Hit and Run

It happened so fast. Dark night, wet road, Bang! I didn’t see the guy. Honest.

As I stand over his still body, all I can think of is how his life is over, and mine is practically ruined.

Wait! There’s nobody here on this highway. Who knows how he died? Tire tracks? I don’t see any!

I throw the body in the back of the truck. He weighs a ton! Dressed in black, hell, he was asking to get hit.

Now what to do with the body. If the cops stop me now I am screwed! I am the only person on this highway. Maybe I look for a steep bank, and roll the fat slob over the edge. Who will know? I don’t know the guy, so who cares?

As I struggle to dispose of the body, I cut my hand on a sharp rock.  Great! DNA. I have to wash, maybe leave town. Maybe leave the country. Oh God, what a mess I am in. I did’t mean to hit him, never seen him. Who will believe me now that I moved the body? As I watch his fat carcass roll down the steep cliff, I reach out, maybe stop him. Maybe put him back where I hit him. Too late. He’s gone!

I get back to my apartment. I throw a few pieces of clothing into a bag. I gotta get outta here! Where do I go? My job? Do I quit or just disappear? What about my kids? God I am in a mess!

It is Three a.m. and I am half way down the cliff, dangling from a rope that I tied to the truck. I am almost down the cliff. I see the body,  its caught up in a tree. I fumble to flash my light to his face and…..

a damn mannequin.

I killed a mannequin. Who left  this damn  thing on the highway? I never  killed anything. God, things just got better!

Suddenly my body begins to drop. My rope  is breaking, unraveling! My body begins to fall, missing the tree and on down a steep cliff. I catch a branch and  hold myself  from  falling the remainder of the drop, which looks to be at least two hundred  feet or more.

Here I am, hanging from a tree branch over the edge of a cliff. The body I came to retrieve is about ten or so feet above me. My truck is parked on  the highway, keys in the ignition. I pass out from  exhaustion.

I hear a sound above. Someone found me. Someone is going to rescue me!

“He must have broke  down  and left on foot!”  said one of the voices!

“No, I am down here” I holler, but nobody hears me. The branch I am holding creaked and then broke. I continue down the cliff, onto the rocks. It’s over. Damn, why did I hit that body? Why didn’t I call someone, or why didn’t I look at the body and discover it was’t a body at all? Too late, my body hurts everywhere, I am losing blood. I am weak. I am dizzy. I am gone.

• Fiction