This blog is for all who desire to create with words and images.
You are encouraged to participate in any way that is meaningful to you.

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You are free to use the photo to be inspired to write any way you desire.
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Monday, March 9, 2009

Driving


Photo by Melissa
Her blog Tweeded is located at tweeded.blogspot.com
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Suggested prompt...
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You are driving away from something or towards something.
Tell me about it creatively.


___________________

I drove and drove and drove. I didn't have a plan. I didn't follow a map. I just had to go and go. I had to get away. I felt the wind in my hair as my windows were open. The chill of the air was invigorating and I knew I could go on forever this way. I would leave it all behind. I would never go back. I had money in my purse and clothes on my back. I heard the roar of the engine and I felt so free.

Nothing could stop me now! He would never find me. He wouldn't have any idea where I went, because I don't know that yet, myself. I just wanted to drive.

The sun dropped lower and created long shadows across the road. I had to close my window as the temperature of the wind dropped, freezing my breath before my face. The heater felt nice against my frozen hands. I hadn't noticed how cold they were until the warm air hit them. It made me smile. It was comforting, the safety of my car. The sound of the tires' swift movement on the pavement created a calming hum. I didn't turn on the radio. All the music I knew would only remind me of...

The road was long and stretched before me until it finally disappeared around a curve, and for the first time I wondered where it would lead me. The possibilities were infinite. I burst into laughter. I couldn't help myself. It was effortless and felt like a release within me that had been long held in. I let my body heave with laughter until I no longer could breath. And then the tears came. I didn't understand myself. Where were the tears coming from? It surely wasn't unhappiness, but sure bliss. What a release! I let the tears fall freely until finally they ran dry. The light was fading behind the trees and I could see stars appearing in the skies like beacons of renewed life.

Then the lights appeared in my rearview mirror and I felt my stomach roll. For a short moment I contemplated putting on more gas. After all, I was making the biggest escape of my life. But my realistic side brushed away the adventurous thought. Of course that would eventually only take me back to him. So I put my foot gently on the break and pulled to the side, grabbing my purse to find my license.

I had just found it when I heard him tap on my window. I looked up and caught myself.

"Awe, Mrs. Jennings! What are you doing alone out here at this time of night?"

It was Frank. His best friend. I couldn't breath, and suddenly wished I hadn't stopped. "Oh, I'm just.." What can I tell him? "Headed to visit...my sister."

~
dani

Visit dani's blog for more of this tale ~ http://goldentearsofjoy.blogspot.com/


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14 comments:

Sally's World said...

I’m driving towards my future, I think we all are, we may pass by things on the way, some we love and wish to see again, some we turn away from. We pick people up and drop them off, some stay for the whole journey.

My life is that journey, good, bad, happy, sad.

It’s the experience that counts, and how we wish to see the beauty in every experience/piece of scenery along the way!

Thanks for making me think about this today.

Frankie and Bella said...

Either way you look at it, when we go on our journeys, we are driving away from our ended path and bounding towards our new destined path. With the long expanse of the road, the rolling hills and nothing but signs and opportunity ahead,the road is our pavement for another new day.

Faith said...

There's nothing there for me anymore. No job. No hope. So I hop in a U-Haul. I drive 1,250 miles away from everything I had ever known. Nineteen hours to think about what I'm doing. I'm starting over. A new me. A new life. A world of opportunities.

And my loving family is now 1,250 miles away. Nineteen hours away from hugs and support and unconditional love.

I just left everything that has ever mattered to me.

~ Denise ~ said...

Maybe she's a run-away girl
when things don't go her way
Blinding hot temper fuels her path
even when they ask her to stay

She's high on pride, low on self
lashing out at everyone
I wonder if she'll stop one day
to see her own destruction

The road for her goes go on and on
just like her fiery ways
Another stop, another town
with sadness fueling her days.

Dan Felstead said...

Faith...first of all...best of luck on the road unseen...drive slow and think about the next turn...find a good road map...pick a destination and don't stop until you get there.

The road is not the route 66 of the past. The days of families taking that unexplored highway for the family vacation...carefree...knowing that when they return, a bright future awaits them is a journey read about in books not to be realized any more. Detours, falling rocks, soft shoulders and potholes fill our path. As of today the bright destination is till out there...it is just a much more dangerous journey on the way. Ask me a year from now about the bright destination and we will have to re evaluate at that time.

Dan

Unknown said...

NEW DRIVER

Well she's just 16, my little baby
So letting her behind the wheel has nearly pushed me over the edge
Although she is careful and slow
She is my baby, after all

I don't want to let her go
But I know the day is coming
I just want to keep her home as long as I can
Holding on to precious memories

The day is coming
It's closer than I care to think
I'll have to let her drive alone, while I sit at home
Praying each time the siren wails from the road

septembermom said...

Compassionate me,
please drive me past judgment.

Patient me,
please drive me past frustration.

Attentive me,
please drive me past distraction.

Creative me,
please drive me past doubt.

Sarah said...

i am sure it's concealed
invisible to the eye
and yet, i fear the
innocent passer-by.

just a subtle bump
a ripple in the dust
and all my hard work
was laid to rest.

she didn't cry out
and neither did i
just a quick 'whap'
and we said goodbye.

my silent angel
she will never know
the love i felt
when i delived the blow.


***I have got to stop reading pulp comics.

Shawn said...

Does it have to be in a car?

