Madalynn

I loved the sound of car accidents, don't ask me why, but something in its unsettled breath of metal, glass, and impact made me feel an awakening of higher purpose, like I was in on the joke, far off, a spectator of omnipotence, of obsolescence. I met Madalynn when our cars crashed on that rainy day down by the pond. The accident itself was slower than I remembered, not ephemeral at all because something stayed with me as all that glass sprinkled upon my face like a beautiful wonder of timelessness, some memory of her face flickered for a distended amount of time, right next to me, even though she was a few feet away, in her own fucked up car, going through her own panic of things. My head flashed with quick and bright colors, and I did not even feel any pain. Nothing major had happened, it was just a big mess. It was her fault too, the accident. She did not stop when it was her turn to stop and I was, at the time, reaching for a CD, my mind in other rebuttals. Then it was all over. I found myself outside, sitting on the grass with a face full of glass and distortions. I felt the loose sun entering the little red holes in my face, sizzlingly. It had been a nice day a second ago, cooler even.

Then she came out of her car, looking fine to me, pretty even. Maybe the sun helped, maybe I was hallucinating. She began a long and improvised rendition of sorrows and regrets, checking my body for damages, but I reassured her that I was okay, just a few cuts and scratches, though my car was not looking so good. She told me her parents had a lot of money, and that she would pay for the damages, as was her right I thought. She quickly gave me her address and told me to meet her tomorrow because she was late for something right now. I was having a hard time remembering some of the things she had said. I was more focused on her face, on the sun in her eyes, the heat in my face, the drying blood on the grass. She left. Later, an ambulance came that I did not remember calling for, and then I remembered a medic cleaning my face with painful antiseptics and told me not to move. Do not move, sir.

I did not doubt that the address she had given me was false; there had been nothing in her countenance that gave me the suspicion. The next day I went to her house (or, her parent's house). I was feeling okay, my minor injuries healing plainly. I noticed more going on internally, around the areas of my heart, maybe even my lungs. I was starting to let my mind wander, distend, and transform itself into a recumbent form of that same timelessness from the accident, only now I found myself adding bits and pieces of her into my mind, using some transcendent magic in the bloodletting, thinking about that pull of the world. I was totally unprepared and afraid. She lived fairly close to me, and I easily hitched a ride with one of my friends. He dropped me off in front of her beatific, amorous pasture of a lawn. Before my friend left, he cried out a whooping, "Gawly!" I also did the same. Her house was not so much a house but a colony. Giant trees loomed everywhere. Statues of men on horses, I kid you not. It took me a few minutes to actually reach the front door. Then I knocked.

This was a place that was never supposed to be in my imagination, where some new world was just beyond the impact of metal and steel, this glass-like advancement of gloss and wonder — this structure of time's artisan was very large.

Madalynn opened the front door. She was wearing one of those flower dresses, where things like the sun and the heart compliments it. She did not look like she had been in an accident the day before. I probably looked like a monster, because her mouth made a perfect "O" and she came out of the house and hugged me and continued to apologize and so forth, crying at times. I said I was okay and smile weaselly and we both laughed. She took me into the house.

Miles later, we arrived at the kitchen and she went to the kitchen counter and produced a large check that was laid out for me. It was a little more than I had expected, but I showed neutral acceptance, also because it hurt when I moved my face around.

"Is that enough?" she bubbled expectantly. "I can get more from my parents if you need. Like, I really don't know much about cars and the whole like of it, so I would be drab in that department."

I told her I was a drab myself, and she laughed at that.

"This, uh, should be fine I think," I said. "If anything, I can always contact you, thanks."

"Oh my, oh my, where are my manners? I swear I've been all out of sorts today! It's mainly because my brother David just got back into town. Anyways, would you like something to, like, drink?"

"Got any beer?"

"I don't know." She went to the fridge and looked inside and found some dark stour that she offered me gleefully. I admit, I stared at her flowery dress.

"Thanks," I said formally. "So where did you brother come back from?"

"Well," she began, putting both her hands carefully on the kitchen counter, "I'm not supposed to say."

Then her brother, David, came out. He was much taller than me and had a plethora of black-and-white tattoos of ships and birds on his arm and chest. He sang a wild song, and then went over and kissed his sister on the cheek and turned to me and shook my hand.

"Yo, I've got better stuff than Dad's nasty shit," he mentioned about the beer that I been drinking. I must admit it did taste quite bad, but I was just trying to unnerve myself because Madalynn kept looking at me, which was bright and full of some kind of hope (or pity). I was flabbergasted.

"Hey, I heard she banged you up pretty good. And not in the good way," David mentioned about my face.

"Oh, I'm okay," I said because I was holding a lot of money in the form of a paper check, so my minor bruises were infinitesimal.

"Never did learn to drive, I reckon."

"Shut up, David!" she cried, clearly embarrassed.

"It's fine, really," I said. "I was getting sick of that old car of mine anyways."

"Ha, ha," David said, and then left.

"Sorry about him," Madalynn said, rolling her big fox eyes.

"It's cool," I remarked.

I was stoic, waiting and wanting, but not knowing what to do. I had her Mom's check in my hand, and I had all but finished my drink, so I said, "Well, thanks again. I guess I should be going now."

"I'm sure David can give you a ride back. See, my parents took my car, saying I'm not allowed to drive it or whatever. So let me go and see if he can give you a ride."

"Okay, thanks."

David came back out, obviously listening in on our conversation.

"Let's go. I told Dad I'd take you. Maddy can tag along if she wants."

She harrumphed and stomped around for a bit, but said that she would go because she did not want it just me and her brother going. I secretly thanked her for this. David's tattoos spun and quivered to his jolly carols. We followed him to the garage where we sat behind a '72 Dodge Challenger. Madalynn rode shotgun.

I liked staring out the window, just catching that nice green blur of the wild go by, watching the ethereal sun carry us away. The light blue sky became grand, almost refulgent. The wind came at us through the open windows. David liked to keep all the windows down, and Madalynn had to hold her hair. She turned around and gave me a sad smile. I smiled back, enjoying the blazing torpedo spiral through the intersections, passing through bridges and high buildings. Then, we drove into a part of town that I was not all that familiar with.

"Don't worry. I know a shortcut."

Madalynn gave him a quizzical expression but did not object.

David drove fast and brilliantly. Madalynn showed no signs of trouble (she was probably used to her brother's foolhardy driving). She looked very young, yet, very alive. We zipped along old roads, and pretty soon we were in front of a suspicious-looking house, surrounded by foliage and old cars. I saw an abandoned trailer near the side of the road, almost completely covered in grass and natural caresses.

"Where are we?" I asked, kind of enjoying the idyllic scenery of forest and rust. The sun seemed to move away, letting us enjoy the mysteries of the green earth.

"David, Dad said we had to take him home. No pit stops," she angrily said and pointed at me. I felt like I had done something wrong.

"It's fine," I told her, but then I also said, "Where are we?" again with a mystifying voice.

"You said you wanted a new car. I know you have the money now," David said to me. This was all true. He went inside the house and came back with an old man and they offered me a good-looking car for practically half the money I had inherited so we went to the bank and came back and next thing you know, I was the proud owner of a used '92 Toyota Corolla.

Madalynn sat in front of the Twisty Treat while I went and got us some gelatos. She preferred strawberry. We talked for a while, slowly spooning our treats into our mouths. Her tongue, I noticed, was the same color as the strawberry gelato. I wondered if she had ever been through hard times (aside from the accident). Her life seemed full and almost flawless, as she sat there under the strong Florida sun, a tongue full of strawberries and jubilance.

"Oh no! My gelato is melting," she said in a sing-song voice.

"So is mine," I said in my normal voice.

I drove Madalynn in my new used car. She sat in the passenger seat, enjoying the sun and the occasional rap song on the radio, singing along with revolution. I drove fast, like her brother, passing trees, passing other lives not as fortunate as my own.

"This is a good car," I said. I honked the horn clownishly from time to time, causing Madalynn to laugh out loud.

When we finally got back to her house, we went up to David's room and he offered me a better, yet stronger-tasting alcohol beverage. David offered his sister a drink, but she just shook her pretty head "No." She went to her brother's bed and laid in it and they talked for a while about those little things that only a brother and sister could talk about, and I was left out of the loop, just drinking my drink and wanting deeply to share similar secrets that they shared, yet I believed that I could get away with more, being that Madalynn and I weren't related. Because that would have been awkward. David jumped on his bed and attacked her, tickling her viciously. She screamed pleasantly and said stop it, stop it, stop it. David laughed and called her a pussy.

"So what do your parents do?" I asked.

"Those workaholics, those conformists, think they are a part of some grand picture, in grandeur, above and beyond, all while taking care of little Maddy here, having to put up with all her recklessness. See, I've been in trouble in the past, and they never let me forget it. No, never! They're trying to uphold this fictitious castle of theirs, protecting us from whatever wilds that are out there, presumably. I know for a fact that I can take care of myself. I'm just passing through. It's Maddy here who needs all the help," David said.

"No! You're staying with us! That's what you said! We all agreed! It's for the best," Madalynn cried.

