The Temporal Mindfield

          The Temporal Mindfield

          A chaplain walks out of a cabin. He had just prayed with a young man on his death bed. “Thank you Brother Ward for coming by.” The night was dark but the fresh air would do him good and home wasn't that far so on his arthritis prone knees and his 68 year old back. As Ward went down the road he hummed on the road again. When he was halfway home, about 100 feet in front of him there was a bright flash and a loud bang like nothing Ward had ever heard. Lightning had struck. “What in the damnation” he shouted. As he gazes down the road he moves closer to the point of the strike in front of him past the crater he sees a bundle on the ground. He whispers “What’s that up in the road, ahead?” He steps over the crater the lightning left and finds that bundle. It's a purse. He hears people in the woods far off. He heard screaming. He heard leaves rustling around him. The animals were instinctively going crazy. There were hundreds of lightning strikes, some far, some close. He went looking for the road with the purse in hand. 

       U.S. Route 20, the longest highway in the United States. 3365 miles Boston Massachusetts to Newport Oregon

       The rig chugged along. The radio played. The rhythm pounds. To power through you need distortion. The power chord is essential. Excitement will fight the sarcadian rhythms, because you never really acclimate to the graveyard shift. So he screams Highway Star. “Nobody gonna take my girl”. He drums on the steering wheel as he shifts gears. His tattooed arms punching the air to accent the fills “I LOVE HER, I NEED HER!” Deep purple just knew what they were doing. He plans to drive through the night if he can get this load of produce to Boise by 6:00am he would get a bonus, and then he could get a load of potatoes to take him to Portland Oregon “Then everything will be right as rain.” He said to himself. This is Ted. King of the road. The drums roll into a screaming guitar note as the clash start to fight the law. Only to lose. Ted tilts his head back, but watches the road over his nose, as he pounds the remains of a monster energy drink then cracks a new one. He will probably need to get gas somewhere near Lander. Till then, wide open Wyoming highway. Just as Led Zeppelin Screech out the intro to Immigrant Song the radio, a buzzing shrill alarm overtakes. The cab of the truck.

“ATTENTION! ATTENTION!: This is not a test of the Emergency Broadcast System, there is a warning for the greater Wyoming area and surrounding districts, for the next 3 hours there is a thunderstorm warning. Several sporadic thunderstorms of an unknown origin are expected. Please seek shelter.” 

       Ted ever so slightly took his foot off the gas. Ahead he could see lightning in the distance. “Well that sounds worse than a fart in a space suit.” After a sigh “Fuck it I'm goin.” and he drove onward. 

        Ward had found the road, but he wasn't alone. A pack of wolves caught his scent. They had him surrounded. 

        4 wolves ran across the road in front of Ted's truck. They went over to a group surrounding a man swinging a stick at them. They leapt at him and backed up, dodging the stick. Ted slammed on the breaks pulled down on the air horn and flashed the brights. The wolves scattered. Ted rolls his window down to shout “get in it's not safe out here.” Ward ran to the truck and got in. Ted drove off and away from the wolves. Is his rear view he could see several of them watching from the road. 

          From the passenger seat Ward tried catching his breath. “OH my that was worse than a fart in a space suit.” Ted glances over confused. “Are you ok man?” Ward raises his hand. “I'm ok now. Thank you.” both the old man and the young one let out a long slow breath out through tight lips, and run their right hand through their hair then shake there heads. “Wow” they both say at the same time. They look at each other then laugh the same chuckle at the same time. The pumping power chords of Paranoid are playing on the radio. The men simultaneously break eye contact and look at the road. “Black Sabathia, I actually used to listen to these guys a lifetime ago. It was before I pulled myself together.” Ward holds up his Bible and the purse he found. “Look man, I don't usually pick people up. Honestly if those wolves weren't going to attack you I would have kept on driving. This place is going nuts.” Ted informs. “I totally get it. You can drop me off whenever you want. I'm just glad the lord sent you to get me out of that jam.” As they look ahead they see a strike of lightning and then 2 small round headlights appear, swerve into their lane quickly, and drift back over to the proper lane. “What is this Muppet up to?” Ted almost shouts, until Ward beats him to it. “Did you just call him a Muppet? Because" Ted asks but is cut off by Ward “well you don't see one of those every day, check it out.” Ward points in to the other lane. “Is that a Fuckin Ford Model T?” Ted asks in surprise. “Language, but ya, you bet your back door it is.” Answered Ward. They watched as a bald old farmer in overalls but no shirt stared at their truck with cartoonishly big eyes from his slow old car. Ted squints and looks down the road. “What did he serve around?” Flipping on his high beams he sees a grizzly bear. Getting his ass kicked royally by a pack of about 307 beavers. Ted shouts “What in the Damnation!” Ward looks at Ted, then down the road. “The animals are absolutely nuts tonight.” Ward thinks for a moment then digs into the purse he found. “Have you ever seen anything like that in your life?” Ted asks, to no response. “Look man I don't feel safe letting you out in this. It would feel like murder. I'm gonna let you ride till it's safe. You cool with that?” Once more Ward doesn't reply he just digs through the purse. Ted raises his voice. “MAN YOU GOTTA TALK TO ME! WHAT'S UP WITH THAT PURSE?” Ward looks up, everything came to him all at once “YES! Yes thank you for not letting me out here. I have an idea of what is going on. I would like to see if I can find one more weird thing.” Ted calmed down a bit. “What kind of ‘weird thing’ are you looking for?” Ward gazing out the window “I have no idea but we will both know it when we find it.” Increasing speed Ted moves down the road, into the unknown. A few miles down the road Ted sees something he can barely make out in the road ahead. “I think there's a tree down in the road” The large rig rolled to a stop before the blockage. It was not infact a down tree. Ted and Ward looked out the windows upward. Together they, in harmony without thinking. Spoke “I think we found our weird thing.” In the road blocking their path was a Sasquatch riding a wooly mammoth. The men looked at Bigfoot and he, back at them. Bigfoot nodded his head, the men returned this gesture. Bigfoot smiled, lifted his bottle of Jack Daniel's Whiskey, air cheered the men, took a swig, tossed the bottle to Ted, and road his mammoth into the night.

            The men sat in silence speechless. Then Ward reaches for the sun visor grabbing Ted's license. “You go by Ted but your name is Edward.” Ted quietly “yes” Ward “I haven't seen the left side of your head but I would bet anything you have a fish hook scar behind your left ear. When you got caught banging a married lady, right? Wasn't she lesbian and her wife tried to tear your ear off when you tried inviting her Quote ‘in to the mix’” 

Ted “how could you know this.” Ward “We saw impossible things tonight. In this purse there's a Nokia I haven't seen in 50 years, medication that expired in 97. I used to drive this truck and got by Ted when I was what, 31. I have a fish hook scar behind my left ear.” He pulls back grey hair to reveal a scar that Ted shared. “Get the hell out of my truck. Ted shouts as he pushes him out the door he hops down, runs around the truck, drinks the rest of big foots whisky and charges the standing Ward. Ward punches Ted in the face with all he has, breaking Ted's nose but also his wrist. Feeling a twitch in his nose he feels that it is now crooked and healed. “Ward is just Edward. I'm you!” Ward moves to Ted when they stand together they hear rattling sound to their left. They look to see a Dinosaur. Ward rears back and kicks Ted in his knee hobbling him. With a limp not previously had Ward awkwardly runs away as rappers close in on Ted. Scars quickly appear on his face and arms, fingers begin vanishing. In mid run both legs disappear he falls to the ground and disappears entirely as Ted stops screaming.