My speedometer reads seventy-nine when the eighteen-wheeler begins to jackknife. I stomp on the brake. My tires scream on the pavement. His trailer swings to the right and blocks all three lanes of traffic. As the wall of steel roars up to meet me, a beautiful woman appears in my empty passenger seat. Her silky black hair frames her sharp, alien cheekbones. Her glassy white lips cradle a black-paper cigarette. She stares out the windshield and coughs a wet, wheezing laugh. Moments before impact, she pries open my lips and slides a rose gold smartphone into my mouth.

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Steve Gergley is the author of A QUICK PRIMER ON WALLOWING IN DESPAIR: STORIES (LEFTOVER Books ’22). His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Atticus Review, Cleaver Magazine, Hobart, Pithead Chapel, Maudlin House, and others. In addition to writing fiction, he has composed and recorded five albums of original music. He tweets @GergleySteve. His fiction can be found at: https://stevegergleyauthor.wordpress.com/