My Car Broke Down In The Middle Of Nowhere, And Now I’m Pretty Sure I’ll Never Get Home

“Really!?” Tommy got down on his knees in front of Morgan and continued. “Do ya promise? Do ya promise ya won’t try ‘n run?” Tommy replied.

Morgan looked up at Tommy with desperation. His face was covered in sweat. A piece a hair fell over his eye.

“I promise.”

Morgan sat at the dinner table silently and ate mashed potatoes and jerky. Tommy had wrapped his hand in an antibacterial cloth. He said he didn’t want Morgan to get an “affection”. Tommy looked up from his “taters” and smiled at Morgan.

“Ya know, I’m real glad yer staying with me now. It gits a tad lonely out’ere sometimes,”

Tommy swallowed and glanced at Morgan’s injured hand. “Sorry ‘bout yer finger by th’way. I knew y’all was gonna be a stubborn one. Ya know, if ya think ‘bout it, y’all really don’t need yer lil’ finger to write anywho.” Tommy pantomimed writing with a pencil and studied his hand.

I type my stories you fucking idiot.

Morgan didn’t bother. He just sat silently, occasionally glancing at the clock. It was 7:48 pm when they finished dinner. The sun had long set. After he put his plate in the sink, he grabbed the whiskey and headed toward the guest room.

“I’m going to black out and go to bed…if that’s okay with you?” Morgan said without turning around.

“Oh sher, no problem partn’r. Have a g’night!” Tommy yelled back. He looked back at his food and giggled to himself. “Sounds like a hoppin’ party.”

Morgan didn’t drink a sip of whiskey that night. In fact, he walked into the bathroom and dumped it all down the drain. He put the empty bottle on the bedside table and lied down on top of the bedspread. He closed his bloodshot eyes and thought of Ronnie. Her smile and her laugh. He thought about his dad and all the stuff he wanted to tell him. Morgan lied there all night, eyes closed but awake. Living in the fantasy behind his eyelids.

Morgan’s heart jumped as he heard his door squeak open. He didn’t flinch. He had taught himself as a kid how to control his breathing and blinking to fake being asleep. He also figured Tommy would check on him at some point in the night, so he wasn’t all that surprised. He didn’t hear any footsteps walk over but a hot breath lightly glanced his face and a darkness fell over his eyes. Morgan’s mind scrambled with questions. What is he doing? Is he going to kill me? Is he going to… do something else? The answer made Morgan’s stomach turn. It came from Tommy voice whispering from the doorway: