Guess what, it’s Wednesday. And guess what, I actually have a story for the Indies Unlimited flash fiction challenge. It even made it into the votes. So I am skipping the part where I babble to tell you, read the story and go vote.

Straight or Left

Tanya had been thinking about leaving for years: packing up what she could fit in her car and just driving away. Each time she got close, fear of the unknown had stopped her. The devil you know, and all that.

This time – this time he’d gone too far. The car was packed. She was on the outskirts of town. Tanya knew once she crossed that bridge, there was no turning back.

photo by K.S. Brooks

But the bridge was so long; she couldn’t see land on the other side. Fear paralyzed her. Drivers behind her began honking their horns. Tanya had to make up her mind: straight or left. And she had to choose quickly…

In that moment Tom’s words filled her thoughts, “You are nothing without me.” Her memories spiraled, not just to the disaster of her relationship with Tom. She remembered the relationships that came before him as well.

In everyone she had given everything, her time, her attention, her sanity, and each time she came away an empty shell of who she could have been. She heard once that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results was a sign of insanity. It described her life so perfectly an insane quest for the same relationship over and over again.

Tom had become a stand in for the same guy, same attitudes she expected from her relationships. She couldn’t even picture his face anymore. It had morphed and blended with the others.

She looked ahead, toward the other side of the bridge. Though she couldn’t see the end she edged her car forward. As Tanya’s car picked up speed the thoughts of Tom and the rest slipped to the back of her mind. Not out of thought, but a physical sensation of the thoughts slipping behind her.

As her car crossed the bridge’s thresh-hold she looked a last time in her rear view mirror. The cars behind her began to chase her. Tanya reached up to adjust the mirror and ripped it from the window. She would never look back again.

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