PaperYellow

With the sun nearing the horizon over the river, coloring itself like strawberry milk, even from afar could You hear people’s voices talking and giggling on the suspended bridge, especially the couples. The water rushing beneath the road, normally overpowering even the sound of the rare car that drove over, was constantly being deafened by laughter and people shouting to each other synchronizing into a symphony giving life to the calm and warm weekend’s evening.

With the little gust of wind helping loose leaves escape the surrounding forest, people standing on the bridge could still feel some minimal swinging of the bridge, but nothing out of the ordinary, and the freshly rebuilt bright red wooden railings gave pedestrians enough confidence. The little puddles in potholes of the road gave the sunset almost a mythical look.

Moooom, can we stop for hotdogs? a little boy, playing with what looked like a retro console, asked from the backseat, with a freshly opened can of cola just lying on the seat next to him. As his mother finished reapplying her make-up and closing the mirror above the wheel, she refocused back on the forest road approaching the bridge, thinking to herself for a few seconds, before agreeing to her son with a kind smile.

Really? The boy jumped up in excitement, spilling the drink all over the seat. As the can fell to the ground and clanked, the mother immediately realized the situation, with her kind face being overtaken by shock and anger.

WHAT DID YOU DO?! She shouted at him, turning her head to look back at the situation. Repeating the scream didn’t help, as the kid started crying. With her anger and body tensing upon the situation, the little acceleration applied to the gas pedal, and the minimal turn on the steering wheel allowed for one of the car’s tires to jump off the paved road, throwing the whole car off-balance. With both the driver and passenger screeching now in synchrony with the car’s wheels, the woman hit the brakes as hard as she could.

As Peter heard the screech, his head immediately turned towards the car sliding sideways at great speed. Without much of a second thought, Peter focused on the area around him, throwing any paper there was at the car. With the nearest paper slicing the tires, and the synergy between hitting the brakes, and wheels going into a larger pothole created enough of a momentum difference between the top of the car and the bottom for it to flip towards pedestrians next to the bridge. Realizing what just happened, the split second it took for the paper to fly from the back of the bridge to the front made him miss an opening to stop the car linearly, forcing Peter to manifest a hard paper wall just in front of the people.

As the vehicle slid into and bent the wall made out of various documents, people behind it fell from a mix of relief and fear, with their eyes now following a smoke tower coming from the car.