by  A.T. Lynne

Joyce Wilson peered at her reflection in the passenger visor mirror.  “Why in heaven’s name didn’t you tell me I had a sesame seed stuck in my teeth?  I’m sure it showed every time I smiled.”

Edward Wilson looked straight ahead, moving his hands deftly over the steering wheel as he accelerated out of a tight turn.  “Maybe because you didn’t smile at me.”

“Damn it!  Don’t you care that at least one of us makes a good impression at parties?”  Joyce lifted the visor back into place just as Edward braked for another corner.  “Slow down!”  she demanded, pointing at the curving black arrow in the yellow caution sign lit up with neon brightness in the car’s headlights.
Edward dutifully downshifted.

“It says twenty-five, Edward.  Would you slow down!”

“I’m going twenty-five, Joyce.”

The Saab wound its way through the darkness on the narrow switchback road weaving in and out of dense stands of redwoods and pines.  Here and there, the down-slope side of the road was so steep there were no trees, only the starless void of snow-threatening storm clouds.

After a brief silence, Joyce resumed her critique.  “You know, Edward, you are such a bore at parties.  You have no passion, no heart.  If the conversation isn’t about engineering, you don’t even participate.  You just sit there while I have to be the social one.  You won’t take even a teensy risk.”

“Is that so.”  Edward navigated another tight inside turn with both hands.  “Funny, I’m feeling like taking a risk right now, Joyce.”

“What are you talking about?”

Edward reached to the left side of the steering wheel.  Gripping the headlight knob, he smiled at her and said, “This”. He swiveled the knob all the way to the left.  The totality of blackness was immediate, and the absence of sight instantly amplified the roar of the engine and the hum of the tires on the road.

“Edward!  Turn on the lights!”  Joyce screamed.

Edward turned on the lights, just in time to correct the car’s trajectory across the on-coming lane.
“What in hell are you doing?”

“That’s taking a risk, isn’t it, Joyce?  Isn’t that the kind of man you like?”  Edward flipped the lights off again just as the car started into a curve.  He counted out loud, “One thousand one, one thousand….”

“Edward!  Edward!”  Joyce’s voice was shrill with fright.

When the lights came on again, a redwood tree was fifty feet directly ahead.  Edward yanked the wheel.  Gravel spat away from the tires as the car skidded back onto the pavement.

“You idiot!  You’re crazy!”  Joyce backhanded Edward’s shoulder; her glossy nails sparkled with the reflection of the dashboard lights.

“Oh, I thought I was just heartless and incapable of taking risks.”

“You’re all that and more.”  Joyce flipped down the visor and inspected her face in the mirror.  “Damn you!  You scared me so much that I bit my lip!”  She pointed to her lower lip, “Look at that!”

Edward kept his eyes on the road.

“You’re a real jerk!” 

“Then why should I spend good money on heart surgery, Joyce?  Tell me that.”

“What are you talking about?  You need that operation, Edward.  You could have a heart attack any day.”

“You don’t say.”

“Harvey told you that.  Don’t you listen to anyone, Edward?  Not even your doctor?”

“Harvey’s your doctor, Joyce.”  With that, Edward cast a quick sideways glance at her.

Joyce turned her face away and flipped the visor back up.

“What fascinates me is your concern about a heart attack happening to a man without a heart.  Isn’t that a paradox, Joyce?”

“Damn it, Edward, that’s your problem right there!  You’re so literal.  You’ve got no imagination.”

“I can imagine everything all dark again.”  Edward started to move his hand toward the light switch.
“Stop the car, Edward!  I’m driving.”

“I can’t let you do that, Joyce.  Your doctor told me to be sure to get you home safe, remember?”

“You call this safe?”

“What was it Harvey said?  That you two had drunk two bottles of Veuve Clicquot yourselves?”

“We weren’t the only ones drinking that champagne.  Now pull over!”  Joyce reached across the console and gripped the steering wheel.

“Let go, Joyce.”

“No!  I’m driving!”

The car’s headlights swept around the next curve, illuminating something big and black in the road.  At the moment of impact, the airbags exploded into the couple’s faces.

Once the driver’s airbag deflated, Edward opened his door.  The sound of a baby crying echoed through the dark trees.  Edward unsteadily pulled himself out of the car.  Something was wrong with his left leg, and pain spiked up his back when he stood on it.  The horrible choking cries came from the front of the car.  Edward leaned against the fender as he cautiously moved forward.

There on the road in a puddle of steaming, bright red blood was a bear cub, one leg twisted brutally askew.  Blood pulsed from an open gash behind the bear’s left ear.

n the dark car, Joyce came to and leaned back.  She immediately put her hands to her face.  Her fractured nose, bent to one side, felt so wrong to her fingers, and the tenderness of her cheekbones confirmed that her eyes would be rimmed with black bruises for weeks to come.  She pulled down the visor and gasped at what she saw in the mirror.  Then her eyes refocused on Edward in the headlights staring down at the road.

From the woods beyond the passenger side of the car, Edward heard a low snuffling.  He looked up and noticed a tree branch moving.

Joyce opened her door.

“Stay in the car!” Edward whispered.

“Don’t you tell me what to do.  You bastard!  Look what you did to my face!”  Joyce swung her foot out of the car, but found she was too shaky to stand up.

Edward limped back to the driver’s door.  Leaning into the car, he pulled a handgun out of the door’s map pocket.
Joyce looked in astonishment.  “What are you doing with a gun?”

Edward stared hard at her for a moment.  Then he looked down at the gun, checked the chambers and released the safety.  He hobbled back to the front of the car and the whimpering cub.  When he heard another, louder, growl, Edward thought he saw a shape moving closer in the trees.  Taking aim, Edward sighted directly between the bear cub’s moist brown eyes.  Only then did he realize he was crying, too.

Above the pain, Joyce’s rage toward Edward gave her the strength to pull herself onto her feet.  Steadying against the open door, she turned toward the sound of a snapping twig behind her.

At the same instant Edward pulled the trigger, the sow bear, standing on her hind legs, swung her massive paw, catching Joyce’s lower jaw and ripping her face from her skull.  Joyce’s scream rang unheard beneath the ricocheting echo of the gun.  Her body crumpled next to the car.

Edward dropped the gun to his side, staring at the dead bear.  The sow ambled into the headlight’s beam her lips curled back, sniffing.  She put her nose into the bloody fur of her cub and pushed against its body with her paw.  Then she looked up at Edward.  Edward looked back.  She growled softly and pushed again on the cub.   After another moment of staring at Edward, the sow blinked, twitched her head and backed out of the light.  Edward continued to stand motionless while the rustling sound of the bear’s retreat died away.

A gurgling moan startled Edward and he looked up.  Only then did he notice that Joyce was no longer in the passenger seat.  Leaning on the hood, Edward stepped carefully over the dead cub and limped through the light, around to the dark side of the car.

For a long time after the second shot, the forest was very, very quiet.

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