The Story Continues

Sunday Snippet returns! Since we skipped last week, here's the entire absurd story in it's entirety. 

Sometimes in summer, the air smells like wet cows.

Kim sighs, slams the car door and glances back at the house.

If it weren't for that damn cow that won't get off the roof, her life would be in order.

That's assuming that life as a mute insurance adjuster could ever be in order.  

But ever since Billy came back into her life, Kim has known no order.

Shit, Billy! She gunned the Impreza, shifting haphazardly while fishing her phone out of her pocket.

Two years ago, she'd left Billy in the care of Millie, thinking the poor alligator would be better off with someone besides her.

Now her aunt was the Yeyo Queen of Southern Indiana, and poor Billy was at risk of becoming a suitcase.

Taking one last look at the forlorn cow, Kim decides that she has to rescue Billy from Evansville and her half-coked out Great Aunt Millie.

She slides through her phone contacts as the RPMs rise, tapping Special Agent Blank's number and steeling herself for the next steps.

The Imprezia stalls at a red light. "Damn it," Kim thinks, "why don't I know how to drive a stick?"

Flustered, she checks the rear-view and stares directly at the government plates of a black Suburban.  "How the hell..." she mumbles, pulling the phone to her ear and turning to squint through the smoked glass at the driver's familiar silhouette.

Agent Blank and his annoying smirk are in the Suburban behind her. Kim has been dodging him – and the rest of the agency – after the Miami fiasco last month. Her report showed that the drug-runners hadn’t been responsible for the ocean fire, but Blank didn’t want to believe her. 

She watched him laugh deeply and heard him as well, her body tensing at the sound. "You rang, my dear?" his syrupy voice crept from the phone's speaker.  His eyes maintained their lock on her as he commanded, "Get in the truck."

"I'm driving," Kim snipped. "So pull over then." Her body obeyed before her mind had a chance to react.

The drive was quiet. Blank focused on the road, hypnotically weaving between semis and minivans on eastbound I-64. The mile sign read 15 to Evansville before he spoke. "It's time you knew Billy's whole story," he said, nodding to the glove compartment.  "Open it."

Kim cut a glance at Blank. Reaching for the knob, she knew that whatever was inside would change the way she looked at Blank, Billy, and the world. "Blank, listen," she started, holding up a small glass vial. The vial was unlabeled and would have seemed at home in a late-night science fiction flick. Kim instinctively reached for it, the contents seeming to glow as her fingers neared. "Don't touch it!" screamed Blank as he wrenched the SUV to the berm.  He reached over her, closing the compartment gently. Blank slammed n the brakes, causing Kim’s head to pound against the dash.

Darkness. Kim's vision slowly returned as if looking through a keyhole into a bright room. Her senses were shocked, her ears ringing and limbs sluggish. She willed herself to focus and determine what had happened but was immediately drawn to an object that had fallen into her lap.

Shaking her head to clear the sound, it felt like her arm was moving through sludge as she lifted up the delicate necklace. She'd seed it somewhere, years ago, but her mind was too foggy to recall where. From somewhere off in the distance, she heard Blank ask if she remembered it. Kim turned to him and could barely make out his silhouette in the cloud. 

"Where did you get this," she asked as the memory started to return. A beach in Florida, she couldn't have been more than eight. 

"So you remember the dead man," Blank gently prodded.

Kim nodded yes.

She drifted deep in memory, trying to recall the sand. She could almost feel the roaring tide. No, she did feel it... "Get down!" screamed Blank, violently pushing her head into her lap. The approaching helicopter opened fire on the Suburban, rounds splattering against the truck's bulletproof armor.

Only when the sound faded to a dull roar did she open her eyes. That's when the memory came back full force. It had been Blank there that day on the beach. Trying to turn her head, she realized she couldn’t move.