Tuesday = #Blogbattle

#BlogBattle is a weekly short story challenge using a single word for inspiration.  Hosted by the talented Rachael Ritchey.  Feel free to join in, or click here to read the current week’s stories and vote for your favorites.

This week’s word:  Ride

FYI:  bruh is the new slang for bro, used frequently with the young people 🙂

Some Kind of Ride

Lucas pulls up in his vintage 1987 Nissan Pulsar just as Ryder is coming out of the house.

“Dude!! Sweet ride…you finished the Nissan!!”

“Yeah, my brother was home for the weekend, I needed his expertise to get it functional.  You wanna take a trip?” Lucas inquires

“Bruh….you know it.”

With that Ryder hops in, and lets out a slow whistle.  “I know this wasn’t in the original design, he points at the contraption that sits in between the two front seats.  Does it work?”

“I guess we’ll find out.” Lucas replies in his normal monotone.

“What fuels it?” Ryder asks with pure excitement.

“Red Bull, Mountain Dew Voltage and Power Bars.”  Lucas says as he holds each one up then dumps them into the contraption.

“You’re kidding right?”

“Negative.” Still no emotion.

“So where are we going?”

“Don’t you mean when?”  Lucas says with an eyebrow raised.  “I’m not sure we should go too far into the future, I don’t think I’m ready to see myself old.  How about just five years, that way we’ll know where we went to college, and will have graduated by then.” Now he’s excited.

“Dude…all you do is stress about college.” Exasperated he leans his head back against the headrest with a thud.

“I’m still waiting to see if I got into MIT…it’s killing me…this way I’ll know.”  Lucas  argues.

“You’re the captain, I’m just here for the ride…you know you’re a total geek right?”

“Yes…a geek with a time machine bruh.”  Emphasizing the last word to poke fun at his best friend.

“So how does it work?” Ryder not bothered by the jab.

“We need a good sized road with no obstructions, we’re going to head over to Stuenkel Road.  I record the date, and then fire ‘er up.  Once we hit a speed of 110 mph, we’ll be history…or…uh…destiny…uh…whatever, you know what I mean.” Lucas says with frustration as he waves his hand.  “Buckle up.”

The actual trip was a bit of a blur, but once they reach the future, the car hits the pavement and starts to slow down, on the same road they left on.  Lucas expertly brings it to a stop, and they look at each other with wide eyes, and just burst out laughing.  Ryder spoke first and eloquently says, “No. Way.”

Lucas gets out of the car and says “Let’s go check things out.”

They hide the car behind some bushes and start walking towards their neighborhood.  Being only five years into the future not much has changed.  It has gotten dark by know, and they continue to walk.  On the other side of the road, Lucas notices what looks like a makeshift memorial, with flowers, teddy bears, and a wooden cross.  Lucas says, “Huh…that’s new,” as he points over to it.

Ryder doesn’t pay it much attention, and continues to walk.  They reach his house first.  They quietly walk in, it’s pretty dark, either no one is home, or everyone is asleep.  Their phones aren’t working so they aren’t exactly sure what time it is.

Everything looks the same, but Ryder says, “Something feels different doesn’t it?”

Lucas shrugs and says, “I don’t know…feels the same to me.”

Ryder walks over to the mantle, and looks at the pictures, he stares at his senior picture, the one he just took over the summer.  “Lucas, what year did you punch in again?”

Lucas walks over pushing up his glasses he replies, “2021 why?  What’s wrong.”

Ryder points to the picture, “This.  Where’s my high school graduation picture?  Or college?  You know my mom always keeps up with those things.”

He begins to look around for the photo albums that his mom has kept for him.  She just started a new one for his senior year.  He finds it and when he opens it, a newspaper clipping falls out, and the album is nearly empty.  He scans over the article, then drops everything, rushing out of the house, saying with urgency “Lucas, we gotta go.”

Looking back and forth to the album, and his retreating friend, Lucas stops for a moment to pick up the newspaper article.  His eyes are wide, and after holding it between his fingers for a few seconds, he drops it as if the act of holding it caused great pain.  He rushes after Ryder.

Ryder is on the back deck bent over resting his hands on his knees gulping in deep breaths.  Shaking his head he says, “We have to go back, I have to get back.”

Without a word they take off at a sprint back to the car.  Lucas fires it up, and the trip back is just the same.  The car hits the pavement and starts to slow down.  Lucas continues to drive.  When they get to the same spot in the road, Lucas slows down and says, “Ryder look, it’s not there.”

Ryder lifts his head and looks out the window, and lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding, and quietly says, “Just take me home bruh.”

When they pull up to the house, Lucas looks over at Ryder and asks, “You gonna be OK?  I am so sorry, I’m going to destroy the time machine.”

“Dude, I’ll be fine, you love this car, don’t destroy the whole thing…How will we pick up chicks?”  He says with a smile.  “Maybe this was the wake up call I needed.  There are things I need to change, and get serious about.  Maybe that won’t be my fate after all.”

Lucas closes his eyes, nods his head once to concur and extends his hand and says, “We don’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”  With that they execute their secret handshake, to seal the agreement.

Ryder walks in the house and finds his mom in the kitchen, she asks, “Hey was that the car Lucas has been working on?  It looks great, you guys take a ride?”

“Yeah…yeah we did.”  Ryder says looking down at his feet.

“You want a snack honey?” Mom’s answer for everything.

“No, I’m good, I’m just gonna go upstairs.  Good night.”  As he passes his mom he grabs her in a big bear hug, and whispers, “Love you mom.”

“Love you too hon,” she hugs him back cherishing this brief moment of affection.  As she lets him go to leave, she says to herself, “that must have been some kind of ride.”

© 2015 Carrie Ann

 

Rachael posted some cool trivia that Blogbattle Week 29 falls on the 29th day of the 9th month.  Also, the last time I did a time travel story was during Mercury Retrograde….we are in it again until October 9.  Things that make you go hmmmm….. 🙂