ghosts on a rain-slick freeway

Business took me to Spokane in the fall, so I drove over, and stopped in at some familiar places along the way, including a stop at the Valley Mall to purchase a gift for my girlfriend--as if the trip merited a souvenir--and see a high school classmate who lived in the area. It was cloudy, and getting to be about twilight or so by the time I got out to my car. About halfway there, it started raining.

"It's really starting to come down," he said, and I shrugged like it didn't really bother me. "Well, hey, take care of yourself. Good seeing you again."

"Yeah." My girlfriend's gift was just a CD she'd been looking for. I got in the car and turned on the windshield wipers and waited for the fog on the windows to clear. I cracked the window. "See you around," I said, and pulled out of the parking lot.

By the time I found the freeway it was pouring rain, and the sky was dark and the streetlights made a blinding glare on the freeway. The mist from the cars and falling rain made little ghostly shapes. I drove through them, but it was cold and sometimes I wondered, as I tried to find the lanes, if they weren't my ghosts I was driving through.