Look of surprise

Chapter Fifteen

I AWOKE with the wind howling against the car. I tried to move, but something bound me. I struggled to untangle myself from the twisted rug and sat up sweating.

I sat staring at the dashboard unable to calm my trembling body. Only when my trembling turned to shivering did I come out of my trance. Slowly I put my hand to the window and rubbed away some of the condensation.

I looked out. The icy moon shone like a disembodied eye. I pulled on the door lever. The wind sluiced against me, like cold surf. I climbed out.

I tried to look at my watch, but the moon froze behind thick cloud. I needed light to see the time.

I searched under the dashboard for a torch. My hands found nothing. The moon still hid as I stumbled to the boot and opened it. My fumbling found nothing save a few loose screws, a spanner and, something else.

I could not see the object in the darkness, nor could I recognise it by its shape as I felt it with my hands. What could it be?

Then I knew and my heart stopped. The moon slid from behind a cloud and I looked at the ticket dispenser. A ticket rolled out.

I did not turn when I heard the bus. I saw it coming clearly enough in my minds eye. I saw the young man with his hands cupped at the front window.

I saw the look of surprise on his face. I even knew what he was thinking. He was thinking that I was a thief. As the blazing lights of the bus rushed by, beads of sweat trickled down my face.

No, not beads of sweat, but beads of blood oozing from the thin slits in my skin.

The blood dripped off my chin and fell onto the dispenser. Something in the dispenser moved and another ticket rolled out, glistening in the moonlight. I stood waiting.

Waiting, as the skin on my face peeled in thin strips.

Waiting, as the moon looked down on my new face - my ape face.

I heard the bus draw up behind me. A new bus.

I strapped the dispenser to my waist, turned and walked to the bus - my bus.

© 2003 John Cord