Mini adventures. Mini Sci-Fi. Mini History. Mini Fantasy. Mini-escapes. What you can expect from the…
“Five-Minute Escape”
short suspense story.
TIME: November 16, 1953. PLACE: Deerfield, New Jersey
EVENT: “THE RIDE”
Copyright Terofil Gizelbach, 2013
She walked, feeling the darkness, a shadow deeper than the past midnight blackness that strangled the lone streetlamp on Fifteenth Street.
He waited there, just beyond the halo. Beyond the darkened houses, the graveyard-quiet lawns. She could see his cigarette glowing. Smell the greasy kid stuff in his hair. She knew it was him, it had to be him. And part of her, the shadowy, damn-everything side, wanted it to be him. The rest of her shivered at his nearness.
He spoke without speaking. In cool tones, ice-cold. “Come on, baby, take a ride. Let’s cut of this nowhere burg and run. Let’s drive until the sun rolls up and down again, and the headlights burn off the endless white stripes leading into blackness. Go with me, Baby. Ride!”
Behind his sunglasses, his eyes were hidden. But she knew he was staring, daring. “Drive,” he whispered in her mind. “Top-down, full jet, pedal hammered. Drive, baby, drive like a running blaze and feel the night wind blasting your face. Feel the kick, baby, the push. No moon out; no blue light; only the stars. Tonight, baby, we drive in the stars.”
Behind him she saw a car. His car. The car.
“It’s a runner, baby, a rush. It will take us there and beyond. You got nothing here, girl, nothing. Slow death. A dead end job. A withering soul. Yeah, that’s here. That’s all here. But it…it’s out there. Yeah, baby, all this meaningless nowhere shit ends out there…”
Walking faster, she shook her head. She had family. A few friends. No real boyfriend, but she had hope. Yes, hope was here…
“No, Johnny,” she whispered. “No! Not now. Not that way…”
She passed the spot were he stood, hurrying, skirt swishing. His cigarette flared and died. He reached for her–
And Johnny was gone.
But Johnny was already gone.
He had died two years ago, in a car crash off Old Road Bridge.
She could still smell his cigarette smoke in her hair.
THE END
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For more information about the possibility of life after death, please click the following fascinating link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterlife
ABOUT THIS BLOG… Each “Five-Minute Escape“ short suspense story in this blog series will be kept under 1500 words; most will clock in at about 500. The “Five-Minute Escape“ short suspense story will allow you to log on, take a fast trip, and get back quick to what you should have been doing in the first place…though hopefully the experience will stay with you long after you have moved on to something else. Subscribe to the blog and take a weekly…”Five-Minute Escape!” “Five-Minute Escape“ short suspense story copyrighted Terofil Gizelbach, 2013