Highway hypnotism, it’s a real thing. Driving a tractor trailer at night, with that monotonous ground soaring white line, and the piston-pumping purring engine puts you in another dimension, muscles relaxed, and attention compromised. You feel safe if there’s empty road ahead of you, but that’s when the worst happens. That’s when the unexpected plows into your serenity, with a snap of a finger, you wake up, shoved from nirvana and into a new warped reality.
I often got lured into the eternal horizon- that’s what I called it. One night I was in deep. I was somewhere else other than driving that truck. I don’t even remember moving out of the hammer lane. I missed my exit, but I knew I could take the next ramp and get to my destination that way. The only trouble with that route was the low hanging bridge; there was not much clearance. I barely fit under it the last time, and if they had paved the road recently, I was certain I wouldn’t fit under it this time.
I was coming out of my hypnosis, thinking about that damn bridge, didn’t even notice the white car coming towards me until it was too late. Its engine roared with the increased acceleration, coming straight at me, not trying to avoid the collision, but purposely trying to plow into the big rig. I instinctively jerked the steering wheel to the right, but to no avail. The car smashed into the corner of the engine hood and front bumper. My body jerked back, snapping my head back into the headrest. If it hadn’t been for that headrest, I would have broken my neck. There was stiffening pain in my neck, like an extreme crick, and my head pounded with each beat of my heart.
I stepped down out of the cab, smelling oil, fuel, and engine coolant- a savory sweet compound wafting through the night air. I walked to the front of the truck. There was a young man slung halfway through the windshield, shards of glass scattered over the hood. His lower torso was impaled by the jagged lower half of the windshield. The top of his head exploded, leaving a deep dark chasm in the crown of his skull. Brain matter, flesh, and blood were splattered across my radiator grill. It looked like someone had thrown rancid hamburger meat all across the front of my truck. A part of me was scared that this might be someone I know. I walked closer to the car to get a closer look. He had blond hair and a thin blond beard, the kind of beard that only grows in patches. He was young, maybe a college kid in his early twenties. His eyes grabbed my focus. One was blue, the other was green. I was mesmerized by it, staring and then he blinked.
I stepped back in astonishment. I reasoned that it was probably just his nerves twitching. He can’t be alive, there was no brain in his head anymore. His gut had bled out all the blood that was required for a functioning human being. Then he blinked again.
“Hold up fella. I’m gonna call for help.”
I walked to the back of the trailer and called for help, stating that there had been a terrible crash and that the boy was barely alive. I didn’t know how but he was alive. When the operator asked me the nature of his wounds, I felt silly. I’m seeing things. I’m going to tell this lady that the kid that is barely alive no longer has a brain in his skull- that’s the nature of his wounds. Can you come quickly and scoop his brain, or pieces of his brain back in his head? I lied and stated that he had a severe head and stomach injury.
The operator told me to stay on the phone until the police and paramedics got there. I kept the phone to my ear and went back to the car.
“He’s gone.”
“Sir, did you say he was gone?”
“Yes mam.”
“You might want to try and locate him.”
I went looking for the boy around the back of the car, along the shoulder of the road, and even in the car. I couldn’t understand, my confusion was worrying me. At the top of the ramp was a convenient store. I walked to the store and looked around. I looked in the bathroom to see if maybe he was in there cleaning up. No one at the sink, but I did hear someone in the stall. I could see that whoever was in there was not sitting on the toilet but standing facing the wall. He had on a pair of boots. I saw blood began to pool around the drain and then something solid dropped to the floor. It was a piece of bone, and then a chunk of flesh, and then more bone. I pulled the door open. He turned to face me. With no structure the left side of his face was caving in and falling apart. The green eye was held in place by exposed rigid eye muscles.
I ran out of the bathroom and back down to the truck. I couldn’t look at him anymore. How was this possible? I hated to see him suffer. I wished he would just go ahead and die. I was running back towards the truck. I saw flashing lights. A firetruck and several police cars were parked behind my truck.
