The August sun was resting slowly
Illuminating the evening sky
Revealing a cobblestone bike path
Twisting in and out
Of the darkened woods
Until its existence faded completely
Clara wandered
Down the path
Aimlessly cutting corners
Her ripped Hollister jeans
Stuck under
Worn souls of sandals
Taking her from
She doesn’t recall
But she thinks
Where to she needs to go

Summer break
Coming to an end
Clara didn’t really mind
She had spent most of it alone
Trying to get the horrible images
Out of her head
The broken screams of the crash
The smell of the smoke
The flash of the sirens
That replayed
Over
And over
And over
It seemed like it was only yesterday
She knew she should feel lucky
But losing your best friend isn’t lucky at all
She thought

Barely alert of her surroundings
Trying to focus on getting through the thick trees
No longer feeling anything solid under her feet
Clara wandered in and out of the now black forest
Her consciousness as unstable as her drifting eyes

Suddenly she notices something bright
Climbing high above the trees
Reflecting on what she thought
Was water
Unfamiliar at first
But soon Clara feels a sense of recognition
She approaches the fixture
Her arms swaying
Trying to reach for this beautiful
Perhaps floating structure

A few steps further
Clara feels an overwhelming sense
Of lightness
As well as what she thinks
Is coldness
But her senses aren’t exactly intact
She grasps around her
Looking for something to hold on to
Her breath taken away
When she comes to the conclusion
She is on a staircase

In the distance
The brightness seems to form
A cluster of lights
Clara’s eyes make out a shadowy figure
Standing..
Maybe floating..
In front of it
The profile resembling
What she thinks
Is her late friend

A sudden feeling of sharpness
Makes its way through Clara’s frail chest
She wants so badly to see her friend
But before she can reach out to her
Blackness fills all of her being
And she is back on land
Soaking wet
Out of breath
Completely exhausted
And searching
For her Stairway to Heaven