CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Chloe was very tired, and her happy spirits had long diminished. She now realized that traveling from what felt like one end of the country to another was not an easy feat at all. Her hands and legs were numb from staying in a position for most of the day. Driving nonstop for most of the day and then stopping at night to sleep before starting another round of driving was not something she had ever done before and she was seriously starting to regret not flying. She had only stopped to eat a late lunch and then to pee throughout the journey as she was determined to get to the new city tonight.

Nonetheless, she was very grateful. She was almost at the end of her journey and had just about two hours or less to get to her destination. She rubbed her head wearily and continued driving. The night was very cold, so she had her car’s heater on to reduce the heat and warm herself a little. It looked like it would snow soon and she just hoped that the snow would hold on, at least until she got to a hotel or something.

***

Ethan drove through the long, windy, and lonely roads, regretting his decision to stay so late at the get-together at Chad’s place. It had been fun, no doubt, and he had enjoyed himself so much that he had stayed later than usual. But now, as he drove through the cold night, he realized that he should not have stayed out at Chad’s place so late. He would have come back yesterday, which was a Saturday, but Chad and Bruce had talked him into staying till today, arguing that the journey was a short one and today was Sunday, so what was he coming back home to do? In fact, Bruce had teased him, saying that he missed Madison’s stalking, and that was why he was so eager to go back.

Then this morning, they had woken him up with the idea of the hunting trip. When they got back, he had started to leave, but his friends had claimed that he could not do all that work without tasting the deer that he had shot. Ethan did not need much prodding and so they settled down to grill the meat and eat. In fact, Chad’s neighbors joined in the wining and dining and before Ethan knew it, time had gone.

“It’s late. Why not stay over and leave tomorrow? You can call in sick or something.” Bruce had suggested.

“No, I don’t want to do that. It’s cool. I’ll be fine.” He informed his friend and set out on the three-hour journey. By this time, it was already past six in the evening, so he reckoned that he would get home at past nine, or before ten unfailingly. However, a little over an hour into the drive, he got stuck in traffic on the outskirts of a small town. The traffic was caused by an overturned truck which was carrying logs of wood, plus it was snowing lightly. By the time the traffic cleared and he could begin to move at a reasonable pace, he had wasted more than two hours stuck in it.

He supposed that he could not blame his friends entirely. After all, they did not tie him down and force him to stay. In fact, Ethan had not needed much prodding before he decided to stay and join them in all those activities. Even now, he did not regret it. He only wished that he was not stuck on the road by this time while it was snowing. He hated snow, and even worse, he hated driving while it was snowing.

His mind strayed to think about Mildred and the accident. She had had the accident in this kind of weather condition, although the snow had been much worse than this one was. The weather was already making him feel melancholic, and so, he pushed thoughts of Mildred from his mind, feeling guilty as he did so. The snow started to come down a little harder, causing Ethan to sigh. Before the accident, he had loved snow, but now, he didn’t like it anymore. He slowed his driving to the slowest that he could go without being too slow and wondered when on earth he would get home. He really should have stayed over at Chad’s where he would have had company and not be driving home like a snail in the bitterly cold weather.

***

Derek slowly drove down the road back to the outskirts of the town where he lived. He was in a very foul mood. God! How he hated women. They were evil, conniving creatures whose only plan was to bring about men’s downfall. Well, maybe not all of them, He conceded. His mother was a saint, heaven bless her soul. Maybe he was just unlucky because as far as he was concerned, every woman who he had ever been with had been a bitch. Janet, his so-called beloved wife, hadn’t even tried to fight for him but had turned her back on him without so much as waiting for an explanation. Then that homewrecker called Angela had been the worst bitch ever.

When he had tried to contact her after Janet left him, at least so that he could find some company in someone, she had literally told him that his dick was not that big anyway, neither was she interested in pursuing anything with him. Sometimes, he wondered if the both of them had planned it, Janet walking in unannounced while Angela had been giving him a blow job. After all, his so-called wife had not wasted any time in getting hooked up with that bastard new husband of hers after their divorce. Women! They were scary and deceitful creatures!

Thinking about it was getting him worked up, plus his head was pounding, which was not helping either. He swerved a little, then quickly turned back to the road, not even noticing that he had done so. He began to feel sleepy and decided to speed up so that he could get home fast and take a long nap. His vision was somewhat blurry, but that was okay since he was alone on the road. Not that if there were other vehicles, he wouldn’t be able to control his driving. No, that was not it at all. He was a very good driver and had been driving for many years now, so there was no problem. He sped even faster and began to feel exhilarated.

“Driving gives such a thrill,” he thought to himself, feeling as though he was on a race track, and thousands of people were cheering him on.

Slowly, Derek’s anger began to ebb and he kept on driving recklessly, even though he thought that his vision was somewhat blurry. The faster, the better. He had to get home. Even though no one was waiting for him, he needed to sleep off the alcohol if he was to get back to work and function well the next day. Soon, the road began winding, but he navigated it with what seemed like ease to him, although his vision still blurred once in a while. He saw tail lights ahead of him on the road and wondered if the driver of the car was not moving because it seemed like the car tail lights rushed up to meet him. He horned loudly, or at least he thought he did, but the driver did not move away from the road and at the last moment, Derek swerved to avoid the car and ran off the road a little, before swerving back onto it.

“Motherfucker!” He yelled in anger and what could be termed a little fear. It had been such a close call. What was that idiot thinking by driving so slowly? For good measure, he stuck out his hand and flipped off the driver, even though he was not sure that the person could see that he had done so. The driver probably intended to spend the rest of his night on the road. Well if that was the case, he should leave the road and let other reasonable motorists make use of it.

“The road is built for movement, not for sleeping for crying out loud.” Derek thought to himself, his heart finally returning to its normal pace. His mind drifted again to women and their evil ways. It was because of a damn woman that he was on the road by this time of the night in the first place. He had met that bitch on the internet and they had made plans to meet up today. So he had cut his hair in a bid to look nice and had traveled the two-hour journey to see her. If all went well, he would get laid tonight. It had been long since that had happened, and it seemed that at thirty-seven, he had lost the charm that he had in abundance when he was younger. He had tried his best, heaven knows, but what had he gotten in return for his efforts? Nothing, that’s what!

The bitch did not show up and had switched off her phone after he called her to tell her that he was in her town. He had wandered all this way for nothing and would sure as hell not get laid. It was not fair at all. He scowled at the road and pressed hard on his steering wheel wishing that it was her neck and those of all those females who had scorned him. Before long, he was moving at a neck-breaking speed again.