Thomas, a short rotund man with a balding head and bad breath, was crossing the street as he did every day. This time as he did, he was hit by a speeding City Board ridden by Luci, a red-haired, busty, young woman. The City Board had jammed deep into Thomas’ side and Luci was flung some twenty yards past the impact point.
Luci opened her eyes and saw swaths of sky and high-rises through the cracked visor of her micro-helmet. She was confused. Why was she seeing this? She had just been on her board. Then she remembered. She had hit something or someone. She pushed herself up to lean on her elbows too quickly and was met with a pounding in her head like she had never felt before. Fighting through the pain and slight nausea she pushed herself up to a somewhat unstable standing position.
City Boards had increased to rival other modes of transportation, due to the fact that they were very economical, both to purchase and to produce, environmentally friendly and were very fun to ride. They used low yield thrusters to lift themselves and the Boarders, as they were normally called, up to three feet in the air and up to a top speed of fifty miles per hour. This particular mode of transportation was, almost exclusively, used by younger adults who could still maneuver it. There were special lanes in all big cities as well as special rules for the riders. Stopping the boards had always been tricky, the rider had to shift their weight to the rear of the board and apply the reverse thrusters at the same time. Luci was new at it and had trained herself to allow plenty of stopping distance.
Thomas didn’t know what hit him. He did, however, know he was at fault. He never looked before crossing the street. People kept telling him that ‘one day you’ll get hit’. He never checked to see if the lights were in his favor, if there was traffic coming or anything. He was in his mid-fifties and had never had a problem, not even a close call. He figured either he was lucky or people just slowed down or stopped for him. He had crossed every street in this town; walked in front of buses, cars, motorbikes, those new board things, even taxi’s and nothing. Those people who told him his time would come were right. He stepped out into the street and BAM! down he went.
Luci removed her micro-helmet and examined it. The visor was badly cracked and the back had a large divot. She looked back the way she had come and saw what looked like a man lying in the street. She couldn’t see her board though. Luci felt terrible. She had never even bumped anyone before, let alone hit someone. As she limped the twenty yards to the man, she assessed her injuries. Her right shoulder stung and felt moist. Road-rash maybe? Feeling her head with her fingertips she found a big bump on the back of her head just about where the divot in the helmet was. Well that explained why she was still a bit dizzy. She must have landed on her head. She was lucky the impact had not broken her neck. She could not put her full weight on her right leg, not broken, just a bad bruise maybe. As she slowly approached the body, it moved. She stopped in her tracks. He’s alive? she thought. She continued towards him.
“Hey, you OK?” Luci asked. She could see he was not. What with the four-foot board protruding from his body. He moaned. Luci began patting her skin-tight, one-piece lavender bodysuit frantically, trying to find her Skin-Cell. Remembering she had stashed it in her cleavage she pulled it out. Skin-Cells were phones that were micro thin. They were sold in vending machines, at grocery stores and even fast food joints. These cheap throw away devices could be folded, crumpled, and stashed just about anywhere. Luckily they also had a built-in emergency tracking feature, so all she had to do was press the emergency button and help would be on its way. Slowly and cautiously she continued her approach.
“What’s your name”, she called. She received no response.
“HEY! What’s your name?” louder this time.
“Mister, you alive?” she continued to call out to him. She heard something like ‘Toms’ but could not make the rest out. She continued to close the gap between them.
“What? Didn’t quite hear you. See you’re alive though. I didn’t even see you. I swear my light was green.”
“’mere”. A request from the body, gurgled as it was. She went to his side. He was bleeding badly. She could now see that about six inches of the four-foot board was embedded in his side. Even though he was portly she knew this wasn’t good. If the medics or police did not arrive soon he would bleed to death right here.
“Anything I can do? I’m not a medic or doctor or anything but can I make you more comfortable?” Luci asked.
“I want to turn over.” He murmured. To this point he had been on his left side with the board acting as a kind of kickstand for his body. His face was, more or less, pointing right at the pavement.
“Mister, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It might make things worse. You might bleed more and man you’re bleeding pretty badly now.” This was no understatement as the pool of blood was already about two feet around. By this time a small crowd had started to gather.
“Then I’ll bleed more. Please turn me over. I don’t want to die with my face in the gutter.” His voice seemed to get louder as the last statement came out. This time even those in the crowd could hear him.
“Can someone call the medics again!?” Luci called out to the crowd.
“Sure, I will.” A girl about twelve called back.
“Thanks.” Luci called back. “Does anyone have any medical training?” Luci asked the crowd but no response was returned.
“Mister, are you sure you want to move? I don’t know if we should. You could die.” This time Luci was trying sound stern about not moving him but still trying to let the man have some say in the matter. After all he was the one dying here.
“I just don’t want to die face down in the street.” Thomas knew he was going to die. Before or after the medics arrived did not matter to him. He just wanted to have some dignity left.
“OK, on three then? Luci said and Thomas nodded.
“One,” Positioning herself behind Thomas and sliding one hand under his head and the other to the front side of his hips.
“Two,” She started to pull back slightly on his hip to let him know that it was coming. He was going to have to help her though. He was too heavy for her to move by herself. Thomas took as deep a breath as he could.
“Three.” Luci pulled as hard as she could and Thomas shifted his weight. Flopping on to his back he let out a gurgle that this time contained blood.
Looking into Thomas’ eyes, they both realized that moving him was the worst thing they could have done. Now he was bleeding even more from his wound as well as from his mouth, nose, ears and eyes. Luci had seen things like this at the Virtua-Plex and it never had a good outcome.
They could now hear the sirens. They were both looking into each other’s eyes and Luci had taken Thomas’ hand and started squeezing it.
“I’m so sorry.” They both said.
“I should have looked before stepping out. Now you will have these terrible memories for the rest of your life.” Thomas said.
“I’ll never ride these things again.” Luci replied.
“What’s your name?” Thomas asked. Luci realized he hadn’t asked and she hadn’t offered it.
“My name is Luci…” she trailed off because she realized he would never know. He was gone.
The medics finally arrived, along with the police. It seemed like hours but in actuality was just five minutes or so. There had been several witnesses to the accident. The police determined that Thomas was at fault. The medics also said that this was the third such accident this week.
Luci rode to the hospital with Thomas in the ambulance and found out that Thomas had no family, no friends, no one. Luci decided that she would be that family, that friend. She would see that he had a proper funeral. He deserved at least that much. He was a fellow human being after all.
Luci never road a board again; but kept an ever watchful eye on folks crossing the street. She may have even saved a life or two along the way.
The End
Author: Jeff Boothe
1495 words
Completed: Oct 1, 2007
Revised: Oct 2, 2016
