You never know what you might find on a lonely road in a snowstorm.
The picture prompts are on hiatus for the holidays, so we’re working off text prompts for a few weeks. Here is this week’s:
“Endings & Beginnings” Write a story that starts and ends in the same place.
DINE-R
The crunch of gravel woke Connie.
“Where are we?” She squinted against the neon DINER sign.
“No idea, but I need to pee. And I’m hungry.”
“Looks like a dive,” Connie mumbled as she stretched and yawned, her breath making steam in the winter air, but Denise was already halfway to the door.
The middle-aged waitress, whose nametag read “Lupe,” just raised an eyebrow as Connie slid onto a stool.
“Coffee plea—” A mug was already sliding across the Formica. “Uh, thanks.”
She sipped the worst coffee she had ever tasted as Denise burst out of the restroom.
“Come on. We gotta go.” She didn’t wait for a response, just bolted for the door.
“Wait—” But she was gone. Connie patted her pockets and gave the waitress a lopsided grin. “Ah, left my cash—”
Lupe just shrugged. “You’ll be back.”
***
The snow started before the engine turned over. By the time they had gone a mile, they were driving inside a snowglobe.
“I think we’re heading into it,” Connie said, trying to hide the anxiety in her voice. She only got a grunt in response. “Maybe we should go back and wait it out.”
“Not goin’ back there. Not ever—”
She slammed on the brakes and the car skidded sideways, stopping less than a foot from the jackknifed tractor trailer. They both sat in shock until a cop rapped on the window.
“Road’s closed. Turn around.”
The flashlight showed the terror on Denise’s face.
“Come on, Babe,” Connie said as calmly as she could. “We can’t sit here in the cold.”
Nodding, Denise turned the car around. At least six inches had fallen when they reached the gravel parking lot. As they pulled in, the sign’s R sputtered out and the howling began.
THE END
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