LINE 18

With the clarity provided by enormous amounts of adrenaline rushing through her system, Julia forced herself not to run towards the road but rather to approach it slowly. The plan was to walk casually to not alarm her potential transporter by stumbling out of the forest as if haunted by a gang of flaming demons. When she finally felt the hard blacktop beneath her feet, she let out a pentasigh of relief. The only thing that restrained her from doing one of her little cheerleader dances centered on the detail that there hadn't been any more cars since she noticed the light a while ago. However, years of practicing the denial of unpleasantness resulted in using her fingers as a comb and, fluffing her hair, she started to walk - quickly moving away from the horrors life with her mother had brought about and towards a much happier future with her dad.

I hate to remind you but he did not just leave your mom. He left you too, Kellie's voice, loud and clear.

"Shut up Kellie, I'm done listening to your lack of enthusiasm. If I want paranoia I stay with my mom and spare myself these trips through forests in the middle of the night. And if you would have just supported me a tiny little bit instead of dumping all that crap on me I wouldn't even be in this situation!" Before she could feel bad about mentally blaming her BFF for the shortcomings in her life, the glare of headlights illuminated a good stretch of road ahead of her.

"Dear God, if you exist at all, let this be my ticket into a better future," Julia pleaded as she stepped away from the road onto the gravel of the shoulder. Sticking out her thumb the way she had seen it done in countless movies, memory instantly conjured up scenes of bad guys doing all kinds of bad things to unsuspecting hitchhikers and without another thought she took a few more steps backwards. She made a half turn and hid behind the trunk of a big old tree just in time to see a taxi passing by. All she really wanted to do in this instant was to sit down and cry, but the prospect of having to redo her face seemed an insurmountable task. She had never felt so lonely. "Stupid stupid stupid," scolding herself, Julia pushed down the tears, "you're such a waste. Just go home to mommy and stay in prisonland you pathetic moron."

The rush of anger towards her cowardice gave her the boost of energy needed to get back on the road. After what seemed like hours of walking but could not have been longer than a few minutes, she saw the lights of an approaching vehicle. Now what? For once she was not keen on drawing attention and decided to retreat into the forest one more time. Hiding behind yet another tree, Julia had an eerie feeling of dejá-vu. Watching the vehicle pass she could have sworn it was the same taxi as before.

Come on, Julia! It's a ten-outta-ten for retards that in the middle of the night on a no-lights-whatsoever country road all cabs look alike. The memory of Kellie's practical approach to life came to the rescue. A high-pitched hysterical giggle escaped from Julia's mouth and hit her eardrums like nails screeching on a blackboard, the nerve-wrecking sound almost creating an echo as it faded out between the trees. The unexpected noise sent a new shockwave through Julia's body and released her into the same, dreamlike state she had experienced running through the forest a little while ago, clearing her mind of the approaching doubtful thought that this was a private road in the middle of her grandmother's estate and not New York, New York with its abundant amount of cabs at any time, day or night. Stepping away from the relative safety of her hiding place, she only noticed the taxi when it stopped a few yards ahead of her. The New York City medallion on the hood would have meant nothing to her even if she had seen it and she did not recognize the make of the car, which looked like a futuristic adaptation of the traditional London Cab. All she saw was the "For Hire" sign on top of the roof. Her hesitance didn't last beyond a breath. She wasn't aware of moving her feet but felt as if some mysterious force was propelling her towards the vehicle. It seemed that every inhalation created a pull while every exhalation pushed her closer. It was a pleasurable, almost joyful feeling, light and free, until the impact of cold metal touching her hand brought her back to her senses.

The inside of the taxi was only dimly lit by a bluish glow originating from the dashboard, but before she had a chance to acknowledge the discomfort this fact produced, there was a blurry movement and the passenger side window rolled down. Next, the interior light flashed on and she looked straight into the face of the driver. Under more ordinary circumstances Julia might have noticed that it was clean-shaven with clear features arranging themselves harmoniously around a prominent nose. Its eyes were dark blue, maybe almost black, which stood in interesting contrast to the blondish eyebrows which in turn matched the golden colored hair that fell loosely to the man's shoulders and was kept out of the way by means of a light blue bandana specked with yellow and white stars. The full, pink lips had been moving for a while before their emitting sounds reached Julia's ear-consciousness. Another breath and Julia registered the meaning of said sounds.

"Hello there, young lady, can I be of help and offer my modest means of transportation to take you somewhere?" the melody was pleasant yet Julia's instinctive response was to recoil and to feel annoyed.

My luck, she thought. Young lady? Modest means of transportation? This isn't how taxi drivers are supposed to talk. And because her nerves were strung so tight from all the impressions she had to digest in less than twelve hours, the attractive face, which on any other day would have elicited fantasies of romance, transmuted into the image of an escapee a-list psycho, out in the middle of the night to pursue his favorite passion, namely the hunting of - um - 'young ladies.'

"Now wait a second," she heard herself say, realizing with shock that she had spoken out loud. Now who's the weirdo, lamebrain? And who's done the runner, crawling around the forest when the rest of the world is asleep - taxi drivers faithfully delivering their fares excluded, of course.

"I am waiting," the voice announced from inside the cab, "take your time. I am prepared to wait many more seconds if need be."

"No, no," Julia stammering, "I didn't mean that."

"You do not want me to wait a second then? I understand. No hard feelings. I just saw you standing there at the side of the road with a raised arm and interpreted it as being commanded to stop. Best of luck to you then," said the man leaning back into his seat. "One more thing though, you might want to let go of the door handle if you do not intend to come for the ride."

Since Julia's thought processes had been roller-coasting between intellectual constipation and mental diarrhea, she didn't even attempt another answer, opened the rear passenger door and climbed inside the car.