Dark Fates

Courage Runs Red W.J. May

One Dark and Stormy Night...

Heavy rain battered against the windshield. The massive drops ricocheted like bullets against the roof of the car, and the wipers were losing their battle to keep the front window clear. A gust swiped against the side of the car. Kallie's vise grip on the steering wheel still could not stop the slight swerve the wind forced the car to do.

She had been driving already over a year, but just got her full license about two weeks ago. She knew how to drive, her dad owned a trucking company and had let her drive tow-motors and skid steers since she turned ten. Good driver or not, no one should be driving in this sudden storm. Her too-long bangs fell into her eyes and she tried futilely to blow them out. No way in hell was she taking a hand off the wheel to get them out of the way.

Her dad sat sleeping in the passenger seat beside her, oblivious to the storm. One of his dispatchers had called in sick two days ago, and then yesterday a driver had come down with the same stomach virus. He'd covered the dispatch desk and then opted to right away take the transport truck's freight delivery for the sick guy himself. He had gone and done the twelve-hour round trip drive with no rest. On top of all that, he still planned to be back in for work at seven tomorrow.

When he got back to the office after parking the transport truck, he sent Kallie a text. She'd spoken to him earlier and had promised to pick him up since it was mom's birthday and he always made her breakfast in bed – one of his specialties, omelettes.

Kallie checked the time on the car's digital clock, just after three thirty. When she had left forty minutes ago, dark clouds covered the full moon and night sky but it had barely been raining. The storm blew in about the same time her dad had fallen asleep beside her. She suspected he had picked up the virus his workers had, and she didn't want to wake him.

Another strong gust of wind slapped the side of her little car. The small Honda veered toward the curb and Kallie cringed as she drove through a massive puddle. The car hydroplaned and seemed unsure if it wanted to steer straight or spin. She let out the breath she had been holding when the wheels finally settled back on the asphalt.

She flipped the defrost on high to try and clear the glare from the windshield. It didn't work fast enough so she squinted to try and see clearer.

"Weird," she muttered. The haze came from outside, not from on the windows. Trying to see more than ten feet in front of her seemed next to impossible. She tried her high beams and quickly shut them off. They were useless. They just made the heavy rain look like shiny silver bullets and blocked any view through them.

Her dad snorted loudly in his sleep and she glanced over at him. His head had fallen against the back of his seat and his mouth hung open slightly. She had no idea if he was wearing his seatbelt.

A strange scratch against the outside of the car made her jump. It brought her focus quickly back to the road. A twig or limb must have blown down and scraped the car.

It only added to her frustration. Kallie now strained to see if any tree branches or garbage cans might have blown onto the road.

She huffed in frustration. They had to be close to their street now. Darn her folks for choosing to live just outside the city. Darn the city for not putting more lights on the long roads that led to her house.

She accelerated a tad when she noticed the red mailbox on her right. Their street was about two minutes up the road. Easy peasy. Almost home.

Less worried, she thought about her warm cozy bed and couldn't wait to crawl under the covers and go back to sleep. Tomorrow was Saturday so no school. Maybe she should take her mom out to lunch.