1/5/22 Car Trouble

 Car Trouble

Red hair bouncing in the night breeze as a young woman drives down the highway with her windows down. Not a reckless person at heart but sure that no one will care, she goes ten over the speed limit on the empty road. 

Out of the dark night, a pair of headlights emerge, coming up behind the woman's car. The woman notices in her mirror but doesn’t pay the vehicle any thought, that is until - a loud siren blares through the air, bright flashing lights are all the woman can see.

‘Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,’ the red haired woman thinks to herself. She hits the brakes and pulls off to the side of the road. As the car stops, the woman messily digs through her glove box and pulls out her registration then rummages her purse for her license. The police officer walks up to the window and taps it three times. Nervously the woman rolls down her window to see a lady with shoulder length black hair, hidden behind her police cap.

“License and registration please.” The red haired woman quickly hands over the documents. The cop quickly looks them over,“Ma’am do you know why I pulled you over tonight?” the officer questions.

“Because I was ten over the speed limit?” the woman responds shamefully.

The cop lets out a sharp laugh, “Ten? Try forty-seven!” 

The woman looks at the cop with a mixture of shock and confusion, “Forty-seven!? My speedometer only showed I was ten over! And I think I would have noticed if I was going that fast,” she responds defensively.

“I’m sorry about that ma’am but I clocked you doing one hundred and seven in a sixty zone,” the cop says with a sympathetic look. “Listen you seem like a nice, honest person so I’m going to help you out. I see this happen all the time and I know just the guy who can fix your car so that this doesn’t happen again.” The black haired cop scribbles down an address on a small scrap of yellow lined paper. “First thing tomorrow morning, take your car here. Tell them the problem and they will get it fixed up real quick.”

“Thank you very much officer, I will do that,” the red haired woman says breathily, relieved by the outcome of the situation. The officer walks back to her car and gets in. The red haired woman rolls her window up and drives home. On the drive she ponders over how the cop clocked her at 107, she knows she wasn’t going that fast.

The next morning the red haired woman drives to the address on the little scrap of paper. She pulls up to what looks like a large run down metal shed with wood planks covering bits here and there; a few old rusty trucks are parked to the left. Parking her car next to the trucks she hops out. Instantly she is hit with a feeling of nervousness and uncertainty. The whole place looks sketchy and all of a sudden the woman isn't so sure this is a good idea anymore. Cautiously she approaches what looks to be the front door of the rundown building.

Before reaching the door, an ear piercing shriek whistles through the woman's ears as the door creaks open. An older man with gray hair and beard walks out and greets the woman in a friendly tone. “Well hello there, my name is Ralph. You having car troubles?”

The friendly nature of his voice soothes the woman but the sense of uneasiness remains. “Um yes, my speedometer is broken and I was told you knew how to fix it.”

“Ah I see Sally sent us another one. Nice lady, great cop that one. Now if you’d like to drive that car of yours right in here I’ll get it fixed in a jiffy,” the older man says pointing towards a garage door.

The woman gets back in her car and drives it through the large metal door that has now been opened. She gets out onto the dirt ground and looks around. Old metal parts and rusted signs hang on all the walls.

The older man approaches her once again, “You are welcome to wait right over there while I take a peek at your car,” he says motioning to a small sectioned off area. 

Without a chair in sight, the woman awkwardly stands in the small room, eyes roaming over everything. To her right, through a small clouded window, she can see what looks to be a small office. She can see shadows of people moving in the room. The woman can’t decide if she is happy that there are more people around, or if it makes her uncomfortable situation worse. Her thoughts are silenced by the sound of her car door being shut. She looks over to where the man is working on her car and sees him walking over to her.

“Well I have everything in place but we have to kind of let the car reset. I’d try to explain it but it gets pretty complicated for someone who doesn’t know cars.”

“Welp that’s me so I will trust you know what you’re doing,” she says, letting out a nervous chuckle. “So how do we reset the car?”

“Well it just needs time without being run for everything to calibrate correctly, I’d say it’ll take about half an hour,” the man explains in the same friendly tone. “If you’d like I could give you a little tour of the property so you don't have to stand around here the whole time.” The woman, not wanting to be rude, accepts the man’s offer. The two leave the metal building and begin their stroll. 

“So what all is there on this property? From the outside there doesn’t look to be much,” the woman curiously questions.

