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Order this writing in the collection book Revealing All Your Dirty Little Secrets available for only $1995 |
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This appears in a pre-2010 issue
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Dangerous Curves
Kathleen Malloy
The moon hid its face from the earth behind a veil of dark clouds as if it were in mourning. The only light seen from the snaking highway was the red glow emitted from the city to the west. Meager headlights barely lit the road for the tiny yellow truck speeding valiantly towards its destination in the vast ocean of darkness. Inside, twin souls became intoxicated with the romantically dim light in the endless stretch of blackness. There’s something horribly entrancing about the night, and the two in the truck had not eluded seduction’s fingertips.
A thin hand made its way through the darkness across the bench seat. “I’m really glad we finally got to do this.”
Randy flashed that dazzling smile and placed a hand on supple, jean-covered thigh. “Me too, Meg. Me too.” A quick kiss landed upon his cheek.
A semi-truck rushed pass the small Toyota, first sucking the tiny truck towards its boxy cargo and then tossing it to the side of the road towards the black sea of desert, as though the mighty beast did not enjoy the taste of the Toyota. Randy quickly corrected the truck back to its course. “I hate that,” he mumbled.
“I know.” Meg stared into the review mirror, watching as the red ants of taillights disappeared rapidly behind them. “But at least we’re almost there. The back road to the lake should be coming up soon, but I can’t remember if we take the first turn off, or the second one.”
Randy frowned. “You don’t know which road to take?”
“Nope,” Meg replied airily. She turned her eyes back onto the shoddy highway. “We’ll find it. Besides, its not like we’re on a schedule or anything.”
The truck stirred up a small cloud of dust behind it as it flew across the potholed highway. Palo Verde trees whirred as it passed by, the claws of their branches reaching into the darkness for the light of the truck.
Light cast by the truck’s headlights revealed a bend in the road up ahead. To both sides were jagged cliffs. Dynamite had been used years ago to blow a hole through the hill to make way for highway construction so that drivers could travel across the desert on a relatively flat surface instead of going thirty feet up and down the hill. Rock steps six inches wide and six inches high traveled up the cliff walls. Wire mesh covered the sides to keep stones from tumbling down. Signs were posted stating Watch for Rocks.
“Did you get the pretzels?”
“Yeah.” Meg reached into the backseat to pull the bag of chocolate covered pretzels out. “Here you go,” she said smiling as she handed it to him.
“I didn’t want them.”
“Then why did you ask?”
The yellow Toyota reached the summit of the hill, soared for a moment on top of the world, and made its way back down.
Randy shrugged. “I don’t know. I just wanted to know if we had them.”
“Why do you do that?” Meg crossed her arms over her chest. Had Randy not been watching the road he would have cowered under her furious glare. “Do you think that I’m completely incompetent and have no responsibility or common-sense?”
“Meg, that’s not what I meant.”
Meg’s dainty nose shot up in the air. “I think that is what you meant. You know, just because you-”
Randy waited for his verbal trashing, but it didn’t come. He looked over to the passenger seat. Meg’s hands were clutched to her knees so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Her green eyes were wide and frightened. “Meg? What’s wrong?”
For a moment there was no response. Then, one bony finger pointed to the dark road ahead. “What is that?”
Randy squinted into the distance. “What?”
“That. Those lights up there.”
Two glowing embers were rapidly stalking them low on the horizon.
He looked again. “Yeah,” he nodded. “I see them.”
“What is it?”
Several moments passed as the lights drew nearer. Less than a football field ahead, Randy could now see the wicked halos approaching. They were the headlights of a car, but they were orange, an unnatural orange like the couple had never seen before. “It’s a car.”
“No it’s not.”
“Yes, it is. Look, its just weird headlights, probably some groupies or something just smoking pot and trying to be cool. There’s noth-” Randy’s blood froze in his veins and goosebumps shrunk his skin at his new observation; the headlights did not illuminate the ground in front of it.
Randy was stiff and his breath came out in tiny spurts that did not even swish the blonde locks round his face. Meg clutched his leg, her nails clawing into his thigh. “Rand?”
He sucked in a gulp of warm air and rubbed his cheek where a five o’clock shadow was already emerging. “Its nothing.”
“Then why are you scared?”
“I’m not scared.”
“What is it?”
“A car.”
“Cars have outlines around them.
He shot her an irritated glance. “It’s a car.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Then what is it Meg?”
“I don’t know.”
