One Night in Georgia by Celeste O. Norfleet

Author:Celeste O. Norfleet
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

13

ONCE IN NORTH CAROLINA, WE STAYED ON THE MAIN highway as long as we could. Eventually, we had to get off Interstate 95 to cross over to Interstate 85, the road that would take us directly into Atlanta, by way of Raleigh and Charlotte.

The summer sky was dimming and the beautiful sunset had hurried its pace into the darkness of twilight. The trees on the horizon stood against a backdrop ablaze with stunning reds, yellows, and purples. Individual trees began to turn into stoic columns en masse.

“Hey, we’re almost there,” Daphne said with optimism as she turned to look at me. She put on a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I don’t know if I can take any more craziness.”

“Me either,” I said, then looked at Daniel. He had his head back, and his eyes were closed. There was a bruised lump on the side of his head, and his eye and cheek were swollen.

Veronica didn’t say anything. She drove slowly with deliberate ease. A driver in a car behind us blew his horn, swerved around us, then yelled at us to get off the road. Unaffected, Veronica continued to drive at her same slow pace. She yawned and sat up closer to the steering wheel. She was staring intently at the road ahead as if she would miss something at any minute.

“Veronica, are you okay?” I asked.

“Oh wow, would you look at that sky,” Daphne interrupted. “Isn’t it just glorious?”

“Yeah, it is,” I said but focused on Veronica. “Veronica, are you okay?” I asked once more.

Veronica shook her head. “No. My heart is racing and I feel nervous. I don’t know what’s wrong.” She began to pant and put her hand to her chest.

“We’re okay,” Daphne said. “There’s no one behind us.”

“No. That’s not it. It’s getting dark out here, and I’ve never driven at night before. I can barely see the road right now.”

“I have money,” Daphne said. “We can stop at a motel.”

“No,” Veronica said. “I don’t want to stop anymore. I just want to be at Spelman.”

“Look, there’s a rest stop. Let’s just take a break.”

We pulled over at the rest stop. The small parking lot was half full with a couple of travel trailers, a truck, and a few other cars. We went to the anyone-can-go bathroom. We refreshed ourselves with four Coca-Colas from a vending machine. As we sauntered back to the car, we saw other drivers asleep in their vehicles. When we got back to ours, we put the top up, munched on some Bugles, and rested.

A loud knock on the window startled us out of our slumber. A blinding bright light flashed in our eyes.

“Roll the window down,” said the state trooper. With apprehension Veronica did as told.

“What’s going on in there?” he asked. We stared blankly. “This is a rest stop, not a motel. You need to get moving or I’ll take you in for vagrancy.”

Barely awake, we hurriedly got ourselves together as the trooper stood there and waited for us to drive off.

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