Memories of the Future

A Story by Summer Grace

Flash Fiction

Violet was 14 and had many memories of the future. She looked forward to when she would graduate from high school, or when she would graduate from college, or when she would get married, or perhaps when she would be a mother. She called them memories of the future because the were things that would hopefully happen one day in her future, and become cherished memories. She could never live in the present, or in memories of the past. Then again, she didn't have much of a past, she was only 14. Also, it's not uncommon when you are 14 to have trouble living in the present, as there is so much ahead, so many memories of the future to make. Violet spent so much time wanting to be older.

Why was she only 14 she thought, what could anybody her age do, except wait for the future? Violet wanted to be 16 at least. She wanted to drive and maybe work part time in the future. It was always the future, to Violet. But for Violet, her memories of the future were something beyond her grasp. They would always be memories of the future, memories of a future that would never be. The June night that Violet got into her friend's car, she was thinking of the future. When would she be old enough to drive by herself like her friend Tina? Tina was 16. It seemed eternal, even just two years.

That June evening when she was with her friends in that overcrowded old car, she did not think to enjoy herself in the present, with her friends on the way to another friend's house to watch a movie. But that present was soon over, when the girls talking and laughing, distracted Tina from the road, and she missed a turn on the road and the car hit a light pole before rolling into the ditch. Violet was just a memory soon enough, like everybody else in that car, except the one girl who had thought more concretely of the future, and put a seat belt on. All the memories Violet might have made her in her future, were just a memory.