Part 4

uXqwAqL.png [https://i.imgur.com/uXqwAqL.png]

I figured a ground beef burrito would be fine. Asking her for confirmation was met with silence as she bowed her head and shut her eyes.

And there was silence aside from the rumble of the other cars and murmurs from where people were ordering. I tapped on the wheel but much lighter than usual. It was strange how nervous she made me.

I tried to counteract that by getting her to talk. I asked, "So…what are you doing out so late?"

Her eyes blinked open, like she'd just awakened from a trance. Her head leveled and she looked out through the windshield. I was about to say something else when she responded, "A party. I was at a party with some friends. Lousy friends. They dumped me. Drove off. Splashed me too with their wheels. I was angry. So angry. I wished I could grab them and throttle the life out of them. The host…of the party.. he gave me some blankets. All he had…to dry off. But I wanted to go home right away. Before I felt sorry for coming. I wanted out of there. I walked home. A long ways along the side of the road. And then…I got really tired. I guess I made it here. So tired…" She leaned her head back against the car cushion.

I noticed when she talked about her friends that there was a different feeling in her voice. Her mouth clenched and seemed to tremble. There was harsh anger. But it drifted away.

All I could do was nod and tell her, "Wow. Yeah." She didn't look interested in saying anything else. I went back to slowly drumming on my wheel and put the radio back on. It was just static, as was sometimes the case at this time of night. The local stations stopped broadcasting and it was hard to get the distant ones.

I glanced over. Her head was all the way back against the seat. Her chest very slowly rose and fell. I couldn't hear her breath. I filled the silence with a little more drumming and told her, "I just got home from work not too long ago. I usually eat late like this due to weird hours. It's been a weird night though."

Still resting on the cushion, she turned to face me. Her gray eyes locked on me as she asked, "Oh?"

I continued, "Well...you know…just weird stuff which can sometimes happen when you're alone at night and…you know…the imagination goes."

She answered simply, "Oh…"

I could've stopped there, but I added, "And some sort of near accident as I was driving home. I think I hit a fence." I chuckled roughly.

After a quiet moment of sustained staring, she asked, "Why do you think it was a fence?"

I gave her my best shrug and noted, "Actually…I'm not sure what it was, but a lot of people hit the fence by the old road in town."

She asked, "….the old road by the river?" I nodded and she looked away from me.

And that was it for a while. We moved up a few cars. Then, she suddenly started to sing to herself. It was that song.

"All the dreams we held…soooo close…seemed to all go up in smoke…let me whisper in your ear…Angie…Angie…"

Her voice became a small, rough whisper. Then she screamed an ear-splitting scream. I tensed up and glanced around, hoping that no one around thought I was trying to rape or kill her. Her head dipped, and she brought a hand to her nose. It came away smeared with red. I swallowed and fumbled around for a tissue. None left. I handed her some old napkins from the back. She took the paper but merely looked at it as twin, red streaks of blood oozed down.

I kinda wished I'd checked her for weapons before letting her into my car. It was clear she was disturbed and those blankets could be hiding anything underneath. At least her scream had melded into the screams of some teen girls in a car right ahead and not attracted any weird looks. Although maybe it was better to get some attention…if she was dangerous.

I asked, still a bit of ringing in my ears, "What's wrong?" Angie cradled her nose and looked at me as she asked me, "Was it you? Was it?" Her eyes were wide and trembling.

I shook my head and asked her, "Was I what? You're really weirding me out here. I wanna help you but I'm kinda scared…"

Slowly, her eyes relaxed and she noted, "So am I. So very much. Terrified.…"

I furrowed my lips. We moved up in line. Very close to the speaker. I wondered what I could tell her. Then, suddenly, all the tension vanished from her. She gave a slight laugh and looked to me.

"What was I saying?" She dabbed her bloodied nose with the tissue.

I told her, "You were screaming. Then you said you were terrified."

After a quiet moment, she actually started giggling in a way which sounded more like hiccups. She noted, "Sounds like me…What a night…" Leaning back against the cushion, she smirked slightly.

