A pool of light ahead, spilling onto the road from a barn light or a closed gas station. The inside of the car is bright for an instant, then dark; except for the muted glow of the gauges.
Your thoughts return. They are never good thoughts. Being alone with your thoughts is like being alone with someone bigger that wants to hurt you.
And they punch you over and over again.
With each pool of light the beating pauses, your curiosity pushes everything aside. Is it an abandoned body shop? How old is that sign? Who lives there? Why?
Then the punching resumes.
Somewhere there is a test you’re going to fail.
There is a bill you can’t pay.
The job you’ve been late for, way too many times.
Yesterday, when you said the wrong thing to her.
When the things you’ve been told become the things you tell yourself.
Until the sun comes up, like the bell ringing and you return to your corner.
And you sleep until it’s night again, and you get in the car and the beating resumes.
© Glenn R Keller 2022, All Rights Reserved
Leave a Reply