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Narrator
Northwest Christian School Online provides online Christian education for any students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade. The tuition is fully covered through the State of Arizona's ESA program and is affordable for families out of state. You can count on NCS Online for a rigorous, proven online program that establishes a robust biblical worldview for all students. For more information, go to ncsonline.org that's ncsonline.org.
Alex
Your attention, please. Hospital visiting hours will be ending in about 15 minutes. Once again, hospital visiting hours will be ending in 15 minutes.
Miles
We should have been able to do something. We did. We stayed seated.
Alex
That's what we did.
Miles
That was the assignment. Yeah, well, it didn't feel like an assignment. No. I hated how normal the bus sounded. Even when it was not normal anymore. The engine kept running like it didn't care.
Sarah
The driver didn't even look back.
Miles
He was told not to.
Sarah
Everyone was told something. Some people followed it.
Miles
You talking about yourself?
Sarah
I don't know what I'm talking about.
Miles
Hey. You're here. And you're safe.
Sarah
I'm here. It's just a hospital. It's just doors. It's just lights. It's a place where people wait. But it's never just that.
Alex
Alex.
Sarah
Sorry.
Miles
You don't have to be sorry for Sarah Thompson.
Alex
How is she?
Miles
She's awake. She's okay. But she's asking for the three of you.
Alex
Emily.
Miles
I'm here.
Alex
Hey, Alex.
Sarah
Hey.
Alex
You stayed.
Sarah
You too.
Alex
Didn't have much of a choice. How bad is hurts? I can feel my heart beat in places I don't want to. But it could have been worse. Much worse.
Sarah
I'm so sorry.
Alex
Don't be. Don't give him that. Don't let what they chose turn into what you carry.
Miles
Looks like Reverend Carter is coming.
Reverend Carter
Sarah. How are you feeling?
Alex
I'll be okay.
Miles
You three, we're here.
Reverend Carter
I can see that. I won't waste any time. What happened today will travel. It will travel farther than that bus did.
Alex
So it mattered.
Reverend Carter
It mattered because it was seen. It mattered because you did not answer violence with violence. It mattered because you held a mirror in front of people who do not like their own reflection.
Alex
And the others?
Reverend Carter
Some are injured. Some are shaken in ways that will not show up on a doctor's chart. One young man has a broken wrist. A woman has stitches along her scalp. And another is refusing to speak.
Miles
Refusing?
Reverend Carter
The mind protects itself in the way it knows how.
Miles
Were any arrested?
Reverend Carter
Not today. Not yet. The road does not end because a bus stops.
Alex
Did we prove what we needed to prove?
Reverend Carter
You proved that the law can be correct and still be refused. You prove that people will call cruelty righteousness if it lets them sleep at night. You prove that when a person claims God as an excuse, it does not make the act holy. It only makes it louder. And you, Alex, you prove something else. That restraint is not weakness. It is strength under control. That is rare on a young man.
Sarah
I didn't feel strong, sir.
Reverend Carter
Most strength does not feel like strength when you're doing it. Visiting hours will end soon, and Sarah needs sleep. And if you three are still wondering whether you belong in this story, you're already in it. I'll be nearby if you need me.
Alex
If you don't mind, I'd like to have a minute with Alex.
Miles
We'll be right outside.
Sarah
Are you sure you want them to leave?
Alex
Yes.
Sarah
Okay.
Alex
So we didn't finish our conversation.
Sarah
What conversation?
Alex
Books.
Sarah
I did not think you'd bring that up.
Alex
Why not?
Sarah
Because you're laying in a hospital bed.
Alex
And yet I'm still myself.
Sarah
I don't know what the next part was.
Alex
The next part was you telling me you don't trust novels because they promise resolution. I was going to tell you that. Some novels don't.
Sarah
Do you have one in mind?
Alex
I do.
Sarah
What is it?
Alex
I'm not gonna tell you. Why? Because you'll do that thing you do.
Sarah
What thing?
Alex
Well, you'll read it like you're trying to win.
Sarah
That's unfair.
Alex
It's accurate.
Sarah
Are you really okay?
Alex
I'm not in danger.
Sarah
That's not what I asked.
Alex
No, but I'm here.
Sarah
Me, too.
Alex
You were shaking. I heard you breathing. I'm not saying it to shame you.
Sarah
It felt like I couldn't get enough air.
