Assignment Number Eight: Roads

The road to nowhere. The road to somewhere. The road to the place in-between nowhere and somewhere.

Perched at a dusty crossroads on the border of some God-forsaken town that nobody has ever heard of, I sit. My car engine spits with impatience. Crumpled cans of Diet Coke and half eaten cheese sandwiches line the dashboard, browning and drying out in the sun. A crinkled map sits on the passenger seat next to me. I absently follow the green and red lines with my eyes as they curve up the page and eventually fall off the edge. I stay there for a while, staring at the map, waiting for it to tell me where to go. My keys, hanging limply from the ignition, clink together angrily as my knee brushes against them. I regret my choice of jeans. They stick to my skin in the heat like bubble gum on hot tarmac. I brush away a droplet of sweat running down from my hair line. My seatbelt digs uncomfortably into my neck. I drift away for a moment, imagining an iced Corona in my palm, damp and cold under my grip. I lift it to my lips. I can almost taste the lime.

I slowly float back to reality and gaze out of the windscreen. Three choices. Each seems as daunting and unpromising as the other. I rest my hand on the steering wheel and press my right shoe against the gas pedal until it bites.  I’m going somewhere.