It was 3:00 in the morning. She watched out the window. Had he been in an accident? Was he in a ditch somewhere? Or worse. A vision of his maimed body in his crumpled vehicle flashed before her. Helen pressed her fingers to her eyes to blot it out.
She replayed conversations from the day before, about his choices and habits.
He was on his phone too much. “Luke, honey. I’m talking to you. Can you please make eye contact? I feel like I’m having a conversation with your forehead.”
“Chill, mom. I’m in the middle of a game.”
Later, he took a trip to the store for pop. He had finally learned to drive and gotten his license after months of her pushing him. Nagging certainly worked in that case. “Back in my time, boys couldn’t wait to get licensed! It’s how they impressed the girls.”
But oh, he had bought that rundown sedan with money from his part time job, and she thought she’d lose her mind each time he went clanking around in that thing.
The conversation when he returned from the store was their last.
“Pop and chips? Honey that’s not good for you. And please, for the love of God get that car to the shop to have that horrible rattle-clank looked at.”
He looked at her, shook his head and was gone.
Her words echoing in her mind, she turned away from the window. But then she heard it. That beautiful rattle-clank sound.
Thank you for reading my 250-word micro-fiction story. Your comments are welcome!
I wrote this story when I ran a weekly micro-fiction writing contest, and I would also often contribute my own piece, just for fun. This story was my piece for the prompt, “sound.”