Alex
That's what fear does. Makes the world smaller. It already felt small when the door opened. When they came on. There's a moment before it turns violent and everything in you says, stand, move, run, do something.
Sarah
And you can't. You can, but you aren't supposed to.
Alex
That's the part people don't understand. They think restraint is just sitting still. It isn't. Restraint is a fight you have in silence. I wanted to stand.
Sarah
You told me not to.
Alex
Yeah?
Sarah
Why?
Alex
Because if you stand, they get what they came for. They came for chaos. They came for a reaction that they can point at and say, see? They came for any excuse.
Sarah
And if we give it to them,
Alex
then we help them pretend they're justified. But he stayed seated.
Sarah
I didn't feel like I chose it, though.
Alex
You did. You could have stood. You could have Shouted. You could have lunged at that man. You could have made yourself the story.
Sarah
I wanted to. My hands were covered in your blood. I could feel it soaking through my fingers. I kept thinking, this is how it starts. This is how you cross a line you can't uncross. I've spent a lot of time convincing myself that restraint is just fear masquerading as something else. That people who do nothing are just people who are afraid to act. And that I was sitting there and everything in me was screaming to stand, to grab something, to hit someone hard enough that the noise would stop. And instead, I stayed. And I hated myself for it. Because it felt like choosing passivity over protection, like choosing obedience over truth. And when I saw the blood, I thought, maybe this is what I deserve for sitting down.
Alex
You didn't choose nothing.
Sarah
It felt like nothing.
Alex
It wasn't. You chose to keep the story honest. If you had stood, they would have said, this is what happens when order is challenged. And the blood would have meant something else.
Sarah
I still feel it.
Alex
But that does not mean it owns you.
Sarah
I was afraid I would freeze. I was afraid I would become someone I wouldn't recognize.
Alex
You didn't. I'm here because your hands didn't move.
Sarah
I don't like hospitals. My mom spent so much time in them that I learned the sound of those machines before I could drive. She used to make jokes. Not big jokes, little ones. The kind you tell when you're trying to keep someone else from falling apart. She would point at the bad coffee and say, at least it's consistent. Like consistency was a gift. My dad would come in wearing a suit like it was armor. He would ask the doctor questions like he was negotiating a deal. He wasn't cruel. I need to say that he was just somewhere else. He was always somewhere else, trying to
Alex
fix it,
Sarah
trying to pay for it. He thought if he could keep everything funded, he wouldn't have to feel anything. So I sat with her. I was 16. And I learned how to read a face that was pretending to be fine. I learned how to be the calm one. Not because I was calm, but because someone had to be.
Alex
That's a lot for a son.
Sarah
It didn't feel like a lot in the moment. It just felt like any other day. And then the days started stacking. The room got smaller. Then I realized the adults were not going to save her. So I did what I could. I listened. I brought her water. I adjusted her pillows. I sat there while she slept. Watched her breathe like it was a job. People would walk in and talk about God as if God was a nurse on the schedule. They would say she was brave. They'd say she was chosen. They would say it was part of a plan. I just never knew what to do with that.
Alex
You don't have to do anything with it.
Sarah
Yes, I do.
Alex
Why?
Sarah
Because it stayed. It stayed in the room. It stayed in the hallways. It stayed in the way the nurses avoided my eyes when they already knew the news. It stayed in me. I hated this place before we even walked in.
Alex
And you came anyway. Alex. Thank you for staying with me.
Sarah
I didn't want you to be alone.
Alex
Neither did I.
Miles
I'm sorry, but visiting hours are ending. We need to let her rest.
Sarah
Yeah. Sorry. I'll come back.
Alex
I know. And, Alex.
Sarah
Yeah?
Alex
Don't let this hospital take her from you again.
Sarah
Okay.
Narrator
Northwest Christian School Online provides online Christian education for any students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade. The tuition is fully covered through the state of Arizona's ESA program and is affordable for families out of state. You can count on NCS Online for a rigorous, proven online program that establishes a robust biblical worldview for all students. For more information, go to ncsonline.org that's ncsonline.org.
Miles
How is she?
Sarah
She's steady. Not pretending. Not dramatic. Just there.
Miles
Is she hurting?
Sarah
Yeah. But it's not the loud kind.
Miles
She didn't scare you off, then?
Sarah
No. I don't understand how someone stays like that after what happened. I keep waiting for the edge, the armor. The part where you can tell they've decided the world isn't worth trusting anymore. But she doesn't have it.
