My hands, cold and sweaty, quivered as I gripped the wheel. The midmorning sun shone through the windshield and glinted off my wedding ring.

My throat tightened. I was trying to forget my conversation with Todd the night before.

***

“So,” my husband had said slowly after putting the boys to bed, “I just wanted to let you know I’ll be out of state most of the day tomorrow—business meeting in California.”

I remembered looking up at his face, cocking one eyebrow. “Wait, stop. You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

He ran his shaky fingers through his hair. 

“I know honey, I—” he paused, chewing his lip. “I should’ve told you sooner that I won’t be able to make it to the wedding. I was just afraid of what you’d think.”

I spun the ring around my finger fiercely. “What do you mean, won’t be able to make it’? Todd, my sister’s been planning this for almost a year now. Jeff’s a wonderful man, always listening, always there—but I guess you wouldn’t know about that, Mr. Antisocial.’” 

“Lisa, please—”

“Todd, do you even care? Do you know how many times they’ve asked us to come to their big day?”

He sighed, running his fingers through his sandy brown hair. “Lisa, please understand. I can’t tell you how sorry I am, but I just—I don’t know what else to do. This meeting is so important. I could lose my job if I don’t show.”

I toyed with my wedding ring, thin and golden; identical to Todd’s. “What do you expect me to tell Anna? She’ll be devastated.”

“I—I just—” he bit his lip, “I don’t know. This is just out of my control, honey.”

My eyes wandered to my wedding ring. I twisted it back and forth, reading the inscription Todd had put in our bands on our honeymoon.

“Till death do us part…” I whispered to myself. I sighed, my gaze darting around the floor at Todd’s feet. 

All he cares about is his stupid job. Does he even care about me and the boys anymore? If he’s dead to this relationship, maybe— 

I looked up into Todd’s face.

He clenched his teeth, running his fingers through his hair, the dim light glinting off his ring. “Lisa, honey, please don’t take this all wrong. You know that I love you so much.”

“Do you really?” I breathed deeply, averting my gaze, then added quietly, “Why are you blind?”

But was he the only one?

***

My mind was thrust back into the present by a loud screech of rubber, and I realized I was swerving all over the road.

“Woah,” I breathed, correcting the car with a jerk of the wheel. Thankfully there was no one else on the road—I was on a deserted back route driving through Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on my way to Anna’s place with the boys.

Endless scenes of farmland, patchy forests, and fields whizzed past the windows. I sighed.

We’d be there soon.

I could hear Drew, my little one-year-old, beginning to whimper and whine.

I turned my head slightly, keeping my eyes on the road. “Hey, David—look and see what your brother needs, okay honey?”

There was no answer. Drew’s whimpers continued.

“David?” I called back again to no answer. “David?” 

I chanced a look back.

Drew squirmed in his car seat, arms shifting as though aroused from a nap. David sat in his booster with wide eyes glued to the side window, his pudgy three-year-old hand sticking partially in his little mouth.

I hurriedly returned my gaze to the road, still analyzing the scene. “Mommy?” I heard David’s shrill voice.

“What is it, honey?” I called, glancing back. David still sat with his eyes glued to the window, his runny nose squishing against the glass.

“Mommy?” I heard again as I watched the empty road. “Mommy wa’ s’dat?”

“Not now, honey. Mommy’s gotta keep her eyes on the road; she doesn’t want to run us into a ditch or—”

That’s when I heard it.

A low, eerie humming noise. It sounded so far away, but started getting louder and louder. My mind raced. What if-

My throat tightened.

“Mommy, Mommy!” I heard David squeal excitedly. I shot a glance over my shoulder.

David poked at the window with his slobbery finger. “Mommy, Mommy, look!” 

Drool smudged the glass as he slid his finger across the window, as if tracing a moving object.

I couldn’t tell what he was looking at, but I felt uneasy as I brought my eyes back to the road.

And then something caught my eye. 

A huge airliner sliced through a curtain of low clouds barely above the tree line. 

I froze. Those planes never fly that low. 

Suddenly, it turned its nose down, and began a steep dive towards the earth. The sunlight flared around the plane’s silhouette, glinting off my ring.

Then for a split second, it was like everything stopped. My heart sank. I somehow just knew.

