My short story offering for Halloween

[aslan123]

It is dark.  So dark.  What am I doing?  I am behind a garbage can.  Why?  I'm hiding.  Why am I hiding?  There is someone chasing me.  How is it that I got to be here?  I have no idea.  All of a sudden, here I was.

Who is this person?  Why am I afraid?  I am so afraid that I can't breathe.  If I breathe he will hear it.  I can't breathe and yet if I don't my lungs will explode.  I have to breathe.  Calm down.  Breathing is something that you do everyday thousands of times.  Does anybody hear it then?  No.  Probably not.  But there are no other sounds right now.  Breathing would sound like a building demolition.    But I have to take a breath.  Just a tiny breath.  Just one tiny little one and he won't be able to hear it.

Damn it all!  Did he hear it after all?  Maybe not.  I can't really tell from my hiding place.  And now I am going to have to move.  Hear me or not, if he keeps walking in the direction he is heading he will see me.  I have to move.  I can't move.  If i move he will hear me and it will all be over.  I have to stay on the opposite side of the garbage can than he is on.  Then he can't see me.  But what if he hears me?  I have to breath again.

OK, I have to take my chance and run.  I have to stay quiet until I figure out the best way to get out of this.  Just stay on the opposite side of the can.  He moves, you move.  Don't breathe, breathe.  Where is the best way our?  I think I see a way! Oh sure, it would have to be on the total opposite side of the garbage can than I am on.  Come on dud, I have a plan now, now you have to move.  He moves, you move,  He moves, you move.

Big breath!  Here we go!  Here's my chance!  Run!  Run your little ass off!  Hold on!  Why can't I run?  It's as if my legs are made of rubber.  Are my feet even touching the ground because it almost feels like I am running on my knees.  but I'm not running on my knees.  My legs are stretching as far as they can go.  Between steps my body is totally off the ground.  My feet are not what are touching the ground though, my knees are.  I mights as well be running in mud for all the faster I am going.

Where is this guy?  How long have I been running?  Minutes?  Hours?  I can hear him behind me.  Running is not the answer.  Think, think, think...I have to stand and fight.  Stop running-turn around-aim for the face!  Punch with all you got!  Wait.  Am I punching Jello?  No, it is like my arms are Jello.  It's just like my legs.  My arms just don't have any power in them.  I am hitting him over and over again and I might as well be throwing marshmallows and farts at him.

If he laughing at me?  I can't see his face but I can hear the son of a bitch laughing.  That's it!  I'm not afraid anymore!  Now I am pissed!  Who the hell does he think he is?  First he has me hiding like Saddam.  Then he has me running like my pants are on fire.  Now he has me fighting like my life depends on it, which it may.  I want HIM to die!  How dare he!  Commit to this one.  Everything in your being has to be in this one punch.  Make his head fly off.  Here goes!

You have got to be kidding me!  Still nothing.  Jello.  I am spent.  there is nothing left to give.  He is still laughing at me only now it sounds even worse.  More sinister, somehow, if that is possible.  It is all over now.

It is dark.  So dark.  What am I doing?  I must have hit my head.  Where am I?  I'm in my car but it was daytime so why is it dark now?  Are we in water?  How did I get here?  I remember now.  My mind drifts back. 

I am bored.  I want to do something.  Why not take the kids someplace special.  I have heard of a candy store that I bet they would like.  they've been good.  Let's go guys.

Get shoes.  Get coats.  Child number one, ready.  Child number two, ready.  Child number three, ready.  Hmm, even with their excitement they are being good and getting them ready was surprisingly easy for a change.

OK, getting them in the car is a little bit of a struggle.  The little one runs to the back of the vehicle where you can't reach him.  Little brat.  I can't get him buckled in the car if he is going to pull this crap.  Maybe I should scrap the whole trip.  Let's threaten him with no special trip one last time....worked.  Now he is strapped in and ready to go.

Now, my friend told me where to go for this special store.  I have never been there before but I think it shouldn't be too hard.  Go down the main road.  Turn left at light.  Turn right at second stop sign.  Go straight about half an hour until T in the road.  Turn left and it is on the right.  Easy!

Here's the left turn, good.  Right turn, cool.  Now we just need to drive until we get to a T in the roa.  A straight stretch.  That's not too bad.  Driving down the road do dee do dee do.  I don't see no toad do dee do dee do.

Wait.  This is a nasty hill.  I hate hills like this.  Oh crap oh crap oh crap.  It is straight up in the air.  Couldn't be a little hill no.  I might as well be driving up the side of a sky scraper.  I hat this.  Don't look out the window.  Darn you!  I said don't look!

Just think, if the tires failed now the car would just fall.  It would be lite a magnet all of a sudden not being a magnet.  I wonder if we could survive a crash like that.  Just stay calm.  Don't let the kids know that this is something that scares you.  Almost at the top now.  Don't panic.  It's almost over.  Don't panic.

At the top.  Oh thank god!  If I wasn't driving I would kiss the ground.  That was just terrible.  Oh no.  No no no no no!  Sky scrapers have another side.  Now I have to go down.  There is only one thing worse than going straight up a hill and that is going straight down.  Now I have to look at the road below me and it looks hard.  I don't have to worry about survival now.  Car fails and there is no doubt.  We die.

