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A Story by ian

Quick short I wrote, not sure if it is finished. I would love to hear what you think.

It was a generally warm day in March; the two sat in the foreground of the old broken gym and discussed perceptions of life.

“You know what I really hate?” he asked, as though there was something he actually liked in the world,

“Everything” she muttered under her breath.

“I hate it when a restaurant has TVs in it, you know? Around where you eat”

“Why is that?”

“It makes me uncomfortable, like something on the television is more important than the person I am eating with; something on that screen must be seen “breaking news” or something”

Interrupted the two notice a sedan crawling up the street, struggling.

“He will never make it up the hill, that car is not fit for these conditions”

“Sure he will, it might take a few try’s, just needs to cut through the snow get the wheels on some gravel”

The car continues its battle with the incline; exhaust and the engine fill the air. The driver stationary a third up the hill, sits in his 1990 Toyota Camry and fully extends his foot into the throttle.

Its humorous to him, but not in a way that would make him laugh. He sits there in delight while the woman to his right cannot take her eyes off of him. He checks his watch, and notices her staring,

“What’s up?”

“Your enjoying this aren’t you?”

“It’s definitely not a serious matter; yes I am, its quite funny”

She recalled on a few other times when he sickly took pleasure in others misfortune, and judged him quietly. She turned back to the vehicle now falling back down the hill, her expression changed from Pensive to empathetic; she had though the driver had given up.

He pulled the vintage shifter to reverse and started leaning towards the curb, quickly adjusting the wheels easily rolled down the snowy slope. He past the opening to the parking lot, she pleaded with him to reconsider “he can make it” she though, while the man knew the driver was not through. He reached about ten feet past the base of the hill and paused, put the gear to D, started slowly and upon approaching the incline rammed the petal down. This gave the car enough momentum to reach the end of his pervious marks.

“Look at that, he’s almost got it”

“What” she said fading back into reality

“I think he is gonna make it”

A car on the opposite lane drove down as he reached the mid, it slowed to watch him squirm. This was not the first to pass the scene.

“That has to be embarrassing”

“Its really none of the other driver business, they should just watch the road and keep to themselves” said the man

The car scratched for traction five feet from the peak, and pushed for the finish. Tires spinning to a blur the car reached the top and rolled out of the view.

The two sat there silent for a moment.

“Well that was interesting,” breaking the static air between them

“Yea, its really strange they haven’t cleared the roads”

The Camry pulled slowly around its last turn into a crowded lot as it gave out a digestive sounding thud, the hill had worn its engine leaving it motionless.

“It is a great triumph, isn’t it?”

“ I guess, I mean with that car, up that snowy hill is quite a feat”