“No.” I breathed, slamming my foot down on the brake pedal as the airliner whizzed past the windshield, across the road. My fingers whitened around the wheel as I watched the plane sail nose first into an empty field off to my left. It exploded in a bright flash of orange, and I just stared like I was in a trance. I sat, unable to move, as I watched the flames crawl across the grass, the black smoke rocketing into the sky and burning ash falling like snow.

Something was missing. Something from my soul. “Mommy, Mommy!”

I snapped out of the trance to David shaking my arm with his sticky hands. I blinked and glanced around. “Is everybody okay?”

David was standing next to me, between the front seats. He must’ve unstrapped himself. Drew still sat in his car seat, his little ball fists shaking as he wailed.

Twisting around I unlatched my baby from his seat and gingerly picked him up, holding him against my chest.

I sat there in silence, bobbing Drew up and down as I pursed my lips, gazing out the window at the apocalyptic scene. 

I didn’t know what to do. 

Or say. 

Or think. 

Had it really happened? Was this all just a dream?

I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed deeply. 

It’s gonna be okay, I tried to convince myself. There’s no way it could have been his flight. By now it should be—

I heard the sound of the car door unlatching and my eyelids flew open.

The passenger side door was gaping, and I spotted David running in excitement across the road towards the field of burning wreckage.

My heart stopped.

Gripping Drew tightly, I bounded out of the car and took off toward my precious little David.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a large piece of burning wreckage in the sky, falling fast towards David.

“David! David!” I gasped as I ran, and he stopped, turning around. David’s little figure grew dark under the piece’s growing shadow.

Setting my jaw and clasping Drew tight to my chest, I gave a giant leap. The second the debris was about to crush us, my body slammed into David and we both tumbled forward.

Heat washed over me as the fiery metal hit the ground behind us. I shut my eyes against the pain.

Sweat beaded on my face. My head swam.

All I could hear were the cackling flames, the thud of my heart, and then—Screams from my boys.

In spite of my dizziness, my head snapped up and I looked around anxiously.

I was unharmed, the wreckage having landed a few feet away, but Drew had slipped out of my hands and was squirming in the dirt by my head. I quickly sat up, taking my baby into my lap and brushing him off. Aside from maybe a bruise or a scratch, he was okay.

Glancing around I spotted David sitting with his arms crossed, staring at me from a few Feet away. His hair was a mess and his scraped knees were covered in dirt.

I scooted over to him and put my quivering arm around him. “Hey, you okay, honey?” I whispered, pulling myself together. “Where does it hurt?”

He shrugged his little shoulders. “Dat was pwetty fun Mommy, but can we go home?” His gaze wandered, then his eyes grew wide. “Mommy, Mommy! Look!”

Unfolding his chubby arms he pointed straight ahead of him. I turned my face to where he indicated.

A wide, shallow crater from the exploding airliner was sprawled out before us, littered with small remnants of blazing shrapnel. I couldn’t tell exactly what David wanted me to look at, but suddenly something sparkled in the light of the flames. Something golden.

My heart stopped.

Keeping a firm hold on Drew, I crept forward and slipped down into the crater, avoiding the small fires. At the bottom, I knelt in the soft ashes near the object I had spotted.

A little band of gold peppered in ashes laid glinting in the firelight, a couple of scorched bones scattered around.

I picked the ring up in my quivering hand.

My heart pounded as I read the engraved inscription.

Till death do us part. A burning tear slid down my cheek. 

“Todd—” The name slipped out like a curse.

I pursed my lips. Regret tensed my throat as my eyes wandered to my own wedding ring.

Why are you blind? My own voice mocked me.

Did I even deserve his love, after how I’d acted? After all I’d said?

I sat upright, shifting Drew in my lap so I had two hands free. Slowly I worked my ring off my finger and held the two covenant bands in my hand.

My eyes welled as I pressed the rings into the soil, leaving them buried, with my soul, under the earth. As I gazed down at the little pile of ash, caked and wet from my tears, I heard the sound of little stumbling footsteps approaching me from behind.

David worked his head up through my armpit and looked up at me intensely, putting his sticky hand on my arm.

“I wuv you, Mommy.”

Levi Matthews

Levi is a young Christian artist and author based in Northern Michigan. He hopes to enhance the world of art and shine God’s light through his work.