text: The late afternoon sun cast overhead as a couple drives along a muggy backroad. You can hear the soft murmur of the cicadas thriving in the trees. An unyielding sea dances with the pavement in the distance. A pale white hand pulls down an old car visor, it slides the mirror cover open, a pair of soft brown-sugar eyes are revealed. the sun reflecting off them to highlight in vivid detail. “How long have we been drivin?,” his wife says, As she dresses her thin lips in a soft shade of red. “I would say about 12 hours now, we’re half way to Wichita he replies” “hey I wanna give you something, and I’ve been waiting since we left Dallas to give it to you. I think you’ll lik- hey! Are you listening!?” he looks over to his wife. She looked like she’d she a ghost, she begins to pull the metallic tube of makeup away from her lips. Her shoulders start to sink into the worn leather seats of his car. “Sweetheart?.... you there?” but no response. Like he was talking to a wall. “Look!” she said short of breath. Then his eyes completely glued to what laid ahead. At first it was hard to make out. The thick Kansas brush cloaked what remained of a car accident. All that was left was the twisted remains of a car that looked frighteningly familiar. An odd chill crawled its way up his spine. For the next thirty minutes they did nothing but drive. After those confining minutes pass, he decides to speak. “Hey? You okay?” “Yea” she said with a slight whimper in her voice. “Look sweetheart, I’m sure whoever was driving that car. Is--w-well I’m sure they’re fine”, he said reassuring her. She twiddled with her fingers nervously. Finally with a slight crack in her voice she says, “it’s not that hun... it’s..tha...well” she shuddered, “that car”. Her husband looks back at her with a puzzled look on his face, “What’ahboutit?” He asked. “Well... it... it looks familiar? You know?” She faces him, “I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before.” “What do you mean? That old thing was almost unrecognizable. Hell, You couldn’t tell the ass end of that thing from its front”, he says as he wipes the sweat collecting above his brow. “I don’t know, it’s just... I felt something. Kinda like when you smell a certain smell and it takes you back to a place... a place you’ve been before but... you can’t remember where.” “Babe” he says while slowly moving his hands to her rose freckled cheek. “It might just be the drive getting to ya, We’ll stop somewhere, grab ah bite to eat?... how’s that sound? She finally breaks a faint smile and says, “yea, you’re probably right.” “Duh” he says under his breath. “that’s why you married me! But first,” he pulls to the side of the road. The grinding of the gears sound as he puts the car in park next to an old rusted “Welcome” sign. “As I was saying before I’ve got something for you,” she looks at him in with innocents in her face. “I was gonna save it for when we got to Wichita but...seeing as you might need a little pick me up. I thought it might help.” He unbuckles his seatbelt trusts his waist towards the steering wheel and shuffles through his worn jean pocket, His hand comes out clinched in a fist. “Before I show you this, I know you said we should be saving money and blah, blah, blah but... getting you this meant a lot to me,” he begins to open his hand and the sun immediately begins to illuminate a locket. Her hazel eyes glow ever brighter upon seeing it. Tears begin to rush down her cheeks that slowly turned into a busy highway of transparent motorist. “So I hope it means as much to you as it does to me,” She opens the locket and reads, “To my home. To my beautiful sunflower.” She smiles as she lunges to hold her husband. “Thank you so much baby! And I had no idea you were such a poet.” She places the locket over her head and around her neck. “I’ve actually got a surprise of my own for you. I mean it might be a little difficult to top yours but I’ll try.” She grabs a small sunflower covered satchel from the glove compartment. And pulls a white letter from the vibrant yellow bag. Before she can take the letter out he stops her and says, “Wait! I think I’d much rather wait till we get to Wichita... please?” She smacks her lips, “well... I guess it can wait. I’ve waited this long to tell you, what’s a couple more hours?” “Now come’on,” his hands grasp the keys and he turns the ignition to start the car. “I think I saw a sign a few miles back to a diner, it shouldn’t be more than 10 miles up the road.” The