Dark Static by Martin Matthews

Author:Martin Matthews [Matthews, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-09T23:00:00+00:00

"Long day," Ethan said. "I...uh… I've not been sleeping well. Bad dreams. Ever since I lost my wife… Well, it's like I've been trapped in the same day."

Beth nodded as if what he was saying made sense. He wondered if it did. He wasn't sure any more. How could anything he said or did make sense now that he had peeled back the curtains of reality, had peered through the window of one world into another deeper, stranger one.

Beth belched quietly and sipped her tea.

"My friends, they try to help," Ethan said, rambling, not sure why he was talking about this with her. "They're great, really. I just don't know what I'm doing any more. Have you ever felt like that? Like it's all just…"

Beth nodded.

Ethan told himself to shut up. He said, "It's like I'm pretending to live. Going through the motions. Mechanical. But it's all...procedural. It's like I'm following a script. Like I'm some character in a book or a video game, doing what I have to do, going from point A to point B but not really going anywhere." He chuckled, sighed and rubbed his face.

The clock ticked. The fog pushed against the house.

"Nah, I hear you," Beth said. "Had a friend in the military lost his best friend in Iraq. He was like that. We used to do armored trucks together, money hauls from banks. He got me the job. No matter what he always seemed nervous. I thought it was the war, you know? Then I realized, like a year into it, that he was looking to get jacked. He wanted some bank robbery or heist to go down. Catch a bullet. Easy. It didn't happen, but I left the company anyway. Couldn't work with a guy with a deathwish."

Deathwish.

Is that what Ethan had been living with this past year? A desire for the end to come. Peace. No more anything. And if Raymond Spencer was anything to go by, his hopes of one day seeing Jennifer again had evaporated. There was nothing for him now in this world. Oblivion awaited. Inevitable.

"Is your truck safe out there?" he asked, changing the subject.

Beth nodded. "She's all locked up."

"Who are you hauling for?"

"I'm independent, so whoever's needing a rig from Montana to Indiana."

"Where are you from originally?"

"South Bend, Indiana."

"Family there?"

Beth shook her head. "Mom was the last, she passed last June. I have some cousins in Illinois, Tennessee."

"Sorry for your loss."

"She'd been sick for a while."

"What're you hauling?"

"Huh?"

Ethan nodded in the general direction of the highway. "What are you carrying in the truck?"

Beth crunched a pickle. She looked at the table. "Oh. Let's see. I got a load from a furniture warehouse out of Missoula, pallets of laminate flooring from Bozeman. Mostly furniture. I also got crates of water softener pellets. The big box stores hire me to deliver fulfillments on contract, which is nice because I don't gotta unload those. You on well water here, Ethan? I could give you a few extra bags of salt from the truck.

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