It was a dark and stormy night;

Beth was trying to get home fast. It was Friday. Tomorrow Jackie Blue had to go back in
for more tests so Beth needed to get to the grocery store, the pharmacy, and stop at the
machine to grab some money for Jesse before it all closed. Jesse was a nice enough kid,
but having to pay so much for having her watch Jackie while she was at work was killing
her. She was behind on everything and had no idea how she was going to catch up.
Obama was helping her out but there was always something that didn't fit into the plan,
and the treatment was expensive. She wished she understood it better, she wished she
didn't have to just take their word for everything, that she had more time to research it.
She had tried, but there were so many possible outcomes that depended on so many
different things that she ended up feeling more lost than when she started after a while.
So she had to believe that what they were recommending was the right thing to do. She
had to. She knew some people that didn't have to worry about it, they had family, or
money, or a good plan from work. She wasn't one of those. She thought about the
Creedence song, It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one. She thought about
Bobby, gone to Iraq, never to come back. It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son,
no. Beth turned on the radio, trying to erase the song and the memory, trying to just
think about driving home in this damn rain, about getting home. With Jackie.

Stu was happy. He had actually won again tonight, the third week in a row. Betting on
these things was getting easier and easier. He was sure getting an eye for picking the
right dog. He was sure that just being able to make eye contact with them was the key
to his success, that if he was able to look the dog in the eyes he could defeat them with
his dominance. Undermine their aggression with his. He was certainly able to do that
with people he thought. But people were easy; the ones that he couldn't dominate with
his attitude he could sure dominate with his size. He realized early on that people would
avoid confrontation at all costs if it involved the threat of personal violence and the
ones that weren't threatened by his size and attitude sure changed their tune when he
pulled out Stella. After almost 8 years total in a shitty little cell, watching his back, and
making sure he made the right friends, he'd learned that it was better not to resort to
his fists or Stella except as a last resort. If there was any chance of getting caught that is.
He tried to get people alone, that way it was just him and them. Then Stella came out
first. He like to surprise them by yelling STELLLLAAA before he let her have a taste. If
you shot them just under the rib cage all they could do was choke for breath. That's
when he liked to stand over them and let them see his face before he let Stella have her
way. They always looked so surprised when he shot them. He chuckled, then swung the
wheel to cut off a blue sedan before gunning the Chrysler to bring it back in front of a
white suv that had been going too slow for Stu. Just for fun he hit the brakes
momentarily, causing the suv behind him to lock up briefly, shimmying a little on the
wet pavement before it settled back in the lane. Stu laughed when the car flashed his

brights at him, holding up his finger in the bright interior as he sped toward the bridge.
If he wasn't so tired he'd make them stop, he thought. He thought about the dog after
the fight. The one he'd made eye contact with before he made his bets. He thought
about it bleeding and whining and smiled again. Easy money.

Ekbal was tired, tired, tired..... He knew he'd been driving too long but after waiting at
the border, getting pulled over for an inspection, the line-up at the weigh scale, and
having to slow down for this rain he was late for his delivery time by a good six hours.
The truck wasn't running great, and he was worried that he'd be forced to fork over
money to pay for some needed repairs. It wasn't even his truck, but he knew that if he
made a fuss they would just let him go. You're the driver, things like keeping brakes
and tires maintained are your problem Ek. We'll take care of the gas and the major stuff,
you just keep the truck running. Now they were saying he had to pay for the gas and
would be reimbursed at the end of the month. Gas was the biggest expense! He had no
idea how he was going to make it to the end of the month. He was trying to save, for his
kids school, to be able to bring his parents here, to be able to take care of them, to be a
real family. Together. At home. Ekbal rubbed his eyes and squinted through the rain.
Sometimes he wished he could drink coffee....

The bridge was old. In its heyday it was the pride of the engineers, designers, and
architects. Built with the most current standards, it was an amalgamation of art and
science. A shiny, shining, glowing, sparkling example of modern technological prowess.
Now it was getting old and rutted. Tired and sore. The deck was sagging, the supports
were stretched, and by all accounts it should have been decommissioned 20 years ago.
The rain, that at one time would run to the drainage tracks on the sides to stream
harmlessly away, was now pooling in the ruts in the lanes caused by decades and
decades of constant wear. It was past the point of being restored to it's original state,
repairs now were just an attempt to keep it open. Keep traffic flowing. Keep it moving.
Earlier on in the afternoon it was hardly noticeable as the traffic was so constant that
the water didn't have any time to accumulate before it was splashed off to the side
where it could make it's way. Now later in the day. it was getting deeper between cars.
Deep black pools. Waiting for the next car to come.

