked like a mannequin.

He was blackened and burnt beyond any recognition. His skin had peeled and was flaking off like paper.

His skin was blowing off with the wind.

He was ashes in the form of a man.

I could see bone and hair.

I could see his eyes.

I could see his burnt hands still clutching the wheel.

I could see his clothing. It was like dirty doll clothes.

I cried. My eyes were blurred with wetness as I felt the skin on my hands.

Firemen were trying to remove him from the vehicle. But they couldn’t.