There was really nothing I could say. She gave a deep yawn and leaned her legs back under her like she was straddling the seat. She murmured, "Man…I could use some more weed."

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I couldn't smell it on her, but drugs were at the top of my theories. I figured on something a little harder though. She brushed at her nose. It looked fine now.

She glanced over at me and asked, "So, what now?"

I blinked at her. She looked at me without expression. I told her, "I don't understand…"

Angie touched a hand to her cheek. "Right. Sorry about that. Sorry about all this. I should go…"

She leaned towards the door. I was tempted to let her go, but I worried about hearing she was dead in tomorrow's newspaper. So I said, "No, it's okay. I'll take you where you want to go…so long as it's alright."

Crouching down a little, she didn't say anything. We were right at the speaker.

I cleared my throat and spoke. I surveyed the menu board and looked back to Angie. She stayed in the same position. I went about my order with my usual and picked a ground beef burrito for her.

When I was done, I nodded to Angie. Still no reaction. The muffled female voice on the other side of the speaker told me the cost then finished, "...Thank you, ma'am."

I coughed but didn't say anything back. I knew my voice was a bit boyish and I got that from time to time. Sometimes I'd make a good laugh of it when I came to the window. Angie didn't seem to notice.

Once at the window, I fished out enough money from my wallet. The window operator had long, reddish hair tied into a tight ponytail. She took the money passively. I tried to give myself a deeper voice, but she didn't seem to notice. She passed the receipt and change to me and said, clearly, "Here you go, miss."

I had to pause and looked down at the pieces of paper in my hands before I looked over at the red-haired lady. It was a little dark in the car. But still. I shouldn't have persisted. She was probably just in a weird, automated mental mode at this time of night. But I cleared my throat and called her over. A cook passed behind her.

She bent her microphone out of the way and gave me an almost accusing look. I thought about how I should phrase what I was about to say. After a short pause, I told her, "My name is…"

Suddenly, my radio turned on full blast. I turned around and glanced at it, not sure why it was on. Angie was on her side of the car, far away from the knob. She could've pressed it quickly but the button wasn't even depressed. I wondered if it was some sort of technical problem. After all the stuff that had broken on my car, I couldn't put it past the radio to break as well.

But I didn't have time to mull on that as the lady in the window said, "What was that? Did you need some condiments or something, miss?" That again. She cupped her ear a little. Maybe hard of hearing, but she could surely see me. I tried to say something but bags of food, my order, were passed to her. I took them from one by one and held them out to give to Angie.

She wasn't sitting there. I glanced back and she wasn't in the back seat either. Not that there would be much room in there for someone to sit comfortable. There was also an old bottle in the cup holder which separated the front seat from the back so there was really no way she could subtly sneak over there. I hadn't heard the door close and yet it was as sealed as it had been from a moment before. However, I could never go by the door alarm or the overhead light. Neither of them worked consistently since the last electrical repair my car needed. So she could've left without me being alerted. Except I didn't hear any sound of the door opening and closing and I was sure I had a pretty good ear. I had been distracted though.

The lady in the window interrupted my thought with another female pronoun. I grabbed the last bag from her and made my way down the path. I moved slowly, wondering if I could see where Angie had gotten out. I turned right and traced the side of the parking lot. There was a massive, brown brick wall which didn't look like it had any way you could hoist yourself up it, especially a small thing like her. The driveway was back quite a distance. Still, she could probably sprint all the way. Didn't make much sense to me that she would do that though. Shaking my head, the radio station switched to another song. It was that same one. The 'Angie' one. I half-wondered if something was trying to screw with me.

I checked over in the passenger's seat one last time and nearly jumped out of my belt. Angie was back and right where she'd been a minute ago. Only her eyes were wide and glaring right at me. Her mouth clenched. I couldn't imagine a more intimidating sight from such a slight woman. My mouth hung open and I tried to find words.

After a trembling moment, she seemed to relax. Her eyes slightly narrowed and she said, "I need to go a few places. You will take me." Her nose looked like it was oozing blood again.

I wanted to say no. I was going to say no. But there was something in her expression. Not the anger of a moment before. It was something else. I didn't want to imagine what I might see if I rejected her.