Freewrite Day 180: coin

Photo by Faith D on Unsplash

This piece is a continuation of previous freewrites. See bottom of post for links to previous entries.

“Ma’am? Uh, Priya?

She turned to find David standing behind her.

“Did you get to use the phone?” he asked her.

“Oh. No. I’m having a very strange day,” she said.

“Do you…wanna talk about it?”

She considered this. The whole story sounded crazy, even just in her head. On the other hand, he might believe her. After the loss of so many to the monsters from the hills, people had to accept that there were things they didn’t understand about the world.

“Did you lose anyone to the Reapers?” she asked.

He swallowed. “I didn’t, but I heard…Did you?”

“Jay. My son.” Priya turned back to looking out over the flatness of the road and the dusty ground beyond it. Had this land been fertile before? She didn’t know—she’d never been to Texas. “My marriage fell apart, after. Ethan is sweet, but I couldn’t just move on, not when my baby was gone. I felt half-gone myself. So I decided to try and find him.”

David sucked in a sharp breath behind her, but she didn’t look back. It was easier to talk about it if she didn’t look at him.

“I got into my car and drove towards the hills. And then I got stuck. It sounds crazy, but I was caught in some kind of loop or something. I drove for hours, but the sun never set. My gas tank never emptied. I never saw another living being, until I pulled to the side of the road. Then, this strange man with black eyes appeared, and destroyed my car. So I gave up. And then you stopped and picked me up and drove me here…but I started driving in Colorado.” She turned to look at him finally. “And we’re in Texas, aren’t we?”

“Uh, yeah, we're...yes. That’s, uh, one heck of a story.” He frowned, staring past her at the dry land for several minutes. Finally, he met her gaze. “Yeah, I don’t know, it’s pretty strange. What are you gonna do now?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not sure if there’s any point sending a tow truck after my car. I’m not sure they could even find it. And it’s not as though Ethan can just come pick me up, even if he were willing to. This was something of a suicide mission, I suppose, and I couldn’t even do that. So…I don’t know. But you should go—I’ve kept you from your destination. Go on, I’ll figure it out.”

David glanced over one shoulder at his blue bug. After a moment he turned decisively towards her and began digging in his pocket, pulling out a wad of cash and coins. “Come on,” he said, gesturing towards the gas station with his head. “We’re gonna need provisions.”

"We're what?"

"Provisions," he called back to her, already halfway to the doors. "For the drive!"

This is my (more-than-five-minute-freewrite) response to the daily freewrite hosted by @mariannewest. Today’s prompt is ‘coin;’ check out the original post (and the responses) here.

Previous posts in this story: 1 - ash • 2 - fool • 3 - bird • 4 - atlas • 5 - Texas

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