One
Noel Berg sings aloud to keep himself awake. Something about driving makes him sleepy. Perhaps the vibrations, perhaps the drone of the engine, perhaps some memory of childhood, of sleeping in the car while his father takes the family somewhere. It’s dark, the middle of the night. He sees few other cars on this country road. He sings Black Sabbath and eats crisps, his strategy for staying awake. The crunchiness is the key factor, the noise of them breaking apart in his mouth, and the action of pushing against resistance. He should use carrots. Healthier. But that requires the kind of planning Noel is not interested in undertaking.
A tire blows. The noise, the swerving of the car, the whut-whut-whut-whut of the crumpled rubber tortured by the rims, all make his heart sink. He hasn’t changed a tire in years, and he is so out of shape that he’ll probably cock it up. But he’s going to do it because he is too ashamed to call a breakdown service for a flat tire. He brings the car to a stop with a soundtrack of Ozzy Osbourne screeching, and he is grateful that the road is empty.
He kills the engine, disengages his seat belt, and leaves the car. Quiet. Blood rushing in his ears, of course. All he can smell is exhaust and burned rubber from the tire on the road. He touches the asphalt to see if it retains heat from the day’s sunlight. It doesn’t.
It’s past midnight, the sky a dark blue with stars that he usually would not see with the light pollution. The treetops delineate what he can and cannot see of the Milky Way. Below that line, darkness. Stupid. He returns to the car and turns on the engine, puts on the hazard lights. He pops the trunk and applies the wedges to the other wheels then loosens the lug nuts on the flat one.
He hears something crackle, like potato crisps crunching. He straightens up and turns on the headlights. Nothing. He listens, stops breathing. Nothing. He positions the jack and starts rotating. He stops and straightens up. This time he definitely heard something.
He turns around just in time to catch a brief movement, then his head flowers in stars as he is knocked off his feet. He does not cry out. Noel maintains awareness for a long time, while something impacts with his body, shaking his vision, all accompanied by Ozzy and electric guitar.
He knows he is paralyzed.
He knows he is dying.
Two
Myke finishes her cigarette, kills the end between finger and thumb, drops the stub, and stamps it out. She inspects the ground for embers and smoke. Satisfied, she starts jogging back. She does not tax herself, just takes it slow and steady. She only recently restarted running since she had a march fracture in the months before. Her GP seems to think she might be showing early signs of osteoporosis, which mortifies Myke. Not that she minds being middle aged, it’s just that she has taken care of her body and cannot bear for it to start breaking down.
She looks for the markers, the branch configurations, the arrangements of stones and rocks, the twists in the path that tell her where she is. This is not a familiar route. It is Myke’s habit to test herself by running down unknown walkways. Keeps the mind engaged. It’s cloudy, a dense uniform cover that shouts the probability of rain, and in a corner of her mind she remembers flood warnings. But not for here. She speeds up, trying to find her limit. Her running shoes need replacing.
She passes a farm where cows chew the cud, indolent, uncaring. The smell of their shit is on the wind. It doesn’t bother Myke. She likes farms. She frightens a corvid who is eating something dead. Her approach used to be quieter. She used to be one with nature, swallowed up and accepted by the birds and the animals and the insects. I am no longer a gazelle.
She comes up to and crosses an A road without getting killed. In the UK you can pick up and eat roadkill as long as you didn’t hit the animal yourself. Not her, not today. She plans to leap over the tributary of a stream, but mistimes it and gets her left shoe wet.
In half an hour, she is home. Small cottage, nearest neighbor half a mile away, lots of field space around. She keeps no animals because she has no desire to put them down when their time comes. She has killed enough in her lifetime.
She takes the shoe off and leaves it outside to dry. The phone is ringing as she comes in. She knows who it is and rushes to pick it up. She should really get a mobile phone one of these days.
“Yes?”
Too late, but she sees the answering machine flashing. She listens while she takes off her exercise clothes.
“Hi, Myke! It’s Carol. Just a reminder for tonight: don’t be late. You have to bring the crisps. Dip is optional, and disgusting if you ask me. We’re doing Romero. I know, I know, Henry insists. He’s found this Italian cut that has seven extra minutes in the mall or something. It was your idea to invite him to the club. See ya.”
Myke hadn’t forgotten. She showers, dresses, snatches the keys from her dresser, and leaves in her jeep. She stops at a convenience store to buy crisps. She doesn’t eat them and doesn’t know which are good, so she picks a few bags at random. Likewise the dip. The girl at the counter is rapt, listening to someone on television.
“. . . that you are the architect of your life, that you determine what happens to you, and that you are responsible for your achievements. Not your god, not the government, not your parents, not your friends. You. I . . .”
Myke pays, puts the bag of goodies on the passenger seat, and speeds off to Carol’s. ...
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