Dead Man's Curve
by
Joshua J. Wood
1
Joyce laid in her tent following the stitching up and down the grey walls. She had picked it out because of its green color, but that was all on the outside. On the inside was all grey, no green, just grey. And each of those grey lines of stitching formed triangles, so instead of counting sheep, she counted triangles to fall asleep.
The wind blew and rustled the leaves right outside where she laid her head. Camping is the only reason she wanted to be in the Cub Scouts. Her and her dad, who was already snoring in his tent next door, had gone camping together a lot. Then, when the scouts allowed girls to join, his friend Mr. Rob convinced him to sign them up and become a troop dad with him.
They're first activity together was the Fall jamboree at Camp Harris. The other boys, who shared tents, were Will and David next to dad, Freddy and Richie next to them, and Mr. Rob, Richie's dad, on the end. They were the smallest troop there, but had all agreed to do their best to be this year's Fall Jamboree Troop of the Camp.
Camp Harris was big, with woods and trails covering about five miles along Mud Creek, squeezed between two winding roads on both sides. One of which was Scout road that ran along the front entrance of the camp. A long stretch of road that ran straight into an almost ninety-degree curve when traveling North towards town, right next to where Joyce's troop was assigned to pitch their tents. A curve a lot of people thought they could take at high speed, a curve that gained legendary status as Dead Man's Curve after those people didn't.
The counting of triangles started to work. Joyce started to close her eyes and listened to the lullaby rhythms of the crickets when a bright yellow light filled her tent, flashing on and off and on then off again. Joyce sat up and tried to peek through the small screen on the back of the tent. She couldn't see a thing until the yellow shining light flashed back on brighting the trees down by the road. She grabbed her flashlight, put on her shoes and unzipped her tent.
Outside, the campsite was dark. The fire pit that still had burning orange embers when she went to bed were now just black and grey ash. She turned and faced towards the road. The yellow lights blinked again bouncing off the hill leading down to the road, then off again. Joyce clicked on her flashlight and started walking.
On her way down, she started to make out the shape of a car stopped on the side of the road. The closer she got, she could hear the faint sound of music. The passenger door was open as she shined her light onto a white SUV. She stepped out on the edge between the gravel street and the damp grass behind the car that she could now see was smashed against one of the trees right off of the curve.
"Is there anyone there? Do you need help?"
She listened for an answer, but only heard the music that she now recognized as one of the songs her mom sang to in the kitchen. She walked towards the open door and stopped. Her heart began to race when she shined her light on the ground and saw a man lying there.
A weak voice came out, "Help me."
"Oh crap. I'm going to get help, ok. Just stay there, and I'll be back with help, ok."
Joyce took a step to go back when the man pushed himself up off the ground. He moaned as he sat up on his knees and raised to his feet.
"You just stay here and I'll go get help. Do you understand?"
The man moaned again while turning his head towards her. She tried to hold the light down, but it crept up farther and farther until it was in the man's face where it reflected the crimson red of blood smeared across it. Joyce screamed in terror just as the man lunged towards her growling incoherent words. She darted up the hill, around the trees and didn't stop until she fell on top of her dad's tent.
"Daddy! Daddy! Wake up."
Joyce scraped on the front of his tent with one hand, looking for the zipper with the other.
"Joyce, was is it? Was is it?"
The front of the tent zipped open and Joyce fell into her father's arms.
"A man wrecked on the road. He's really hurt. It's awful."
Joyce couldn't hold back her tears any longer as they began to stream down her face. Her dad rushed to put his shoes on, took the flashlight out of her hand and leaped to his feet.
"You wait here. Don't move."
He ran off towards the road. Joyce crawled into her dad's tent and tried to forget the man's blood covered face. Footsteps came back up the hill as Joyce's dad appeared in the doorway.
"Where did you say he was?"
Joyce sat up.
"Down on the road."
"On that road?"
"Yeah, right there, by the curve."
"I didn't see anything honey."
"His lights were flashing. You didn't see them?"
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't. I didn't see anything.
Joyce couldn't believe it.
"You didn't have a bad dream did you?"
"No, it was real. I'll prove it."
Joyce crawled back out of the tent and headed back down to the road.
"Joyce, there's nothing down there. It's late, let's just go to bed."
She continued on forcing him to follow her with the flashlight. He caught up to her just before the hill reached the road. There was nothing.
"I swear. There was a car crashed right over there and a man, a hurt man, and he jumped at me."
"He jumped at you?"
"For help, I think. But it scared me, and, I ran. To get help."
She looked up at him to show she was telling the truth.
"That was smart, but, there's nothing here now. And thankfully no one is hurt."
Joyce looked around at the dark street. She took the flashlight from her dad and shined it at the tree the car had smashed against. Nothing. No sign of any damage at all. She turned back towards him.
"You're right. No one was hurt, and maybe it was just a dream. It just didn't feel like a dream, I don't know what it was."
Footsteps came from the top of the hill. Joyce pointed the light up into the face of Mr. Rob. His arm shot up and covered his eyes.
"What are you guys doing? Is everything alright?"
Joyce's dad pushed the flashlight towards the ground.
"Everything is fine. Just a bad dream."
"If you say so. Come on back up here and try to get some sleep."
Joyce walked back to the campsite followed by her dad. She went straight for her tent and went inside. Her dad leaned over and peered in at her. She found her towel and wiped the tears from her face.
"You sure don't want to sleep over in my tent. No one is going to think it's weird. I promise. It's how we always go camping."
"No, I want to be able to do this on my own."
"That's right, you're a Cub Scout now. I get it. But, no more late night walks alone. If you hear or see anything again, you come get me right away. Got it?
"I got it."
"I'll see you in the morning my joy."
"Ok."
He walked off as she reached out and zipped the door shut. Outside she could hear dad and Mr. Rob whispering to each other before going back in their tents.
After several minutes of her father rustling to get comfortable, everything went silent except for the crickets and echoes of croaking frogs down by the creek. Joyce took some deep breaths and tried to forget about what had happened, she'd be able to try and make sense of it all in the morning. She looked around at the triangles, and soon felt the world of sleep wash over when -
CRASH!
To be Continued ...
