Monday 11 February 2008

Juncture


With an apologetic splutter the engine choked and guttered.
“No, no, no, no you don’t!” the driver groaned, tightening her grasp on the steering wheel and eyeing up the sinisterly glowing red engine-light.
With a finalistic cough, the engine gave up completely and fell silent.
“Shit,” she cursed, switching on her hazard lights and glancing down the road to see where she could pull over. The country road seemed to stretch interminably ahead of her, but just in sight was a big white ‘P’ on a bright blue background.
“Come on, come on! Just a little bit further,” she coaxed her gliding car, glancing at her rapidly declining speedometer. Closer and closer her car crawled, until it was within metres of the parking bay. Squeezing her eyes and leaning forward, she sent up a silent prayer, willing her car to make it, the speed reregistering at roughly 6mph.
“Yes!” she cried as her car just made it across the white lines before rocking to a stop. Her triumph flared briefly before she recollected the situation she was in.
“Screw it, where’s my phone?” she asked of herself, rummaging through her handbag. Getting a bit desperate she emptied the bag onto the passenger seat and searched the contents. Money; make-up; keys; receipts; pens; even a few mint Humbugs: but no phone.
“Phone, phone, phone,” she muttered, running her hands under the seats and along every pocket of the car she could find. An intrusive little memory of her phone sitting on the kitchen table rose gradually to the forefront of her mind.
“I can’t believe it!”
Taking her key out of the, now redundant, ignition, she stepped out of the door and surveyed the road around her. No public telephone in sight. Typical of the Mobile Age, she surmised.
She starts walking down the country road; it is a pleasant enough day for it and still not another vehicle in sight. After about ten minutes she comes to a crossroads without signposts. None of the routes seem to stand out to her as being especially likely to lead to a telephone.
To turn left, read the post entitled Juncture: Left.
To go straight on, read the post entitled: Juncture: Straight on.
To turn right, read the post entitled: Juncture: Right.

2 comments:

Quoth the Raven said...

Awesome idea! Althouth I had to re-read the three options about four times before I realised what you were getting at and that they weren't, in fact, some obscure part of the narrative.

Steffan said...

Didn't get round to reading this until now.

But great stuff! Love the title, in particular, but as an introduction, I really like this. I too hate that unwelcome memory of the Thing I Want being Somewhere Else.

I think I'll head left.