"Maybe so," David said absently.

I finished my drink and was offered another.

There were enough elations in us to slow us down and make us say whatever. A gay, hazy, and quick feeling of thoughtlessness and jabs, in a rapture that gave us unlimited momentum, and yes, all the while, my thoughts of Madalynn were not far from my astringent tongue. She kept eyeing me like there was something she wanted me to say to her, but I also noticed how David would silently watch us, as if ready to get in the way of things. I think Madalynn tried to make an excuse to get David to leave, maybe to get us more drinks.

"Enough of that Devil drink. I think Dad has something stashed in his office," he said.

"Stash of what?" I asked.

"David! No," Madalynn said to her brother. "Dad strictly told us to stay out of his office!"

But David would not hear of this. He jumped off his bed and went out of the room, which worked to my advantage because we were finally alone. Madalynn and I. My heart secretly did carnival flips. Her eyes were bloodshot, languid, and curious as a cat, flipping all the same.

"David seems, uh, interesting. I think he may have had one too many to drink." Desultory, at best.

Madalynn rolled her fox eyes at my comment and said, "Oh, God, he acts that way when he's sober. It's totally annoying. Dad wants him to stay here, but he's obviously adamant about not staying here. It's sad. I really do care about him — he's my brother, after all — it's just that sometimes he can drive me up a freaking wall!" She fell back on his bed, laughing.

"Just don't crash," I said without thinking, instantly regretting it.

She lowered her eyes sadly, apologizing again. She told me I could sit on the bed with her.

David came back into the room and said, "I couldn't find it."

"Good," Madalynn said defiantly.

"Well, don't the two of you look like an old pair of village bells? A happy couple. No, a perfect couple!"

"Shut up, David!"

He left again out of bewilderment. Well, at least we were alone again. Madalynn and I. I fear I was running out of things to say and all that drinking made me sleepy. I noticed a sad expression on her face, but I didn't ask what was wrong.

David came back into the room and asked if we wanted to take my car out. Said he needed to pick something up.

"No, David! Absolutely not," Madalynn said, rising.

"I don't mind driving," I said in a flourish. "You want to come," I asked Madalynn.

"Do I have a choice?" she asked and began to collect her things. "Let's go. Let's get this over with."

The roads seemed a lot more perilous at night. Madalynn sat passenger seat, fumbling with the radio and hearing nothing that she liked, turned it off. David told me to put on one of his rock CDs and I complied. The car was filled with heavy electric guitars and guttural chokes. I did not know where we were going, only turning at the appropriate turns according to David. We made our way to a pretty pink house on the outskirts of town. We were told to wait in the car. Madalynn and I. David got out and went up to the pink house, saying that he would be back in a jiff.

We sat in the car for thirty minutes, and I could tell Madalynn was starting to get worried.

"Maybe we should call him?" I offered.

"He doesn't have a fucking cell phone," she said blankly.

"Maybe we should go in?"

"Oh, God, no."

I turned on the radio and a Taylor Swift song popped up. She hastily turned it off.

"I liked that song," I said.

"Well, I don't."

The night stars were active, bouncing around and caroling. The air was dry and hot, and the wind did nothing to help.

"This is dumb. I'm going in," I said. "I've seen the worst of the worst, don't worry."

"Whatever."

I left Madalynn in the car, told her to lock it, and went up to the house. I was not afraid.

The house held a stale air of cigarettes. Cats were everywhere. David was on the sofa, practically comatose. He had a wicked look in his eyes that held a meaning far off and universal. I don't think he recognized me. I kicked him in the leg, and he came to, momentarily, then went back into his acquiescent stupor. I told him that Madalynn was waiting, that we had to go, we had to leave. David spoke and said he had to pay for his hit, but he couldn't seem to find his wallet. I had some cash on me and told him I would front him if he paid me back. I paid his dealer and we left the house. I had to practically carry him to the car. All the while he was mumbling wet and existential mumbles. I agreed with most of what he said.

We took David home and Madalynn put him to bed in his room. I had pretty much sobered up by this point and asked if we could go up to her room. Madalynn's room. In her room, I laid on her bed and closed my eyes, about to drift off into that warm space of sleep, but Madalynn told me to wake up, wake uppp, we are not here to sleep! I could not gather my fever mind to interpret the meaning of her flamboyancy. Relenting, she laid on her bed with me. There were giant pillows everywhere, looming amongst us like soft mountains. She looked at me with sudden and ever-changing eyes, radiant like the sun. She wanted me to say something, but I did not know what to say. I think we just laid there for a while until David woke up screaming from the pain in his body, from all the drugs that were starting to leave his body.