Accident Scene

Cristina and I were going to Burger Boy on North St. Mary’s Street to pick up dinner. It was dark and I was driving. I’d taken the exit from Loop 410 to Interstate 10 East, speeding down the on-ramp, when we saw a girl face down on the road about 50 feet or so in front of my car. Her left arm was bent around her head, the hand laying on the pavement and partially covered by coils of her black hair. Her right arm was angled like she was waving to someone in the distance. Her legs were straight, the sandaled feet turned inward, the toes almost touching. She was intensely motionless, like she hadn’t moved for a long time and maybe would not move again. The girl was tall but obviously a child. She was bony like a 11 or 12 year old. She wore a tank top and matching shorts, speckled with pastels. She glowed in my headlights. Her body captured and contained the light — it didn’t reflect it. The girl looked like a luminous cutout set on a black, felt-covered board, an object that consumed space but not time.