Excerpt: The Plural Of Love

Chapter One:
In Which (Possibly) I Attempted Suicide

It all started on the day I nearly died. He almost died that day, too, but that's another story. That's also where the similarities of our matching near-deaths end. He carved the word 'free' into his wrist with a jagged piece of glass. I was hit by a train.

This is what happened: I stopped my car on the railroad track and just sat there. Staring at the train. Watching it chug along. Closer, closer, closer. Just in time, I pressed the gas pedal and shot forward to avoid the train smashing into the driver side door. The trunk was not so lucky. The train smashed into the back left bumper and sent me careening into the street where the car flipped. Twice.

I remember three things. First, watching the train screech to a halt some hundred yards down the track. Second, I distinctly remember the sirens. They filled the air ominously, hauntingly. I couldn't tell from which direction the ambulances came. And lastly, right before passing out, I remember staring through the crushed glass windshield as an orange autumn leaf fluttered to the ground and landed right out of reach. Then I closed my eyes and everything was gone.