The Liberal Lens: Finding Life in the Moment

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

You’re pretty sure you doubled the speed limit numerous times getting home. It was 5:17, which meant it was 5:14 — your car clock was ahead by 3 minutes, or was it four? You shook your head, that didn’t matter.

You nearly knocked the door down getting in, creating a commotion as Sparkplug started barking and yipping. You could hear your dad’s confusion in the living room as you nearly sprinted to him.

“Hey, I heard about mom, is she okay?” Your dad looked pissed.

“What the fuck are you talking about, William?” Actually he was pissed and confused.

“Mom, she had a heart attack, right?” Your dad looked over your shoulder, and you followed his gaze to see your mom alive and well, albeit very upset with your barging in and scaring them.

She glared at you and hissed, “Just who do you think you are, disrupting our peace and scaring the both of us.”

Oh. Now you understood. Charlie was playing a joke. A sick joke.

Before you could open your mouth, your mom started yelling at you, shouting about how much of a disrespectful brat you are and how disappointing you are.

Your nerves burned with a fiery anxiety.

~

“-ey, wake up. Hello?”

You came back from your thinking — or was it sleep? — to Midnight gently prodding your cheek. You scrunched your eyes up and stuck your tongue out at her.

“I guess he’s awake, Bishop.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” Bishop had an amused quality to his voice. “Even after a near-death experience, he still a brat.”

Ice pierced your heart, your shoulders tensed. Midnight must’ve felt it too. When you opened your eyes finally, you saw her concerned gaze. You merely shot a half-hearted grin and sat up, already missing the warmth of your friend. Looking around, you could see a handful of relieved and playfully annoyed looks. Except for Midnight. She was concerned.

She always noticed.

“Thank you for healing me, Bishop.” You struggled onto your feet, moving from foot to foot as you tried to regain your balance. “How bad was it?”

Silence met you, and you looked up from your feet to see Bishop’s disbelieving face. “I’ll repeat myself: near-death experience.”

“But I’m not dead, so it couldn’t have been that bad.”

Midnight spoke from next to you, pulling one of your arms around her shoulder so you could lean on her. “You looked so pale.”

Looking at your clothes, you couldn’t see any blood. “Was I bleeding that bad?”

Again, silence.

Bishop finally broke the silence. “Your heart stopped, dude.”

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4