Short Story | Return

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

Please do not repost or copy to another site. Thank you. Enjoy reading.

    Julia and Fred hopped in their car at around nine after breakfast to got to Rancho Cucamonga. They took CA-210 for a smoother drive, or so they thought. The sun was high and blazing causing a throbbing headache on top of Julia's unbearable motion sickness. Their 2005 Toyota Camry moved at less than five miles an hour and her partner was a really bad driver. He didn't need to push on the pedal for a small distance and abruptly jolt them to a stop with another deep thrust on the break.

    "Stop it!" She twisted her torso and faced him. "Your constant breaks are shaking my brain too much!"

    "What can I do?" He irritatingly tsk-ed. "There's a fucking traffic right in front of us!"

    "You don't have to push for the gas every single time, don't you? As you said, there's freaking traffic! You don't need the accelerator! you could just ease your feet from the break and that's it!"

    "If you're so good at it, then you drive! You don't need me to come with you too, no?"

      She gritted her teeth out of frustration. This always happens. He would complain about going out with her, always harrumph and glare at her, but when they arrive he would be the first to take a shopping cart and get whatever he wanted. Then had her pay.

    "Oh, you're right," she said, at last, looking at the mountains through the window. They were huge and black and, as this was December winter, coated with white snow, like Oreo cookies vanilla ice cream. "I don't need you."

    After a while, she heard him fill the car with the current song playing from the radio - Taylor Swift's Exile. She couldn't stop singing along. "I think I've seen this film before, So I'm leavin' out the side door." If only she could do it right now, really, but she thought there might be one or two laws about getting out of a car in the middle of traffic. Right? Anyway, if that was advisable, Julia would be out of the suffocating car right now. She hated this - she hated needing to be with him, she needed a reason to say she was loved.

    The thing was, Fred was a really great guy when he liked it. He was helpful when it comes to carrying heavy grocery bags. He was polite when talking to older people or strangers. He was a mother's boy - too much to the point that whenever his mother criticizes the way she looks, the way she dresses, the way she speaks, Fred would agree, quite loudly actually, and say "I told her to change her skirt because it was too short before coming here!" like Julia's only time to dress up in something not a black slacks and white coats was a crime. They've been together for two years, yet it was still painful how he could never argue with his mother for her sake, and he always has the nerve to coax her to just "forgive the way his mother talks. She's just from an older generation. You know this" as if Julia's own mother - even older than his - was the same arrogant, vain, and opinionated bitch when it came to her characteristics.

    Julia covertly dries her face by rubbing it on her right lower arm resting on the passenger door. She looked out the tinted window and saw an impatient driver from the blue truck next to them. He was wearing a thick parka and white cotton sweatshirt. He looked so cold, but he had his window down and yelling profanities at the car trying to take over space in front of him. The white BMW came from their lane and was signaling about three minutes ago. The driver must have been impatient, or their exit must have been the next one, either way, once the black Corolla in front of the truck moved a bit, the driver squeezed the nose of his carn in. 

    The red car behind the BMW couldn't move as well because the BMW hadn't successfully changed lanes yet, and now every car in their lane got held up. She couldn't do anything but shake her head. She thought that it might be a better idea to exit as well. The traffic was caused by an accident, it might seem like it, with all the police cars and ambulance going to the scene. She didn't know why an accident would happen in broad daylight, but considering she had a graveyard shift in the hospital and always felt tired and sleepy in the mornings, the driver might have gotten into an accident while sleeping. 

So step right out

There is no amount

Of cryin' I can do for you

    "Maybe. Soon." She whispered this as she closed her eyes to will herself from vomiting - the motion sickness almost got to her after another lurch of the car.