The Straight Road

04 January 2021

"Always go straight, worst case you'll get lost." He saw him turn around, smiling, right after giving him this useless information; his rotten mouth, the same rot that surrounded him, in that gas station forgotten by God. He held the pump nozzle firmly in the tank opening with his right hand, while supporting himself with his left hand on his compact car. He looked at his shoes, while thinking that for the second time in one day he had received the same directions, with the same words, from two guys all too similar who gave the impression of not knowing what a dentist was. Although it was his profession, he struggled to imagine finding the courage to put his hands in that putrid well.

Click. The pump announced it had finished its job by pushing the lever against his fingertips. He put the nozzle back and set off again. "Always go straight, worst case you'll get lost." He couldn't remember a single possibility of deviation, for hours he had seen nothing but a road, straight as a sword piercing the horizon. How could he get lost? The monotonous landscape had been interrupted only by two gas stations, appearing just when he was about to run out of fuel. Only the movement of the sun in the celestial vault marked the passing of his time, and now the star was about to dive beyond his sight.

Fatigue and discouragement were beginning to take control of his psyche. He wouldn't last long, hours had passed since the last stop, the reserve light had also appeared on the dashboard. Again, just when he needed it, he saw the lights of a gas station on the right. He approached, dragging himself to the pump. He inserted his debit card, entered the PIN and started filling up. A tear streaked down his right cheek, as he saw a figure approaching from the darkness. "Always go straight. Worst case you'll get lost."