Hit and Run

Chapter 6

I woke up to soft rock buzzing slightly through the air and into my ears. I was always particularly aware of music which made it difficult for me to carry on conversations or focus on anything else if there was a song playing. It was always easier for me to tune out voices or noises than to tune out a song. This was both a blessing and a curse. I could memorize a song after hearing it once, most of the time. Something that had become somewhat of a party trick at one point. The last music I had heard was elevator music. Elevator music was probably my least favorite part about elevators. Although, I appreciated the thought. However, the man who invented elevators probably hadn't put that in his original design.

I rubbed my eyes the way I usually did when light forced my body out of its sleep state. I had been dreaming about something, I think, but I couldn't remember what. Most dreams escaped me within seconds of waking up. Yet, there were a few that I still remembered from when I was a little girl. One of them involved me scoring my first record deal. That dream came true, though not in the way I had imagine it would in my sleep. I smiled at the thought of my childish fantasy that somehow became a reality for a moment until I realized that I couldn't remember where I was.

My eyes shot open and it hit me that I was in a car. My other senses followed my eyes and I became aware of the movement of the car as well as the sound of the slight hum of the air as it hit the side of the car. I remembered learning about the way air friction turned kinetic energy into sound energy, which explained why cars had natural background noise. I also heard the sound of chewing. I looked to my left and saw Reese munching on McDonalds. Now my nose starting working and I smelled the chicken and greasy fries. I groaned.

"Rise and shine," Reese said after a quick glance at me. The sunlight was hitting his glasses frame, creating a nice spotlight on his face. Despite his messy brown hair and casual clothing, he was actually an incredibly well-kept person. Everything about him was clean and his face seemed to shine the way mine did when I had the right amount of foundation on.

"Reese," I said, making sure I still remembered his name and that this moment wasn't all in my head. I realized that I had slid down in the seat while I was asleep, so I straightened myself to sit upright. I noticed that the landscape wasn't that of a city. I saw what looked like industrial powerplants in the distance. There was ugly smoke coming out of the top of one which made me cringe. I hadn't been out of the city for a while, so the realization that I was somewhere else entirely shocked me. When one lives in the city, it's easy to forget that there is a world outside of the city.

"Chicken nugget?" He said, pushing the box of nuggets in my direction while still looking at the road.

"I'm vegetarian," I said. His face sunk and he put the box on the little built in table in between us. For a moment I was glad he didn't know. It was refreshing to tell someone something about myself that they hadn't read somewhere.

"My bad," he said, moving the previously nugget-holding hand onto the steering wheel. I never understood why people apologized for my vegetarianism. It wasn't like they had committed a crime by offering me food.

"You went to McDonald's?" I asked. I don't know why that was my first question when there were a million beginning to rush my brain as I achieved greater level of clarity.

"Yeah. I was hungry," he responded. Suddenly, I felt my heart start racing. It was a split second of panic regarding the ignorance of someone who knew nothing about my lifestyle or the dangers of seemingly mundane affairs.

"Someone could have spotted me," I said. To be recognized was just about my worst fear in this moment.

"Relax. Nobody saw you. I went through a quick drive through and got some nuggets and fries. That's it," he said, laughing slightly. I wondered how he was acting so calm given what we had both seen not too long ago. I figured we'd have to talk about it at some point, but talking about it was the last thing I wanted to do right now. I did, however, want Reese to give our situation a greater level of severity. The level that it had earned.