Charm

            by Owen Hillis

 

                   The sun had set four hours ago. A shell of stars now blanketed the sky, spanning out from directly above Sarah and slowly curving down in every direction until they were concealed by the silhouettes of the mountains miles away. A meteor dissolved into the atmosphere on the horizon, but Sarah wasn't looking at it. In fact, Sarah wasn't looking at anything, though her eyes were open. She was sitting down with her back leaned up against a fence on the side of the road, her legs out in front of her, her eyes pointed at her toes. Her hands were in the pockets on the front of her jacket, but she didn't remember putting them in. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea for her to have brought gloves along, too, but the jacket provided enough heat to keep her from freezing, so it would suffice. Besides, no one in her family owned a pair of gloves.

                   When the moon is directly above someone, it's 3 in the morning. Sarah was a quarter of a day away from 3 in the morning, but it would serve as a grim symbol of just how infrequent cars had become. The fields surrounding Sarah were laced with moonlight, so only the top of the tall grass could be seen. An elegant wave glided along the top of the plains and across the valley. It paused only for a moment where two roads met and a young girl sat alone. She didn't bother tucking her hair back behind her ear.

                   A mechanical glow surfaced off in the distance. Sarah turned her head to look at it. There was at least a good 45 seconds before it would get to her. She pulled her legs towards her and pushed herself up onto her feet. As it got closer, Sarah could make out the outline of a pickup truck. She stuck out her thumb, but the driver wouldn't be able to see her for another hundred yards. The truck slowed to a stop and country music poured out the window as the driver rolled it down. He leaned over as Sarah approached.

                   "Hey!" He called with a smile. "East okay?"

                   "Yeah."

                   "Alright! Hop in!"

                   Sarah had to step up extra high to pull herself into the front of the truck. The driver looked to be in his late thirties. She met his glance and her mouth breifly formed a smile, but her eyes didn't match it. Sarah climbed onto her seat and pulled on her seatbelt. A small, plastic cactus on the dashboard with glued-on googly eyes gazed lopsidedly at Sarah. She stared intently back at it. The driver turned down the volume on the stereo a bit as the truck jumped forward, snapping Sarah's attention away from the cactus.

                   "Hope ya' don't mind country!" He chuckled. Sarah didn't say anything.

                   "Well do ya'?" He turned to wink, but Sarah was looking out the window in front of her. Sarah shook her head, still staring at the road. The driver looked back at the road only for a few seconds before turning to Sarah again.

                   "Name's Roger!" He announced, holding out his hand. "What's yours?"

                   Sarah didn't turn to look at him. There was a hesitant pause.

                   "... Lauren." Sarah replied.

                   Roger stared at her for a moment and then retracted his hand. "Well, it's good to meet you Lauren! What'rya doin' way out here on a night like this?"

                   Sarah turned even further away from him and looked out the passenger window at the landscape that she couldn't see. Roger continued to smile at the back of her head.

                   "Meeting my family..." She trailed off. The man added an eyebrow raise to his smirk and turned back to the road.

                   "By yourself, Lauren? At 10:30 at night? I doubt that."

                   She didn't turn around.

                   "You know," Roger said "runnin' away from your problems aint gonna help ya'. Heck, that just means ya' gotta live with 'em and run from 'em. You wanna talk about it?"

                   They didn't speak for fourty five minutes. While they were riding, Roger sang along to some of his songs and motioned for Sarah to join in, but if she noticed, she gave no indication of it. Roger stared at the troubled girl sitting in his truck.

                   "Ya' look kinda chilly. Sorry, this old girl's heater don't work no more. Ever been told that a truck's heater never breaks? Guy who said that must not have been driving this hunk of junk! There's a blanket behind ya' though."

                   He reached back and draped it over her, because she wouldn't move.

                   "Sheesh, don't talk if ya' want but don't die in my truck neither!" There was a pause. Roger smiled ahead at the road.

                   "Hey, you hungry?" He asked, and started rummaging through a bag under his seat.

                   "Turn." Sarah said.

                   "Whoops!" He laughed and guided the truck around a curve. "Listen," he said, putting the bag on the seat in-between them, "I can't really look right now but there are some crackers and fruit in there. I bring along an extra bottle of water cuz ya' never know who you'll run into." He winked at her anyways, even though she was staring at her lap.