“Well I guess there really ain’t that much other than woods, but there’s a beauty in the forest you know, sometimes it’s nice to just walk around and enjoy it,” the man replies, continuing his stride while looking up to the trees.

A little ways into their walk the woman spots a large log, sticking halfway out of a hillside. She points to the unusual growth, “How did that get in there? Did it grow naturally or did someone shove it in there?”

“You know, me and my brother, who owns the shop with me,” he quickly adds, “We don’t really know. We were just walking around one day like you and me were and we found it just like this.” As the two approach the log the woman notices white markings on it. She looks quizzically at the man and before the question leaves her lips he begins to answer. “We have had many customers come by and we have made it a tradition to have all our customers mark the log however they please,” he says, pulling out a piece of chalk from his dirty blue mechanics suit. He hands it to the woman and she takes it.

“What am I supposed to put,” she asks, examining small doodles and writing.

“Like I said, whatever you want. It can be personal to you or just a random squiggle.” The man walks around to the other side of the log and rests his chin and arms on it, watching the woman ponder what to draw.

The woman lifts the chalk to the tree. The chalk on the hard uneven bark makes it difficult but she manages to draw a small speedometer with a crack through it. “There, something to memorialize why I came here in the first place.”

“Beautiful,” the man says, not looking at the drawing but at the woman.

Although the man is many years her senior, something about him draws her attraction. She smiles as a small blush covers her face. “I think we should head back to the car,” she suggests, deflecting these confusing emotions.

When the pair arrive back at the shop they are greeted by another man in a red flannel shirt  which the woman assumes to be the brother.

“Showing another customer around I see,” the man says in slight disappointment. 

“Just something to pass the time Dave,” Ralph says.

The woman stands silently as the brothers converse. Dave looks to her then back to Ralph, “Well is her car fixed?” he asks.

“Yes it should be ready now,” he looks to the woman, “if you just wait right here I will bring it right out.” 

The woman nods. Standing next to Dave brings back the uneasy feeling and sense of fear that had been lost on her walk with Ralph. Trying not to think about her scared feelings she focuses on the garage door, waiting for her vehicle to appear. Much to her relief, the sound of the engine starting echoes through the building and the car quickly exits through the large garage door. Ralph parks the car next to the trucks and gets out and hands the woman her keys.

“So what do I owe you guys for this?” the woman asks.

“Ah nothing, an easy fix like this? Don’t worry about it,” Ralph says with a toothy smile.

“We do want to make sure your car is in working order. I’ll have you drive it a little around the lot here and I’ll sit in the passenger seat just to make sure everything sounds alright,” Dave says.

The woman's heart drops, she looks to Ralph who gives her a small nod accompanied by a smile, “Al-alright,” she says nervously.

The woman hops in her car and Dave enters through the door opposite. Shakily the woman puts the car keys in the ignition and turns them. The engine roars again and starts up with no issue. She places the car in reverse and slowly begins to drive backwards.

An almost evil smile appears on Dave’s face as he slowly says, “Oh this is perfect.”

“Yeah?” she questions, slightly confused by his manner of speech.

“Yes, perfect for ripping you apart,” he says, reaching over, attempting to grab the woman by her throat. 

Struggling to fight his grasp the woman undoes her seatbelt and manages to elbow Dave in the face. She quickly climbs out of her car and takes off on foot towards the road. She can hear her car approaching from behind along with the sound of footsteps chasing her. She turns to look and sees the black haired cop Sally.

‘It was all a trap, I knew I wasn’t going that fast,’ she thinks to herself. She puts her naivety aside and continues running. Turning a corner and with some length between her and Sally, she dives into a bush hoping not to hide. Desperately trying to silence her heavy breathing, the woman waits and listens. She watches through small gaps in the leaves. When she notices the light getting covered she sees a face poke through the leaves, “found youuuu,” Sally says evilly says, dragging out the last word. 

The woman once again continues running, she can hear a car violently turning corners, following her, Sally’s footsteps always close behind. Seeing train tracks lead into a dark tunnel she runs, hoping to lose them in the cover of darkness. She runs in and finds a small side tunnel. She runs down it aways and then stops, lying down, exhausted from the running, ‘I just want this nightmare to end’ she thinks.

The End

1/5/22

(Author's Note: This story was based on a nightmare of mine and therefore ends when I woke up, so no one, not even I, will ever know the ending to this story.)