Share
True Freedom
Silvia woke up to Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus.
The sun was setting and she was alone in bed, tucked in soft sheets that smelled of lemon and the fat white comforter. Jim had left a few hours ago to let her rest, because after those weeks apart, it was plain to see she wouldn’t get any rest with him around.
She’d fallen sound asleep, exhausted, and now she had the persistent feeling of being still lost in a dream. But she wasn’t. This was not the Black Rock. It was the Ashtray, her new home, and that music had to be a phone ringing.
But not hers. She’d never used that song as a ringtone.
She followed the music to the other nightstand, where she found a new phone still inside its open box with a red ribbon. And she laughed out loud when she grabbed it and saw the caller was My Personal J.
“Hey, you awake?” Jim asked when she picked up, still chuckling.
“Hey, you just woke me u
Related chapters
No Return One Cigarette
That was just great. The flash flood had reached the Interstate, forcing the incoming buses to turn around, so the service had been cancelled until further notice.She felt a sudden urge to smoke. Considering it was pouring, the bus station staff overlooked those nicotine addicts with a little survival instinct left, and allowed them to smoke at the entrance hall, indoors and safe from the wind and the rain. She gave her luggage a concerned glance: rucksack, duffel bag, guitar. Why the hell had she kept the guitar? Only a few people remained at the bus station, but hard statistics dictated that a single person was enough to snatch all of her things away. She realized that was a third-world thought. Was she not in “The Shiny City Upon The Hill”? Just in case there was another third-worlder around, she asked the man at the nearest ticket booth if he could look after her stuff for a while. “I’m leaving in fifteen minutes, ma’am,” he warned. More than enough. She lit a cigarette as s
No Return Godzilla's Night Off
That was just great. The rental had broken down in the middle of the storm and of nowhere.He cursed his brother’s idea of renting that ranch to spend their ‘creative break’ away from spotlights and paparazzi. But he cursed louder his own idea of renting a car at Fargo airport, instead of taking a bus and meeting his brother at the bus station near the goddamn ranch.He checked his phone again, in case a stray miracle had given it back any coverage. Damn. It was as dead as it’d been since he’d driven deeper into the countryside and the storm. He looked out the windshield, but it was pouring so hard, he could’ve had frigging Godzilla right in front of the car and he wouldn’t see it.However, he was pretty sure he’d spotted lights up ahead before the damn car broke down, when the wipers still worked. According to his brother’s directions, that should be the bus station ten miles south of the town near the ranch.He had no way to know how far it was, and the wisest thing to do was hunker
No Return Letting Go
She sat down in the gap with her back against the coffee machine, face to the glass doors. That way, she even had room for the guitar on her lap. She could hear the old man humming My Way from the gents’.She wondered what she should play, tuning the strings. Most of the songs she knew were sad love ballads, not exactly the best choice for the occasion. Maybe bringing the guitar wasn’t such a good idea, and she should just burn out what battery her phone had left. That made her think of the music she had in it. She smiled. No Return’s songs were nothing like tender, and she knew enough of them to keep herself entertained for a good while.Lucky her, she had many of the rare acoustic versions, so she wouldn’t need to improvise some lousy adaptation. She’d taken about a year of guitar lessons, but she’d had to drop them long ago, so she wasn’t that good at playing.Her fingers slid over the metallic strings, looking for a chord. There it was, the beginning of Break Free.She didn’t look
No Return One Coffee
Where was he? How long had he slept? His arm was numb under his body and his back ached. He sat up, rubbing his eyes with one hand as the other reached for his phone. Ten-thirty, he’d slept about an hour. A chill ran down his sore back. It was cold there and he was already wearing the only sweater he had. And there was no coverage, of course, forget about internet.He remembered the coffee machine at the hall. Getting up wasn’t easy, but the promise of a hot drink pulled stronger than his weariness.He strolled across the waiting room, fishing in his pockets for change.The family was enjoying a late picnic of snacks and the old man mopped the floor near the closed booths. An hour later and he still hummed the same song. Outside, it poured like frigging end of the world.It was even colder in the empty hall. He shivered up to the coffee machine, so old it didn’t take bills, only coins. So he inserted one into the slot and waited for the buttons to light up.They didn’t, and his coin c
No Return Wash Away
The gentle poke kicked her back from her private idaho of bitterness and despair to reality. She looked up to find a young man frowning down at her from under the peak of his baseball cap, looking halfway between concerned and not quite convinced about what he was doing.She tried to move away from him but the wall behind her cut her way, so she nodded, glancing at the end of the hall.The young man studied her as she stood up slowly, her back still to the wall. His eyes were dark in the shadow of his cap and he set his square, firm jaw, stepping back when she tried to come out of the gap.“I’m fine,” she muttered, annoyed at his attention, wiping her nose on the back of her wrist.She wanted to go to the ladies’, but he was in her way. So she kept her head down and just brushed past him.The soft click when she locked the restroom door made her feel safe from new disruptions. She rested against it for a moment, trying deep shaky breaths. Thank God the old man had left the place squea
No Return Two Coffees
He dropped himself on the couch, still swearing black and blue. They could go to hell, the coffee machine and the fan. He was so pissed, he didn’t bother to check if his phone had any thread of coverage. As if.He’d downloaded his emails at the airport, so he thought he could kill some time reading them. He brought his legs up to the couch and turned his back to the waiting room and the rest of the frigging universe.The third email made him smile. It was from the head of the LA Squad. As usual, she wanted to know when they would be back home, so she could put up a signing with the local soldiers. She was a funny mental case that followed them since before their first album, and she never abused her privilege of direct communication with him.Even though he wouldn’t be able to send his reply unless he found a way back to civilization, he started typing it. Until something blocked the light. He glanced up to find the fan standing right in front of him, handing out a steamy paper cup to
No Return Nothing Personal
The family had improvised beds with chairs and they were all sound asleep, wrapped up in their coats and jackets. The old man was done cleaning and gone—Silvia pictured him sleeping in some small backroom, to an old record player spinning a Sinatra album.At the hall, she showed Jay how to make the coffee machine work. His triumphant grin when he was able to get his own coffee made her chuckle again.“This fucking junk made me sweat for nothing,” he said, and glanced at Silvia. “If you forgive my French.”She pretended to be shocked and crossed herself. Jay narrowed his eyes, raising only one eyebrow.They were still suffocating their giggles as they tiptoed across the waiting room back to their corner.As they sat back down, Silvia thought that it looked like both of them had decided to put behind their rough start, acknowledging it’d be easier to bear the situation together.“So, Argentina,” Jay said. “Buenos… Aires? Heard it’s a big city.”“Yeah, too big for my guts.”“You don’t li
No Return The Guitar
“You have a guitar, right?”Silvia needed a moment to extract herself from her gloomy musing. “Yeah. Do you wanna play?”Jay shook his head with a playful smile. He’d weighted how mean it would be of him to do this, and his inner bastard argued he’d promised to make amends first thing next morning and it was still night, so. The fact that she didn’t recognize him annoyed him more than he was willing to admit, pushing his ego to team up with his inner bastard.“No, but bet you can play,” he replied in his most innocent accent.She stared at him for a moment, like wondering what was with him, then she shrugged and nodded.Jay noticed the rigid case she was opening looked brand new, and the guitar itself made him raise his eyebrows. It was a gorgeous electric-acoustic Fender. Who took such a beauty on a trip other than a music tour? His fingertips tingled to caress the velvet wood and the shiny metallic strings.Unaware of his cannibal-craving stare, she sat the guitar on her lap and che
Latest chapter