                   "Check it out!" He said. Sarah looked up. "Good ol' diner and gas joint. We can get you some real food, my treat!"

                   Sarah looked at the diner in the distance. "Please drop me off here."

                   Roger's smile faded. "Do you wan't me to-"

                   "No thank you. Please drop me off here." She looked at him. It wasn't a request.

                   They arrived at the restaurant and he slowed the truck to a stop. "Do you have any money?" He asked.

                   "Yes." She got out.

                   Roger tried to say something to protest, but had little power over the situation.

                   "You take care, now, Lauren."

                   "Thank you."

                   After hesitating, Roger slowly started forward and drove away. Sarah watched his taillights disappear. She turned around and looked at the diner, her feet making a loud crunch against the gravel. A very large man wearing overalls was seated at the bar and a woman was giving a man across from her a very quizzical look in a booth by the window. Other than that, Sarah couldn't see further inside. She walked back to the road and sat down on the edge of it. Alone with her mind, Sarah forgot about the dark mountains surrounding her, her breath visible in front of her, and the cobalt sky above her.

 

                   "Theres supposed to be a meteor shower tonight." Ross said, staring up at the stars. Sarah smiled. Ross pulled his upper body over the roof and threw his legs on to it. He stood up and brushed himself off. Sarah stared up at him. "How should I uh..." she trailed off. Ross looked down at her "Huh? Oh. Right." He hopped back down, sending tremors through the landing. He folded his hands into a foothold. "Climb aboard!"

                   Sarah put her shoe onto his hands and he lifted her up. Ross rolled up next to her and sprang to his feet. "Be careful because it gets kinda steep towards the top." He said, and sprinted up the sloped rooftop. He turned around and held out his hand. Sarah took it, blushing profusely. It was too dark to be noticable, though.

                   At the top, the roof leveled out and there was a matress. Ross led her over to it and sat down. She sat down next to him, her heartbeat quickening. A chilling wind blew through the neighborhood, shaking the treetops surrounding them. Sarah shivered, and brushed her hair back behind her ear.

                   "Hey," Ross said "You look kinda' cold."

                   "I'm okay."

                   Ross took off his jacket and put it around her. "I told you it was gonna be freezing."

                   Sarah looked down at her shoes. "Sorry... I just forgot."

                   Ross turned to look at her. She turned her head and met his eyes.

                   "You had a fight with your mom, didn't you?"

                   Sarah broke eye contact. Ross put his arm around her shoulder and looked up at the stars. "I understand you, Sarah."

                   "I know you do."

                   He leaned in next to her ear. "You can tell me anything. Right now there's just you and me, Sarah. You and me in this rough world. You're really special to me. You're someone I can share secrets with."

                   Sarah's breathing quickened as Ross moved his hand down to her waist. He whispered into her ear "I know you like me, Sarah, and I can tell you one of my secrets, too. I really like you."

                   "W-Wait..." Sarah softy protested. Ross put his other hand on her leg.

                   "You don't really mean that, Sarah."

                   Sarah only moved her mouth as if to say "Stop," nothing came out. She looked at him. He grinned. The last thing she remembered seeing before he kissed her was a fountain of falling stars, dancing miles away.

 

                   "Need a ride, kid?"

                   Sarah turned around. A man with a bleached blonde buzzcut stared down at her. He had a stern expression on his face, even though his lips were curled up into a sneer. Sarah narrowed her eyes. He was wearing a leather jacket with a black t-shirt tucked into short, black jeans.

                   "Girls always look there first," he cackled.

                   Sarah glared at him. "No thank you."

                   "Aw, hey, I didn't mean nothing by that, I was just trying to be nice, break the ice, start up a conversation, you know."

                   She continued her peircing gaze "No thank you."

                   "Look behind me, little girl. Everyone's gone."

                   Sarah leaned to the side to see past him. Aside from some outside lights over the gas, the restaraunt was dark. A closed sign hung in the window. Parked in front of the restaurant was a shiny green sportscar, other than that the place was barren.

                   "Last guy just left, didn't you see him go?"

                   "No."

                   "Well you did look pretty out of it. I was sitting at the counter, having a drink and I turn to look outside and see you just sitting out there staring off. So I think to myself Hey, she looks like she could use some help. So, here I am." He paused. Sarah stared at him. He continued "I bought you something, you looked kind of sad." He tossed her a beer bottle. Sarah instinctively knocked it away. She clutched her hand as the bottle hit the gravel. The man stared silently for a second.

