Death on Repeat

Matt was accustomed to acting as an insulator to stop his girlfriend before her flow of electric current caused major damage. As soon as Matt got out of his Nissan Sentra, Lily bounced over, grabbed his arm and told him to close his eyes. His touch did not have the usual grounding effect, and Lily was acting like his border collie, Drogo, when Matt returned home from anywhere.  Her giddiness gave Matt a stir of excitement tinged with fear. His mind touched on the skydiving incident, then yanked back as if the memory were scalding. Lily was a dangerous combination of wild ideas and lack of fear.  

“Okay, open!”  Lily squealed.

Matt opened his eyes, revealing a white van parked in his girlfriend’s driveway.  He looked from the van to Lily, whose eyes were disco balls, shining with eagerness.

“Did you borrow someone’s minivan? Whose is it?”  Matt asked.

“It’s not a minivan! It’s a 2010 Ford Transit Connect Van, and it’s ours, baby!  I bought it.”  Lily said and clapped her hands like she was her own standing ovation.  

“What? How?  These were way too expensive when we were looking.”

“I traded my Corolla, and got eight grand for it. I had a couple thou saved up to make up the difference. Anyway, do you love it?”

Matt walked around the van, sizing it up and performing the required actions  of kicking the tires and knocking on windows. He stood at the front, looking into the windshield and ran his hand through his brown messy waves.  He couldn’t help hearing his dad’s voice in his head telling him to never make rash decisions on big purchases. She should have discussed this with him first, he thought. Matt always did have trouble saying no to Lily, and her smile was fixed on her flushed face.  Besides, it was a sweet-looking van.

“I love it,” he finally replied.

More rapid clapping ensued and with added twirling. 

Their plan to join the van-life trend and live in a converted van for a year was suddenly no longer a pipe dream. The idea to take a year after college to travel before they had to start adulting had been conceived in a bar, as many ingenious plans are.  It had been spring break of their senior year of college, and Matt and Lily were high on life and love and weed. 

Then, with graduation three months behind them, Lily had started pressuring Matt to shit or get off the pot. Purchasing the van was Lily’s not-so-subtle way of motivating Matt to shit.

Not one of the four parents involved in the situation was thrilled with the kids’ year-long road trip.  However, the kids were twenty-two years old and had spent the previous two months converting the van into a surprisingly stocked and functional living space. The wind was chilly the afternoon they hugged their parents and drove off with promises to keep them frequently updated. Matt, Lily, and their border collie, Drogo decided that heading to northern California to see the legendary waterfalls of the national parks would be the first stop.  

“There’s this tunnel that people take pictures from right before the exit, so the photo shows inside the tunnel and the outside view,” Matt explained as they drove into the park.

“We should totally do that.  I think I’ve seen some of those photos on Instagram before,” Lily said.

Light raindrops, just enough to warrant wipers, appeared silently on the windshield, and the afternoon sky muted to a hazy gray.  The white Ford van climbed up the two lane highway that wound around the mountains.  The black asphalt, shiny with rain, looked to Matt like a snake coiling up the cliff.  He shuddered at the thought of a shiny black snake and focused on the yellow line that ran up the middle of the road.  Matt noticed that he was squinting and couldn’t make out the yellow line more than a car length ahead.  Lily and Drogo were taking in the mountain and valley views out the passenger side of the van when Lily first noticed the fog. 

“Damn, there’s some thick fog out there,” Lily observed, peering into the murky air. 

 Rain splattered audibly on the windshield as Matt turned to look out Lily’s window.  The first cold tingles of fear washed over Matt’s skin, and he returned to look straight ahead.  It’s just rain and fog, he told himself.

“Yeah, hopefully we’ll make it to the tunnel before it reaches us, and it will probably be clear on the other side,” Matt said, trying to convince himself.

“This is so cool,” Lily said, “It’s like a cloud is gathering us in a big hug.”

Matt’s chest clenched with anxiety and irritation.  He couldn’t believe they had gotten themselves into this dangerous situation, and Lily was talking about a damn cloud hug.  We should turn around, he thought, and head back down to safer roads on lower elevations.  Matt looked in his rear-view mirror and realized turning around was not a possibility, as he couldn’t see in front or behind him, or on the side for that matter.  His sweaty palms slipped on the steering wheel.  It was near zero visibility.  Zero freaking visibility, and they were driving on a wet road, winding up a mountain with a sheer drop off the edge of a cliff on one side, and possible oncoming vehicles on the other.

“This is sorta creepy, Matt,” Lily admitted.  “Can you see where you’re going?  Cuz I can’t.”

