The car broke down about a mile down the road. Suzan and Tim had just left it and began pacing along a gravel footpath running parallel to the mainroad. All of this part of the country was foreign to the couple. They had lived all of their lives in the big city of Calder.
"How long did you say the next town would be?" Suzan asked.
"The sign back before the car coked out said it was three kilometers." Tim replied
"So it must be around two kilometers, we should be able to see the lights reflected in the sky by now."
But it was still dark, extremely dark, the way a night sky goes pitchblack when it is completely overcast. Neither Tim nor Suzan had felt good about leaving the car. they had left behind some of their luggage, the less valuable things. It was locked. But that convinced neither of them that their belongings would be safe.
"Hey Suzy there's a light up ahead." Tim said more matter of factly that with some excitement in his voice.
Suzy looked up and Tim pointed it out, it was very dim but clear.
The two walked, swapping between looking down at the semi-visible gravel under their feet, and the dim spot in the distance.
"What do you think made the car break down?" Suzan asked, seeking certainties.
"Radiator, probably. But then I'm not a mechanic and have very little experience with that kind of thing."
Tim looked away as if ashamed by the fact, he'd grown up with mechanics all his life, his best friends had known how to tinker. But Tim was obsessed with sports and not the car racing type.
"Can you remember what the name of the next town was?" Tim asked Suzan.
"Yeah, Lingham. I remember because it sounded strangely English."
Tim pointed up at the orange yellow light hanging two feet above a small structure that obstructed their path. A sign five meters from the light was reflected by the orange light in the dark.
"look it says Lingham bus stop."
"whew" Suzan's relief .
"let's check it out." Tim said confidently as if they had already resolved something.
They walked around and inside of the concave bus shelter. With a narrow bench that could probably seat five people.
"Hey look over here." Tim screamed. On the outer wall facing the direction they had come under the orange light was a small sheet of paper glued against the dark green wooden panel wall.
"It's a bus schedule we are saved." Tim said excitedly.
"really!" Suzan said.
They both stuck their faces as close as they could against the paper.
"we need to back off otherwise the light won't hit it." Suzan said.
"It just says bus schedule! There are no times or frequencies here. The sheet is blank."
Suzan said.
Tim took a step back, his grin vanished and he looked around as if they were being filmed for some kind of t.v practical joke.
He awkwardly gritted his teeth imagining an audience laughing at them.
"Ok I'm sure it's just somekind of mistake, let's continue along this path until we get to the next town, simple." Tim declared.
"I guess we don't have much choice." Suzan said under her breath.
They walked around the bus stop to continue their journey, briefly noticing the fact the path didn't go around the shelter it went through it, under it. As if the thing had been lowered down onto the track to save time.
"That's weird isn't it?" Suzan said.
"The whole thing is weird, from the color of the light, to the fact the stupid bus schedule has no times on it."
"wouldn't make a diffrence" Suzan said angrily.
"How so?" Tim asked genuinely surprised.
"when was the last time you saw a car pass us on this raod, it's two am in the morning."
Tim went dead quiet and the couple walked on in that same way, looking down to check they were still on the gravel then up into the night sky which was almost pitch black. Silence except for the scrunching of small stones under their shoes.
After about two kilometers Tim bravely broke the silence.
"Well atleast we have this handy path, it follows the road, there's no way we miss the next town. There'll be accomodation, restaurants and people to talk to."
Suzan was mute.
The silence was friendlier to Suzan, whereas Tim felt it's scorn. Of course silence doesn't have that kind of power. Our minds interact with silence, claiming it as savior or torturer.
Tim longed for any response from Suzan. And continued like that for what seemed hours of scrunching steps over those stones. The sounds the only relief from an unnatural deadening silence, that Tim felt would swallow him and digest him into oblivion.
Suzan tried to read her wrist watch, it was no good. it was too dark. she stopped, Tim stopped several paces ahead and turned around.
