Night Drifters: The Knight

Chapter 14: Lightning Storm

“I’m sorry, but you’re not going to get better by laying around in bed all day. You need medicine.” Rita and I argued all the way to the doctor.

“Well, why don’t we get some Tylenol at the mini mart up the street, instead?” I offered, but Rita declined and shook her head.

“Not for this type of illness.” She pointed to a quilt I had wrapped around me so tight it looked like a cocoon.

I sighed and gave up. It’s no use. We were half way there already.

“Something seems like it’s on your mind.”

“It’s nothing.” I knew I was lying to myself with that one. Everything was on my mind. “Rita . . .do you believe in things you can’t see?” I didn’t really know where this was going.

Rita honked at a slow moving car in front of us. “What do you mean?”

I itched my knee, staring out the window. “I don’t know . . . like fairy tales?”

She giggled. “Danny, where’s this coming from?”

“Nothing . . .I . . .I was just wondering.”

“I think that things happen for a reason, but other than that . . .other than God, himself, no . . .I don’t.” She then glanced toward me. “I wish they were real, though.”

“You do?”

“Well, don’t you?”

“I guess so, but . . .doesn’t it scare you that maybe the world you know isn’t the world you see?”

“Thinking outside the box, are we?” Rita looked a little shaken.

“Only lately. I kind of feel like, I’ve woken up from some dream I was in, you know?”

“We all feel like that sometimes, Danny.” Even then her empathy seemed not as understanding as usual. Like she had a hard time perceiving what I was saying.

All of a sudden the Land Rover came to a noisy halt. Rita grew tense as she pressed down on the gas pedal. She took a sharp breath as the car didn’t move. “Come on!”

The light was green and even though it was seven in the morning cars were on the road and now at least five could be seen in the distance in my side view mirror.

My stomach lurched with unease as they approached faster and became bigger.

Rita honked the horn involuntarily, fretting with anything to make the car move. But it didn’t. “Oh my god!” She yelled hysterically, grasping for my seatbelt.

I wasn’t about to jump out of the car with her still strapped inside and she knew it.

I gulped and closed my eyes, preparing for a squeal and a big crash, but it never came. Instead there was silence and a very frightened Rita taking irregular breaths.

We were moving again and just in time too.

Rita started to get her breath back and smiled pensively. “Gee . . .” She put her hand to her heart, trying to calm herself, “we could’ve been goners.” She then turned to me, still focusing on the road a head. “Danny, don’t trust this car. It’s been acting weird lately. Take the Mercedes from now on, you hear me?” Her maternal voice was drawn out extensively, her eyes blistering with pure protection.

“I promise.” I assured her.

She heaved one final panicked breath and said, “What do ya’ll say if I pick you up some popsicles on our way back?”

I laughed then coughed, “Sounds like a plan.”

When we got back, I decided on a short nap, but found myself hibernating for the winter.