I Hung a Left

With the sun in my eyes, I was driving through the forest on the way home. I’d taken the road hundreds of times, it was my usual route to and from work. The sun was also always in my eyes in the morning, as I drove Eastward in the morning and Westward in the evening. My mouth dropped open when I came to a crossing that normally only had a road on the right, and this time there was also one on the left. It hadn’t been there in the morning when I took a left onto the main road, but there it was. At the intersection, I could go right and head home, but turning left would take me deep into the backwoods, where I had never been before. I hesitated a moment, wondering how on earth the road had appeared out of nowhere, and beads of sweat rolled down my forehead and onto my cheeks as I hung a left and headed into the unknown. “Why are you doing this?” I couldn’t answer myself. Something seemed to be pulling me into the dark alley. The trees and underbrush on both sides seemed to be swallowing me. I stopped to call my wife and let her know I might be a bit late home… No connection.

The further I went, the more anxious I became, but somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to turn around, which would have been difficult to do in any case, as there were no road crossings, the thicket was becoming more and more dense with a deep ravine on both sides, and I wasn’t driving an SUV. The only light at present came from my headlights.

After what seemed like hours (but in all likelihood was only a matter of minutes) I looked at my watch to check the time, and my heart skipped a beat… the hands were turning counter clockwise! It was an old mechanical Rolex, an heirloom from my grandfather, and it had always kept perfect time. Not only were they turning backwards, they were spinning like a whirlwind! Even if the tourbillon was broken it couldn’t explain this bizarre phenomenon. Looking at the watch I got another shock… my hands looked younger, and a scar from an accident a year ago had vanished. I stopped the car, turned on the overhead nightlight, and looked at myself in the mirror. The scar that had been on my face from the same accident was also gone.

“Why on Earth did I ever take this road! What a stupid ass!” I knew that I had to get out of this place, and that turning the opposite way from home had been an error. Still, I only had two choices; either try to back up all the way, or keep going forward until I found a place where I could manoeuvre to turn around. I opted for the latter, the former seeming too difficult. I turned the key but nothing happened, just the clicking sound of the starter trying to start up the motor. “This makes no sense! My car just had a thorough check-up! The motor should be turning over without any difficulty!” All the while, the hands on my watch continued to spin uncontrollably backwards. “But wait, if time is moving backwards I shouldn’t be here, should I?” Just another useless question. I was stuck in the middle of a mysterious back lands in the dark.

I was about to start honking the horn in hope that someone would hear me, when the darkness was shattered by a blinding white light straight in front of me. I shielded my eyes with my hands, and noticed that my watch had stopped dead, all three hands directly on the 12.

The dazzling light overcame my car, surrounding it on all sides, and the car lifted off the ground, rising high into the air. It started turning towards the left and made a full circle, then continued, faster and faster until it was spinning. Fortunately, my seatbelt was fastened, or I would have certainly been thrown all around. Dizzy and overwhelmed, I fainted.

The car slammed back down the ground and jolted me awake. All was pitch black outside now, with a deafening silence that chilled me to my bones. The headlights were still lit and let me know that I was still on the dirt road stuck in the middle of the alley of trees. The overhead nightlight was still on and my watch was still frozen at 12. “What in the Hell happened? Where am I? This is no normal forest!” I dared not venture out of the car, paralyzed by the fear of everything unknown. Needless to say I couldn’t sleep. “I wonder, if the car was spinning in the same way as my watch, it should be pointed North now, because 12 o’clock is North. I was driving South when I hung a left into this forest, so now I must be pointed towards the exit!” The car started without any hitches this time, and I raced as fast as I could to get out of that godforsaken place. After about half an hour I did. As soon as the car came out onto the main road and I crossed over to the one that led home, the road into the forest behind me vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared. In its place was now only a thicket and the tall pines that had always been there. The sun was at the same place on the Western horizon that it had been when I’d started this strange journey, and looking at my watch what I thought was confirmed. “It’s as if I’d never hung a left! I’m not even going to be late home from work! Even my scars are back!”

From then on, every time I passed that spot on my daily commute, I shuddered. Although I knew I wasn’t crazy and that the events of that night really happened, I never said a word to anyone.