The Empty Street
Ceritasakti.com - The clock on Kiki's bedroom wall showed midnight. She sat on the edge of her bed. Her school books formed a tall messy pile on her desk. She felt incredibly tired. Her mind felt completely full. She needed to leave the house.
She picked up her phone and sent one short text message to Jun.
Ten minutes later, two bright headlights cut through the dark street outside her window. Kiki grabbed her heavy black jacket. She walked out the front door very quietly.
Jun sat behind the steering wheel of his old car. The engine made a low rumble. Kiki opened the heavy metal door and climbed into the front seat.
She looked in the back. Lanny sat behind Jun. Lanny wore a large gray sweater. Otto sat next to Lanny. Otto leaned his head against the cold glass window.
"You guys could not sleep either?" Kiki asked.
Otto shook his head. "Too much noise in my brain today," Otto said.
"Where are we going?" Lanny asked.
Jun put both hands on the steering wheel. He looked at the empty suburban street.
"Nowhere," Jun replied. "We are just driving."
Leaving the Neighborhood
Jun drove away from Kiki's house. The neighborhood looked completely different at midnight. The houses looked like giant dark shadows. Nobody walked on the sidewalks. Every window was dark.
Jun stopped at a red traffic light. There were no other cars on the road. The red light turned green. Jun pressed the gas pedal. They drove past the closed grocery store. They drove past their dark high school building.
Leaving the familiar buildings behind felt very good. The heavy feeling in Kiki's chest started to go away.
Lanny reached forward from the back seat. Lanny turned the small dial on the radio. Soft guitar music filled the small car. Lanny did not play the music loudly. The soft music mixed with the sound of the car engine.
Otto rolled his window down a few inches. Cold night air rushed into the car. The cold air smelled like wet asphalt and pine trees.
The Long Highway
They reached the edge of the city. Jun turned the car onto the main highway. The highway stretched out like a long black ribbon. Tall yellow streetlights passed over the car in a steady rhythm. Flash. Dark. Flash. Dark.
Kiki watched the white lines on the road disappear under the car tires.
"Tomorrow is going to be a very hard day," Lanny said from the back seat. "We have that massive history exam. My parents expect a perfect score."
"Do not think about tomorrow," Jun said. Jun kept his eyes on the empty road. "Tomorrow does not exist right now. Only this car exists."
Kiki liked that idea. She rolled her window all the way down. The cold wind hit her face hard. She closed her eyes. She let the wind blow her hair in every direction. She took a very deep breath. The night air filled her lungs.
"Otto, are you asleep?" Kiki asked loudly over the wind.
Otto opened his eyes. "No. I am just watching the stars. You can actually see them out here."
The Gas Station Stop
They drove for another thirty minutes. The tall city buildings completely disappeared. Only dark fields surrounded the highway.
Jun saw a bright glowing sign ahead. A small gas station stood entirely alone on the side of the road. Jun pushed the brake pedal. The car slowed down and pulled into the bright parking lot. The tires crunched on the loose gravel.
"I need coffee," Jun said. He turned the engine off. The sudden silence felt very heavy.
They all stepped out of the car. The night air out here felt much colder. They walked into the brightly lit store. The store clerk sat behind the counter looking at a small television.
Kiki walked to the back aisle. She grabbed two bags of salty potato chips. Otto found a box of cheap chocolate donuts. Lanny picked out four cold sodas from the glass fridge. Jun filled a paper cup with hot black coffee.
The Hood of the Car
They paid for the food and walked back outside. They did not get back inside the car.
Jun climbed up and sat on the warm hood of the car. Kiki sat next to him. Lanny and Otto stood by the front bumper. They opened the bags of chips. They drank the cold soda.
Nobody talked about school. Nobody talked about the exams. They stood in the middle of nowhere and ate cheap donuts.
"This is the best donut I have ever eaten," Otto said. He had chocolate sugar on his jacket.
Lanny laughed. The sound of her laugh echoed in the empty parking lot.
Kiki looked at her three friends. She felt incredibly lucky. The stress of the week felt very far away. The problems still waited for them back in the city. But right now, sitting on an old car at two in the morning, everything felt completely fine.
"Are we ready to go back?" Jun asked. He finished his hot coffee.
"Not yet," Kiki said. She looked up at the dark sky. "Let us stay nowhere for ten more minutes."
