Coils by Roger Zelazny & Fred Saberhagen

Author:Roger Zelazny & Fred Saberhagen
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 10

...Were driving. A long stretch of Texas highway… I was reading a book in the rear seat. Nevertheless, I was peripherally aware of the desolate countryside, bleaker now beneath mountains of clouds than it had been when we had commenced this journey. Aware, too, of the heavy crosswinds, gusts of which occasionally slammed our light car—blows from the palm of a giant hand. The thunder was long, deep rumbles somewhere in the distance, considerably later than the flashes which crawled like rivulets of molten gold spilled from the heights, the cloud-peaks… The sound of a horn dopplered toward us and passed. Dad was driving. My mother was in the front passenger seat. The radio was playing softly, a Country and Western station… I was home for a brief holiday, and we were on our way to visit Dad's older brother's family. I had a lot of studying to do, though, and the books were stacked on the seat at my side. The first drops of rain hit the rooftop like bullets, and shortly after that I heard the windshield wipers come on. The guitar and the familiar nasal twang of someone singing about cheatin' and drinkin' and sneakin' around and not havin' any fun doin' it was interrupted with greater and greater frequency by bursts of static, unless it was the irate husband shootin' at him. In either case, my mother switched it to an FM station where the music was all instrumental and less strenuous. A car passed us, going pretty fast, and I heard Dad mutter something as he put the lights on. Another slap of the giant hand and Dad twisted the wheel to bring us back off of the shoulder. A clap of thunder seemed to come from directly overhead, and a moment later the rain came down like a waterfall. I closed the book, holding my place with a finger, and looked outside. Heavy, gray, beaded curtains cut visibility to a few car-lengths. The wind began screaming at us between buffets. "Paul," my mother said, "maybe you'd better pull over…" Dad nodded, glanced at the rear and side-view mirrors, peered ahead. "Yeah," he said then, and he began to turn the wheel. As he did, another gust struck us. We were on the shoulder and then beyond it. He'd hit the brakes and we were skidding. My stomach twisted as we suddenly nosed downward. A scraping noise passed beneath me, and I heard my mother scream, "No!" Then we were falling, and I heard a crash that was thunder and one that was not thunder, smothering the music and my mother's final scream and everything else…

I screamed. My eyes opened wide—unseeing for several moments—moist… It had been a dream, but it had been more than a dream. It was something that had really happened. It was how my parents had died. It was—

There was a star-shaped hole in the windshield and we were drifting gently to the right. My real-life truck was in the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.