Roads Of Passage, Part 5

Roads Of Passage
by Blackbladder
Part 5

"Did you guys get lost?  We are losing time." Rose asked.

Maxine and Daisy just nodded their heads acknowledging as the car was brought
back to life and joined the busy road once more.  

Whilst adjusting the volume on Metallica, Pandora sniffed the air,
recognising stale smoke from the entrants to the car.

"Who has been smoking?"  Pandora said, snarling at the prospect of a smoker
in their company.

Immediately, Daisy removed a candy bar from the groceries bag and opened the
packaging nervously.  

Someone kill me, Daisy thought, ravaged with guilt.

As Maxine began to speak, Daisy cringed, munching slowly on the bar.  Sweat,
not rain, began to bubble on her forehead.  

"Daisy caught me having a quick smoke at the back of the toilets.  That's
all."  

Rose was furious at Maxine gloating over her habit.  However, she swallowed
the rage and concentrated on getting back on track.

A sense of relief washed over Daisy as Maxine refrained from telling the
car's other occupants the rest of the real story...

Life returned to normality as they resumed their trip on the freeway, leaving
behind the station.

The Sun had laid to rest, leaving the roads in darkness as the occasional
light of a building passed by.  Rose was now seriously concerned about their
whereabouts.  Metallica had been relegated and Christina Aguilera took their
place in the speakers.  Pandora's unconscious body sank into the seat as
Daisy fiddled about with an empty soda bottle.  Maxine was looking deeply
into the map, with her cigarette lighter providing the only light on this
deserted road.  Rose wiped her eyes as hours had passed since they left the
Gas Station.  She was both pleased and disturbed that Maxine was using her
lighter at this moment - pleased that Maxine was trying to help find the
right path to take; disturbed that indirectly she was flogging her stupid
addiction once more.  Her fatigue did not let this factor annoy her as she
was just wanting back on familiar territory.  This situation was such a
contrast to how she had planned this trip; She and her friends would have
left hours earlier in the day and stuck to the directions she was given by
Lucy.  However, she had not contemplated on taking so long at the station.
Plus, the eerie appearance of Fate, the stores operator, had unnerved her
too.  As she drove along the seemingly endless road, she tried to locate this
familiarity of this figure in her past.  Another factor on her mind was Mark
- despite their differences, she was desperately missing him.  Have I done
  the right thing and gone away this weekend?, Rose wondered.  Rose was
joined in reminiscing by Daisy, who had different thoughts altogether.
Daisy rubbed her hands over the side of the soda bottle, hoping a Genie would
come out and remove the guilt and embarrassment she now felt since her brief
smoking experience.  Besides the guilt and embarrassment, she also reflected
to herself on the nice, warm feeling the smoke produced in that single
inhale.  She was struggling to admit to herself that she liked that
experience, because she felt she would be betraying her non-smoking friends.
Daisy kept glancing towards the dancing flame of the cigarette lighter in
Maxine's hand - symbolic of her experience.  This image reminded her of the
nice aspects of her flirtation of the cigarette.  She at least began to
understand the reasons why Maxine was always so full of life and happy under
nicotine's influence.  Daisy concluded to herself that she would like to try
smoking properly once this trip was over.  Once back home, she could deal
with Maxine and her new fascination of smoking without Pandora and Rose
around her.  Daisy also worried about the consequences of smoking amongst her
group of friends.  They would never accept me, Daisy reasoned.  

"Well Max....got any news for me?"  Rose asked, urging information about
their whereabouts.

"From what I see, we are somewhere north of Everett." Maxine smiled, playing
with Rose's serious mind.

"Chill Rose, we should be returning to civilization in the next few minutes
if you keep going straight ahead."  Maxine reassured.

Maxine also realised that Daisy was glancing back and forth at the lighter
and deliberately met her stare and smiled - containing the guilty secret from
her friends.  Surely Maxine was in a position to blackmail if she wanted to?

Looking out of the windscreen, she could only see yards in front of her,
thankfully provided by the headlights of her Ford.  She glanced at the clock
beside the cd player and groaned.

"I don't think we're gonna make it, Max." Rose moaned.

"What you gonna do?" Maxine responded concerned at her friend's comment.

"We gotta look for a place to stay the night anyway.  First place we hit,
we'll book a room for the night." Rose said confidently, her frustration at
this unforeseen change in plans simmering.

Suddenly, they reached a crossroads and the car came to a halt.  

Rose looked over her shoulder to the back and looked into bemused Maxine's
eyes.

"What direction?  What does it say on the map?"  Rose pleaded, her anxiety
beginning to rise.

"Erm.....this map is shite.....it's not very clear!...maybe I need a pair of
specs!" Maxine muttered in response, peering into the map drawings closely.

They all suddenly saw multi-colour flashing lights in the distance.  Upon
closer inspection they drew up to several cars, sitting in queue as one of
the split junctions was scattered with debris from a vehicle.  Rose peered
through the windscreen,screwing her eyes to witness the damage on the left
splitroad ahead.  Traffic Cops were patrolling the area, and one of them had
walked up towards the students sitting in the white Ford.  

Rose rolled down her window and listened to the Cop's grainy voice explain
the accident and delay caused.  Rose could not take her eyes away from the
debris scattered radically across the road.  

"The road, as you can see, has been blocked off due to a head-on collision.
Please take the remaining right junction, folks.  Drive carefully."

Rose broke eye contact from the accident ahead and peered up towards the Cop
at her window out of respect for his easy-going approach.

"Thank y...." Rose muttered in horror as the Cop had a scar extending from
his eye to his upper lip.  This was the same person, with the white hair and
wrinkly skin, from the Gas Station miles away.  The Cop, or whatever he was,
walked away from the car, leaving Rose in shock.

"What's wrong, Rose?  What do you see?"  Maxine asked, noting the fear in
Rose.  

Rose felt a shiver go up and down her spine from the sighting.  The Cop
vanished in mid-air.  

"D-Did you see that?" Rose muttered to Maxine.

Maxine sat forward, and peered out of the windscreen into darkness.

"See what, Rose?" Maxine asked bluntly.

"What's going on?" Pandora asked weakly, rubbing her eyes after her nap.

Suddenly, Rose decided to put this experience to the back of her mind for the
sake of them all.  Taking the apparition's advice, Rose started the car back
up and sped off in the right direction.

Feelings of concern soon were replaced by relief as the car entered a crowded
car park for a saloon.  It's illuminated lights sparked sighs of relief as
they had returned to some form of society once more.  The feeling of
loneliness and alienation faded as they exited the car and entered the bar.  

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