Chapter 3: Lee and Emma from Northampton, Mass.

++sorry for the twenty minutes late and the formatting. I have been driving around the city trying to get a wireless connection because my connection at home went down.++

Everything outside of the car is closed, reflecting on the car.
“Here okay?” Lee lifts his head to point his chin at the Wendy’s as he turns the wheel to enter the parking lot.
“Yeah. Here is fine.” Emma has one hand stretched into the back seat, touching his sleeping daughter’s knee. She is pregnant with another, she was joking on a cell phone the other day, “It’s like a two-for-one deal,” smiling with one half of her mouth, looking at her reflection on the storefront in the afternoon. Lee chuckles to himself, nudges Emma, and gestures at the employee in the dining room on the cell phone. She smiles, the car slows and he rolls down the window. The snow reflects the restaurant’s spot lights.
“Hello?” It is late, she is suspicious this place is closed. “Hello?” He puts the car in park and repositions himself on the drive through, hoping to catch some sensor. Emma watches the people in the car in front of them sitting at the window. “Hello?” He gets louder, “Is anybody there?” He sits, unfocusing his eyes to listen. He is listening for the drive through speakers. In the silence there is a faint digital hum from the speaker, it breaks up, static for a few seconds. He frantically responds to the static, “Hello?” Lee leans out the window, “Can you hear me?” He listens briefly, then turns to Emma.
“Did you hear that?” She turns from looking at the dumpster under snow.
“Hear what?” She looks into the backseat without turning her head.
“Listen.” The hum is quietly broken for what could be two words. “Hello…hello? Can you hear me?” The car ahead of them is still at the window. There is one car in the parking lot. The highways are kinda empty, but the police are out. A tractor plows a back road at the town limits.
“Fuck you!” Lee slams his open hand on the steering wheel and forces the shifter into drive. Emma jerks back in her seat. Lee puts his hand, on her hand, on her stomach. He slaps the turn signal right and turns, drives ten feet, and turns into the McDonald’s parking lot. He takes a deep breath when he sees the twenty-four hour decal on the window-wall.
“Welcome to M-”, momentary static, “I take your order.” Lee smiles and, making a surprised face at Emma, he puts the car in park.
“Just a second.” He turns to her, mimicking enthusiasm, slapping his knees. “What are we getting?”
She makes a thinking face. “Well.” She scratches her shoulder. “We can get one of those kids things for her, and I want a number six, large size, with a pop.” There are more cars in this parking lot. She watches a bulldozer and a dump truck moving the snow around the gas station parking lot. Someone in a knit hat jumps out of a passenger seat and runs from the pumps to the store. Lee gently gases to the window. He looks up from his wallet and smiles at the middle-aged man wearing thick glasses and a headset, extending his hand and repeating the total. “Here you go.” Offering the bills, then the coins. Workers in the kitchen are filling the bags, and putting the drinks in a carrier. It is bright and warm in the restaurant. A little heat escapes, slightly warming Lee’s face. He looks over at Emma looking out the window. A Domino’s delivery car pulls into the parking lot. Its logo light distracts Lee.
“Here you go. Sir. Here you are.”
“Oh sorry.”
“Have a nice night.”
“You, too.”
Emma holds the drinks and puts the kid’s meal in the back seat. She grabs a fry and bites it. They pull into a near parking spot and distribute food, and eat quietly to pop radio static. Lee checks his mirrors to make sure the cars that pass don’t backend them. The pizza delivery car exits the gas station straight from the pump.
“Must’ve paid with a credit card.” Lee says, pointing to the car.
“What?” Emma licks a sauce from her lip, lifting her finger to remove the residue. “Oh, yeah. It’s the easiest way.”
“We can put her food in the fridge and heat it up for her lunch.” Lee takes a bite and continues to look interested in the movement of the parking lot.
“We can leave the toy on her nightstand for the morning.”
“Good idea.” He says, looking back at the cardboard, his abdomen tightening from the deep-fried in the stomach acids and the alcohol and the emptiness this late at night. “Do you want any of these?” He holds out the fries from his hamburger box. She doesn’t say anything, but takes them and pours them into her mouth, tossing the box into the bag with the rest of the trash. She smiles at him, and opens her door. Lee watches Emma put the bag in the trash and admires her walking on the snow. A shock of happiness moves through him, followed by a powerful feeling of sadness, then quickly back to emptiness. Emma sits in the car, and shuts the door, rubbing the snow into the carpet. Up the street two people run around an intersection testing to see if the stoplight sensors and crosswalk requesters work. Lee turns onto the street, drives five feet, and turns into the gas station. He parks in the back corner of the lot to avoid the dump truck and bulldozer maneuvering. The car touches the curb.
“Do we need anything?”
“Milk, peanut butter, coffee, cookie dough ice cream.”
Lee closes the car door and walks into the store, releasing the edges of his coat as he enters. He collects the things from around the store, hesitating in the candy aisle. Today’s newspaper is already on the stand, he corners through it, skimming headlines. He approaches the counter, and places the items on it. “And a pack of…um…those, the buy-two-get-one-free.”
“These?”
“Yeah.” Lee hands the clerk his credit card. The magnetic strip moves through the machine. Lee looks at all the cigarettes. The card is returned with a pen and a receipt to sign. Lee holds the paper with his right hand, signing.
“You a lefty?” The clerk asks enthusiastically.
“Yeah.”
“Me too. Yeah, lefties are the best. We are not ordinary.” The clerk smiles, he takes the receipt and pen. He looks over to his co-worker, “Almost time to get out of here.” Lee grabs the plastic bag, nods and goes back out to the parking lot.
“Oh, fuckers.” Lee almost yells, quickly walking back to his car, blocked in by the dump truck. “What is this about?” Lee looks over at Emma sleeping on a balled-up sweatshirt against the window. He turns on the car attempting to reverse into a parallel position with the truck. He gets inches away from the truck then pulls forward, then reverses again, and again, making little progress. Lee takes a deep breath and watches the steam blow against the windshield. He screams as loud as he can, “Fuuuck. What the fuck.” He violently turns his neck and his torso slamming the steering wheel, his voice gets louder, “Fuck. I hate this shit. What the fuck? What the fuck is wrong with everything.” He looks at his fiancé and daughter both still breathing deeply in sleep. He tries to get out of the space three more times, deepening the difficulty of escape. “Fuu-uck, this is so ridiculous.” He begins to scream again. “Naaa-ahh. Jesus, I hate this fucking town and everyone in it. I just want out. Fuck. Fuu-uck.” Lee sees a worker walk around the front of the truck, he begins to wave Lee back.
“Turn the wheel all the way.” The man says, taking off his gloves. Lee gestures, turns the wheel, nods, squints, and wrinkles his forehead. One wheel goes up onto the curb as the car squeezes past the oversized truck. Emma wakes as the car bounces back onto the ground. She turns in her seat a bit, and puts a hand on Lee’s head carelessly, lovingly, and half asleep.