STORMY NIGHT RIDE

Lightning flashed, momentarily turning the stormy night sky into daylight. Thunder followed seconds later, as Larry drove on the dark road through the heavy rain, anxious to get home from the hospital.

His wife, Jamie, was seated next to him. A petite brunette with a sweet, heart-shaped face, she had an endearing curl falling over her brow. At this moment, her features were lifeless as she stared vacantly in front of her.
Six years younger than Larry, she was being taken home after a traumatic rape that had occurred not long after their wedding. The brutality of her experience had left her in a trance-like, almost catatonic state. As the two rode through the night, Jamie stared out into space, into nowhere it seemed, only barely acknowledging her husband’s comments.

The only sounds which broke the almost total silence, other than the storm, were the windshield wipers and the noise of the tires on the wet tarmac. Aside from the lightning, the only break in the darkness of the night was the occasional headlights from the few cars that came from the opposite direction.

Larry's heart was heavy, and he had all but given up trying to hold any conversation with Jamie. Instead, he kept thinking back to when he received the call from the hospital. The doctor had told him there would be only a very slim chance of her returning to her former self, as she had retreated within her own safe little world.

As they drove, the outline of a man, walking by the side of the road appeared in Larry’s headlights.

All of a sudden Jamie's eyes widened as she saw the man "That's him! That's him. He's the one!" she screamed, fingers pointing in his direction. She was shivering as she stared ahead at the figure on the side of the road.

Larry's jaw tightened as his mind recalled the frustration of all that had happened to their marriage due to her brutal assault. In anger, he impulsively turned the wheel towards the man and jammed his foot down on the accelerator. The loud thud he heard, as he ran over the man, was like releasing a load off his body and mind. For the first time since the incident, tension and pain were swept away by relief.

He glanced over at Jamie and saw she had regained her vacant stare as she gazed straight ahead, silently. Further down the road, another man appeared in his headlights, on the side of the road with his thumb out, trying to hitch a ride.

"That’s him! That’s him!" Jamie cried out as she saw him, pointing in his direction.........

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 27.01.2010

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