Your Lucky Day

Week 17: Written April 27, 2016

Candace was late. Very late. The meeting had already been pushed back a week and now she’d gone and lost track of time. It was raining, too, which meant there would be traffic.

She left some food for the cat, grabbed her briefcase, and ran out the door. She didn’t even bother with an umbrella. At this pace, she’d hardly spend anytime outside anyway.

For a few minutes, Candace was driving swiftly on mostly empty surface streets. That was the one good thing about leaving late; she missed rush hour. But the moment she turned onto the highway on ramp, her commute came to a screeching halt. Bumper to bumper traffic.

It took her almost five minutes just to merge. She took out her phone to give her boss the bad news, but had no signal. Everything was falling apart at the seams.

Her car slinked along the highway slowly, alongside all the other cars. Up ahead, she could see the red and blue lights of the highway police. An accident, and by the looks of it, a pretty bad one. There was an ambulance somewhere behind her trying to get through, and there was a helicopter flying overhead. It wasn’t a news or a police helicopter, either. This was a medical copter.

This sort of thing always happened, without fail, when Candace needed to be somewhere. She deserved some of the blame, too, for waking up late. But as she pounded her steering wheel, she wished, just this once, for a break. Why couldn’t the cards have fallen in her favor today for a change?

The other drivers on either side of her looked equally upset. They were screaming out the window, honking, even pounding their wheels, too. It didn’t make her feel any better about missing the meeting, but at least she wasn’t alone. People from all walks of life felt the same way about traffic jams. If there was a support group for traffic jam road rage, they’d need a venue big enough for 6 billion people.

Her hand hurt now. It was red and bruised where she’d hit the steering wheel. And to add insult to injury, she hadn’t moved an inch in five minutes. The police were clearing a space for the helicopter to land, and all the lanes were momentarily shut down. It wasn’t a traffic jam anymore; it was a parking lot.

Candance shut her eyes and sighed. She checked her phone and saw that she still had no reception, which was a good thing now. There were probably countless text messages and voicemails that she didn’t want to see, all about how she’d screwed everything up and shouldn’t bother coming into work the next day.

I’m thinking too much, Candace thought. But what else was there for her to do? She wasn’t going anywhere anytime so, and with no way to reach the outside world, her mind was left to imagine the consequences. None of the possibilities made her feel better.

She looked at one of the drivers on her left and froze; he was staring back at her. He was watching her, most certainly he was, with unblinking eyes and a half smile on his face.

She tried to shake it off, turned to look somewhere else. But still, she felt his eyes on her. Strange how you could feel when someone was watching you, even without looking. The hairs on her neck stood on end, like little alarms going off. Warning! Warning! Unwanted attention at 9 o’clock!

Candace didn’t want to look back, didn’t want to give the man the satisfaction. But she couldn’t help it. She had to see.

She turned and saw that he was still watching her intently, now with a bigger smile on his face. Why is he looking at me like that, she thought? He’s just trying to freak me out — and it’s working.

But what would she do if he had other plans? What COULD she do? The highway was packed with cars and she was trapped in the middle lane. There was absolutely nowhere for her to drive, and even if she got out of the car, she wouldn’t get around easily winding back and forth between cars, in the rain. If he chased her, he’d get her. She was certain of that.

Candace checked to make sure that the doors were locked, and pressed the lock button a few times for good measure. She was safest inside the car, safe where she was for now.

She looked at the other nearby drivers. Most of them had given up completely and turned their attentions to newspapers, books, and other distractions. The lucky ones, with reception, were playing games on their phones, texting, or talking to people. They were in their own little worlds now, detached from what was happening.

Candace wanted to reach out to someone. She suddenly felt so alone, that the only one around her who knew she existed was the man she wished didn’t. And when she checked on him again, she saw that he was still focused on her, both his eyes and his grin uncomfortably wide.

What if he gets out of his car?

She didn’t want to think of it. Her doors were locked and she’d be fine regardless. Unless he brought something to break the windows. What then? Would anybody do anything? Would anybody care?

It was pouring outside. Heavier than before. It was deafening, and blinding. She couldn’t see the helicopter or the police lights anymore. It was all just a wall of rain, getting stronger by the minute. She could barely hear her own thoughts, and she was sure that if she screamed out for help, nobody would hear her. They might not even see her in this weather.

Could she even see the man in this downpour? She looked back at her stalker.

He was gone.

His car was still there, but it was empty now.

Stupid, she thought. I should’ve kept my eyes on him, too. Why did I ever look away?

Candace looked around the car in a panic, tapping the door lock button obsessively. She wanted to wave her hands and grab someone else’s attention, but she didn’t know what she would say: I need help because the guy in the next car vanished?

It didn’t matter. Nobody would see her waving her arms or flailing like an idiot. She was alone out, all on her own.

The rain was inconsistent now. Big, heavy drops smacked the roof of her car in a strange pattern, some heavy and some light. It was a sign that it was lightening up, and, she hoped, traffic would start moving.

She looked out the window and saw that the neighboring car was still empty. Where was he?

Maybe he was still there after all, she thought. Maybe he had grown tired of freaking her out and had put the seat all the way back to lie down.

Before she could enjoy that thought, the driver’s side window shattered. The man was there, waving a socket wrench in Candace’s direction. She screamed, grabbing his arm and trying to shove him backward, but he was stronger and faster. He pushed her back, reaching in blindly and searching, she thought, for the unlock button.

“Help! Somebody please!” She looked around at the other drivers. Most weren’t looking, but the one or two that were just stared. They looked shocked, but also helpless — or just unwilling to help.

She held the man back as best she could while she searched for a weapon, something to defend herself with. Her only option seemed to be her shoes, which had high heels. She grabbed one as quickly as she could and hit the man with it, over and over and over.

The rain was letting up and Candace saw, with great relief, the cars ahead of her begin to move. She dropped the heel, put the car in drive, and hit the gas. The man fell out the window as she darted forward. She heard a thud as the car drove over what felt like a speed bump. Had she run him over? She didn’t look back to check. She didn’t care.

She drove a for a little while, passing a couple exits, before finally pulling onto the shoulder and catching her breath. It felt like her lungs were working at half capacity, while her heart was beating double time. She was too shocked to do anything but take deep breaths and regain her composure.

Her phone vibrated and she jumped. She didn’t want to hear bad news, but it also made her feel better to get her mind off what had just happened. There was a voicemail from her boss, and as she tapped play, she prepared herself for the worst.

“Where are you? Well, I’ve got an update for you. The presentation got pushed back — again. Apparently they got into a car accident on the way to the meeting. A pretty bad one, I hear. Shut down part of the interstate. So…consider this your lucky day.”

Candace sighed.