Dividers

DIVIDERS

I don’t know where I am, but I know I need to go somewhere else.

I press down on the gas pedal and feel my car speed up from 50 to 60 in a second. The broken divider lines painted in the middle of the road pass faster and grow closer together. No cars are approaching from front or behind. I gun down harder on the gas and watch the speedometer pass 70 then approach 80. The divider lines begin to form an unbroken continuum as I accelerate.

In the distance I see a pair of bright white headlights coming toward me. They grow bigger and brighter as they approach. My speedometer hits 90 and the oncoming headlights begin to illuminate the inside of my car.

I close my eyes.

When I open my eyes, I’m sitting in a bar at night. The only light comes in through a window pane from a tall street lamp in the parking lot. The other bar patrons are just dark silhouettes huddled together at tables spaced across the barroom with a few more seated at the bar. I see a staircase ascending upwards in the far corner of the barroom. The first few steps are dark and unlit but a light coming from upstairs dimly lights up the next few steps. I can’t see above those steps but I want to see what’s upstairs. I stand up from my bar stool and walk toward the staircase but all the bar patrons stop what they’re doing and look at me. A lightbulb above me turns on and shines directly down on me. I must be the only visible object in the barroom. Everyone can see me. I know the other people are there but I can’t make out their silhouettes while the light above me grows brighter. I have to squint and shield my eyes with my hand to see in front of me. I turn back to the bar and see the bartender looking at me and whispering something to a patron sitting on a bar stool who also turns to look at me.

I walk up to them and say, “I’m lost.”

They look back at me and nod their heads in unison but say nothing.

I turn back around to the barroom. The tables are still there but the people are gone. The door to the staircase is closed. I’m alone now.

I close my eyes.

I reopen my eyes and I’m back in my car with the gas pedal pressed to the floor. The speedometer hits 100 and the road dividers are now solid double parallel lines unbroken in space or time. The approaching headlights are now so close and bright that they illuminate the entire inside of my car. I have to look down to avoid being blinded.

I’m still lost but I know where I am.

I jerk the steering wheel hard to the left and cross the divider lines.

All goes dark.