Roads - Chapter 1 Part 2

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by Jotter

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Roads

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Continuation of story 'Roads' - Part 2

His voice was smooth and husky, it reminded me of a famous movie star, but I forgot his name. He usually played the villains in the story, very powerful and dominating….somehow I felt that the man sat next to my father processed the same ‘qualities’, but there was also some softness to his voice. I couldn’t get it out of my head that there was something familiar about that voice, something other than the movie-star-likeness. What was my Dad doing here? All sorts of thoughts rushed through my head, but I blotted them out. It must be a business meeting, Dad had all sorts of client’s, and he must just be finishing up a deal. Laid down in the back of the car, I prayed it wouldn’t take too much time, the more time I was away from the house the more likely there would be a search squad waiting when I returned. I was beginning to sort of hate my Dad for this strange trip he was taking. All I had wanted was some alone time in the car, and it had turned into this goddamn charade.
“How you doing?” my Dad responded sounding genuinely interested, “any problems getting away from the house?”
“No problem at all” came the reply. It was blunt but somehow seemed to be laced with deeper meaning. I dunno, its delivery just seemed to imply so much more. The smell of the pines around my home, up here in the mountains, had started to give way to a muskiness…I figured the man must be a canine. Nothing unusual in that, most of my friends were canines, they are such a common species, but I couldn’t think of any friends of the family this mystery guy might be. My parents didn’t have many friends…especially my Dad since all he thought about was the car. Maybe he had made one without anyone’s knowledge, a fellow car enthusiast perhaps. Yer that would make sense, maybe they just liked going for drives on the quiet roads at night, Dad was going pretty fast, I could see the thrill of it. I shook my head and ducked down further into the darkness. Thank god the radio was still on and The Beatles were still belting out the lyrics “Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now.” otherwise I’d be blue in the face by now from holding my breath in silence.
Not long after starting off again, the car came to another abrupt halt, burying my face in the front seat. I was starting to get pissed off with this, what the hell was he playing at being out late in the middle of nowhere anyway? I assumed it was the middle of nowhere. All I could see from my viewpoint was the canopy of the trees under which we had been driving at speed, and there weren’t any streetlights, so we must still be up in the mountains behind the city. The thing is, Dad’s work was placed smack bang in the centre of the city.  He banged the car into park.
“I never get sick of this view,” he said in a relaxed manner that for some reason sorta disturbed me. His companion just murred and opened the car door. Again the cool night air hit me in the face kinda sharpening my thoughts. Seriously what the hell was he doing?  My heart was pounding in my chest. I felt like I was on the edge of a precipice, about to look down into the nothingness and darkness.  He opened the driver door, stepped out and slammed it behind him. I finally let myself breath normally and shuffled a little to let blood get into my arms again, I’d developed some killer pins and needles. I lay there in the quiet atmosphere of the car. Tick, tick, tick. It cooled and eased around me. I didn’t really know what to do, it was a completely pitch black view through the back windows. I knew that if I sat up and peered over the front seat there was little chance I’d be seen. ‘Fuck it’ I thought, I deserved to know what the hell was going on. He had dragged me all the way out here against my own will, although he didn’t know that to be fair. Still, I wanted to find out. I wanted that so bad.
Lifting my head as slowly as possible, I perched myself up on my elbows and slid up the backseat. Dad had left the keys in the ignition, the engine wasn’t running but the radio and headlights remained on. The Beatles had given way to a song I didn’t recognise; the lyrics began ‘A Hot summer night, fell like a net…I’ve gotta find my baby yet’’, it sounded very eighties. It was catchy and I thought I had heard it somewhere before but couldn’t recall when or where, probably a film somewhere. Anyway there I was, crouched in the backseat of a car, listening to some singer probably fat and old by now, maybe even dead, staring out the windscreen.
It was a sight.
In front of me lay the whole goddamn city of San Diego laid out like some sorta miniature model. The streets and skyscrapers and the fucking pizza delivery cars all below me glistening and moving like some living entity. I could see it all from where I was, but my attention was drawn to something else. Following the headlights of the car, I could see two silhouettes framed in the night sky. One was my father, the other I assumed to be the man he had picked up in the car. I wish the little voice at the back of my head had been wrong. I wish things had been innocent, and then maybe nothing would have changed. It was nothing to do with work. They had their arms around each other. They embraced. My mind seemed to pop. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I couldn’t think! A screaming seemed to erupt…’What the FUCK is going on!?’ it shouted, ringing and ringing around my mind. ‘WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE DOING?’
I couldn’t do anything. My blood had become ice flowing around my body, freezing my limbs.  All I could seem to focus on was that damn song playing on the radio, that stupid sixties melodic son of a bitch crap.
“Doctor, doctor give me the news
I've got a bad case of lovin' you
No pill's gonna cure my ill
I've got a bad case of lovin' you”
I seemed to move without thinking about it. I needed to get out of there. Before I knew what I was doing I was back where I started. Back behind the wheel of the car. I wanted it to be how it was the last time I sat there. In the comfortable quiet of the driveway before I had seen the horrifying scene in front of me. Before I’d had that goddamn mental image burned into the back of my head. The image that was still going on. I didn’t want to look at it anymore, but I couldn’t help it. I had to get away. My hand felt for the keys in the ignition. I turned them and the engine roared. I couldn’t take my eyes of the two figured in front of me. I wanted to but I couldn’t. They heard the car and turned in surprise. I stared right into my Dad’s eyes. They were wide and whiter than any eyes I had ever seen before. I was in darkness behind the wheel, but I knew, I knew in my gut that he realised it was me. I could see it.  As quick as I could I shoved the car into reverse and floored the throttle. I had no clue where we were. I really didn’t care. I couldn’t take my eyes of Dad, he was running toward the car shouting something but I didn’t hear him over the noise of the engine. I was crying at that point. I hate crying, I never did it, but I really couldn’t help it; I was so overrun with emotions. In the rear-view mirror I could see the road flying toward me. He must have pulled off onto some viewing platform. For a second I wondered how many times he had been up here. How many times had he done this before? I span the wheel and faced the car toward the mountains. I had to get away. I hit the brake and came to a stop, the headlights beaming down an empty road. My breathing was heavy and my heart was beating like crazy. I looked in the mirror one last time. Dad was running behind the car still shouting, washed in the red glow of the cars brake lights. I could still see the canine behind him; he was holding his head in his hands. I looked away, hit the throttle as hard as I could, and with a screech of the tires, drove off into the night. Dad fell into darkness and disappeared. I left it behind.

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