The Permutation

Breakthrough (Part 6) Michelle

Friday 7 a.m. November 4th

   

Michelle Kim woke to the smell of gasoline and the metallic taste of her own blood. She opened her eyes and blew long strands of black hair out of her face. Disoriented, Michelle struggled to compute what she was seeing. Through the cracks that spiderwebbed the entirety of her windshield, Michelle noticed the road had been turned upside down. The polyester of her seatbelt dug into the soft tissue of her throat imparting the truth of her situation.

I was in a car accident. Why am I here?

    The roof of the van pressed against her head, forcing her neck into an unnatural angle. She tried to straighten herself out, and jolt of pain rocketed from her neck into her head. It reminded Michelle of waking up in a crappy motel bed on crappy motel pillows times one thousand.

    A blast of chill air washed over Michelle sending shivers racking through her body. The driver and passenger side windows were no longer present to protect her from the elements. Instead, the windows had been obliterated into dust-like shards that were all over the interior of the car and in her hair.

    Michelle tried to get an idea of her surroundings through the windows. On one side, she saw a vast expanse of dead and dying yellow grass. On the other, she observed a monolithic square structure with metal beams supporting it. A sign with garish yellow letters read, "Nueva Vista Drive-In." Below that, a marquis with black, blockish letters said, "NOW PLAYING, A VAST OCEAN OF NOTHINGNESS." When they'd first arrived in Lancet Falls, Michelle remembered Ron telling her that people in their cars watched movies projected onto that square screen.

    Although this wasn't one of the roads she was familiar with, Michelle deduced that she was in one of the interstitial areas between the town and the country. That meant there wouldn't be a lot of traffic coming her way to help, at least not for another hour or two. Another gust of wind cut through her silk pajamas.

I might not have another couple hours. How did I even get here?

Michelle tried to recall the events of the night before.

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She eemembered leaving the mortuary while Ron took pictures. Officer Durant tried to exchange some chit chat, but Michelle was too shaken to listen to what he was saying. The drive back to their Motel Six was strained. Neither of them had known quite what to say after seeing something like that, and that suited Michelle just fine. Michelle learned from her parents at a young age, that when life gave her struggles, the only person that she could truly count on was herself. After years of emotional isolation, Michelle realized that philosophy had strengthened her against the difficulties of life.

    Throughout the evening, the chasm of silence between she and Ron only deepened. They ordered dinky Chinese takeout from one of the two restaurants in Lancet Falls. They dined on Chinese food in their separate beds without a word spoken between them. Michelle waited for Ron to make one of his trademark ethnics jokes to break the tension, but they never came. Michelle suspected that he needed her as much as she needed him, but years of emotional conditioning prevented her from sharing what she felt. If she externalized what had happened to Cade Jahns, in some weird way, that made it real. Michelle's internal workings needed to sort things out before she could begin to help someone else.

    The two of them retired early that night. Ron fell asleep to Seinfeld reruns, while Michelle tossed and turned. Every time she closed her eyes, Michelle saw the tormented soul of Cade Jahns. Even in the afterlife, wire enveloped him. His soul soundlessly begged and pleaded with her, but she couldn't understand what it was saying because of the wire spewing forth from the man's mouth.