Chapter 4
Daisy Peonia Mary Parker
Silver River, South Mississippi, USA
Twelve years ago
Prom ended at eleven o'clock sharp. It was now four in the morning. My face rested on Lester's chest, while a million dreams entwined themselves in my soul.
I smiled.
Him being my first was the greatest gift life could have given me. I couldn't imagine other hands on my body, nor another more perfect situation. Even if... Well. Even if everything happened in the back seat of his car.
“I'm so sorry...” he whimpered, making me giggle. “I should have prepared a nice room. Something special. You deserved more than this, Flower Girl.”
“It was perfect.” I wouldn't have wanted my first time to be any other way.
We had parked the car in the middle of a field, far from people, under a starry sky. It was intimate, simple, ours.
“I'm never selling this car.” He laughed and I joined him.
“Lester, come on. This is a relic. Let's just keep the moment in our hearts. The car… Let it go.”
He gasped. “Sorry, m’lady, but this is a 1967 Chevrolet Impala Sedan. A treasure!”
“Oh. I thought I was your treasure!” I pretended to be hurt, and he peppered my entire face with kisses.
"My greatest treasure. But my car is also precious." He joked, giving me one last kiss on the lips before pulling away. He started to get dressed, and I did the same. It was difficult to move around in that car, it wasn't made for curvy girls, but I managed it.
Once again squeezed into my dress, I returned to the passenger seat. As we drove off, Lester reached out and held my hand in a silent but meaningful gesture. I had found my happy ending at eighteen, and few people could say they had such privilege.
We drove along a dirt road back to town.
Still holding his hand, I leaned out the window and enjoyed the early morning sky.
Everything was beautiful that night, and the air smelled of spring, flowers, and grass.
Noticing a movement on the field beside us, I smiled.
It was a white-tailed deer. The animal ran quietly, illuminated by the stars in the sky and the dim lights that marked the railroad tracks a few meters ahead of us.
I leaned back in my seat. “I can't wait for the future,” I admitted.
Lester looked in my direction, his blue eyes sparkling in the darkness. “Neither can I, Flower Girl. Neither can I.”
I smiled and turned to the road.
My eyes widened.
A scream rose from my chest.
“WATCH OUT!”
It all happened too fast.
The deer from moments ago jumped in front of the car, immediately colliding with the hood, being thrown over it and breaking the windshield. The car's tires screeched through the night, cutting through the tranquility, and Lester cursed as he tried to regain control of the vehicle, until...
We heard a bang and the car spun around.
Amidst the sound of metal scraping on gravel and the smell of burning tires, we screamed, holding on tight. We spun around for what seemed like hours. When the car finally stopped, we were both sweating, breathless, still digesting what had happened.
“Fucking deer!” Lester shouted, panting. “Are you hurt?!” he asked, unbuckling his seatbelt and leaning over me. My forehead hurt, but I didn't think it was more than a scratch. “You have blood on your forehead...”
“I don't think it's serious.” I tried to reassure him, knowing I was right.
I was fine.
“Oh, no. Flower Girl, we have to get out of here. Now.”
The alarmed tone he used made my blood run cold. “What's going on?”
"We're on the train tracks. We have to get out of here and call the police. Quickly."
“Okay, okay.”
Lester got out of the car quickly and rushed away from the tracks, immediately grabbing his phone. I, however...
“Shit.” I cursed under my breath, realizing the seat belt wouldn't open. “Uh... Cowboy?”
He frowned at me, pulling the phone away from his ear. “Flower Girl, get out of there.”
“I'm trying, but the seatbelt won't open!”
Lester ran back to the vehicle, giving the police the latest details on the way.
When he opened the door on my side, he immediately leaned over me and tried to force the seatbelt.
“SHIT!” he shouted, unable to release it, and began to pull hard.
“Don't worry, I can break this. I just need a little strength!”
He began to tug at the buckle, trying to break it. Determined, I also grabbed it to help him pull.
“Almost there!” he grunted, giving it another tug. “If I had brought my knife, I would have cut this shit already.” He paused and winked at me. “But it didn't match my suit.”
I giggled, while continuing to pull on the seatbelt buckle. “Is that a hint to get you that blue pocket knife we saw the other day?”
“You bet!”
We kept tugging, until...
A deep, mechanical sound echoed through the night, making the ground vibrate beneath us. A horn blared through the air like a hungry beast. My heart leapt into my throat, sweeping away any joy I had felt.
The train.
“Lester, get out of here. I—I can break this by myself!”
“No!” he shouted, his hands trembling. I saw him glance quickly at the opposite window, toward the oncoming monster. The light, still distant, was growing closer. “Come on!” he yelled again, fighting the seatbelt. I tried to help him as best I could, but my hands were slippery with sweat.
The light grew brighter and the vibration became more violent, announcing the train's approach, when a crack filled the night.
