Diminuendo
an excerpt

She looked down and pressed the crosswalk button. Across, the way, there were two boys crossing the street in the opposite direction who hadn’t missed the light; she didn’t recognize either of them. One of the boys dropped his book in the road and turned around to pick it up, the other not waiting for him.
It was then that Alex suddenly noticed a black pickup truck swerving down the street behind him, the driver obviously drunk, and heading straight for the boy; it had no intention of stopping. Her first impulse was to run out and push him out of the way, but she wasn’t sure if she could make it. She wanted to go forward, but her feet paralyzed her into the sidewalk. She opened her mouth to scream but her voice got caught in her throat.
She didn’t even have time to close her eyes.