January 8, 2012

• The Silent Mist

   

  You sit alone in your stalled car on a desolate country road. Long past midnight, a damp night mist begins to surround your vehicle. It’s becoming chilly and the darkness becomes oppressive and thick. There are no distant sounds and you find yourself in a strange shroud of absolute silence, except for the rapid pumping heart deep inside your chest.  Silence. The cold and torturous solitude of your disabled car that now entombs you here in this desolate place on a forgotten dirt road. Silence. You strain to see through the crawling mist that now covers the road and blocks out all the stars. Silence.  The hours pass, minute by agonizing minute. The dormant car battery denies you any light or comforting sound from the radio and you’ve abandoned all hope for a cell phone signal. The 21st century has abandoned you. You do gain some comfort from the minor light of your iPhone but soon that battery begins to diminish. You talk to yourself for a moment and then quickly stop as if you’re afraid of drawing attention to yourself from some unseen thing. You’re becoming terrified.  You need to pee. Bad. You wait until the physical strain becomes unbearable and the fear of wetting yourself drives you to open the door. You take your keys out of the ignition and then look around the misty perimeter of your engulfed car before finally stepping out. After you relieve yourself next to the car you remember the powerful flashlight in the trunk. You turn and quickly close the car door and hurry to the rear of the car and begin to feel your way over the damp surface of the trunk until your fingers touch the lock. With fidgeting hands, you insert the key and spring open the trunk. You then lean over and feel your way around the dark interior until your hand finally brushes against the flashlight.  You turn the device on and you’re overwhelmed by the satisfaction of the protective light that gushes out of it. You now slam down the trunk lid with a new sense of self preservation and start to walk back to the car door when you stop….the door is open! Silence. Yes, you did close the door. You remembered doing so. Now, what? You hold up the flashlight and direct the luminous bean at the car windows. The windows are steamed and covered with condensation from the dampness. You cannot see inside your car! You stand there frozen in silent confusion. The moments are tearing your mind to shreds! Then…..you slowly walk towards the open door as if it beckons you. All is silent. The rising sun begins to filter through the mass of trees that line the deserted road. The mist is now fading and morning shadows are falling across the dirt road. Discarded on the road, next to an abandoned car, is a flashlight that’s now bleeding the last of it’s candescent glow. All is silent.

   

  • 12:42 am
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