Funeral

One evening, a man was returning home from work. The street lay before him like a tarmac ribbon; albeit, one that had been worn over time. A white line ran down the center, relatively unbroken compared to the scarred and potholed concrete.

He had no idea what he was doing there. He was unaware of what day it was or what time. It seemed like any other day to him. 

Soon he saw a woman walking towards him and stopped her. 

“I’m afraid I forgot my watch,” the man said with a polite smile. “Can you please tell me the time.”

She couldn't breath, it felt as if someone was choking her. Her heart was racing and all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and wait for someone to save her. But no one would, no one was there. She screamed and ran away. The man was shocked. A few minutes later, he noticed that other people were afraid of him too. 

He couldn’t believe his eyes. He didn’t want to anyway. He never saw something like that even in his worst nightmares. But that was only because his brain always woke him up before such a horrific image covered his mind. And now he was seeing something his eyes won’t ever be able to erase. 

Whenever someone saw him coming, they flattened themselves against a building, recoiled in horror or ran across the street to stay out of his way. 

“There must be something wrong with me,” thought the man. “ I’d better go home as soon as possible.”

He hailed a taxi, but when the taxi driver laid eyes on him, he floored the accelerator and sped away. 

“This is crazy!” the man said to himself. 

He couldn’t figure out what was wrong and had no idea what was going on. All he knew was that he was scared and confused. 

“Maybe my wife can come and pick me up,” he thought. 

He found a telephone and called home, expecting to hear his wife’s sweet voice. Instead, a strange voice answered. 

“ Is Mrs. Ailes there?” he asked.

“I’m sorry she isn’t,” the voice said. “Her husband died a few days ago in a horrible car crash and she’s attending his funeral.”

-DC