"Steven -- you're gonna meet your Uncle Roger."

Momma and Daddy never touched their coffee. My guzzled pepsi burned like acid up my nose. Daddy never drove so fast. Momma sat in the back, with me wrapped up warm inside Daddy's big wool coat and for the longest time pretending to sleep under Momma's arm, while really listening to her heart thud-thudding under my ear. Glary yellow streetlamps swung down their stares through Daddy's car -- and couldn't catch us. Then there were no more streetlamps, and Daddy drove on in the dark. We might be going to the end of the world.

The grumbling engine and Momma's steady heart thud-thudding under my ear should have kept me awake with her -- Didn't wanna sleep ever! -- but the engine played that trick it'll do -- suddenly go quiet. And I felt like I was falling.

Caught myself -- opened eyes in the dark inside Daddy's car -- returned to Momma's heart beating under my ear, and the angry engine. Caught myself a bunch of times more. Maybe if I had made a game of counting how many times I might have won -- just the same as counting sheep, or thinking about tomorrow's Maths quizz. I tried to stay with Momma -- Afraid I might just go away -- but the engine won -- and as I began falling I couldn't hear Momma's heart any longer.

RATE THIS BRANCH!