Maitri Kovuru

The Will to Live

David clutched the wheel with his left hand, his right gripping the gear shift. It was a foggy morning, and the clouds seemed to stretch down from the heavens all the way to the earth, creating a sheer curtain of moisture that penetrated the city. His ears yearning for a noise to drown out the honking horns and revving engines around him, he released the clutch for a moment and flipped on the radio to the local news station. As his fingers, frigid from the frost outside, turned up the dial, the dynamic voice of the local weatherman crackled through the speakers. David listened passively, nudging a lever to awaken his turn signal and merging onto the toll road he always took to work, leaving behind the soaring metal giants of downtown. He edged the pedal further, and the car was soon shooting down the highway with a steady hum. Having three miles to traverse in this lane, David released the gear shift and ran his right hand through his graying but abundant hair. His ears perked up at every tick of his wristwatch, and his jaw clenched with every glance he snuck at it, trying to keep his eyes devoted to the traffic as long as possible. He had consistently been late to work for the last couple of weeks, and his boss had warned him of the consequences that would inevitably follow if he didn’t get his schedule together. David wasn’t only stressed about being late to work. Every time he closed his eyes to blink, the film of the past months seemed to continue rolling through his head on repeat, the back of his eyelids acting as the screen. He let out a weary sigh and flipped on his blinker again, changing lanes toward the exit on the right. As his car sped down the ramp and slowed to rejoin the flow of traffic under the soaring skyscrapers, David turned his head to check his blindspot. A flash of gray blurred by in his periphery, a blink of red flashed brightly, and a sudden pounding emerged in his ears as the blood rushed to his head. His seatbelt sliced to the bone as he lurched forward, banging his head on the steering wheel, and soon the pounding in his ears was accompanied by a sharp hot ache behind his eyes. His stomach dropped into his legs as though he were free falling for a moment. There was a deafening ringing in his ears, and the last thing David saw was a male figure donned in a suit approaching hurriedly, before his eyelids became leaden and everything went dark.