December 1st
The Book
By: Damion Christopher
December 1st - 6pm
Karyn awoke to the sound of her phone ringing for the 5th time in a row. Unable to ignore it any further she finally picked it up to yell at whoever it was that would not allow her to sleep. “Hello”, she answered with a half asleep annoyed response. “Hey girl were ya sleeping”, the voice chimed on the other end. “Now why would I be doing that Amy?” Karyn said half jokingly. “Well wake up, I’m gonna pick you up and take you out for a cousins night. Dancing, drinking, shopping.” Karyn was not in the mood to go out really. It was December 1st the birthday of her fiancée who died almost a year earlier. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep and hope the week passed by without her knowing. She knew that Amy just wanted to help get her mind off of it, and a few drinks would help her sleep anyhow. Karyn looked at the clock and saw that it was only 6pm, “Ok, let me shower, Pick me up in 45 minutes.” “That’s my girl”, Amy said on the other end,” See you soon”.
Karyn hung up the phone and checked her messages, 6 missed called all from bill collectors. She tossed the phone to the side and rolled out of bed. As she started getting undressed to get in the shower she started remembering the dream she was having right before her cousin called. She had dreamed that her and Amy were driving down the road and hit a hitchhiker. She could not recall watching any movies that would have made her dream about that. “Just stressed”, she mumbled to herself as she made her way into the shower.
As she was rummaging thru a laundry basket of clean clothes trying to figure out what to wear, she started to tear up a bit. She remembered how Chris used to always joke at her when she would get upset about not being able to find anything to wear. “If you would just hang them up instead of putting them in baskets.”, he would always say. “Yea Yea”, she whimpered to herself hearing his words in her head.
“Ding, Dong” The doorbell chimed, as Karyn realized that she had just spent thirty minutes looking for something to wear. She opened the front door to see Amy bundled up in a long black coat and shivering. “When did it start snowing?” Karyn asked. Amy looked at her with a blank face, “Like, yesterday?” she said in a slow sarcastic tone. “Oh”, Karyn said with a giggle “I’ve been asleep”. As Karyn walked upstairs to finish her hair, Amy plopped herself down on the steps and started reading thru her magazine.
December 1st - 7:45pm
As Karyn and Amy get into Amy’s car shivering from the cold, Karyn lights up a smoke and looks at her little yellow car in front of them in the driveway. She looks down at her license plate, “LoveSong” she whispered to herself as she fought back another tear. “What?” Amy said as she bounced around to a song on the radio. Karyn looked over at her with a smile on her face and a tear on her cheek. Not wanting to ruin Amy’s fun she wiped the tear from her face, “Nothing” she said “I just noticed it’s time to renew my tags.” “Let’s Par-Tay” Amy said energetically as she backed out of the driveway and headed down the road.
“Ohhhh! Lets take the back road and look at Lights” Amy said with a few light smacks to Karyn’s arm. Karyn smiled at her and turned and looked out the window. Amy took a left and headed down the road to a house she heard about a few days ago from a co-worker. “Holy Freak” said Amy as they pulled up to the house. It was completely wrapped in lights from top to bottom, every tree, every bush, even the mailbox had lights. “WOW” Karyn said “overkill much”. While the two were looking at the house Amy’s phone buzzed from a text message. As Amy was texting back to her boyfriend who was stationed at an army base in Alaska, Karyn glanced down at her phone to check the time. Karyn looked over at Amy texting diligently, “It’s almost 8:30, if we are gonna do this lets go” she said with a yawn.
Amy put down the phone and turned the car lights back on. Realizing there was no real way to turn around she put the car in drive and headed down the road looking for the next driveway. The road was lightless and tree’s covered what little light the moon was providing. Amy crawled the car along at about 15 miles per hour due to the fresh snow that had yet to be scraped. The road seemed to go on for miles without any signs of a way to turn around. Karyn reached over and flipped on Amy’s high beams “That’s better” she said. About that time they came to the top of a hill in the road. “I’m Not going down that” Amy said with a look of anxiety on her face. Amy decided to try to turn the car around in the middle of the road, “I got this” she exclaimed confidently.