“No, I can’t see anything either, but at least we’re getting a nice hug,” Matt snapped.

Lily visibly winced at Matt’s tone; he had never spoken harshly to her.

She hesitated a moment before uttering softly, “What should we do?”  

Matt’s heart melted at the sound of fear in her voice.  His brave, fearless, beautiful Lily was scared.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s fine,” Lily said. 

Matt tried speeding up with the idea of getting out of there quicker, but danger preyed on them from all sides. They could be rear-ended, hit a car in front of them, get hit from oncoming traffic to the left side, or fall down the cliff on the right. Panic began to flow like an electric current between the pair when a dazzling, yet glaring light appeared in the distance. The brilliant beacon miraculously shone through the opaque fog, causing the couple to squint and shield their eyes. 

“Matt! Slow…” Boom! The hood of white Ford Transit Van flattened upon impact with the mountain on the side of the tunnel entrance. Glass smashed and shattered on the wet pavement.

Lily opened her eyes after a second? An hour? She had no idea.  Her head turned to her left slowly and painfully.  

“Matt!  Matt! Are you…say something, please!”

“Oh thank God, Lil, I’m here,”  Matt answered and turned toward her.  They both tried to turn their lips up in a grin.  Drogo leapt from the back of the van and growled.  Their grins turned into weak laughter, and the fog began to clear.

“The tunnel,” Matt said, staring into the dark, gaping mouth next to the crashed van, and they laughed harder.”

Matt, Lilly, and Drogo dragged themselves out of the ruined van and walked to the tunnel opening.

“There’s a footpath on the side,” Matt observed. “Let’s walk through and at least get our picture.”

Lily laughed. “You’re crazy. Are you hurt?”

Matt was already headed to the back of the van, where he pried the door open and reached to retrieve his camera.

“You’ve always been the crazy one,” Matt replied. “No, I feel pretty good.  You?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine.  We must not have hit as hard as I thought we would going that fast.”  Lily was puzzled, as if trying to figure out a word problem in math class.

The fog had completely dissipated, and bright sunshine was visible at the end of the tunnel.  Matt and Lily, with Drogo reluctantly following, made their way on foot to the opposite end of the tunnel.  The tunnel was dark, and the air was thick with humidity.  The two of them didn’t speak as they made their way toward the light.  Drogo whined in protest.

“What’s the prob, Drogo? Are you hurt?”  Matt inquired of his dog.  He reached to pick Drogo up, but the dog whined and backed away.

“He’s just spooked, I think. Matt, c’mon, he’ll follow.”

The light was getting larger and brighter as they approached the exit of the tunnel.  

Matt shouted up to Lily, who was a few feet ahead, “Hey, let’s stop here and take the photo.”

Lily turned and threw her arms in the air to pose in front of the tunnel opening.  Matt focused his point and shoot that hung from a wide strap around his neck.   

“Can you see the scenery outside the tunnel?”  Lily asked with her arms still poised above her head.

“Yeah, it’s perfect.  I got you on the right and the lush valley and mountains to the left.”

Click. Matt snapped the picture.

Lily spun back around and yelled, “Let’s go!”

The two of them held hands and walked into the glaring light.

Officer Kathy Benton slowed the cruiser down and stopped next to the mangled van.  She and her partner, Officer Lyle Watts, sprang out of their vehicle and ran to the van to see if people were in need of help.  

“Oh, dear Jesus,” Officer Benton said. “ Check for a pulse.” she told Watts, gesturing to the passenger side. 

  Benton reached her arm through the shattered window and placed two fingers on Matt’s neck as Watts placed his fingers on Lily.  

After a moment, Watts uttered, “I got nothing.”

“Me neither,” Officer Benton uttered then sighed.

Ruff, ruff, rer-rer-ruff!

The officers looked up to see a border collie, dragging a camera by the strap in his teeth, running toward them.

“What the hell?”  Officer Benton asked.

Drogo dropped the camera at her feet and shook his booty vigorously.  Watts came over and scratched the dog’s head, ruffling his fur.

Officer Benton had picked up the camera and was searching for the last photo.  She paused, squinting at the small screen.

“Any good pictures?”  Watts asked.

“No, interesting though.  The last picture was taken almost out the other side of the tunnel.  It’s just some scenery on the left and a blurry mass I can’t make out on the right side.

Matt noticed he was squinting and couldn’t make out the yellow line more than a car length ahead. Lily and Drogo were taking in the mountain and valley views out the passenger side of the van when Lily first noticed the fog.