In less than ten seconds the light would be upon them. Meg’s heart pounded, Randy’s brow glistened with sweat. Neither one could take their eyes off the lights. Randy became totally and utterly entranced by those glowing red-orange lights as they came closer, and closer, and closer to the little yellow truck. The now almost flaming embers kept pulling them towards their hypnotic illumination.
Pull...
“Randy.” Meg wasn’t sure if she’d even made a sound.
Randy was a fish, the other car an anglerfish taunting him with its succulent glow against his will. He was paralyzed by it, and secretly pleased. The orange headlights were prime bait, and he wanted a taste too.
“Randy.” Her vocal chords were frozen.
Pull...closer...closer.
He couldn’t take his eyes off the lights. They were frightening, yet beautiful. He wanted to be near them, to become one with their glow.
“Randy,” she mouthed. Her mind screamed at her to make some kind of sound, anything to make Randy avoid the orange eyes of the car barreling straight for them.
Pull...closer...closer...pull.
The truck began to drift into the other lane. Randy’s hands did not move the steering wheel, yet the tires seemed to carry them across the road. They were going to hit the car head-on.
“Randy!”
Randy jumped with Meg’s high-pitched squeal. He jerked the wheel to the right, just barely avoiding the oncoming car. The truck made a loud thunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunk! as the tires ran over the dents in the road designed to wake dozing drivers. Rocks were thrown as the tires kicked up a trail of dust. The other set of headlights passed them quickly. Randy yanked the wheel to the left, and after some panicked swerving, re-aligned the truck to its straight course.
The two of them sat panting, bemused and shocked at what had just happened. Meg twisted in her seat to look out the back window at the car that had nearly cost them their lives. “Oh my God Randy, that-” she stopped short when she looked back at his face.
“What?” he whispered. His face was a sickly pale green, forehead dripping sweat, knuckles white from grasping the wheel too tightly.
“That, uh, that was scary,” she mumbled. She couldn’t tell him what she’d seen because she’d seen nothing. Nothing but darkness was behind them. The car that they’d almost hit dead-on had no outline, no taillights, not even a dim glow from the headlights. It seemed as though any trace of the car with the eerie lights had just vanished.
They sat in silence as the little truck continued to speed on into the night. And tonight, for the first time in the three years since she’d known him, Meg wished Randy were a square about the speed limit instead of topping the truck out at one-ten.
“Rand, sweetie,” she cooed with a shaky voice, “would you mind slowing down just a tad bit?”
“Megan I refuse to let one minor incident leave me unnerved and force me to change my driving habits!” he boomed in his no-nonsense I-don’t-give-a-fuck-what-you-think voice. “We will maintain speed to our determined destination on our present course.” Cut-and-dry, that’s it, no questions, ifs ands or buts, she heard her mind mock.
Instead, she took a deep breath, let it release slowly and loudly, and chose to take the woman’s way of winning. She pointed up ahead. “Well, we have to turn right up there, Captain, and at our present speed we’ll die making the sharp right if you don’t presently proceed slowing down.” Randy turned to glare at her while applying the brakes, sliding over the pebbles and bits of loose asphalt. The worn brake pads squeaked at the resistance.
At the sharp right turn on the back road to the lake, Randy did more than slow the truck down; he brought it to a stop. Something caught his eye in the distance. It was just a faint flicker, but it made its presence known. He cocked his head towards the flicker on the highway they’d just been going. Eyes squinted, mouth slightly agape, Randy’s blood froze. He stared at the orange flames far in the distance that were heading their way.
“Rand?” No answer. “Randy?”
He shook his head. “Yeah?”
Meg pushed the hair out of his face and let her hand rest on his cheek. “Are you okay?”
Soft, warm lips pressed against her palm. “Yeah. Onward?” A quick flash of a smile and they were on their way.
The road to the lake was ten miles altogether; two miles on pavement and the remaining eight on a bumpy dirt road. The little truck sped soundlessly up the windy mountain road. Randy sat in rigid silence, trying to convince himself he was just tired. After all it was late. He’d just zoned out and began to drift back there. That’s all it was, a simple mistake. But what about when you saw it again? his brain questioned. Just shaken up, that’s all, he told himself. Really? Yes. You know what you saw. A figment of my imagination. It wasn’t the same car. How could it be? It was impossible, wasn’t it? He wasn’t sure anymore.
Meg pulled her legs up and clutched them to her chest, curling herself into a ball on the front seat. She stared out the window without really looking at anything. Her mind was on the lights. It wasn’t exactly the color of the lights that had gotten to her, though they were eerie. After all, she was from Phoenix, the weirdo capitol of the world. It wasn’t even the disturbing fact that when the car had passed them she couldn’t see it. After all, it was dark and the car could have been black. What bothered her was Randy’s reaction and hers for that matter. The truck jolted as it made the transition from pavement to gravel, interrupting both from their thoughts.
