Sample  Dark Highways (Title Story) The red Cadillac swerved and screeched down the long stretch of highway eighty. It was one in the morning and Kyle Jones who sat in the passenger seat thought he and his inebriated friend Mike were blessed by the sparse traffic and the non-existent Highway Patrol. Mike turned the wheel and brought the car sickeningly close to the guardrail. The car swerved away and headed back toward the road. Again the car swayed between the double yellow line separating the right and left lanes. Kyle held tightly to the padded door handle, he wondered why in the hell he’d gotten in the car in the first place. He’d been drunk and evidently the booze had done the thinking and the talking back at the graduation party. When he’d finally come out of his drunken haze he’d been here in the car with Mike. When he realized they were on a US Highway he’d become alarmed and asked Mike where they were going. "Another party." Mike had slurred. Kyle said nothing else knowing he wasn’t going to get a straight answer from Mike. It took him a few moments to realize that not only were the booze doing Mike’s talking they were also driving in the left hand lane. "Jesus Christ! Mike watch it!" Kyle shouted at his friend. Mike said, "Whoops" and swerved back into the right lane. Now here he sat Kyle Jones, honor student, editor of the school paper, representative of his class, and more then likely soon to be dead. He couldn’t believe he was here, driving down a moon splashed dark highway with his intoxicated friend behind the wheel of his father’s Cadillac. It was surprising how one thing led to another. He remembered arriving at the party. He could only remember having one beer, but he’d obviously consumed more then that. He’d danced a while with his girlfriend Jess, then they were upstairs making out in an empty bedroom. He drew blanks after that, he didn’t know if he and Jess had slept together or how many beers he’d had or how he ended up in this car. Kyle wished he knew if he was going to live to find out. The blare of an air horn and the bright glare of headlights filled the windshield, a very large Mack truck was coming toward them. The car had once again ventured into the wrong lane. "Whooo!!" Mike shouted and pulled the car back over to the other side of the road just before the eighteen wheeler splattered them onto the grill like bugs caught in a wind. "Mike. Pull this goddamn car over now!" Kyle shouted with all the rage he could muster. Mike looked at him. His eyes showed all the anger he was feeling. An abrupt realization came over him. Mike drank because he was mad at something, but he was driving recklessly, not because of how much he drank but because he was playing his own version of Russian Roulette. Kyle didn’t know how he’d gotten involved in the middle of Mike’s death wish. He hoped he wasn’t part of it. He hoped Mike would let him reason with him. Mike began to speak and horror dawned over Kyle’s face. "I slept wit Jenny." Kyle was silent and Mike continued, "We didn’t use and protection we just did it" Mike’s voice was cracking. "When we finished she told me she had AIDS." "Jesus Christ" Kyle whispered. Mike spoke his next words and Kyle could hear the strained agony in his voice, "I’m gonna kill myself. I don’t want to suffer and I don’t want you to try and talk me out of it. I want to drive around a little more then I’ll take you back home and that’ll be it." Kyle felt ill but he knew there would be no reasoning with Mike. They drove around for a half hour more then Mike dropped him off at his house. "I’ll be seeing you friend." Mike said. Hoping Mike might change his mind Kyle said, "See you in school." Kyle shut the door and walked up on his porch. He watched as the car faded into the darkness toward another unknown dark highway. He felt his father’s hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked at him. "What’s the matter son?" he asked. "Why are you home so late." "Mike’s going to kill himself" Kyle saw the alarm cross his father’s face. "Why?" "He told me he had AIDS." Come inside quickly we have to call the police and Mike’s parents. Did Mike have his dad’s car?" Kyle nodded as he led his son inside. Mike drove quickly to a secluded spot in the woods. He took the .38 snub nose pistol from the glove compartment and placed it under his chin. A call was quickly placed to Mike’s girlfriend Jen. She told Mike’s mother giggling that she didn’t really have AIDS. She was called a bitch for the first time in her nineteen years. Mike had taken the gun from underneath his chin and now held it loosely in his hand. The thought that Jen may have lied to him occurred to him. But what if she hadn’t? He was confused and tears ran down his face. He heard the police sirens and in that moment he knew he’d made a one-way decision. What would they do when they found him? Stick him in a hospital or some mental place. "No" he said to himself. He brought the pistol up underneath his chin and pulled the trigger. And yet another journey down a seemingly endless dark highway came to an end. Publication date: January 1998
Author: Senaka La Palme
COPYRIGHT 1998 - 2007, 2008 Senaka La Palme
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FIRST PRINTING; ELECTRONIC AND PRINT MEDIA View a Synopsis of This Work | Order This Work | 
