I mentioned The Yellow Wallpaper in my latest newsletter. It’s easy to see the influence of it on this story. Still, at least we’re out in the fresh air. Enjoy!
No roads, just yellow stalks waving around me. The trail peters out after a few meters. The field closes up around me. Crickets rub their legs at the base of the corn.
I follow the sun because there are no other features. The field goes on and on, nothing to aim for. Then I realise the sun moves. I think I’m heading north. North is cooler than South, and the sun has baked the sweat out of my skin, and made my clothes itchy. I duck down and tunnel through the corn to get away from it. Crickets rub their legs around me.
I know I’m hallucinating when a chicken darts in front of me. Getting hungry, I suppose. I want to chase it but I need to keep to my path. There’s a system in the field. It’s not obvious, but I need to go left around this next corn and right around the one after that. I need to stay on my path. I wonder if the chicken is doing the same. The thought blows my mind. I get back on my knees and crawl. Right around the next stalk, twice anti-clockwise around the next, and left around the one after that. Got to stay on course.
I love it down here. I can barely see the sky. Crickets rub their legs above me.
The way. Is the goal.
That keeps going around my head. The field goes on forever.
I’ve seen more chickens. I saw a rabbit. There are mice, too. I ate one. Ha ha! I’m not chasing mice, I’m not crazy! It was dead already.
The crickets rub their legs. Night is drawing in. Cold. I keep going. Forward. And down. I pull up the dry earth. It’s soft and warm. The field goes on forever in front and behind. But if I go straight down? It’s hard. The roots are thick and it’s hard to tell if I’m on course. But the way is the goal.
I can’t hear the crickets, just the patter of loose soil spilling over me as I head into the ground. Away from the sun, away from the field. It’s nighttime and I’m ready to rest.
Violet is a mile from town when she finally gets reception on her phone. She calls the garage. She calls the police, David has been gone so long. Their car broke down near a cornfield. He said there was someone in it. He got out of the car. The figure ducked down. Then David ducked down.
They find the field with their car beside it. The farmer gives permission to search, but there’s no sign of David. No sign of anyone. She stands at the roadside.
The car has been repaired, and the crickets rub their legs. She hopes against hope that David will come back. She gets in the car.
Wait.
There!
Someone is in the field, waving. She gets out of the car.
That wasn’t too bad, actually.
Oh, thanks!
Yes, we were surprised.
Hrmph. Thanks.
Just one thing, though. What was wrong with the car?
I don’t know…the carburettor?
What was wrong with it?
It was…empty?
You haven’t a clue, do you?
It’s not about the car!
If you respected your readers you’d have researched that, though.
I did. A little yellow light came on and they kept going instead of taking it to the garage, which they should have done.
Was it the oil light?
No, it was the engine check light. And if they’d taken it to the garage they’d have found out it was error code P0217 signalling an Engine Over Temperature fault.
So they were driving a Suzuki, were they?
That’s right. And I’ve established that it was a hot day in the story so they really shouldn’t have been driving with a fault like that.
Well, they didn’t know, did they?
No.
A lot of people don’t understand enough about cars. They’ll drive them, of course!
Yes.
And this mechanic in the middle of nowhere just happened to have the spare parts for a Suzuki handy, did he?
No. But it was only a small coolant leak. He patched that up, topped it up and that did the trick. Violet will have to take it to an authorised Suzuki dealer when she gets home, of course.
Of course. Good story!
Thanks!