                   "Heh... sorry, thought you'd catch it." He bent over and picked it up. "Here you go." He tapped her elbow with the bottle. She reached out and took it, then set it down next to her.

                   "You know it's not nice to ignore a person's gift like that. You hurt my feelings." He stared down at the top of her head. Sarah stared out directly in front of her. The man was silent for a few more moments. "Well fine, if you want me to leave, I'll leave."

                   He began walking away. Sarah turned her head. He didn't turn around to look back at her. She got to her feet. He started the car and slowly drove past.

                   "Wait!" Sarah cried out.

                   The car instantly stopped, the man rolled down the window. "Ready to be nice to me?" Sarah opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. He stared at her. "If you're willing to be a little more respectful of other peoples' feelings, you can come in." Sarah twitched, and her hands slighly reached out for a moment, but her body stayed still. The man put his lip into a pout "Well are you, or aren't you, kid?" Sarah hesitated again. She looked at the road, her vision blurring with tears, and started towards the car.

 

                   "So what were you doing there at the side of the road, Lauren?" He asked, looking over at her. Sarah stared out her window. He looked her up and down. He slowed the car to a stop. "Lauren, when someone is talking to you, it's polite to respond. Now

I let you back in because you promised you'd be polite, so if you don't start keeping your promise and start answering me when I talk to you, I may have to ask you to leave, and seeing as it's late at night on a stretch of road out in the middle of nowhere, there probably aren't going to be very many cars around. So I'm gonna try once more to strike up a conversation with you, and you'd better be a little more talkative. What were you doing at the side of the road?"

                   Sarah wiped the tears away from her eyes. The man smirked. Without looking at him, she replied "I was dropped off there."

                   "By who?"

                   "Another driver."

                   "Are you hitchhiking?"

                   "Yes."

                   "Why?"

                   Sarah looked down at the floor, where her tears were landing silently on the padded surface.

                   "I asked you a fucking question."

                   "I h-had to ge-get away from my home." Sarah choked out.

                   The man analyzed the road quickly to make sure it was clear before turning to Sarah. "Why is that, Lauren?"

                   Sarah hesitated, but noticed that the man began to clench his fingers tighter against the steering wheel.

                   "B-B-Because I did s-something."

                   The man's intent, questioning look melted into a smile. He chuckled. "Go on."

                   "It was-" Sarah paused to get a hold of her voice. "An accident."

                   "What was?"

                   Sarah shook her head. The man's smile dulled and his eyebrows lowered.    "Lauren, if you dont start being polite to me, I'm going to have to stop being polite to you."

                   "You'll see."

                   "What?"

                   "I said, you'll see what I did."

                   The man's smile dropped. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

                   Sarah had stopped crying and met his eyes, but said nothing more. The man glared at her. "You need a lesson in speaking to your elders." He didn't say anything for a minute. The car slowed to a stop and he turned off the engine. Sarah looked up at him. He grinned. His hands grabbed her jacket at the collar, breaking the zipper and tearing it down the seam. Sarah tried to grab his wrists and push him away, but he was twice as strong as her. She violently shook herself from side to side, in an attempt to break free. The man responded by reaching up to grab her hair. Sarah caught his hand with her teeth. The man began to yell in pain as Sarah's mouth started filling up with blood. She spat the blood along with the tip of one of the man's fingers into his face. Before he could do anything more, she put her thumb over his left eye and pressed as hard as she could. He shrieked even louder and grabbed her arm. She used her free hand and thrust it into his neck. The man fell forward, now clutching his throat and coughing. She kneed him in the nose on his way down. He fell to the floor of the car and dug his nails into her ankle. She shreiked and grabbed a beer bottle sitting in one of the drink holders. The bottle shattered over the man's head, showering the man and the floor of the car in glass and alchohol. He collapsed. Sarah didn't give him time to get up again.

                  

                   A miniscule beam of light gradually ribboned around the edges of a massive set of mountains. Never having much practice driving, Sarah was making sure to keep the vehicle at a very controllable speed. Perhaps in another place at another time, a city's police would respond to reports of an underaged girl driving a green sportscar. But Sarah wouldn't have to worry about anything like that for at least several more hours, there weren't going to be any other cars for a long time.