Elements of Fear

William Parker slammed the brakes. It was intentional. He was certainly not in a mood to kill a five-year-old girl on a state highway at eleven in the night. She was about fifty yards away when Parker noticed her on the road. The car came to a grinding halt and the girl just stared into the headlights without moving an inch from the road.

He put the distress lights on and got out of the car. “Hey, Kid... What are you doing here?” She didn’t utter a word. She simply stared into the headlights. Parker looked around. There wasn’t any car nearby. She could not have come there walking. The highway was deserted. Sunday night it was. Christmas was two days away. Most of the people had already reached their destination. The traffic was very less. Parker was doing eighty on that fifty-five miles per hour zone. He was absolutely sure that there would be no cop on that road at this hour. Little did he speculate about a wandering kid on the speed lane of the highway.

“Are you OK?” he asked her suspiciously. She didn’t reply. She was a cute little girl... just about the same age as Martha Parker, his daughter, who would be eagerly waiting for him and the presents he was carrying. Parker did not know what to do. There was not a single living soul on that road. The nearest town was around twenty miles away. “How did you come here, Kid?” He approached her slowly making sure he didn’t scare the little girl.

She looked at him. Parker could find terror in her eyes. He at once knew something bad had happened. He knelt before her and stroked her head. “Where are your parents?” he asked her.

She started sobbing. “Momma… there” she pointed towards the bushes on the roadside. Parker was dumbfounded. He took her in his arms and slowly went to the other side of the road. It was pitch black and he could not see anything. He listened carefully to the sounds of the night trying to catch any human voice.

The night was just calm. It looked like a black hole. He came back to his car, started it and drove to the other side of the road. Then he focussed the headlights on to the bushes.

The wreck was clearly visible. It was a 1989 Buick. The front portion was totally damaged. The rear portion was relatively less mangled. He shivered. It was not because of the bitter cold.

Parker had never before been in an accident site. Blood and gore scared him always. He slowly approached the wreck. “Anybody there?” He shouted. No answer. He moved a little closer and looked into the car.

Ten seconds later he vomited. His head was spinning. The girl was staring into the car. He was sick. But his presence of mind suggested that the girl should be taken away from that site. He grabbed her and ran to his car. He entered the driver’s seat and tried to think logically. Five minutes later, he regained his composure. His cell phone did not catch a signal. The nearest facility that would allow him to make a 911 call was twenty miles away. He turned to the girl and asked her, “We will go to the town and get someone here. OK?” She just stared at him and said nothing.

He strapped her to the child seat in the back row of his Sedan and started the car. “What is your name?” he asked her. “Mary” her voice was barely audible. He nodded and stepped on the gas. He wanted to inform the police as soon as possible. Soon the odometer started oscillating near the 100 mark. “I hope you aren’t hurt, are you?” He asked her. She didn’t reply. There was a curve approaching. He had to reduce his speed. He stepped on the brakes.

It took him two seconds to understand that the action had not done what it was supposed to do. The car still cruised at one hundred miles per hour. The curve was coming near. Frantically he slammed the brakes once again. The brake pedal went in loosely. Sweat appeared on the forehead of William Parker. “Help” he shouted unsure of who could help at that time.

The curve was indeed a sharp curve and William Parker could not control his car at hundred miles per hour. The car jumped off the road into the bushes and smashed into a tree.

A minute later, the little girl got out from the backseat and started walking towards the road. There was a car coming at a distance. She went to the middle of the road and stared into the headlights of the approaching car.