Post Mortem
Incendiary Devices: Chapter 7
Penny stared out the window of Leland’s dirty black F-250 as they coasted down the hill towards Sunland proper. She tried to ignore the reek of gasoline on her hands and clothes, but the pervasive odor lingered in her nose, and she kept remembering what she and Lee had done. The entire day felt like a surreal dream. It was a dream she wasn’t going to wake up from either. She glanced over at the silent man driving and tried to find the nerve to speak. As if sensing her thoughts, he looked at her.
“You all right?” he asked.
She paused before answering, unsure of herself.
“I guess.”
Another heavy moment of quiet passed.
“Listen…” Penny began, “I can’t go home now. I don’t think I can act like nothing happened, you know? It just…”
She trailed off, losing the words. Leland nodded, tightening his hands on the steering wheel.
“I know. I can’t go home either. Not that I really have a home to go back to.”
Penny glanced at him and chewed on her bottom lip. She should be afraid of this man. He had appeared out of nowhere knowing who she was, looking grim and determined. And then for absolutely no reason, she had gotten into his car, bought ten gallons of gas with him and proceeded to start a fire in the dry hills that was bound to turn into a major clusterfuck. She really should be terrified. But she wasn’t, at all. He seemed so sad, and tired and resigned, as if his fate was chosen and nothing was to be done to alter it. She felt bad for him.
“Well… what should we do?” she asked.
Lee stopped for a red light and considered the streets around them thoughtfully.
“I think we need to get away from here. Go somewhere else and see if… what did you call her? Sheila? See if Sheila contacts us.”
Penny cast him a doubtful look.
“Do you think she will? I mean, we did all of this for her, right? Did we?”
He continued staring out the windshield until the light changed, not speaking. Finally he responded in a low voice Penny struggled to hear.
“You know why we did it.”
She shook her head slowly.
“I’m not sure I do.”
Lee didn’t talk again until he pulled into the parking lot of the motel. Once he was in the space in front of his room, he withdrew the keys from the ignition and turned in his seat to face the girl next to him.
“Do you really believe you don’t know why you went with me today?” he asked gravely.
Penny shifted uncomfortably beneath Lee’s steady gaze.
“She showed you something, didn’t she?” he went on. “A… a vision of some sort. Right?”
Reluctant to answer, a moment passed before she answered.
“Yeah. She did.”
Lee nodded, leaning back against his door.
“How did that vision make you feel, Penelope?”
Penny did a double take, surprised.
“How did you—Oh, never mind” she grumbled. “Don’t call me that, okay? I hate that name.”
Not missing a beat, Lee asked again.
“How did you feel? When she took you with her. Did you fly?”
She stared at him, astonished.
“Yes.”
“I did too, when she took me with her the first time. When we met.”
A distant expression of longing came over Leland’s features.
“I’ve never felt anything like that before. It was amazing.”
He leveled his eyes at Penny and she saw the determination and singular purpose.
“I know I want to experience that again. Many more times. Don’t you?”
She held his gaze for a long minute and sighed.
“Is this where you’ve been staying?”
Lee grunted an affirmative and opened his door.
“We can rest for a bit here, then we really should go.”
He held up his hand quickly.
“Wait until I go inside, then follow me. I want to make sure no one’s watching.”
Slipping out of the truck, Lee looked around carefully before unlocking the motel room. He gestured to Penny and went inside, leaving the door ajar. She sat in the stillness, thinking about what Lee had said. Remembering.
Streaking through the thick tropical air in the cannonball’s wake, sparks dancing all around her as she and Sheila sought their target in the village square. The impact, the sensation of exploding into thousands of shards of brilliant light. Drifting lazily in the aftermath on an eddy of soft breeze as the flaming palm trees bestowed a shower of fiery gems onto the landscape below.
Lee was right. She had never felt anything remotely akin to that, and she indeed wanted more. The decision made, she climbed out of her seat and darted furtively into the room, shutting the door behind her.
In the motel office, the blinds snapped closed as the front desk clerk stepped away and returned to his chair.
New to the story? Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Interlude 1, Chapter 6
Love how you paint such vivid images with your words. Penny’s internal conflict is really well-written. Her fearlessness despite the situation with Lee really adds depth to her character.