Please don't let the kids see how scared I am. Mmmmmmmmm.  Stop making the I'm scared sound.  Mmmmmmmm.  Stop it.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  Great, now they are scared too but only because I can't stop being an idiot.  Just don't let the car fail.  don't let the car...mother fu...no brakes!  At least we are at the bottom of the hill.  there is a T in the road.  We are going to fast to make the turn.  Please let there be no trees or homes or people in the way.  A lake.  I don't believe this.

The car is in the water.  Boy, it comes in faster than I thought it would.  I have to get the kids out.  I don't have time to get them all.  The water is too fast.  What do I do?  Get the little one and tell the other two to unbuckle themselves.  But a car seat buckle is so tricky.  Should I just concentrate on the older two?  By the time I get that car seat undone it might take too long.  the others are too scared to get their seat belts undone.  I can't get them all.  Who do I get?  Which one could I live without?  None, but I can't get them all.  The water is so high I have to decide right now, but I can't.  I just don't know what to do.

It is dark.  So dark.  what am I doing?  It's six in the morning.  Too early to be properly awake.  Get up.  Oy, I really, really don't want to.  Why did I set that alarm to get me up at six am?  Oh yeah, it's flea market day!  It's not everyday that one gets the day off and gets to go junking.

I love the flea markets.  I can remember my parents taking me to flea markets all the time when I was younger.  Every time I see a stand that has nasty rusty tools I still think of my Dad.  Can't believe it's been 17 years since he passed away.  It seems like a lifetime ago.  Yet every time I go to a flea market I have good memories.

So alright, I will just pee and be ready to go.  I feel like somehting is wrong here.  Why am I peeing and nothing is happening?  I just keep going and going and going and I still have the feeling that I have to go some more.  And now I am out of time, so ignore it girl, get going.

Oh look, here I am.  How did I get here?  I must have been that zoned out not to have remembered getting here.  Like that was safe driving.   But anyhow, time to look around and see how much more junk I can get that I really don't need.  Have to find the tool tables, just for the nostalgia.

Let's see...sheet music, cool.   Plants, on the way out.  Produce, again, on the way out.  Rusty old tool table, got to touch it.  Only one guy here, good.  I hate the way the men look at me and expect me to leave just because of the look.  got to check if I am getting the look or not.  He's not giving me the look, but oh my God, that's my Dad!  Look away!  Peek!  I don't believe this, he's a little bit older but that's my Dad alright.  I have to catch my breath.  It's been so long does he recognize me?  He doesn't seem to.  Maybe I will just follow him and see what is going on.

He's going to the sheet music stand.  I play piano so I have a legitimate reason to be there.  Pick up something and pretend to look at it.  I can follow him in the open now.  I remember the time that I practiced a song to play just for him on the big day.  It took me forever to get that song down because he was always around when I needed to practice and I had to keep it a surprise.  It was one of the few times I saw my Dad cry.

Woman, what are you doing?  Stop veg-gen out!  focus.  Is this your Dad or not?  Wait, someone just said his name.  Did they say it's John?  No, John was your brother!  Not John.  OK, let's review.  Likes old rusty tools, but that could be any man.  Likes piano music, that could be lots of guys, too, I'm sure.  He is going by John, his brother's name.  But then isn't Johna very popular boys name/  I have to find out more.

Oh crap, I have to pee again!  Why now?  Why this minute?  And now I am going to have to pee in a port-a-potty.  Dross.  I can't go now, I have something else more important to do right now.  I have got to follow...a direct path to the bathroom.  Oh, mom said there would be days like this.  Not going to make it, not going to make it, not going to make it, made it.  Here we go again.  I'm going and yet I feel like I'm not going.  This is awful.  I am going to have to get to the doctor's.  But first I have to get out of here and find that guy.

He has to be my Dad.  It seems so illogical, but that guy was him.  It is illogical because i saw him in the casket.  But that guy out there was him, there had to be a mistake before.  There just had to be.  And if that was my Dad I have to find out what he has been doing all these years.  Why did he leave us?

Where is he?  He couldn't have gotten far.  He was here and now he is.......there.  What on earth is that table?  Armed services?  Navy!!!  He's a Navy man!  Dad was a Navy man!  I have to talk to him.  Small talk, that's it.  If he's Dad he would be uncomfortable talking to me.  If he isn't Dad he will chit chat.  But then what if he is Dad and he's got amnesia?  What if the car accident we think killed him really messed with his head instead?  Death was kinder to us than amnesia was so that was why the doctors wouldn't let us see him at the hospital.  they were lying to us. 

Just go up and talk to the man.  Get this over with.  Be friendly.  Make a comment about the weather or some other nonsense like that.  Ask him...what is this?  It that my tooth?  At a time like this, my teeth are going to start falling out.  Yikes, here is another one.  why now?  Why when I want to talk to this guy.  Shit, I can spit all my teeth out into my hand!  Who loses their teeth like this?  only me.  Doctor here I come for sure.  Great, now I have to pee again.  What great luck.  Turn around and get into the bathroom again.  Damn port-a-potties!  Freaking stink.  My teeth fell out, I can't pee properly, I think I ran into my dead father and now I am in a.......................

bed.  My urge to tinkle woke me up.  Once I realize where I am and what really is going on I quickly climb out of bed.  As I make my way to the bathroom I vow to myself, "That is the last time I drink coffee before bed."