Tommorow

1512 Words4 Pages

At 80 miles per hour, the 1968 candy apple red Corvette streaked effortlessly through the gentle curves near the edge of Texas hill country. It wasn’t a loud sound. Not loud enough to frighten him, but it was loud enough for him to take notice and fill him with anxiety. He immediately clenched the steering wheel a little harder as a wave of near panic shot up his spine. Then, just as quickly as it surfaced, it subsided. A slight, but unusual vibration began to emanate from somewhere within the heart of the car, or so it seemed. He glanced in the rear view mirror, saw there were no vehicles for as far as he could see, and decided that he would pull the car over to the shoulder. At that precise moment, the concrete ribbon twisted sharply to the right in a nasty hairpin curve. It snaked around in a desperate curl that’s caught him by complete surprise, and he stupidly mashed the brake pedal much too hard. The tires screamed noisily as they painted heavy streaks of hot black rubber on the narrow concrete roadway. The tail end of the car began to swing around, and instinctively he twisted the wheel to the left to steer into the skid. This action was now bringing him too close to the left-hand shoulder where large, protruding boulders threatened destruction to his car. Just a few feet beyond the rocks, the road dropped off into a deep; seemingly bottomless chasm. He cursed aloud for allowing the turn to surprise him. Then just before the unavoidable crash into the rocky shoulder, he took his foot off the brake, turned hard to the right and with earnest passion, stomped hard on the gas pedal. The broad tires of the Corvette screeched fiercely as they chewed hungrily at the dry cement. If the... ... middle of paper ... ...hew Banks looked around for the creature belonging to the voice and found her sitting lazily on a rickety cane backed chair behind the counter with a long filtered cigarette dangling loosely from her lips. She stood up with an audible effort. She was dressed in a large, flowered sleeveless smock that long ago had seen better days. The raw boned woman reminded him of the pictures he’d seen of Appalachian type families although right now he couldn’t recall whether it was in the Ozark Mountains or somewhere in Kentucky. Her deeply weathered skin clearly got that way from spending her youth in the blazing Texas sun. Matt credited the coarseness in her voice to untold packs of cigarettes she had smoked, and with more than just a nip or two of cheap whiskey. Wrinkles covered her face like a creased old buckskin coat tossed in a pile on the closet floor for too long.

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