"We must have walked ten kilometers, we must have taken the wrong route somehow."Suzan said the first signs of panic in her voice.
"Impossible the road has been straight, there have been no intersections." Tim said reassuringly.
"It has been almost pitch black the whole way, we could have easily missed it."
This time Tim went silent. realizing Suzan was right. To avoid his doubt and dread he moved his leg into the next pace forward. Getting a small relief at hearing Suzan following him.
The path and the road didn't veer, there were no turns, it was dead straight and pitch black.
Nothing seemed to change about their surroundings even the vegetation they could slightly make out to their left growing parallel to the path was exactly the same height.
Tim slowed his steps to let Suzan catch up. So that the two would be side by side.
He took her hand.
"It'll be alright, i'm sure we will get to the next town in no time." Tim said calmly
"Did we hit anything before the car broke down on the road back there?" Suzan asked.
"I don't think so, there was a clunk sound and the motor blew up." Tim replied.
"Hey looks like a car in the distance" Suzan said excitedly.
"We can't flag it down." Tim said.
"Why not?" Suzan said.
"Besides the fact that it's pitch black and the car might hit us, the occupants could be criminals, it's probably almost 3am by now."
"Well no need to anyway." Suzan said with sudden resignation.
Tim still looking at the outline of Suzan.
"Why not?"
"Because it's just fireflies."
Fireflies that had formed the exact symmetry to give the impression of headlights thought Tim.
He almost laughed out loud, thinking about how funny it would be to be observing themselves from an outside perspective.
Suzan started to walk more briskly now. withdrawing her hand from Tim's. Tim's first insinct was to protest. But the he saw it, they could see the outline of the flat land with the horizon in the distance.
"It's the next town." Suzan said with awe in her voice.
"I think you are right." Tim agreed.
They both started walking much faster, as the distant glow still very subtle got closer and closer.
It looked a little like the first signs of dawn before the sun comes up on an overcast morning. Still dark but kind of glowing.
Tim and Suzan were now jogging until thy could see the slight glow lmost over their heads, the vegetation came into sight, the road was more visible. they could almost make out the stones under their feet. And still they accelerated now running.
They ran until their lungs and energy were exhausted. They stopped, looked up and realized that they were probably somewhere in the middle of the subtle glow that should have been light pollution.
Emitting off houses, streetlights, shops, factories and intersections.
But there was nothing there except the gravel path, vegetation that resembled some kind of wheat to their left, and the straight well paved road to the right. No traffic, no sounds outside of the sound of gravel underfoot.
So they moved forward.
"I still can't make out the time on my watch. I think it's 3.30am." Suzan said.
"Let's keep walking." Tim replied.
"What do you think is making this strange glow." Suzan asked.
Tim's mind went straight to a gargantuan floating film studio a surrounding stadium of seated people laughing hysterically at the predicament they were in.
"It's probably just the moon behind the clouds."
Suzan laughed.
"What else could it be?" Tim shouted defensively.
They both kept walking this time keeping their eyes on the very vague line of the horizon.
"It's get darker." Suzan said
"Yeah we seem to be moving away from the glow" Tim agreed.
"Should we go back? I think there was a box of matches in the side pocket of my clothes bag in the car."
"No we have walked over fifteen kilometers, I'm sure of it."
"What would be the point of that..." Though it kept getting darker and darker. Even the steps they were taking seemed to be more muffled.
"Okay, maybe it is a good idea." Tim conceded.
Just able to make out the margins of the path Tim and Suzan turned around.
They walked back toward the glow they had left behind. It seemed dimmer somehow now to both Tim and Suzan.
"Wait a minute it hasn't gotten much lighter I can hardly make out the road nor the plants here at the side of the path." Tim said frantically.
"Tim are you sure the car broke down?" Suzan asked.
"Yeah, I'm not a mechanic. But the car wasn't working anymore."
The couple walked on in an uneasy silence. Suzan's last question was now doing loops in Tim's head.
Are you sure the car broke down... Are you sure the car broke down...
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