Athens, Ohio
Dad and I were just returning from Utah after burning the bones of an old man who had taken to serial killing in his elder years. His vengeful spirit had returned to haunt buildings of his victims and was actively killing again.
I was leaning in my seat in the '67 Impala and trying to fall asleep but I just could not. I looked out the window but had to close my dry eyes to the wind that met them. I blinked, rubbed my eyes and looked out again. A bunch of motels, bars and family restaurants were sprinkled here and there on the way. These were interspersed by large expanses of green fields.
The sights being low on scenery, I picked up the box of cassettes lying at my feet. I sorted through them, looking for Metallica. I selected one but before I could insert it, dad shook his head. I sighed and returned the cassette and box to their original place.
It was an unsaid rule: Shotgun shuts his piehole, as my dad had put it, very poetically, in my childhood. He hated music and I loved it. Therefore, it was for me to guess that mom must have loved music too.
I did not want to admit but my nightmares were back. It had been three months since dad's last visit to Stanford to check on Sammy. Whenever I did not know how Sammy was, my nightmares of the Shtriga hovering over him returned. His little body and pale face under the black robed creature sucking on his life force. He would not have been alive if it had not been for dad's strategic return. I did not talk to dad about this. We had never talked about it after that day and I knew that he could see how strictly I followed his orders after that.
"Can't sleep?" Dad asked.
I looked over at him and shook my head.
"Drive then, would you, Dean?" he said, looking at me with one eye, having trouble waking up.
"Yes, sir," I said, sitting up straight as dad pulled to a side.
After changing positions, I turned the key in the ignition and accelerated. I loved to hear the soft purr of the Impala. When my dad was not around, I dared to call it my baby.
Dad fell asleep in a few minutes. I put on the music, Metallica.