Dmv by Bentley Little

Author:Bentley Little [Little, Bentley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0BZ3N71SM
Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications
Published: 2023-04-13T22:00:00+00:00

TWENTY TWO

They lived in opposite directions from work, so it wasn’t convenient to carpool, but Zal and Violet had taken to parking next to each other in the lot each morning and walking together into the Data Initiatives building. Today, for the first time in over a week, Zal had arrived first, and he sat in his car, listening to the radio as he waited for her.

It was another ten minutes before Violet finally showed up and pulled next to him, and when she got out of her car, it was obvious that she’d been crying. Watching her approach, he was filled with a feeling of anxiety. The two of them had been getting closer ever since the party, but he still wasn’t sure they were close enough for him to pry into her personal business.

She blew her nose, tried to smile at him, and Zal wondered if she wanted him to ask what was wrong or wanted him to pretend as though nothing was the matter. He was frozen with indecision, and she obviously sensed it because her attempted smile gradually faded into a more puzzled expression. He’d been hoping she would speak first, but that didn’t seem like that was going to happen, so he kept his face as neutral as possible and struggled to come up with something middle-of-the-road enough that it would rescue him.

“You’re a little late today,” he said lamely.

He was hoping she’d take that ball and run with it, tell him why she was late, but all she said was, “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” he said. “I didn’t mean… I mean, I wasn’t…”

He didn’t know what to say and didn’t want to dig himself into a hole, so he just shut his mouth, and the two of them walked across the asphalt in silence. By the time they reached the entrance, she had stopped sniffling and put away her Kleenex, although her eyes were still red. They smiled their goodbyes as they separated and went to their different departments, but Zal could not get the image of her red eyes out of his mind and wondered what could have possibly happened to upset her so.

He sat down at his desk feeling down and distracted. As late as he thought he was, he’d still beat Bernard into the office, and his friend hurried past his cubicle several minutes later with an offhand, “Hey.”

Very few of the programmers were morning people, so the first half-hour of the day, as usual, was quiet save for the tapping of keys, the rustling of paper and the occasional questioning grunt as someone encountered something unexpected on one of their screens.

It was Bernard who broke the silence.

“Holy shit!”

“What is it?” Zal said, peeking over the cubicle divider.

Bernard pointed to his screen, but the print was too small for Zal to see from this angle.

“I can’t tell what I’m supposed to be looking at.”

“All these drivers. They’re dead.”

“They’re what?”

“Their licenses have been automatically renewed, but they’re dead, and none of them have an address associated with their name.

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