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Silent Witness

My earliest memory is of being parked in a dealership lot alongside a city street. I felt dazed by the constant, noisy, sparkling rush of traffic inches from my grille. My wheels itched and my gears longed to shift into drive to join them on the road.

"This is one fast car," a man pronounced as he taped sheets of paper in my windows. "It'll sell quickly."

A couple days later, a young man approached, examining me carefully.

"A yellow Charger—perfect!"

"Need a test drive, Luke?" the salesman asked.

"Nope. This is my eighteenth birthday gift from Dad. My dream car!"

They entered the office. I wondered how it would feel to have a driver. A thrill of excitement ran through my fuel lines. My wiring buzzed with anticipation.

Luke triggered my ignition remotely and hopped in. A rush of power flooded through me as my engine roared to life. I trembled from grille to tailpipe with suppressed energy. He drove me off the lot out into the traffic. I wondered how fast I could go. My disappointment flared as he braked to a stop only a block away at an intersection where a red light dangled. But when the light turned green, we were off!

Luke and I learned to drive together. I discovered almost as much about myself as he did while he experimented with all my features. The highways called irresistibly.

***

One afternoon, Luke took extra care with my weekly washing. I loved the way his sudsy chamois slid smoothly across my paint. When he finished rinsing, he applied some thick, sticky stuff he called wax. He even sprayed something out of a can on the sidewalls of my tires.

"There! You're all spiffed up. She'll love riding with me."

He came out wearing fancy clothes. He drove slowly beyond the railroad tracks, guiding me with finesse over rough, broken roads.

Luke pulled up to an old house and beeped my horn. A young woman came running out.

"Luke! I'm so glad you showed up!"

"Wouldn't miss this evening for anything, Tracy."

She climbed into the passenger seat. I quivered with excitement as my suspension balanced the added weight.

"How have you been?" he asked, his voice low and gentle as he navigated those nasty potholes.

"I'm fine." Tracy ran her fingers along my armrest.

"How's your father… still hasn't gotten a job?"

"He's an alcoholic. We live on his SSI."

"A shame." Luke shook his head. "You should move out. You're an adult now—you shouldn't be stuck with an old drunk. I'd be happy to…" he paused.

"He's all alone." Her voice trembled. "He needs someone to take care of him since Mother left."

"He can take care of himself. He's no father—If he really loved you he'd sober up."

Tracy heaved a sigh. Luke turned me down an exit ramp and built up speed on the highway as the sun settled towards the horizon.

"Wanna see how fast my Charger can go?" he asked impishly. "The police use these…"

"Don't do anything reckless!" Tracy pressed herself against her seat as Luke hit my accelerator.

With full power coursing through my engine, I flew down the road as if I had wings. Trees, billboards and dividing stripes shot past as my speed dial tipped towards the max. I felt so alive!

Luke turned on the radio. He and Tracy sang along to "baby you're my open road…"

Luke pushed cruise control. The exhilarating speed overcame my awareness until he shifted into park at a lakefront picnic area. A stunning sunset painted the sky as Luke and Tracy settled down in my front seats, the radio still on and the windows open.

They talked at first, about many things of which I knew very little. After a while they grew silent, surrounded by tiny sounds of crickets and other nightlife.

"May I?" Luke slipped his arm across Tracy's shoulder.

"Of course." She rested her hand over his. "Thank you for taking me out tonight."

"I wanted you to have a special evening. You worked so hard this week."

After the moon rose, beaming a fluttering path across the water, Luke started my engine. We headed back the way we'd come along the highway.

Luke put me in park at Tracy's driveway. They sat quietly for a while. I idled patiently with the AC humming.

"Well?" He said at last. She sniffled.

"Oh Luke, I—I don't want to go in!"

He stiffened and sat upright.

"Why not? Are you afraid?"

"Look, he's coming out! He's drunk again, I can tell."

Luke drew in a sharp breath.

"Is he holding a—?" He yanked me into reverse and shot me backwards out of the driveway. "Tracy, you're not living with him anymore. We'll get your stuff in the morning."

He drove her to his dad's house. My headlights lit up the path, guiding them to the front door.

***

The next morning, Luke and Tracy stuffed their meager belongings into my trunk and set out on the highway once more.

"You sure you can do this?" Tracy asked.

"Yes. It's time I moved out, and you should come with me. You're ready?"

"I have nothing to lose. If I don't leave now, I never will." She adjusted my vents.

I was quite surprised when they parked me in a dark, empty lot that night, leaned my front seats back, and fell asleep inside of me. I didn't know what to do, so I stayed awake to guard them.

***

After a couple nights, they moved into a shelter, where I had to park in a fenced lot behind a big old brick building.

"What's up, Tracy?" Luke asked one morning as he got behind my wheel.

"I've got a job interview at the Harris Teeter on Oak Street!" She clapped her hands. "That's my fiftieth application I've handed in since we arrived."

"Wonderful. I'll drop you off. Call when you're ready."

