My car was gone.  Because my life was just so perfect that it couldn't possibly be here, where I needed it, now, when it would have been nice to have.  Judging from the tire marks around the area, it had been towed.  And if the guys who had towed it were any kind of responsble, they would have found my cell phone, called a few numbers, figured out that I was neither with my family not still with my friends, and started a whole riot.

I considered summoning enough anger to try kicking a pine cone, but it seemed like a waste of time and energy.  I needed to find my way home and let everyone know what had happened so... I don't know.  Maybe they would call the area coroner and claim my body, or hold a funeral, or do whatever it took to send a ghost one way or another.

Which meant I needed a new plan.

//What does an invisible, incorporeal girl with no car, no map, and no cell phone do to find her way back home?//

//She dicks around by the road until she comes up with a plan.//

It sounded good to me.  Heaving a sigh, I followed the tire marks as they stretched down the thin dirt road out of the nature reserve, jingling my keys in my pcket because the noise made me feel better; bigger, somehow more substantial.  Like I wasn't seriously -and possibly spiritually- screwed.

The sight of the road through the trees send a nervous, happy shiver up my spine and I smiled despite my situation.  At least this meant I wasn't stuck haunting the woods anymore.

I came to the edge of the lonely asphalt, stretching on as far as I could see in either direction.  After God-knew how long in the trees, it was strange to see this ribbon of dark gravel penetrating the forest.  Still, after how long I'd been stuck in there, even a bare, lonely highway looked fresh and beautiful.  The romance of the road; the path to glory and adventure and escape in the grand mythology of America.

//And me without the wheels to return to it.//

I knelt down and, gently, touched the unever surgace.  Gravel and tar bumped and scratched as I ran my fingers over it.  Similar in its roughness to a tree, but the similarity ended there.

I frowned and darted my gaze to the sky.  As brilliant as the dawn had seemed, the sky was now clouded over with a thick, fluffy sheet of steely gray that drifted ominously nearer.

Perfect.  I was lost, alone, and it was going to rain soon.  Could hardly wait to see what would happen next.

A gentle rumble pierced the air.  I glanced around, waiting for the lightning to pierce the clouds before I realized that the sound wasn't coming from the sky.  Funny how a real-death experience could make the sound of a truck unfamiliar.

Halfheartedly, I raised my thumb.  Even if he had seen me, the driver probably wouldn't have stopped to pick up some vagabond sitting on the side of the road, so I wasn't surprised that he didn't stop, didn't even slow down, but passed me in a bright red blur.

I watched mournfully as the car shrank into the distance, the rumble fading into a hum until, at last, it was gone.

Then the rain started.

//That// was an eerie feeling.  Cold droplets plipped onto my skin and simultaneously passed through me, leaving only a whisper of feeling on my bare arms as they fell to the ground.  I shivered, focusing on the bizarre chill that the raindrops left behind, hating and loving the feeling of it.

More cars passed along the road, throwing up thick sprays of water.


o-o-o

I spent the better part of the day milling about by the road.  Occasionally, a car would pass and I would raise my thumb, pretending it would make a difference.  Of course, the drivers didn’t even blink.  Hitchhiking was hard enough, but invisible hitchhiking?  Might as well try to walk home, except my directions were in the car.

The long stretch of time started grating on my nerves.  It was one thing to be a ghost, where everything was good and mellow, and apparently quite another to be… whatever the hell I was.

A low rumble from the distance sparked an idea.  It was reckless, but it would b better than going slowly insane with boredom.

Taking a deep breath, I padded out into the middle of the road, heart pounding with anticipation.

//This is nuts!  This is completely nuts!//

My heart leapt into my throat as the massive truck came into view, its shiny silver bumper glinting viciously in the sunlight.

//Oh crap, I’m gonna die… again…//

I tried to dart out of the way, but the small, stubborn part of me that usually managed to land me in heaps of trouble locked my knees in place as the truck sped right toward me.

It was strange feeling the rain pass through me, but it was downright bizarre to feel a truck do the same thing.  The bumper passed over me, smooth as satin, while the engine burned so hot I couldn’t help yelping.  A fraction of a second later, I was in the cab with an old, redneck driver bobbing his head amiably to some old country song.  Before I could even begin to identify the song, I was in the back.  Furniture and boxes, smelling faintly of mothballs and aging cardboard whizzed past me, and suddenly I was back on the road, breathing-but-not-really-breathing exhaust as the truck sped off in the distance.

“Whoa,” I gasped, whirling around to watch as the truck shrank off into the distance.

I was doing that again.