I Wanted to Tell Her

A Story by Summer Grace

400 word flash fiction..

The snow was falling fast. She wanted to go home from my house so I let her, on that long ago winter night in the 1980s. But I wanted to tell her, I didn't think it was safe for her to drive that night, in the snow and ice. That Saturday night in 1985, I wanted to tell her that, but I knew she was very independent, even for a 17 year old. I was 17 too, but not as independent. I wanted to call her parents and tell them I didn't think it was safe she drive in the darkness, and snow, if she refused to listen to me. I thought, then, they might be waiting up for her on that night near Christmas. But, they weren't the type to do that, they let her have her freedom. She would be 18 in a matter of months anyway. I wanted to tell her maybe I should drive her home. But she'd just laugh and say " Oh, Peter".

My parents had left to visit family for Christmas and I had stayed home. I invited Shelley over to my house to spend the evening. She lived ten miles away. Her parents let her come, maybe not even knowing if she'd be home until morning. We hadn't realized it had started snowing until we looked out from the heavy curtains. It had been icy earlier, but now it was far worse.

However, she insisted on leaving. Later, I got a call from her parents. She had died, mere miles down the road, running off the road on a patch of ice, blinded by the snow, her car went into a tree. She was thrown through the windshield and she was gone. I had wanted to tell her, she should stay, and I never did. Such a simple thing. She would never have listened anyway, I thought all through that bittersweet Christmas and the years that followed.

We had been friends. But that night, while it snowed outside, we had become more than friends. I think she knew that's what would happen if she came over to my house. So when she left, I wanted to tell her something more than not to drive that night. I wanted to tell her I loved her.