I Made an Executive Decision...

...when I couldn't find my notebook on my bedside table. I decided that what I wrote at writer's last night counted, so that's what I'm putting on here today.

August 14--Nick and Jiffy were sunk into the faux vinyl upholstery of the teal blue '78 Camaro as it rolled down Route 47 just outside of Hilbert. Jiffy swigged from a quart bottle of Blatz and rolled out a burp that rattled the windows. "Dammit, Jiff, don't be burping beer over Ma's prize upholstery." Jiffy lolled his head to rest on his shoulder and squinted at Nick, playing drunker than he was. "Sh-ure thing, Nick my man, I'll be real careful." He reached out and slap-patted the dashboard. Nick pretended to be angry and slammed the accelerator to the floor. The car leaped forward like a boar being chased by a pack of dogs. The Camaro swayed on it's axle feeling like mush as Nick steered into a turn sharper than he expected. The tires drifted to the edge of the asphalt and just as Nick thought he had things under control the rear wheel dropped into the gravel tearing the wheel right off. The hub dropped into the gravel wrenching the steering wheel out of Nick's hands. Nick flung his hands forward, grabbed the wheel and furiously began to steer when the front tire clipped the edge of the guardrail and the car twisted and started to roll. Through it all Jiffy had sat clutching his bottle of Blatz careful not to spill a drop on Nick's mama's upholstery. When they hit the guardrail he flung the beer over his head and tried to grab his seatbelt. "Shit, Nicky," he shouted, "we're fucked." Before the words were out of his mouth the car was upside down and he was rolling like a marble in a lunchbox. Nick sat rigid in the driver's seat, hands clenching the wheel, staring at the tree trunks that cartwheeled past as the headlights and taillights tried to trade places. A thin keening whimper came from somewhere in the bottom of Nick's throat as Jiffy ricocheted into the backseat in a shower of bluish tempered glass as a sapling sprung through the back window. The last thing Jiffy remembered thinking was, if nobody dies it'll be a miracle. Then everything went black.

--Barbara