Email Codey’s World

The Shifting

Flash Fiction By Trab

‘Damned computer. I don’t know why it’s acting up again’ I muttered in my head, feeling like a total victim. It didn’t seem to matter how much effort I put into it, nothing could keep the silly thing working right. Each day it seemed like my world would come crashing down; programs corrupted, files lost. My misery was interrupted when I heard a car race into the driveway and screech to a halt.

My brother screamed out, “Help! Now! You have to get me to the hospital!”

I raced outside, to find him staggering towards my car, both hands blackened and his pants burned away just below his crotch, with burns and charring over half his inner left thigh. With the door to my car quickly opened, I got him in, and squealed out of the driveway, racing for the hospital, only about two minutes away. With no time to think rationally, I could only wonder at how quickly I could shift from being miserable about the minor problems in my life, and without any deep effort on my part, to realize I am the luckiest person in the world, with my health and family still intact.

Note: He has third degree burns to leg and both hands from a marine flare that discharged unexpectedly and he tried to put out this incendiary fire with his bare hands. He is now in a burn unit, with probably many weeks or even months to recovery. He also had his two dogs with him, and going to the hospital directly would have resulted in the attendants being attacked by them, when they tried to protect their master. Update: two weeks after the accident, and he has received skin grafts and will now be going home. He will need to do rehab work for months and months.