Chapter 7: A Strange Drive
he comes to, and hears a familiar sound.
It’s the hum of a car.
he opens his eyes and sees the roof of a car…
the fabric of the roof was coming undone a little, and there was a little spot of blue paint staining the interior.
this is my ‘02 Galant.
…who’s driving it?
he sits up a little bit to see that -he’s- driving the car.
that’s me?
he looks out the window. the sky is a strange color. pinkish. green? yellow? it feels everchanging to him.
where are we going?
he checks the signs to see where he might be headed. it looks like he’s outside of his hometown, but the signs make no sense and all have conflicting information. from what he gathers, they’re headed towards pittsburgh, but the signs say ithaca, the geography looks like his hometown, and they just took an exit for nashville. and with one more glance, all the rules have changed again.
”she’s riding great”
hearing one’s own voice from a 3rd person voice is an unfathomable shock.
”…i’m talking about the car you sick fuck”
he gets a little angry, something he usually keeps under control.
”sorry i’m just getting used to the fucking fact i’m in my car that i destroyed 6 years ago with an asshole version of me making weird sex jokes.” he quips.
”…alright that’s honestly a fair assessment.”
He glances out the window one more time, and the whole scene seems to have changed again.
”where are you even taking me?” he asks, genuinely
”wherever the road takes us, my crazy friend. maybe we’ll go visit the girl?”
he looks at the weird version of him whilst trying to read his temperament from the corner of his mouth - the only tell he can garner since he is robotically insistent at staring at the road.
”why?” he asks, somewhat hopeful there’s a pure and good reason for it…
”you can try to snatch her up before someone else does. it’s just a matter of time, you know. she was always way too good for you. too smart, too pretty - way more of an artist too.”
”…”
”by the way, doesn’t this slap?”
the driver turns up the stereo a little bit.
”i wrote this like 8 minutes ago. it’s called smoke & scowl. doesn’t it just bump??”
then, the driver starts humming the bassline and beat boxing the tune.
”you’re the lizard though you’d swear it was himmmmm, lah di dah di dah di dah di dah di dah dahhhh”
he starts to get impatient, and interjects.
”what’s your fucking point dude? why are you so obsessed with her?”
the driver starts laughing incredibly hard.
”Wow dude! you really just asked me that! that’s the funniest fucking thing i’ve ever heard!!!”
the driver starts to speed the galant up like crazy, then starts to swerve the car all over the road.
”ahahahah he said, ‘why are you so obsessed with her?!’ what the fuuuuuck ahahaaaaa that’s so fucking funny!!”
at this point, the car is swerving so much that he’s getting thrown into either back seat door with each turn. eventually, he is thrown so hard into a door that the latch breaks and he is flung out of the car, sent skidding and rolling across the pavement before finally settling into an uncomfortable heap on the ground.