“Is this a joke? You think this is funny?”
“What are you talking about officer?” When I got down to the front of the truck there was no car, just my truck somewhat jack-knifed and in the middle of the ramp.
“No there was a car here. It collided with my truck. Look the boy is up there in the store. He’s in the bathroom. Come on, I’ll show you.” Two of the officers followed me to the convenient store. We walked past the store clerk and into the bathroom. No one in there. No blood or facial bone splattered across the floor. The officers exited the bathroom and went to the clerk.
“Did a young man just leave the store? A man that looked like he had been in an accident?”
“No officer, it’s been a slow night. I’ve seen two people in the last hour, and he was one of them,” pointing at me.
“It can’t be. I mean…”
“You need to get that truck off the road and shut it down. You ain’t driving anymore. We’ll need to look at them logs.”
“Officer, my service center is about a mile away. Can I just get my load there and then I’m down? I won’t drive until morning.”
“Alright, but I’m going to follow you there.”
I got in the cab, started the truck, and drove to the center. I dropped my trailers and stashed the dolly against the yard fence. I was exhausted. I really didn’t want to drive anymore that night. I didn’t mind sleeping in the break room. The officer came inside and explained what had happened to dispatch. Dispatch wasn’t willing to let me stay there for the night.
“We’ll put you up for the night at a hotel. No need to stay here and be uncomfortable. John, our operations manager will take you.”
They called John over the intercom and told him to take me to the hotel. He came off the dock and through the dispatch door. John had blond hair and a thin blond beard. The oddest thing though was that he had one blue eye and one green eye.
I begged and pleaded that they just let me stay at the center. I didn’t care for hotels, they had bed bugs, and nasty sheets, but they weren’t having it. It was against policy.
I followed John to the parking lot and got into his white car. I should have run, but I was tired, and I kept telling myself that I was being stupid. It was a dream or a road provoked hallucination. There’s no way any of that was real. He started the engine and sped recklessly out of the parking lot. I saw the hotel up ahead, but John went right past it and got on the interstate.
“What are you doing? I’m tired. Get me to the damn hotel.”
“It’s over. I’m done with it all.” He mashed down on the accelerator, pushing the car to ninety miles per hour. He got to a gravel crossing between the two sides of the highway and made a sharp turn onto the wrong side of the interstate. He spied an on-ramp and drove towards it, increasing his speed. We were doing well over a hundred miles an hour. Coming down the ramp towards us was a flat-bed tractor trailer.
“What the hell are you doing? Stop man! Stop dammit!” I opened the door. I could hear the highway rushing past. It was my only chance. I looked over at John. When he turned to look at me, I could see the left side of his face seemed to be drooping. His skin was falling from his face. I looked back out the door. We were near the grass. The truck was closer. Not much time to act. I pushed the door open and jumped out of the car. I couldn’t jump high, but it was enough to get me into the grass. I landed on my shoulder, feeling the bones break and jolted out of place. I was rolled violently across the ground, the momentum waning only after I broke a few more bones. I heard a collision. On the ramp, the white car and truck were crumpled together, mangled metal to metal. The driver had gotten out to survey the situation. John’s body was slung across the hood. I couldn’t hold my head up any longer. I lost consciousness.
When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed. The nurse came in and checked my vitals.
“Are you up to talking to a police officer?”
‘Sure.” The officer that came to talk to me was the same officer that had followed me back to the center earlier in the night.
“What the hell happened? How…how did you know it was going to happen?”
“I didn’t. I swear.”
“Well, that boy had just lost his dad. His friends say he was suicidal. Should’ve got some help, but we never want to admit these things until it’s too late. There’s nothing more I need from you. It’s pretty apparent what happened, well except for how you were able to predict it. It’s weird, creepy, but not illegal. Well, hope you get better soon and back out on the road.”
I never got back out on the road. I was done with driving. Too many close calls, too many other idiots on the road, and too many wearied-eyed ghosts driving off into the eternal horizon.