As Amy was completing her 3rd backup to try and turn the car around her phone vibrated violently under her leg where she put it. She let out a quick scream as the vibration scared her and made her push her leg on the gas. The car quickly shot in reverse and hit a side rail. The car bounced off and started sliding backwards down the hill. Amy feverishly tried to put the car back in drive and control the vehicle to no avail. The freshly snow covered roads was sliding them wherever it wanted to. “BUMP” “BAM” the car came to a hard stop. They had slid right into a ditch at the bottom of the hill. As the two girls regained their wits Karyn looked over at Amy, “Oh my god, what just happened” Amy rubbed her arm that had been smacked up against the door, picked up her phone from the floor, “This F’ing thing” as she flung it into the backseat. “Are you ok?” Karyn asked Amy, “ My cars in a ditch, my arm hurts, I forgot to check my message, and I gotta pee, besides that I’m peachy, how about you?” “I think I just peed a little” Karyn said with a Laugh.
December 1st - 8:30pm
Karyn and Amy get out of the car to assess the damage and see if they are going to be able to get the car back on the road. Karyn looks at the hill they just slid down not really able to see anything other than that of their freshly made swerve tracks trailing down the hill to where the car rested. “Well poo” Amy said in frustration as she looked at her flat tire and remembers her dad never did get that spare tire for her. Karyn takes out her phone and attempts to call her roadside assistance. “No Signal” she said confused “Didn’t you get a text message at the top of the hill?” Amy grabs her phone out of the backseat, “I don’t have signal either, maybe if we walk to the top of the hill we can get signal”
As the two girls start up the hill walking in the cars tracks, Karyn spots something up the road a bit. “Amy what the heck is that? Did we hit something?” Karyn and Amy quicken their pace slipping and falling a few times as they come to the conclusion that flip flops are not perfect snow trekking attire. As they approach what was in the distance a dark blob, they are stopped in their tracks as they see a human hand coming out of a patched up black trench coat that has been sloppily lined with trash bags and newspapers. “Oh My God” Amy screamed frantically “Did we hit someone?” Karyn stunned beyond belief doesn’t know what to say.
They slowly approach the body of what appears to be a homeless man. “Sir?, Sir?” Karyn says nervously. Her Social worker side of her was hoping the man was alright, but at the same time she was not sure what to do with a pissed off homeless man that just got ran over in the middle of nowhere. Karyn touched the uncovered hand of the man to try and shake him awake. There was no response. Karyn carefully rolled the man over. He looked to be about 30 years old, unshaved, unkempt and smelled of beer. “Maybe I should check him for ID” Karyn says, trying to keep calm. “He looks like a homeless person, do you really think he’s gonna be carrying a wallet with a drivers license and a Kroger card?” Amy says in a panicked voice as she dances around in a mixture of trying to keep warm and not pee herself.
Karyn starts to carefully go thru the man’s jacket pockets looking for a wallet. She pulls out a book from the man left pocket. Not thinking in her panicked state she puts the book in her jacket pocket. She finds a raggedy old wallet with two dollars, a coffee card and no ID. “Let me guess, no ID” Amy says as her teeth chatter. “No Kroger card either” replies Karyn in an uneasy laugh, trying to hold back her panic. The two girls start back up the hill hopeful to get cell service.
“I guess we need to call the police” Amy says to Karyn as they are finishing the final steps to the top of the hill. Karyn nods as she lights another cigarette. “I wish Chris was here” she thinks to herself. As they approach the top of the hill Amy’s phone buzzes with a new text message. Karyn looks down at her phone and sees that she has signal once again. Knowing that Amy is already texting her boyfriend about what happened, Karyn calls 911.
December 1st - 9:15pm
After making a few phone calls, Karyn’s mom, Amy’s Dad, the two girls find a very uncomfortable rock to sit on as they wait for the police and a tow truck. Amy unable to hold it in any longer reluctantly walks a few feet off the edge of the road to take a pee. “What do you think is gonna happen to us?” Amy says as she realizes that she has nothing to wipe with. “I don’t know” Karyn replies “It was an accident.” Amy comes and sits back down next to Karyn putting her head on her shoulder.
About fifteen minutes pass before the girls hear a faint siren in the distance. As the sirens slowly get louder the girls start to see the flashing lights approaching them.