“Ow!” she yelped.
“What?”
Meg put her feet back on the floor and rubbed her jaw. “I bi my tun.”
“You what?” He looked over and saw Meg pointing to her tongue as she stuck it out at him. “You bit your tongue?” Fervent nodding followed. He couldn’t help but smile. “Silly.” Meg, wonderful Meg to put him at ease.
He turned his gaze off her childlike face and back to the road, still keeping his speed at almost seventy.
The truck jumped and yelped over every rock and rut on the dirt road. More than once the tires lost traction over the countless pebbles, but Randy barreled on down the scarred trail. Meg tightened her seatbelt as the road became more treacherous. It climbed through hills, ran down steep inclines, and wrapped sharply around mountainsides. On a high ridge Meg was able to see the lake. The dim slivers of silver moonlight that escaped the suffocating clouds reflected poetically off the still black water. However, another glow caught her attention. Tiny specks of orange danced on the water around a small island close to the shore. She leaned foreword and squinted her eyes to see. She knew they were back. Though impossible, the same car from earlier was heading towards them. They were back. The reflection on the water from them was becoming much brighter and broader than physically possible. The glow began to change. Its color escalated in brilliance. Slowly it began to dance upon the lake with life of its own. The water looked like a burning lake of fire from their light. “Rand?” she whispered.
“I see it.” Up ahead, the glowing twin embers reappeared, burning their way towards the defenseless little truck. The lights were turned away from the lake, but flames still danced from the water. “What the hell?” he murmured.
Their truck whipped around a curve by the water, then snaked to the left. The orange headlights lay far in the distance. When the road turned right towards the lake, they’d be facing each other once again.
The truck sped down the hill, making a sharp right around a bend. A driver couldn’t see the next three foot stretch of road in front of him on the turn much less the warning beacons from an oncoming car.
Then the lights came roaring towards them, engine silent as the night. Meg let out a high pitched shriek as the car swiped the side of the pickup, making a loud thunk! as it knocked off the review mirror. “Fuck!” Randy cursed. “What the hell!”
“Stop saying hell!”
“Why?” His voice aggressive with fear.
“Because we’re gonna die and go there tonight if you keep saying that!”
“We’re not gonna die!” Randy popped the truck into gear and the motor screamed as he put the gas pedal to the floor. It was a straight fifty-yard shot up the hill before the road took another left turn.
“Randy slow down.” Tears were threatening to overflow from Meg’s eyes. She looked to the side of the road. They must have been at least fifty feet above the valley below, the vertigo making her sick. “Randy please slow down.”
“No.”
The speedometer never stopped sliding to the right; they were doing eighty and still gaining. The bend at the top of the road was seconds away, and guardrails didn’t exist this far back into the road. “Randy slow down!” Now her face was drenched in sweat.
“No!” She jumped back when their eyes met. His once sky blue eyes were now pulsating fiery orange.
“Randy!” The flames met them head-on. Randy jerked the truck to the left. An enormous dust cloud erupted all around them as the back tire spewed rocks and bits of hard earth. The left side of the truck scraped the craggy side of the cactus covered mountain.
Meg panicked when she saw his face. Eyes wide, pale as death, a maniacal smile, and all the while ever increasing speed. Meg screamed when she saw the sharp turn ahead. The scream clicked in his head, the intoxication of the anglerfish fled and suddenly cold terror gripped him as he saw the turn for the first time.
He slammed on the brakes two seconds too late. The left turn of the bend was too sharp, they were going too fast, and the accuracy of the flames was too precise. Seconds later the truck launched over the cliff.
It was a cloudless afternoon and the blazing Arizona sun vaporized any form of shadow or coolness it saw. Officer Pete Shays was writing a report for the deaths of Randall Travis Johnson and Megan Diane Stevens, blamed on negligent driving with the possibility of DUI. The swerving of the tires strewn haphazardly all over the road had been all the analysis they’d needed. He stood on top of the turn where Randy had lost control of the vehicle and plunged 150 feet off the side of the mountain.
But what he couldn’t figure out were the skid marks just before the turn. The tracks in the dust from the truck didn’t look like the couple had been speeding and simply skidded off the edge of the cliff. They were too parallel to the edge, almost as though something large, like another car, had pushed them over. Judging from them, the black paint and denting patterns on the side of the truck it seemed as though another vehicle had been involved. But there was no trace of another car in sight.
