Fade To Black

A short little Halloween tale

    She sat in her wheel chair just outside of her garage. It was five fifty a.m. and the sun wouldn’t light the sky for another twenty minutes. Tiffany’s face was glowing from the light of her Kindle Paperwhite E-reader. She looked forward to her quiet time in the morning between her mother helping her getting ready for work and her transport van picking her up. This morning was special though. She had just downloaded a book of Halloween short stories. She looked up into the still star-lit morning and hoped her van would be late.

    John sipped at his burnt tasting 7Eleven coffee and wondered why he hadn’t added another creamer. He turned the overhead cab light off and cranked the defrost, his paperwork completed, John tossed the clipboard on to the dash and sat back waiting for his often late arriving partner. A few moments later the cab light came on again as the passenger door opened and a five foot filipina, twenty three years his junior, jumped in. John put the handicap transport van in drive as the passenger door closed and the light went out again.

“Good morning!” John said, smiling, but not looking at her..

He had a creepy zombie thing going, she thought. His face reflected green from the dashboard lights.

“Good morning, Partner.” Rosamie replied.

“Why are you so happy this early?” she asked, suspicious of his smile but smiling herself.

“C’mon, Rose. It’s Halloween! Be happy for once, ya stick in the mud.” John teased.

“Hmm…” she said into the dark uneasily.

    

    The two of them exchanged small talk for awhile and then became quiet as usual just before entering the freeway. John was never a fan of this particular on-ramp to state route 99 but it was better than hitting all the lights down Stockton blvd. John came off the curl with a respectable head of steam. He signaled and then entered just as a sleepy cattle truck driver decided he needed the same lane and same space, crossing over three lanes doing seventy mph.

    Red lights, amber marker lights, the smell of brakes and the sound of screaming tires. A cinder block freeway sound wall, the glimpse of a wide eyed terrified cow and a sodium arc lamp. These were things processed by the minds of our two heros. They would revisit them again shortly.

    When the dust cleared the two could see the early morning stars again as they continued their way south to make their first pick-up. Tiffany would be waiting in her driveway.

“Holy moly! That was a close one, Partner.” John said, trying to shake his fear.

Rosamie just stared out into the dark morning, saying nothing. After a while John got worried that she wouldn’t snap out of it. He thought about it awhile more and had an idea.

“Hey Rose. I’ve got another story for you.” he said, but didn’t even get her usual eye-roll.

“Honestly. It’s a good one this time. I promise.” he pressed. Still, no reaction. John decided to tell her his story anyway.

“So, there was these two drivers…” John continued telling his story as they headed to Tiffany’s house. They weren’t far from her place when he explained that the two drivers in his story hadn’t survived the freeway close call at all. In fact, they had continued on as ghost drivers and still on schedule for their first stop. John said this last as he made his turn down Tiffany’s block.

    Tiffany had heard the telltale sounds of leaves crunching under tires up the block and so rolled herself down to the curb for her driver.

“Do ya see, Partner? They still made it to her house on time...even dead.” John finished.

Rosamie turned slowly to face her partner and responded.

“That’s not funny, John.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” he said. Then “See ya in the morning, Partner.”

Tiffany watched as the van made its approach and then...it  just evaporated.