From Chapter Eight of my novel Melody & the Pier to Forever:

---

The wheelchair she was confined to felt like a rolling prison, her own personal carriage to nowhere. She often dreamed of a great highway, an infinite stretch of road, one reaching into lands full of magic and castles made of crystal and peopled with luminous beings that could release her from it. She’d wheel desperately along this road, trying to gain those lands, but the faster she pressed, the farther away the horizon receded; perversely, the slower she traveled the stickier the road became, turning to rubber cement, so that the joyful promise of her arrival remained remote and inaccessible. As she unenthusiastically rolled to class each day, she’d occasionally veer down a side hall and lose herself within the labyrinthine halls of the hospital instead, ultimately finding herself in nearly deserted corridors, where she’d wheel as fast as she could to the other end. Once there, she’d touch the wall, to convince herself her that she could overcome the infinite, gummy highway in her dreams, that she could reach her goals—and the magic of walking with the gods.



It was late June when she took another of these surreptitious excursions, finding herself eventually on the thirtieth floor—the top floor of the hospital. She exited the elevator and peered furtively down the long, abandoned corridor. From here it appeared that the hallway’s end opened into pure space, like peering through a cardboard tube into the clear sky. Yaeko smiled widely. The beings of light, she fantasized, were there, past the glass that separated the cool Swiss air from the unseen patients inside. The beings were waiting for her: she needed to get to the corridor’s end as fast as she could before the sterile tile floor beneath her turned to impassable rubber cement. Yaeko looked left, looked right—then tore down the hallway at breakneck speed, smiling impishly. She felt as though she could fly at any moment; she thrilled in the fantasy. When she came to the glass many feet later she leaned forward and pressed her palms flat to its cold, smooth surface and closed her eyes for a time, breathing heavily. There was a door in the glass: it became apparent only now with her nose just inches from it. The door was nearly seamless and practically invisible, held in place by the smallest of silver hinges. There was a small brass placard in its center; even from here it appeared to float, so clear was the glass. The placard read: EDWARD R. GOLDSTEIN GARDENS. She noticed the large red button for wheelchair-bound patients to the right of the door and she pressed it, then watched as the door swung silently open for her.

Jessica said...

I'm driving along the road. I'm still not certain what lies down the road, but I know where it's taking me.

For blue skies. said...

Lets drive on the wrong side of the road just because we can. Go a million miles an hour, just to crash. And in the end, it would all be worth it.

Dani said...

I drove and drove and drove. I didn't have a plan. I didn't follow a map. I just had to go and go. I had to get away. I felt the wind in my hair as my windows were open. The chill of the air was invigorating and I knew I could go on forever this way. I would leave it all behind. I would never go back. I had money in my purse and clothes on my back. I heard the roar of the engine and I felt so free.

Nothing could stop me now! He would never find me. He wouldn't have any idea where I went, because I don't know that yet, myself. I just wanted to drive.

The sun dropped lower and created long shadows across the road. I had to close my window as the temperature of the wind dropped, freezing my breath before my face. The heater felt nice against my frozen hands. I hadn't noticed how cold they were until the warm air hit them. It made me smile. It was comforting, the safety of my car. The sound of the tires' swift movement on the pavement created a calming hum. I didn't turn on the radio. All the music I knew would only remind me of...

The road was long and stretched before me until it finally disappeared around a curve, and for the first time I wondered where it would lead me. The possibilities were infinite. I burst into laughter. I couldn't help myself. It was effortless and felt like a release within me that had been long held in. I let my body heave with laughter until I no longer could breath. And then the tears came. I didn't understand myself. Where were the tears coming from? It surely wasn't unhappiness, but sure bliss. What a release! I let the tears fall freely until finally they ran dry. The light was fading behind the trees and I could see stars appearing in the skies like beacons of renewed life.

Then the lights appeared in my rearview mirror and I felt my stomach roll. For a short moment I contemplated putting on more gas. After all, I was making the biggest escape of my life. But my realistic side brushed away the adventurous thought. Of course that would eventually only take me back to him. So I put my foot gently on the break and pulled to the side, grabbing my purse to find my license.

I had just found it when I heard him tap on my window. I looked up and caught myself.

"Awe, Mrs. Jennings! What are you doing alone out here at this time of night?"

It was Frank. His best friend. I couldn't breath, and suddenly wished I hadn't stopped. "Oh, I'm just.." What can I tell him? "Headed to visit...my sister."

---
Sorry, I got carried away. Don't want to take up too much space here as a comment. Go to my blog to continue. http://goldentearsofjoy.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

This road goes on
On and on
And it rumbles
And it grinds
As I drive over it in this machine I call a car.

Horizons tease
All around
The past behind
The future ahead unclear
And the present disappears with the trees that seem so far.

But the sunlight is shining
It's blinding in the windshield
And I just can't see a thing before my eyes.

I'm following the lines
Drawn out upon the pavement
That tell me where to go and how to drive.

But then
Without a warning
A loud pop!
and a bang!
Next thing I know I'm pulled over on the side of the road.

A flat tire
What bad luck!
Now I'm faced
With the decision
Of how to get to where it is I need to go.

And as I squinted down that long road
I realized I never liked where it was leading
So I turned around with the road to my back

And there were those green trees
So beautiful and inviting
That I decided to just make my own path

SSQuo said...

I don't know
Where the road leads me

In time I will
I think
I hope

It is time for me
To know where
I will lay my pillow

Where I will rest
For a while
Catch a drink, a burger
Then head home


Home is the other side
That road awaits me
Soon
Very soon