Drama
Complete one-shot. Extended drabble from a vague idea. Bit strange.
LA Epiphany
I'm hoping you can all help me. I'm kind of stuck for ideas. I've asked around, but no one here seems to be able to help, though I do keep asking. I've read some of the stories on here, and I think I've found the right people. You guys seems to know what you're talking about. I think I'm rambling now though, maybe I'd best start at the beginning, which I guess was two weeks ago near the start of this trip to Los Angeles. I had only meant to stay here a few days, but that all changed. In a way so did I. I think. More on that later, I sure am rambling now.
I'd never been to LA before, I knew it from stories I had heard, clips I'd seen on TV and films. But I was well under prepared for just how huge it was, both LA and the suburbs, seemed to go on for hundreds of miles. I'd started from Burbank, or near there anyway sort of top-left if you look at a map of LA, it had seemed like a good idea at the time, the motel was cheap, and I could leave the rental outside without lying awake at night scared it was going to get torched. So that was where I started from, I was trying to get to Laguna Beach, that's down the other end of LA, in case you never been there. You know what it's like with maps, I thought about an hours driving and I'd be there. But I missed the freeway, and somehow ended up in down town LA, and then I was lost. I drove around some, as you do, and after a while I was wishing I was back in Dallas. I was too scared to ask anyone, well you don't do you, and no way I was going to stop and ask a cop. The rental was shiny new, and the nurses had been pulling my leg a few days before, gentle like, over the King incident from a few years back.
So, anyhow, there I was going a bit slowly down a road somewhere in the city, I was not really looking where I was going, I was trying to look out for the signs, find out where I was. It was the sound I heard first, screech of tyres from the right. Big tyres, and they were complaining some from the car they were carrying. Then out the corner of my eye I saw this big SUV swerve to miss me, and it smashed into the corner of the building. Well I'd stopped dead, if you've been in a near miss like that you'll know just what I mean. I'd slammed my foot on the brake, and going slow like I was, I'd hardly even skidded. Next I know they came out the car. The woman, she was fuming, pulled a big-arse gun and pointed it at me through the wind shield. I thought she was going to plug me there and then, and I'll admit, I was highly shaken up. The kid, he stood by the car and waited for the doors to open, then he just got into the back, real calm, like this kind of thing happened every day to him. But it was the girl was the strangest. She was the first one to get in, before the boy. I'd thought I had the doors locked, but they must have sprung when I braked hard, 'cos she opened the door like there was no lock on it, and got into the passenger seat. That woman, she was still yelling, but she moved to get in behind me. I just froze. But the girl, she turned to me and said we had to move off. I looked at her, and well I kind of flipped I guess. The engine must have kept running as I don't remember having to turn it over. I moved off, too quick I think, but she still told me to go faster. All three of them looked behind, like they were running from the cops. But I looked in the mirrors, there was just this one guy ran out of the side street, and came after us. I put my foot down some more, but he still came after us. Must have been some kind of sprinter, 'cos he was fast, real fast. Now that I think of it, he might have been firing at us. There could have been this sort of popping sound, a bit like the firework show they put on each year. But at the time I was so scared, it did not sort of stick in my mind.
Anyhow, we must have gone a long way across town. That girl, she just sat next to me and her voice was so calm, telling me when to turn right and left, when to run a light and so on. The woman, she was the one who made my blood run cold. I'd always thought that was just a phrase, but if you've ever been there, you'll know what I mean. That and your stomach kind of twisting too. Anyhow, when that woman had first got into the car, she'd told the girl to kick me out. It takes me a while to squeeze out from under the wheel as it is, so I think that's why the girl got me to drive. And I'm glad they did, 'cos that was how I met them. After a lot of driving, my head was all turned about, but they must have ended up where they wanted. She told me to pull over, and the woman and the boy got out. The girl, she turned to me and just sort of stared at me. I wasn't scared of her, she had a sort of angel face. The face that made something in me hurt. Do you remember the Rangers game back in the early 70's with the crowd catch? I guess you don't, but it was in the eighth, and Burroughs hit this huge home run, it was caught by a kid in the crowd. Well that kid was about the same age as me, and was about 30 feet away from where I was sitting with my granddad. When that kid caught the ball, it felt like he was right next to me. Like I could have caught that ball myself. For what seemed like weeks I dreamed of catching that ball. I wanted that ball so bad. If I'd have known where that kid lived, I'd have been round there on my bike and done whatever I could do to get that ball for myself. And I mean that, whatever it took. It was kind of like that with the girl. Something in me knew that I could never have her, but that makes no difference. Not to the way I feel.
I drove on in a kind of daze, like when they dope you if you act up a bit, and before I knew where I was I saw a sign for the freeway, was back at the motel in a few hours. Lay awake that night, thinking. Next day I made my decision, phoned the doc, took a few more weeks off, he was none too happy I can tell you. I also extended the rental on the car, and the motel. I've been trying to find the right exit off the freeway, and then the right roads after that. I think I'd recognise the place. I could curse myself that I did not pay more attention to the route I'd taken back to the freeway. I've been up and down these roads for days now, can't figure out how I never find the right roads.
I'm still looking for her. If you see her, you will let me know won't you? I think you'll understand. You would if she spoke to you. Tell me if you see her? Please?