She was driving down a curving mountain road, taking the hairpin turns much faster than safety allowed. Tears filled her eyes and flowed in narrow, glistening streams down her cheeks. There was no help for her, no way out except this. The white lane markers blurred beneath her tires, stretching into one continuous line in the night. Trees whipped past her at the side of the road, too fast to really see. The world was spinning, and she didn’t have the courage to stop it. But she wasn’t afraid. She’d made up her mind and this was her final decision. Suddenly she felt powerful and able to defy the earthly bounds of gravity. She was invincible. Nothing could hurt her now. It seemed she could lift the car through sheer force of will and speed away to capture the stars. Then a sound intruded, a noise that made her breath catch in her throat. The car swerved sharply as the tires blew out. Two of them. And miraculously, that sound brought her back to harsh reality. She wrenched the steering wheel in an attempt to steer out of the skid.