car pulls up from the side of the road, the tiers kick up a barrage of dust trying to gain traction. Finally, on the weathered pavement they drive off As he drives he feels like this place, this road these trees. They all belong in a memory he’s never had. And he can’t shake the feeling. The sweat on the back of his neck begins to dry and his hands turn cold. His lips start to feel numb and his stomach sinks. No matter how hard he tries he can’t shake this feeling and then it appears. The sign. “Hey babe,” his wife says, “isn’t that the same welcome sign we past a few miles back?” “babe?,” He snaps out of the trance and looks right. “no... cant be. There’s no way, the map said it was a straight shot from here to Wichita. there’s no way we’ve been going in a circle.” Before his wife has time to respond he yells out. “AH! There it is.” A lone diner fades into the mirage between the pavement and the baby blue sky. “There’s our diner, And you were worried,” he teases. They finally pull up to the diner and it seems oddly new. The building had a slick vintage look to it. But with no sign of age. Its silver doors reflected the rays of the sun like a mirror. Its parking lot looked as if the lines were freshly painted and the gravel recently paved. As they pulled up to the parking lot the numbing sound of the neon sign above drowned out any and all sounds of nature that surrounded it. The cars breaks began to squeal subtly as it moved along the pavement. The engine cuts off and the lights dim slowly to shut off. The car is silent. The chill. It’s back. The husband freezes. The shallow feeling in his stomach. His grip on the steering wheel gets tighter with each breath of anxiety. The back of his knuckles start to turn white from the hold on the wheel. His body starts to tremor like his entire soul had been thrown into an icebox. After a few more moments he shook the feeling and laughed nervously, “ha” ...well that was weird, right babe?,” he waits a few seconds for his wife to reply and nothing. “Babe?” he turns to the passenger side to see nothing. He feels the seat and surprisingly not warm. As if he’d been driving this entire way alone. He turns to look in the back to find it empty and oddly dusty. Sweat begins to rush down the side of his head one drop at a time. He feels lost.... alone. He runs out of the car frantically towards the diner trying not to stumble under his own weight. Finally, he reaches the diner doors and pushes them in, once inside he finds- nothing. Not a single costumer. The smell of coffee flows around him. A jukebox at the far end of the diner plays a cover of “La Bamba” sang by Richie Valens. The checkered pattered floor glows with white light above. Just as outside, the diner keeps a seemingly timeless look all around. And finally, a soft voice. .“sir?” his mind quickly snaps back to reality. “Sir?” He turns his head to the cash register. It’s a woman. Dressed in an all-white waitress uniform. She wasn’t standing there before. Her hair a dark brown and tied up in a bun. Eyes so blue they could get even the strongest of men to tell the truth. And skin so vibrant... so perfect it was like she had never aged a day in her life. He was to busy staring that everything became muffled around him. After a few seconds her voice broke through again as she said, “Hi, for how many?” The husband still in shocked answered, “Sorry I’m looking for my wife,” in a weak broken tone, “hav...have you seen her?”. “ummm... I may have, could you maybe describe her to me?,” he tries to put words together and says, “su...sure umm.. shes bout your height light skinned. Oh umm.. she has hazel eyes and freckles. Freckles like you couldn’t imagine, She’s also wearing a silver locket around her neck” She smiles and says, “We might have seen someone with that description wonder in here a couple hours ago. But we do see a whole lot of people in this diner. As you can see obviously,” she laughs. She puckers her lips to one side as to think “I tell’s you what, how’s about we get you set up in a booth, get some coffee in you. And I’ll make a few phone calls and see if we can get you back to your wife?” The husband puzzled hesitates to accept but does, and follows the hostess to a booth closest to the door. As she starts to walk away he stops her and asks, “excuse me I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name?” “Oh, How rude of me, I’m Luci with an “I”, She says as she smiles. “let me go get that coffee for ya Hun.