Mouth

Mouth

The day had begun normally. He had woken up, done his usual morning rituals and had gone to work. As always work had been chaotic, filled with quick-fired orders while picky customers insisted he’d done something wrong. Their mouths would always be thin and their lips pressed tightly together. He hated that expression, mostly because the action caused his own mouth to imitate it.

               Work had been normal. He had left with a tightly closed mouth and a foul mood.

               But then everything changed.

               He wasn’t the only one to witness the accident but he was the nearest. The girl had been crossing, paying little attention to her surroundings. The car had paid even less attention to her…until it was too late. The car continued to try paying no attention to the dying girl as it revved away from sight.

               Now his mouth was open in shock, unable to react for five seconds before his mouth snapped shut and he made his way to the girls side.

               He dimly registered she was a secondary school student. He desperately realised she wasn’t breathing.

               He had to make her breathe.

               Mouth to mouth. His tight tension filled lips pressed against her slack unresponsive ones. He tried to breathe life into her. He tried to give her the his tension, the tension that life brought.

               Unlike his her mouth would forever remain slack. Tension would never fill her again.