Beth was peering through the windshield, trying to keep in her lane. It was so hard to
drive when you were half blinded by the cars coming the other way and not being able
to see the lane markers because the wet road just reflected everything. The car behind

her was much too close and it's lights were in her eyes too. She reached up to adjust her
mirror just as a car changed lanes in front of her.

'Fuck man, I just love Whitesnake!' Once a guy in jail told him the only reason Stu liked
Whitesnake so much is because he loved cock so much. He had no idea what the guy
meant by that until later he'd actually found out from the internet. He'd only used the
internet a couple of times, in the prison library, but that was the first thing he'd looked
up. Whitesnake. He didn't care that they named themselves after David Coverdale's
dick. It was pretty badass actually. If he looked like David Coverdale he wouldn't care
about anything.... he must get tons of pussy. 'Whatever, I'm doin just fine for pussy', he
thought. 'I'll make sure Helen spends some time sucking my cock after I eat something.
She owes me.' He spent an extra year in solitaire for the beating he put on the guy who
told him he liked cock, but Stu did his best to make sure he couldn't speak again. Or use
his cock. Stu was moving pretty fast, changing lanes when he wanted, loving his white
3000. Up ahead he noticed a semi, moving pretty careful in the fast lane. Asshole, move
that shit over, Stu growled. Then he pushed down on the pedal to make it to a gap in
the cars ahead to get in front of the semi.

Ekbal was relieved, another ten minutes to drop off the trailer and he could rest. He was
going to sleep in the cab he was so tired. The truck didn't have a sleeper so usually he
would find a cheap hotel or something, but tonight he decided he was just going to
sleep in the truck yard and hitch up another trailer in the morning for the trip home.
Almost there... thank God. He didn't know if he could stay awake much longer.
Beth looked back from the mirror just in time to see the car coming into her lane.
Beyond startled, she swerved and hit the brakes to avoid a collision. Beth's brakes were
pretty worn out though, and didn't respond the way they were supposed to. Beth found
her foot going almost to the floor. The swerve took her into one of the waiting ruts,
patient and serene, and the resistance pulled the steering wheel in her hands, turning
her toward the guardrail, and the side of the bridge. Water gushed in a giant effusion of
spray, over the side of the bridge in a great, wet sheet, coming down with all the force
and momentum of a fire hose.
Ekbal realized he'd been driving in the passing lane for a while and made the decision to
change lanes. He didn't notice the car coming up fast on his right. He'd checked the
mirror a moment ago but the car was really moving fast, way too fast to be able to
react. Ekbal hit his turn signal and started to turn the wheel.
Stu was on the rear right of the semi, moving fast when the truck started to come into
his lane. Stu hit the horn and sped up, moving onto the shoulder so he could get by and
get in front. 'Asshole', he murmured, 'I'll fuck you up for that'. He got past the semi and

decided to just teach him a little lesson. Grinning he tapped his brakes. Just enough to
make the trucker shit himself he thought.
Ekbal jumped in his seat as he saw the white car swerve in front of him. Then a cascade
of water hit his windshield seemingly out of nowhere, obliterating his visibility
completely. He tried to steer by memory, trying to anticipate where he was on the road,
mentally adjusting for the angles, the road, his speed. Ekbal waited an eternity for the
windshield wipers. Finally they swept across, sluicing the water away, and
Ekbal saw the white car in front of him, brake lights reflecting off of the wet road.
Stu was sliding sideways, his world was filled with the noise of the tires screaming, the
semi's grill filling the window on his left, and the bridge pillar starting to fill the window
on his right. Soon Stu's screaming joined the tires, just before the white Chrysler was
crushed to a sliver between Ekbal's truck and the concrete bridge pillar. Now the bridge
would have to be replaced.
Beth struggled to pull the wheel back to the left and get back into the lane. Even though
the right tire had pulled her toward the bridge rail, as soon as the left tire hit the deep
pool of water in the rut it pulled her right back the other way. In the blink of an eye Beth
found herself back in her lane, behind a car that hadn't been there a moment ago, heart
beating out of her chest, clammy sweat beading on her forehead, eyes fixed straight
ahead with white intensity, and both hands gripping the wheel with the strength that
only a very large burst of adrenalin can give one.
Beth wanted to be home more than anything.

Hahaha. Happy Birthday Allie.

I love you. Scott