Scree-eee-tch! Bang. Clunk.
"Oh my God!"
Louise floored the brake just in time as to not hit the
truck in front of her. She glared the Ford Tempo to her
left, took off her seatbelt, and cautiously stepped out of
her automobile. She glanced down at her fingers, white and
shaky. She squinted her eyes. About a hundred meters in
front of her laid a four-car pileup. She felt her knees
begin to shake and sat back in her driver's seat with the
door open. Within minutes, fire trucks, ambulances and
police cars arrived, whizzing by on the shoulder of the
four-lane highway.
She wouldn't make it in time to see Mel perform at "Shaun's
Beer and More" for sure with all of this mess.
"A shame," she sighed. Louise hadn't seen her sister for
over two years.
As she sat back in her driver's seat, her eyes wandered to
the police car behind her, stuck with everyone else in the
jam. In the car to her left was a man of about thirty with
wooly black hair and an unshaven face.
"Cute," she thought as the man turned to peer at her
glance. He quickly looked away and stared blankly at his
steering wheel. Louise's eyes wandered to his back seats,
which were folded down. On top of the seats there was a
quilt laid out carefully without a crease. Among the
different squares and patterns were all of the shades of
blue from baby-blue to turquoise. It must belong to his
mother, she thought, to have such an intricate design.
The police car from behind her honked his horn, motioning
for her to move forward and let him through. It sped ahead
with the other emergency vehicles on the shoulder.
Louise again focused her attention on the blue quilt, which
seemed out of place amidst all of the papers, cans, and
bottles spread throughout the car. The man in the driver's
seat poked the edge of the quilt and out of no-where came a
man of similar looks, slightly older. They were unmistakably
brothers.
The roads didn't clear up for two hours, during which
Louise periodically discovered new reasons for the hidden
man who revealed himself when the coast was clear.
"He was most likely the real cause of Stef's 'accident'."
Her mind wandered to her dead husband, buried on the
opposite side of the city from her home. Louise had thrown
away her wedding ring that same night, almost indifferent to
his actual death. Although she was contented to escape his
grotesque hands, gripping her unwittingly for five years,
she couldn't help inventing faces to the man who drove into
him, leaving him in critical condition on the side of the
road.
"...or maybe he's an illegal immigrant from Morocco, in a
desperate escape from the political world..." The traffic
started to move, and Louise went over her explanation for
her sister.
At a quarter past eleven, Louise stood in front of her
sister's doorway, fidgeting anxiously. She lifted her
fingernails to bite off, but they were already gone from the
car ride. She glanced at the peephole and rang the doorbell.

Out came Mel, dressed in a black baggy t-shirt and jeans.

"Well it's about time!"
"Yeah I know, there was a car crash. I was stuck in traffic
for two hours."
"Yeah, uh huh."
"Anyway, Mel, I want to see you on stage. I'm so glad
you're finally doing something useful. When are you going to
perform again?
"Tomorrow. Seven p.m. Shaun's Beer and More. Next time,
think up something better from your creative mind for not
showing up." She closed the door on Louise, who had not yet
taken a step into the house. She went to the car, where she
slept uncomfortably for the night.
The next evening at ten after seven, Louise found herself
in line at "Shaun's Beer and More". She took her seat in the
packed restaurant of about a hundred and fifty people. Mel
was already singing on the stage, which was just big enough
for her pianist and herself. The audience consisted of
mostly men, stinking of cigarettes and alcohol. As Louise
evaluated the place, she noticed the back of a man's head
that had the same wooly hair as the one in the Ford Temp.
She stood up, getting a better view of the man. To her
surprise, she recognized the face as the cute outlaw waiting
next to her on the highway.
Louise again sat down, contemplating her next move. She
figured that an accusation for the murder of her husband
wouldn't give her a head start in discovering the reason for
his hidden friend in the back seat, so she quickly imagined
a new approach.
She tried, unsuccessfully, to smooth out all of the creases
in her velvety black skirt and carefully placed her shoulder
length hair behind her ears. She confidently marched over to
the man's table, where he sat alone, drinking, watching
Louise's sister on the stage. Louise  pulled up a chair from
a nearby table and sat next to him. The man, with an amused
look on his face, looked her up and down and took a gulp of
beer. Louise cringed.
"Can I help you?"
The man lifted his eyebrows, giving her another head to toe
glance.
"What's your name?"
"That's not something I give out freely."
"I'm officer Louise Colton. I'd like to ask you a few
questions regarding your whereabouts yesterday afternoon..."

The man jumped to his feet, knocking into the table next to
him. Louise smirked.
"You're bluffing. Show me your badge."
Louise calmly dug her hand into her coat pocket and pulled
it back out empty-handed.
"Ok, I'm bluffing. But I want to know your story. I was
driving along the 401 yesterday when a car crashed in front
of me. I was stuck in traffic, and you were too, on my left.
I saw another man hiding under the quilt in your car. I'm
dying to know your story."
The man grinned.
"So there's the reason you look familiar. You were the one
staring at me the entire time." He looked into her
questioning eyes.
"You really want to know my story? I don't want to
broadcast it to the world, but meet me out the back, on
Fairside Avenue."
"It's my first time here, I don't know the area very..."
"Just go around the stage, past the men's washrooms, out
the door. I have to talk to someone first, I'll meet you
there in five minutes."
Louise did what the man said, and found herself on a
silenced street about a hundred meters from the main road.
She chewed on the side of her mouth and lit her first
cigarette of the week while waiting for him.
Two cigarettes later she heard the door creek open, and out
he came, much taller than Louise had imagined. He strolled
up beside her, swallowing his nervousness. He snatched the
cigarette out of her mouth, took a short puff, and gave the
rest to the sidewalk.
"So you want to know why we're hiding. Do you think asking
is enough?"
Louise looked directly into his eyes and nodded her head.
He stared back at her until she looked down at her feet,
which were now blistered from her three inch-tall shoes. "Do
me" shoes, her dad would have called them, laughing.
Louise again examined the man's face, now frightened. It
reminded her of her father, anxiously telling her to relax,
not to worry, as he'd touch her face.
She was no longer curious about his illegal business.
"My sister's in there performing, I havn't seen her
for..."
The man smashed the back of her head against the brick wall
behind her.  Louise's feet could no longer support her as
she slid onto the pavement. The man unzipped his pants,
pulled up her skirt, and forced himself into her as she laid
three-quarters unconscious on the pavement.
The man lifted up his head as a car screetched on the main
road. Disgruntled, he took an awkward look at the woman and
hurried down the street. Louise was motionless.
An eternity later, Louise oriented herself. Her purse was
still on her shoulder. It was two in the morning. She
dazedly lit her last cigarette, pulling herself to her feet.
She wabbled around the block to find her car where she had
left it earlier in the evening.
She put her foot on the gas, but it went too far and almost
hit the car in front of her. She widened her eyes, and
concentrated on the rest of the drive.
Her knock was feeble, but it didn't take long before she
heard her sister squeal.
"Lou...what's happened? We need to get you to the
hospital!"
"Mel, please, just let me sleep. Let me stay here.
Please..."
Louise entered her sister's apartment for the first time.
Five steps away from the front door, she collapsed onto her
sister's couch. Mel brought her a blanket and went back into
her room. Louise could hear her quietly talking with a man.
She was alone.