Born To Write

Jason pulled up along Brian’s car at 51st and Market and rolled down his window.

“Want to hit CJs before heading home,” Jason said.

Enthusiastically Brian said, “Fuck yeah. After the day I had I could use a few cold ones.”

The light turned green and they took off down the street with smoke and the smell of burnt rubber behind them.

When they arrived at the bar Jason said that he could only have a couple of beers and then needed to take his son to the park. He didn’t want to be shitffaced but a couple wouldn’t hurt.

Their eyes had to adjust after walking from outside. They pulled up to the bar and asked the bartender for a couple of beers and began talking about their day.

Each of them had a pretty shitty day and one beer led to another. Then when the beer wasn’t hitting the spot alone they started doing shots of whiskey.

By the time Jason looked at his watch he was three sheets to the wind, and Beian wasn’t any better.

“Fuuk! I haaave t’ get goging,” Jason said.

Brian swayed and nodded. He threw money on the bar to pay for their drinks and headed to the door. Jason was getting up to follow and just about fell when he felt a hand grab him. He looked up and saw their bartender.

“Thanks buudy.”

The bartender looked at him as if looking through him and said, “Don’t drive.”

Brian stood back from him and laughed, “I got thhiss,” and turned and headed to the door. As we walked through the door he looked back and the bartender told him not to drive again and went back around the bar.

Brian shrugged his shoulders and walked to his car where he found Jason passed out in the passenger seat, I guess I’m driving, he thought to himself and jumped in the driver seat. Speeding and doging the stop sign he thought about what the bartender said, but he shrugged it off and continued on his merry way.

He realizes quickly, even in his drunken state that he is likely to get pulled over if he stays on the busy streets. He sees a turn off to go down some country roads to get home and makes a quick left. He can hear a loud thump as Jason hits the door, but doesn’t make a sound.

The back roads are windy with plenty of hills and even though he doesn’t have to worry about cops road kill and deer create other hazards.

His eyes start to feel heavy so reaches down and turns the radio up hoping that will keep him awake, or at least conscious. When he takes his eyes off the road he hears a loud thud. This jerks him back to reality.

When he looks in the rear view mirror he sees a lump in the road, “Damn road kill,” he grumbles to himself and continues to search for a station he likes. When he eventually finds a radio station he smiles to himself and continues on home.

Pulling into his driveway he smiles to himself, he didn’t get pulled over and made it safe and sound. Jason is still passed out in the passenger seat so he leaves him there to sleep it off.

Waking up the steps to the house he hears a scream from inside. Even though he is drunk he runs in and finds his wife whaling.

He sounds surprising sober and ask, “What’s wrong,” and throws his arms around her.

Between sobs she tells him that their son Billy is dead. He was walking to the park hoping to meet Brian there.

Brian steps back and asks with a hesitation in his voice, “Which way was he going?”

Mary looks at him and tells him, “The back roads of course.”

Brian stands back and thinks back to what the bartender said and then realizes he didn’t just say don’t drive. He actually said, “Don’t drive daddy.”