If


I just looked at my phone again and tried my best to will it to ring but just like the last hundred times I tried out my powers of persuasion or telekinesis or whatever you want to call them, it didn’t work. It wasn’t my fault, not really. Well, maybe it was. Alright, it definitely was my fault but I didn’t mean for it to happen. It just sorta did and now it can’t be undone. If I could turn back time… (Sorry about the cliché there or if you now have that Cher song stuck in your head but what’s done is done. Besides, I need to get to what happened.)

Two hours ago I was sitting in the coffee shop reading my newspaper. I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw Vince. Recently cheated on me, poor excuse for a human being Vince. Looking better than ever Vince. Damn it. Anyway, he came over to me. I tried to ignore him but he started falling all over himself to try to explain, saying something about how I got it all wrong and that it wasn’t what I thought. I asked if he thought I was stupid. He said no and that the girl I saw him with wasn’t anyone important, that she didn’t mean anything to him. I said, “Well gee, if she wasn’t so important to you, then why were you kissing her?”

“I wasn’t kissing her. I happened to be giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation.”

“Did you really just say that? I feel like I’m on an unfortunate episode of Maury about cheaters and the crazy things they say!”

I didn’t even bother to finish my coffee or my newspaper. I headed for the door and out to my car parked in front of the shop. Yeah, he followed me. I got in the car and started it up. He starts banging on the window, begging me to hear him out, blah, blah, blah… I rolled down the window and said, “Please stop this. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

He moved in front of the car and threw his hands on the hood. “I can’t let you go until you hear me out.”

That’s when I did it. I stepped on the gas and ran him over. I sat still for a moment, thought seriously about putting the car in reverse and making sure I got him before I came to my senses. I jumped out of the car and went over to him. He was clutching his side, clearly in pain. He looked up at me. “You are completely insane.”

I was still shaking with anger. “No, what is insane is that I didn’t back up my car and hit you again while I had the chance!”

A few minutes later an ambulance pulled up. They lowered the stretcher onto the pavement. One of the guys looks down at Vince and says, “Hey Rob, look at this. It’s the guy who did mouth to mouth on that woman at the mall yesterday. Looks like he’s the one who needs help today.” He looked at Vince and asked, “What happened here?”

I stood there frozen. I didn’t know what he was going to do, whether he was going to point to me and have them take me away for an attempt at vehicular homicide or what. As they lifted him onto the stretcher, he said, “I wasn’t looking where I was going and stepped out in front of her. It was a complete accident.” They lifted him inside the ambulance and drove away to the hospital.

So, like I said before, that was two hours ago. I didn’t mean for it to happen but it was completely my fault that I jumped to conclusions like I always do. If only I could go back to yesterday and find out what really happened. If only I could go back two hours ago and stop myself from attempted murder. If only he would call me and tell me he still loves me. If only…

Ring…