The Eyes Have It

It was what her smile did to her eyes. She lit up. We’d just met. She shimmered. Her roundhouse kick came later as we sped towards the coast on our first getaway when another woman left a voicemail for me.

“Play it,” she said.

“Um…”

“Now, play it.”

I’m glad she was not packing a weapon.

In what we now refer to as our “Ozark moment,” I had missed a poorly-lit backwoods onramp to the highway. Godbless my lucky stars, the VM was tame and open-ended. It was still evidence that another woman was involved.

“What do you want to do?” I asked, just as the country road became a dead end. I turned the car back toward Austin.

10 minutes in, she said, “Stop the fkn car.”

It was a beautiful night as she opened the car and walked five paces down the road. I turned off the car and sat in silence. I had nothing left to say.

She got back into the car, saying nothing.

“Which way should I go?”

Read more Short-Short Stories from John.