Through the Windshield Glass Read Online Free

I was, I felt tears of happiness stinging my eyes. It looked as though my
brother had given me the gift of life. I was standing in Rosemary Park, a local
hangout just a few blocks away from my house. I twirled around in excitement,
laughing euphorically, before realizing the impossibility of what I was seeing.
There was something ethereal about this world I was standing in. The colors
were too sharp, I felt too perfect, too healthy. The air smelled better than
ever; like grass after warm rain, and the temperature was too perfect for
Nevada. But I couldn't stop looking at everything. My skin positively glowed;
without even looking in a mirror I could tell that my hair looked and felt
better than it ever had in my entire life. The sky was all sapphires resting on
beds of soft, enticing cotton.
    Even though I
knew it wasn't real, I couldn't stop enjoying it. I felt so alive! A girlish
giggle flew like a bird from my throat and I spun around in more circles until
I was so dizzy that I couldn't stand up anymore. I fell back in the grass and
took my first deep breath in almost a year. The grass smelled wonderful, it
cushioned me like a mattress and wrapped me in blankets of comfort and warmth.
I turned over onto my side and saw a perfect little ladybug traverse daringly to
the edge of a blade of grass. I stuck my finger out and watched the ladybug
crawl onto the end of my fingernail. I had forgotten how it felt to have a
ladybug tickle my skin as it explored foreign terrain. After a moment, the
ladybug got bored with the nondescript landscape of my hand and took flight. A
memory from my childhood sparked within me.
    "If a
ladybug flies off your finger it's good luck," my mother had told me after
my first experience with the ruby red insects.
    I laid on my
back in the grass and closed my eyes to listen to a sound I hadn't realized I'd
missed: my heartbeat. It felt invigorating just to have that simple, quiet
beat, joining the other feelings of life that had returned to my body. It was
delicious to feel the sun reminding my death cold skin how to be warm. When I
closed my eyes the sun was high in the sky but when I opened them, a fantastic
sunset was painting itself across the horizon. It was breathtaking, not even
comparable to the painting on the ceiling of my hall; exactly as nature had
intended.
    I sat up and
watched the sun lay down in its bed; Mother Moon tucked a starry blanket around
her bright son and night enveloped my little oasis of life. The moon was full
which lent me enough light to see that there was a person coming towards me
from the playground. Instantly, my heart started pounding, my hands began to
sweat and fear prickled in the back of my head. All of this
happened before I realized that I was already dead, and probably didn't
need to worry too much.
    I turned away
from the playground to look at the empty desert before me, half hoping that the
approaching stranger wouldn't notice me. If I had been living, that would have
been the case, I was practically invisible. That was the benefit of having such
an attractive best friend, I didn’t have to be noticed if I didn’t want to be.
I tried not to let my sigh of agitation make enough noise for the stranger who
had just sat down next to me hear.
    "Are you
dead too?" the stranger asked. It was such a simple question, but it sent
my heart racing again. The voice had obviously been male; I pictured an
attractive guy, slightly older than me with dark hair.
    "Yeah,"
I said. I turned to look at the person next to me and realized that my voice to
appearance analysis had been completely correct; if not a little understated.
Everything about him seemed to breathe maturity, beauty, and perfection. Greek
god? Try Adonis times Narcissus, plus Hercules squared.
    "What are
we doing here?" he asked. He sounded like a boy asking his mom why he was
being forced to stay somewhere boring.
    "I don't
know," I replied, "I've been wondering the same thing."
    I hoped he
would just leave me