𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐞~short stories~

Goodbye||Hello

She drove steadily down the freeway at a hearty 80 mph, carefully balancing her foot on the gas so to keep speedometer hand still over the notch. She glanced to her rear view mirror to see a large red T-16 barreling toward her from a quarter of a mile away. She could already tell he was the type that would give her trouble. He weaved through traffic gaining quickly on her position as she held her speed firmly. Before there was time to get into another lane, he was behind her and expecting her to move over for his lumbering vehicle. She just rolled her eyes and stayed on course. There were too many slow cars she could get stuck behind in the next lane to her left and she wasn't about to go out of the way for some arrogant hick. He pulled up close behind her so she could no longer see his Driver Digit in her rear view mirror, he was indicating he wanted to pass her or else just being generally pushy. Impatient people like that tended to get on her nerves so as a bit of poetic justice she stayed right on the exact speed she was at. For a few miles they went over hills and curves in the road, all the while he was left with no opportunity to pass her. He would fall back when going over the hills and turns and then be right back on her butt when the road was straight again. She was starting to roll her eyes again, nearly spraining them, when she heard a ping. She blinked and her retina display showed a local message from an unknown user. Well, not completely unknown. She had an idea of who it was. She opened it and heard a man speaking rather sternly as his voice fed from her chip into the car speakers. "What the hell you playing at, slowing and speeding like that without letting me pass?"

His voice was, strangely, exactly as she imagined it would be. He sounded like he was from around here, the Central Province, having that "country accent" all the the Easterners made fun of. He sounded rather cocky and she contemplated just ignoring him but the devil on her shoulder told her to put him in his place.

"Good afternoon sir," she recorded through the message system, sure he could heard the sarcastic smile in her voice even through a machine. "I happen to be driving, as that is what one does on a road with a vehicle."

His response was as quick and sharp as his tone was when she played the message. "That ain't driving." Before she could respond she received another. "You drive like an old man with a stick up his ass. That's sort of what I was expecting."

She laughed to herself and answered softly. "You drive like an asshole. You sound like one too." The ringing of a giggle in her voice made her tone less aggressive that one would expect when dealing with road rage.

His T-16 no longer moved side to side trying to find away around her mini SU-7. Instead he stayed at a decent distance and trailed her longer.

"I am an asshole," he responded, his tone lighter. "What's your name?"

She thought for a moment, glancing at her mirror to see his front window shrouded in darkness with only the top of his wheel gripped by one hand within view.

"I am not at liberty to disclose that to you as I have neither broken the law nor been involved in an accident with you," she said.

"Are you gonna make me guess?" She could almost feel his cheeky grin there with her in the vehicle.

"If you can." She smiled to herself, rather amused by the situation. At least she didn't have to worry about being lonely for a bit on her trip. She was previously wishing that she might be kept company and here they were, two strangers doing a tango on the freeway.

"Give me the first letter," he insisted, resolving both hands in the wheel now as if deciding to stay.

"No way, that would make it too easy. But I'll tell you it's a common name that starts with an unusual letter." She switched her setting with the tap of her finger to her temple. She selected their conversation and turned it onto auto respond. So now she could drop her retina display and have the messages played as soon as they came up.