Photo by Martin Robles on Unsplash
This piece is a continuation of previous freewrites. See bottom of post for links to previous entries.
Priya felt her breath catch in her throat, and she darted a look out the window. David was still sitting in his car outside. She wondered if he would notice anything wrong from that distance. When she looked back at the man behind the counter, however, his eyes had changed. Rather than the alien black, he had watery brown eyes. He peered curiously at her.
“You all right there, ma’am?”
Priya’s legs felt weak under her. She put a hand on the wall to brace herself and considered her next move. David had suggested using the phone, but she didn’t know who to call. Ethan, perhaps? She probably ought to return home, since she hadn’t been able to reach the hills. She hadn’t been gone long; perhaps they could reconcile. She hated the idea of giving up on her baby, of going back to the stilted silence and the suffocating despair.
She cleared her throat. “I—my car broke down. I need to…can I use your phone?”
“Sure thing,” the man said. He reached under the counter and plunked a clunky old corded phone onto the laminated advertisements beside the cash register. She reached for handset in the cradle, but the plastic-covered phone number on the face caught her eye: it began with the area code 830, which was nowhere near the 303 code of her home town.
Scanning over the adverts, she grew more confused. They all listed 830 numbers and zip codes beginning in 78.
“This may sound a little strange, but where are we?” she asked.
“Gillespie County.” She looked at him blankly until he added, “Texas.”
“No, that’s not right, I was just…” She stopped. She couldn’t tell him that she had driven out of Westminster, Colorado, and got trapped on an endless stretch of road where time didn’t pass, before abandoning her destroyed car and walking down a highway in Texas. That sounded way too crazy, even to her. She swallowed convulsively. “Uh, thanks. I’m just gonna…step out for a moment.”
“You still need the phone?”
“I’m not sure. Sorry.” Priya ducked back outside, turning away from David’s car. She walked to the far end of the lot and stopped, staring out across the road. What on earth was going on?
This is my (more-than-five-minute-freewrite) response to the daily freewrite hosted by 
Previous posts in this story: 1 - ash • 2 - fool • 3 - bird • 4 - atlas
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