Mary sat in the passenger seat
of the pickup truck waiting for Tom to get back.
He had told her to wait in the truck for him.
They were parked in a dirty old junkyard that
Tom had come to look for a part for his new
(well, new to him) 1962 Chevy pickup truck that
he had bought just the week before. It was a
beautiful cherry red and in pretty good
condition even if it was 3 years old now. The
interior was almost flawless and Tom had
scrubbed and cleaned the vehicle so it would
look its best for their date. Tom had left the
keys in the ignition so Mary reached over and
turned the key just enough to let the radio
play. She scanned the dial looking for a good
rock-n-roll station hoping to hear another great
song by The Beatles. She loved their music, it
was different than most music being done in the
U.S. these days and she also liked the new look
they brought with them from England.
After going thru the whole AM band she could
hear nothing but static so she switched off the
ignition and sat waiting, getting bored. Since
they were supposedly on a date she thought they
were going to the drive-in hamburger stand to
get a burger and fries and then going to the
movies afterward. Instead, Tom had driven
directly here and here she sat starting to get
irritated for being kept waiting.
While waiting Mary observed a young man, an
employee of the junkyard no doubt, come along
the row of junked vehicles apparently looking
for a specific one. He found what he was looking
for and proceeded to start removing engine parts
that they could sell. She noticed that he turned
his head and looked at this pristine red pickup
sitting there with a curious look on his face.
Shaking his head he turned back and resumed his
task.
Mary looked down at her new dress she had bought
earlier in the day and she smiled knowing that
she cut quite a figure in that new dress. It was
a dusty rose color and went well with the cherry
red of the truck. She knew Tom liked it from the
way jaw dropped when he had picked her up at her
house. He had opened her door for her as a
gentleman should and when she was stepping up
into the truck he gave a low whistle of
appreciation. This made her smile again as she
sat there thinking about it.
Mary looked around to see if she could spot Tom
anywhere so she could signal him to come on. She
could not see him anywhere. If she had to get
out of this truck and go find him he would have
some tall making up to do when they did get this
date going. Fuming she reached for the door
handle and pulled. Nothing happened, it would
not open. She jerked up on it very hard not
caring if she broke it or not but
still….nothing. Scooting over to the driver’s
door she pulled up on the handle but the door
remained shut. Now she was scared, not sure what
to do.
As she sat there thinking about the situation
there was a crackling sound from the dash. As
she watched there appeared cracks in the dash
like those that happen when the interior of the
vehicle was exposed to direct sun for long
periods. The cracks kept advancing and now
cracks were spider-webbing through the glass of
the windshield. The handles that she had so
recently tried to use to open her doors faded
into nothingness. The steering wheel also
disappeared and now the glass on the passenger
side of the windshield fell away to expose a
large hole in the glass. Mary was extremely
frightened and did not understand what was
happening. Looking down at her dress again she
saw that the material of the dress was degrading
before her eyes until it appeared to have been
left in the open for many years. Looking out the
also broken side window to the side view mirror
and seeing her shocked face with her eyes
growing wide with fright she saw that her face
looked pale and drawn and was covered with
blood………..
Joel finished removing the requested parts from
this old Ford he had been dismantling. As he
turned once more to look at the old rusted red
Chevy pickup truck he could have sworn he saw a
pale face staring back at him from inside the
cab of the truck. He once more marveled at how
the setting sun shining off the front window
where a huge hole was how it looked like blood
was splashed all over the glass and the hood of
the truck. Just an optical illusion he knew but
still………
Mary watched with tears in her eyes as the
junkyard and all the old junk cars around her
faded from sight. She then remembered how her
date night that had taken place 50 years ago had
ended with a horrific crash as they were leaving
the junkyard. They had not seen the Greyhound
bus that was barreling down the street.
Mary longed to join her parents and other
friends that had gone on to their afterlife but
after all…….Tom had told her to stay in the
truck.
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