Dark Intentions

Chapter 7

The door to the house opened and twin 13-year-old girls raced out, laughing as they headed to their mother’s white sedan. By the time their mother left the single-story house, her daughters were already in the car, and the doors were closing.

Connie Douglas got in the driver’s seat and smiled as she looked in the mirror at her daughters, who were in an abnormally good mood for so early in the day.

Backing out of the driveway, she headed towards the junior high school, as she did each morning.

Once at the school, the car had barely stopped when the back doors burst open, and the girls hopped out, shouting a quick, “Bye, mom,” as the doors shut again.

The girls had both been unusually cooperative this morning. Because of this, Connie was running a little ahead of schedule and decided to treat herself to a mocha latte from her favorite drive-through coffee shop instead of waiting to get the mediocre free coffee in the office.

With her beverage in hand, she merged on to the six-lane divided highway, pleased with how the day had started. She turned up the radio a little and sang along to a familiar song as she drove.

The highway was busy but moving at a steady pace. She drove in the right lane holding the 20oz cup in her hand, its contents still too hot to drink.

Connie became aware of brake lights ahead. Some of the cars were attempting to move out of the right lane. Seconds later, she saw why. A man was standing near the edge of the highway. He was only about 20 yards ahead and dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. He staggered with something clutched in his right hand and appeared intoxicated. She started to move to the left and realized the semi-truck next to her blocked her escape. She tried to slow down but was still going 50mph when the man stumbled forward directly in front of her.

It happened so suddenly that she didn’t have time to react.

The impact was jarring, and because the pedestrian was staggering and slumped, he didn’t come up on to the hood but went down under the wheels.

In that moment of horror, Connie unconsciously squeezed the coffee cup crushing the flimsy container and soaking her arm and right leg with scalding liquid.

Screaming in pain and terror and unaware of all the blowing horns and squealing breaks, Connie side-swept the truck to her left. The sound of grinding metal got her attention back to her situation, and she regained control and got her car stopped on the right shoulder.

By the time she got out of her car, shaking as she walked, all the traffic had stopped.