Member-only story
Into the Artifice of Eternity
Hold fast to dreams
Officer Jack Murray slipped off his night jacket and curled it into a pillow beneath the young girl’s head.
Freeway traffic beyond the center divider sent gusts of air and occasional pebbles in their direction. The girl’s delicate, dolphin earrings swayed back and forth with the breeze.
He figured she was about sixteen years old.
Shock set in, but her light blue eyes gazed at him and she whispered, “I’m cold, so very cold.” He quickly fetched the wool blanket in the back of his patrol vehicle and laid it over the girl.
“You’re in shock, but don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Jack said, holding her slender hand.
He asked her name, but she didn’t reply. Her damaged body sank slightly, and as she exhaled something deep within her seemed to loosen and evaporate.
“Hold on, help is on the way,” he said.
Jack gently swept the girl’s blonde bangs away from her eyes. She became very still, like a fragile bird after striking a window. Her pretty blue eyes lost their luster, the pupils fixed and unreactive, frozen in whatever final thoughts crossed the landscape of her mind.
Jack bowed his head, and something felt caught in his throat. He was still holding the girl’s limp…
