Tracks to You

All Rights Reserved. © mackiechan         

I was listening to a classic called Susie Q by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and it suddenly popped into my head to write a story about a girl named Susie listening to the same song... haha. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   

        "Congratulations! You've freaking beat me to a red light!" 

     Susie lightly pressed her breaks and rolled to a complete stop as she exclaimed more profanities to herself. She glared daggers at the sporty car in front that cut her off just earlier. The cars during rush hour were getting on her nerves, but she had been in a good mood since it was payday and wouldn't let anything get her down. Not even the fact that it was a sweltering day and her A/C wasn't working. She had all the windows rolled down, but beads of sweat were beginning to run down her back.  

           "Maybe a little music would help," she thought in an attempt to distract herself.  

        Popping a disc in, a raspy, soulful voice sounded through the car. She couldn't help but automatically pick up her sunglasses case from the passenger seat and sing along into it. Her car concert continued as the light turned green and she went on her way. It was not even five minutes later that she came to another stop due to a passing train. She simultaneously belted out a high note while slowly pulling up to the long line of stationed cars. 

           "Aw man. Bummer. Why did it have to cross at this time," she thought to herself and parked.  

           Still bobbing along and singing to a new song that came on, she absentmindedly turned her head to the left. 

         "Oh say that you'll be m- Holy crap!" She abruptly stopped singing as her eyes came into contact with another pair intently staring at her from the next car over. Her embarrassment was at an all time high, so she abruptly turned away towards her lap before she could really get a look at the person. From the quick glance, she could tell it was a fairly young boy, probably around her age. She turned her head slightly and raised her eyes and noticed the boy was still staring at her. She snapped her head back down again and could feel the heat pooling into her cheeks.  

          "This would happen to me," she mumbled to herself.  

          After a couple of awkward seconds, she heard a voice speak up.  

        "You know, it's a shame you stopped singing."  

        This caught Susie's attention, and she slowly raised her head again, somewhat recovering. Until the next few words were uttered.  

        "My driver's side window was already cracked. I need my passenger's side window to match it. Figure you'd be just the person for the job."  

        That snapped Susie right out of her current state.

        "Oh really?" she shot back and leveled her gaze with his, finally staring him in the eye. "I know the perfect solution to your predicament. Your window obviously broke when your face was reflected in it. Just bring your face up close to the passenger side. It should shatter instantly." She accentuated this with a hand flick.  

        He just stared at her for a moment, then let out a full blown smile.

        Susie's heart was not prepared. Now that she really looked at him, she could eat her words her at seeing just how wrong she was. The boy was cute, but she would never admit it. As she studied him, the embarrassment was slowly trickling back in and confidence out.  

        "What's your name?" he asked.  

        "Ummm..." She couldn't recall her name for the life of her. 

       "Ummm..." He copied what she said and stuck out his chin as he rolled his hand in a "keep going" motion.   

        "Ahhhh..." She replied.  

        "Ahhh...bigail? Abigail? Is that your name?" He smirked. 

        "No!" She snapped. 

        "Well?" he questioned. 

        "I was getting to it. I was just testing out my vocals." Her wit was coming back to her.  

        "I'm Susie." 

        "No way," he smiled again. "And you're singing to Susie Q by CCR? That's gold!" 

        She could feel the heat pooling into her cheeks again and was cursing her pale complexion. A major tanning trip was needed soon, she thought in the moment. But this time she would make sure not to screw up and leave the bottle lid open in her bag... no she wouldn't make that mistake again... but- 

        "Hello, earth to Susie!" she was interrupted from her thoughts. "I'm sure you were fantasizing about marrying me, but I think you should know my name first. I'm Dylan."

        "Oh um, that's cool. I once had a pet rock named Dylan until he got lost in the garden." Right after she replied she mentally banged her head onto her steering wheel. Really? She couldn't believe she said that.  

        "And I was not thinking about marrying you! More like running you over." She added as an afterthought. 

        "Uhuh, right. So listen, I happen to love CCR, which leads me to believe you're somewhat cool. And would you look at that, I have happened to have forgotten my number. So would you mind giving me yours?" 

        Susie just stared at him. Then she turned her head forwards. Then back to him. Either this train was taking a heck of a long time, or this conversation was going really fast. Had he really just asked for her number? She wasn't really sure what to do, but then the situation was decided for her when she noticed the end of the train finally passing.

        "Well, it looks like the train is gone." Way to state the obvious. "So I'm gonna take my cue and leave. Get it? Because Susie Q is playing in the background? And I said cue? Haha... Okay, see ya!"  

        She looked forward again and slightly accelerated following the cars. Her lane moved faster than Dylan's so he had to stay put. Looking in her rearview mirror, she could see his little blue Honda Civic getting smaller and smaller in the distance.  

        "I could've handled that so much better..." she mumbled to herself. Countless wittier remarks and situations that could have been said ran through her mind. Realizing she was almost out of gas, she pulled into the nearest gas station and just sat there for a minute. 

        "Gah!" She banged her head on her steering wheel literally this time. Whatever, there was no use crying over spilt milk. 

        Susie finally got out of her car and went to uncap the gas tank. The nozzle went in and all she had to do was wait, so she started humming a song as she bobbed. Then another car pulled up into a spot right across from her. She studied the person getting out, but she couldn't believe her eyes. The person got out and went about the motions to fill his car as well as she continued to stare at him. Then as he started to wait for it to fill, he turned his head towards her, and their eyes met. Shock registered in his face until it turned into a smile.   

        "So we meet again, Susie. It's been so long, five whole minutes! I knew you couldn't wait to see me. That must be a track record for you. Get it? Because we were stopped by a train? And a train runs on tracks?" 

        A smile crept up on Susie's face as she walked over.