"Where will you be?"

"I'll drop off my resume at ReadyMen."

I knew where ReadyMen was; Tracy guided Luke to it from my passenger seat the other day. But instead of heading downtown after he dropped her off, Luke pulled into a rundown gas station. My engine rumbled in protest; I thought he was getting gas for me, and cheapo gas made me misfire.

Instead he went inside, returned with some fat cans, and idled in the corner of the lot for a few hours, running my AC and blasting the radio. I didn't really enjoy idling, but I zoned out, awakening as he left to go pick up Tracy.

***

Once Tracy got hired at the grocery store, I became her daily driver, as she called me affectionately. Her coworkers occasionally gathered around me to smoke and offer compliments.

"That's one fast car!"

"Cute color."

"Wish I had your boyfriend so I could drive that to work."

"Take good care of it, ya hear?"

***

"Guess what, Luke? I've saved up enough to get us an apartment!" Tracy tapped her fingers on my steering wheel in time to the radio's song.

"That's great." Luke stared at his phone.

"How's the job search going, honey?"

"I'm getting there. You'll see."

***

I was dozing off in the parking lot out front one evening, about a week after helping Luke and Tracy move into their apartment, when the soft beep-beep of my remote entry awoke me. Luke climbed in, driving me to a bar on the edge of town.

I was puzzled. He had never done this before. I wondered what Tracy would do if she woke up and needed to drive me. When he staggered out several hours later, I felt an alarm bell going off deep within my computers.

"Hey man, you can't drive like that," someone said. "Let me get an Uber."

Luke disappeared in a strange car, and everyone left as the bar closed. I remained all alone in the parking lot. My senses were on high alert. A bum walked past me, his hand held strangely along my side. Metal clawed against metal. It was the first time I felt pain.

***

I beeped joyfully when Tracy came to get me at dawn.

"The nerve of him!" She passed her hand gently along the deep scratch in my side. "Abandoning you like this. How could he?"

It happened again. And again. Dirt gathered on my surface as weeks passed without Luke's washing. Tracy ran me through a car wash some evenings after work, and she usually got my oil changes and arranged for repairs.

The first time my water pump broke, I was scared. My engine overheated on the side of the road. I felt terrible because I'd let Tracy down.

"What is this?!"

I was barely conscious on the lift in the repair shop. Tracy shouted at Luke on the phone.

"How could you overdraw our bank account?! I need to fix the car so I can get to work!"

***

Luke drove me out to the bar again one night. When they closed, he refused to take a ride. The moment his hands touched my steering wheel, I knew he was in no condition to handle me. I tried to shut my engine off, but I couldn't.

He forced me out onto the empty streets, swerving and speeding. I barely avoided crashing into a light pole. Oh, how I wished for something to break inside of me so he would stop driving! I had no choice but to continue. He even blasted through a red light.

Suddenly, red and blue flashing lights filled my insides, bouncing off my mirrors. Relief flooded me like gasoline as Luke finally pulled over and shut me off.

For the second time in my life I was towed, this time to what the policeman called an impound lot. The other cars told me horror stories about how they'd ended up there. Some had been impounded for years, their owners dead, in jail, or missing.

I worried about Luke and Tracy. Would they ever come get me? What happened to him? How could she get to work without me?

Two days later, a thrill of delight tingled my wires as my keyless entry beep-beeped. Tracy strode up to me, her face grim and drawn.

"You're mine now," she whispered, patting my dusty, dented surface.

I drove her willingly wherever she needed to go, until we were back at the apartment. Luke was waiting for her, arms crossed, scowling.

"You're leaving right now." Tracy stood by my door, squeezing the handle. "I'm not living with another useless drunk. The apartment's in my name. Your license is gone, and I need to drive to work, so I get the car. I've already discussed it with your father. He's extremely disappointed in you, Luke."

"You're not keeping my car!" he shouted.

"You can't be trusted to take care of it! You're no partner—if you really loved me or even your own car, you'd sober up!"

Luke swore, tearing the keys out of her hand and shoving her against my side so hard I wobbled on my springs. Somehow I activated my anti-theft alarm. The earsplitting noise ricochetted between the apartment buildings. People ran to intervene as he attacked her.

Two police cars showed up, and officers hauled Luke away. He was right, the patrol cars were Chargers just like me.

I didn't know what to expect after so much chaos and upheaval. The next morning, Tracy drove me to her job at Harris Teeter again as if nothing had changed. When she got off work she chattered to me.

"I've been promoted! First thing I'll do with my bigger paycheck is get you spruced up, you faithful old Charger. I just wish…" A sigh escaped her lips.

She turned me down an exit ramp, accelerating. I felt the old rush of speed like flying, something I hadn't experienced in years. Trees, billboards and dividing stripes flew past in a blur as I did my best to make Tracy happy.

Word Count: 2000.
Written for "Rhythms & Writing: Official WDC Contest"

Prompt: the live Grammy performance of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs.

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