The seatbelt came loose and we stumbled away from the car.
But I was too heavy.
Too slow.
And the dress didn't help.
Like the deer we had just hit, I froze, staring at the immense light rushing toward me at full speed. The train roared, warning that I had to get out of there.
But fear had petrified me.
Arms wrapped around my body, dragging me away. I was thrown off the tracks and immediately turned around, snapping out of my stupor.
Lester was still there, illuminated by the lights of the howling train. His furrowed expression, laden with pain, fear, and tears, filled me with horror.
“LESTER!”
The train passed.
Something warm splashed me before I fell backwards, thrown by the dizzying speed of the vehicle as it skidded to a halt, the skin on my legs scraping against the gravel as a tear opened the skirt of my dress.
Shaking, choking on air, I saw something in the shadows of dawn.
A dark, sticky trail where Lester had been.
Machine oil, for sure.
I started to run.
To scream and run.
“LESTER!” I yelled, ignoring my bleeding legs and torn dress, ignoring what had happened. My only goal was reaching the front of that train, which had finally stopped. “LESTER!”
He was there. He probably clung to the front of the train. He was skilled, a true Wyoming cowboy. He must have jumped onto the train's rails as if grabbing the reins of a horse.
I was sure of it.
“LESTER!” I needed to take him to the hospital. He was probably hurt. “LESTER!”
My legs were throbbing, but I kept going. There was a lot of oil spilled on the tracks and bits of what must be old metal or something like that. Before reaching the cars, I also saw something dark and twisted.
It must be the car.
Yes, it was the car.
The train ran over the car. It flipped it upside down and turned it into an unidentifiable mess. “LESTER!”
“Miss!” shouted a stranger who had just gotten off the train. “Miss, stop! Please!”
But I didn't stop. After all, Lester could be hurt. He was strong, he was skilled, but jumping in front of a train was complicated and...
I reached the front of the train and stopped. I was panting, my legs throbbing.
“Lester...?”
But it wasn't Lester who was there. It was the car. All crumpled up like a used handkerchief. There was no sign of Lester.
“Miss.” The stranger from the train called again. I didn't know if it was the driver or someone else. I didn't know anything. I didn't know where Lester was.
I spun on my heels, realizing I was barefoot, but not knowing when that had happened.
I looked around. At the vacant lots surrounding us.
At the railroad tracks. At the huge vehicle casting a shadow over the dawn.
I ignored the faces of several people who began to approach, until the stranger placed his hands on my shoulders.
“Miss, come with me. It's better to get out of here. Come on.”
“N-no, my boyfriend.” I stammered. “He was on the tracks when the train passed. He must be clinging to the train. He spent years in Wyoming, you know? He's a cowboy.”
“Miss...” The man's pitying tone stopped me. I stared at him, confused by the sorrow on his face. “Come with me, please...?”
“No, you don't understand! He must have grabbed onto some part of the train! We have to help him! He must be hurt! We need to take him to a hospital—”
The stranger rubbed his hands on my arms and started to cry. But why on earth would he cry? The train only wrecked the car, it wasn't serious.
Other people's exclamations filled the early morning air. I heard ‘My good Lord!’ echoing and saw how, in the distance, behind the last train car, people were moving around with their arms raised. Terrified. Which didn't make sense, because the only thing there was the car.
I lost the ability to breathe.
Staggering, I turned, looking at the front of the train.
That's where the car was.
Tears clouded my vision.
“Miss, come on… Let’s go…”
The oil on the railroad tracks. The twisted thing behind the last train car.
At first, it was as if my heart were made of stone.
As if there were nothing there. Until I looked back at the crowd that had gathered.
There were people crying. People crouching as if they were vomiting.
I couldn't make out faces because of the darkness and the distance, but the silhouettes told me enough.
Lester's image replayed in my mind. His face contorted with fear.
It wasn't true.
I pushed the stranger and started running again.
I lifted what was left of my dress skirt, definitely revealing more of my body than I should have, but didn't care.
I ran like I had never run before in my life.
I ran until my legs became a numb mass. I ran until I collapsed at the back of the last wagon and saw the twisted thing.
On my knees, with unfamiliar hands trying to support me, I gasped for air and felt what my eyes refused to see, tears washing my face. Flesh, bones, skin, hair, and clothes. A body contorted in the most horrifying and irreparable way one could imagine.
That thing, those remains, belonged to the young man who was with me moments ago. Those remnants used to have a heart, a name, a purpose.
My mouth opened wide in a muffled groan.
I grabbed something, bones, and tried to put them together.
People tried to pull me away, but without success.
I wanted, I needed to help Lester. I had to heal him.
But as I felt the still-warm blood and broken bones, unable to piece together the puzzle that had once been the man I loved, the sound returned to my throat and my ragged cries filled the air.
“NO!”