Rabbits(7)

She put the journal away and turned to me, her expression grave. “You can’t tell anybody about what’s going to happen tonight.”

“I won’t,” I said.

“I’m serious.” She grabbed my wrist, hard. “You have to promise.”

“I won’t tell anybody.” But Emily’s eyes indicated that she needed more. “I won’t, I promise. I swear.” I held up my pinkie. Emily ignored my pinkie and stared into my eyes for what felt like forever. Then, seemingly satisfied with whatever she’d found there, she double-checked the information in her journal and slid it back into her purse.

Annie popped out the Tori Amos cassette. “What’s the number again?”

“One-oh-seven point three,” Emily answered.

“Got it.” Annie slowly tuned the dial to that number. There was nothing but static. “Are you sure this is it?”

“I hope so.” Emily adjusted the volume on the radio, then turned to the two of us and smiled.

It was beautiful and unnerving.

In my experience, Emily Connors wasn’t the kind of girl who smiled.

“Time?” Emily asked Annie, suddenly all business.

“Six minutes after ten,” Annie replied.

Emily touched my arm and said, “Whatever you do, don’t freak out, okay?”

I did my best to look cool as Emily put the truck into drive and guided us back out onto the old logging road.

We’d been listening to the static from the radio for about a minute or so when Emily nodded to her sister, then pressed the lever that turned off the truck’s headlights.

Black.

We were driving at the same speed, but now I couldn’t see a thing.

We were completely blind.

Static from the radio filled the cab.

“Emily, I don’t think—”

“Sshhh.” Emily grabbed my arm again, hard enough that she actually left four bruises, one from each finger. “Listen.”

I shut up and listened.

“Did you hear a voice?” Emily asked.

Annie shrugged. Clearly, she hadn’t heard anything. Emily looked at me and I just shook my head.

I was trying, but I found it hard to focus due to the constant static and the situation. Sitting in a truck with Emily and Annie Connors, speeding along an old logging road in complete and total darkness, wasn’t standard operating procedure for me.

“What was that?” Emily turned up the radio. “Please tell me you heard that.”

“I think so,” I lied.

I still hadn’t heard anything except for a steady stream of noise. My head was aching. The static from the radio tickled my ears and a thick fuzzy hum began vibrating, moving upward from somewhere deep inside my chest. My mouth was suddenly extremely dry.

I’d always attributed that sick feeling to the fact that we were speeding down that country road completely blind, but when I think back to that time now, I’m not sure that was it. Something felt…off in that moment. Different, somehow.

“Maybe we should turn on the lights?” Annie sounded scared.

“We’re fine,” Emily said.

When she’d switched off the headlights, the road was straight as far as the eye could see, but we’d been driving for quite a while since then. I crossed my fingers and hoped that we weren’t about to hit a curve.

“I don’t know, Em…” Annie said.

“Sshhh,” Emily said to her sister. “It says we have to drive in the dark.”

An almost imperceptible amount of moonlight occasionally revealed a bit of the road or the trees. I chose to believe Emily was using that light to keep us safely on the road.

“There.” Emily leaned forward. “Did you hear that?”

I did hear something, almost imperceptible at first, but it was there.

A woman’s voice.

Just as I was about to ask Emily if she’d heard the same thing, a loud buzzing filled the inside of the truck. Emily yanked the lever, the headlights flooded the road ahead of us, Annie screamed, and the world exploded in a brilliant flash of light and glass.



* * *



—

When Emily had turned the headlights back on, they’d cut like two tiny nuclear blasts through the darkness, illuminating a giant bull elk in the middle of the road.

The accident was over before my mind had time to process what was happening.

Emily and I were thrown clear through the windshield, but Annie remained inside the truck.

We were told later that, due to the position of her neck at the time of the accident, Annie had died instantly, and that there was no way she could have suffered.

I had a dislocated shoulder, a serious concussion, and a bunch of cuts and bruises, but I was lucky. Emily’s right leg had been badly injured. She spent almost a year in the hospital, and longer than that in physical therapy.



* * *



—

The last time I saw Emily Connors was a few years after the accident.

My parents and I were driving down to San Francisco to visit some family friends. On our way out of Washington, we pulled over so I could use a gas station restroom. I was walking back to the car when I saw her.

She was sitting in the back seat of the car next to ours. I smiled and waved, but Emily just kept staring straight ahead, looking right through me as if I didn’t exist. I was about to knock on the window to get her attention, but there was something about the way she was staring. I had the very distinct feeling she was someplace else, someplace far away, and that a knock on the window wouldn’t be able to reach her. Before I had a chance to change my mind and knock, the car she was sitting in pulled away and exited onto the freeway.