Miles
She isn't naive.
Sarah
I know. That's what makes it worse.
Miles
Worse how?
Sarah
Makes me realize how often I mistake distance for. For strength. I always thought staying measured meant staying untouched. Like if you never fully enter something, it can't take anything from you. Watching her today, it felt like she entered fully, knowing it would cost her. And she did it anyway.
Miles
Some people don't protect themselves by closing off. They protect themselves by deciding what they're willing to carry.
Sarah
That sounds exhausting.
Miles
It is. I think I finally understand why I needed to see that. Why Miles wanted me here. I've been holding something against you, Alex, that didn't start with you. There was a time in my life when someone showed up when I needed them. And I built a lot on that moment. And they didn't keep showing up. I didn't know where to put the disappointment. So when you pulled away from Nya, when you questioned things that mattered to her, it I don't know. Just felt familiar. And instead of dealing with that, I let you carry it. I know you didn't cause it, but I let you absorb it anyway. Watching Sarah today, it just showed me how much I've been calling my bitterness wisdom. I don't want to be that person. So I'm just gonna say this out loud, even though it scares me. Will you forgive me?
Alex
For what?
Miles
Because I judged you and held onto things in ways I shouldn't. For things that you don't deserve to be hated for. I don't want to keep you frozen in that moment.
Sarah
You don't need to ask for forgiveness.
Miles
I do.
Sarah
No, because I treated you and Nya so poorly. I was a jerk. I let my own insecurities get the best of me, and I took them out on both of you.
Miles
Then maybe. Maybe we can just forgive each other.
Sarah
I'd like that.
Miles
Thank you, Alex.
Sarah
You too.
Miles
Do you hear that? We're out.
Alex
That's it.
Sarah
No, no. That doesn't make sense.
Alex
I am so sorry, you guys. That was not supposed to happen like that. I couldn't get the program to load, so after a minute, I just aborted it. I'm sorry.
Miles
How long?
Alex
How long you were in?
Miles
Yeah.
Alex
Seven minutes.
Sarah
That's not possible.
Alex
It is. The program didn't fully initialize. It spiked and then shut itself down.
Miles
Miles.
Alex
What?
Miles
If anyone broke it on purpose, it was him. And if anyone can fix it, it's him.
Alex
I guess I'll talk to him. I'm really sorry. That shouldn't have happened.
Miles
It's okay.
Alex
Alex.
Miles
Hey.
Sarah
I don't know why this feels unfinished.
Alex
Because it is.
Sarah
I can't stop thinking about her.
Miles
She stayed with you.
Sarah
I'm not ready for what you believe.
Miles
I know.
Sarah
But I want to go back in.
Alex
You do?
Sarah
Yeah. Not to fix anything. Not to prove anything.
Miles
Then why?
Sarah
Because I don't think what I felt was an accident. And I don't think it was just data.
Miles
That's how it starts.
Sarah
I figured.
Miles
Okay.
Sarah
Okay.
Miles
I know exactly which program comes next. Of course you do.
Sarah
I'm not promising anything.
Miles
I'm not asking you to.
Sarah
Thank you. Thank you for joining us for this season of Eyewitness. Alex's journey continues this July in Eyewitness. See Billow's role. Be sure to come back then.
Alex
Sa. Sam.
Episode S6E4 – "Seven Minutes"
Date: May 29, 2026
Host: Northwest Christian School, Red Five Media
This emotionally charged episode of “I Witness: Ride to Freedom” immerses listeners in the aftermath of a traumatic event involving a group of young people and a violent confrontation on a bus. Set in a hospital waiting room, the main characters—Sarah, Alex, and Miles—grapple with the tension between action and restraint, the weight of survival, and the complexities of forgiveness and trauma. Through introspective dialogue, they confront what it means to carry a story honestly, explore the nature of strength, and rekindle connections fractured by misunderstanding. The audio drama’s signature style—intimate, raw, and richly sound-designed—draws listeners into the heart of its characters’ struggles.
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“Seven Minutes” stands out as an intense, introspective episode that unflinchingly examines trauma, the challenge of bearing witness, the hard work of forgiveness, and the enduring impact of compassion and friendship. With multi-layered storytelling and immersive sound, it bridges personal suffering with hope—and, through its simulation conceit, blurs the boundary between memory and experience. As listeners await the next installment, the episode leaves them with the pressing sense that recovery and growth are possible, but never easy.