Peace

Clouds of smoke rose high as the wind picked up speed.  The tall, burning skyscrapers began to fall one by one and I, oh sweet I, was hiding under a table in the abandoned old wood shed outside my neighbors yard.  They did it, those jerks.  They finally took everything that we once had: freedom, money, pride, and dignity…all of it, gone.  Nobody is around me, and my breaths are shortening every time I see the devilish light peer through the old, rusted windows.  As I sit and attempt to savor my last few breaths, voices from outside ring in my head.
            “Did you check Fifth Street?  I think I heard a couple of them hiding out, none of them can survive!” the voice of the invader screamed.
            “Yeah, I did, only thing I saw was an upside down bathtub with red water leaking from the sides…wasn’t that the house of those two twins?”
            “Indeed, and they’re gone, but let’s keep moving, we only have so long!”
            The cold, brisk air was creeping inside, the outside walls of the house were beginning to catch flame, and my coat jacket had just ripped after getting caught on the corner of the table.  It was metal.  My mind is rushing as I look across the room.  It’s a picture of me and my wife, well, I suppose she would be my ex-wife now that she…eh, I don’t like talking about it.
Flash, memories fill my rotting skull.
            It was a warm, summer day with clear, blue skies, and the water of the lake was as calm as a baby when it has its first sleep.  I got off the dock of the lake, and began walking up to the campsite, where my graduation class had been hanging out all day.  Grabbing a coke, I sat down on one of the old, brown benches under the wooden gazebo.  She stared hard at me, then back at her friends from across the concrete at the other side.  That day marked everything of my once, non lonesome life.  I remember going on vacations, staying in late with her, all the casual little things people enjoy when accompanied by a loved one.  But, now?  It is all gone; it has to be, after that flood that came through my once loved city of New York.  Rushing through the streets, the water raged and destroyed everything in sight, crushing buildings, drowning people, eating animals alive, and then it was the fire.  The fire came, and it rained from the heavens above burning what was remaining to ash.  Skyscrapers, her skyscraper, burned to ash.  Then it was the invaders, those outsiders.  Why did this all happen so soon? 
            Yet, I still sit, under this table that seems at this point to be a glimpse of safety.  Peace.  I hear the back door swing and crack open, it must have fallen off its frame, there’s a crowd of people outside the old, burning house now, and I can begin to see my life flashing before my eyes. 
Flash.
             I’m racing through the gardens, no care in my mind, and I run inside to my mother telling me it is time for my first day of school. 
Flash. 
            Leaving the bathroom right before lunch, I glance back at her, thinking to myself that I have never kissed a girl before, and wondering to myself how high school will be.
Flash.

The lights shine on the field as the announcer calls out the winning touchdown, scored by my own teammate, and the clock running out, allowing us to beat our cross-town rivals in the finals.
Flash.
            I see my wife and kids leave to go to the airport to visit her parents out in San Diego, head is rushing, I wonder how life will be for a week without my closest loved ones.
            I gasp. Breaths still getting shorter and shorter as the seconds go by.  My faded jeans have now caught on fire due to the hot ash from outside being swept inside.  My lungs inhale the dark smoke as I roll to my left side and say to myself quietly:
            “…So, how did I do…?”