𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐞~short stories~

Goodbye||Hello

"Well that doesn't help . . . Rachel?" He question.

Her only response was a suppressed laugh.

"Victoria?" He asked, turning on his low beam lights as he noticed it getting darker. Her SU-7 had an automatic turn on when it sensed the light getting lower.

"No," she said, again looking back in mirror to see nothing but the lights now blaring and making it even harder to peer through the darknesses at the driver.

"Where you headed, Quinn?" He asked, trying to get the conversation going without it just being him saying random names.

"None of your business, asshat." She giggled toward the end so it was know that she meant to jest in her harsh words.

"That wasn't very nice, Zoey," he responded without wound.

"I'm headed East," she admitted, figuring it was vague enough.

"You got family out there?" He asked, looking around at where they were in Central Province.

"No." She said shortly.

"Gonna pop halfway across the country to say hello to a friend then? 'Cause ain't nobody go there for vacation, less you like that muddy, foggy weather."

"More like," there was a short, pained pause in her message, "saying goodbye."

He scoffed and recorded, "you going to break it off with a boyfriend, or what?" His voice showed very clearly his opinion of that scenario. She shook her head so even he could see her ponytail swish past her chair and into his view a couple times.

"I'm going to a funeral." Her foot on the petal faltered and she was no longer at her perfect 80 mph. He pulled up beside her and peered at her. He had to lower his head slightly to see from the great height of his vehicle into the low window of her compact SU-7. Their eyes met and his lips moved as he recorded his message. He sent it and it automatically played over her speakers, filling her ears and her stomach with twisting knots.

"I'm sorry."

He had big brown eyes that spoke the words for him without his message booming through her. She pressed her lips into a line and nodded in thanks. He pulled back but stayed in the lane next to her.

"What's it gonna take to know your name?" He asked, not waiting for a response to his preceding message.

She looked to her Valve Monitor on her dash and observed that it was only a quarter of the way full. "I'm stopping to fill up on Ben anyway. Maybe if you buy me a Powder Cake we can make an exchange." She grinned as her vehicle went over a hill, the last of the sunlight illuminating her warm eyes in her side view mirror. The sheet of light fell on his neck and his bright smile. "Sounds mighty fine," he said purposely more country than usual.

She pulled up to a QuickZack and parked herself at station 7. An attendee approached with a confused look as she fiddled with her Valve Hatch located on the front of her SU-7. "Ma'am, I can do that. It is my job." She ignored him and set the chrome cap down on the ground in front of her. There was a small scanner on the outside of a black seal that was shut tight over the cavity in her vehicle. She placed her thumb over it and a red line quickly scanned her print and opened with a ping. She looked at the bewildered man. "New lock," she said smiling. "They're popular in the Western Province so I'm not surprised you haven't seen one."

The man only nodded and reached his hand in, pulling the slab out by its handle. Encased in the metal slab was a small, clear tube a quarter of the way full of dark liquid. Benintrathium, or Ben. Known for its effectiveness and triumph against gasoline, which was now as old as the fossils it was made out of practically here in 2076.