This choice: Your going to drive around until you run out of gas • Go Back...Chapter #3Hidden Springs by: Drez Do you even have a destination in mind? Not really. What was the point in going anywhere anymore? You’ve never married because you were simply “too bossy” for your lovers when you had one. Yes, you had sex before, but they were mostly one-night stands to get yourself promoted. You sigh and just decide to drive until you run out of gas. You take a right turn that’ll lead you out of town. You’ve always wanted to see the rural country that surrounds your hometown, but you never had the time for it. Well, this seems to be the perfect time for you to explore the countryside. And maybe you’ll end up in the middle of nowhere and simply wait for death to come. There won’t be a body to bury. You don’t really want to think about your death, but you can’t help it. You’re just going to shrink away to nothing and probably be crushed by an atom…or eaten by a microbe. At least you’ll die an interesting death, seeing the microscopic world. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll stop shrinking by then and live on as the microscopic woman. That makes you laugh, despite your fate. But you don’t want to die in a lab, which would happen if you had stayed with the doctor. They wouldn’t even care if you die; you’ll just be a medical mystery that’ll take years to study. No, you’re going to die on your own terms.
It takes you about ten minutes to exit the big city and enter the surrounding wilderness. There’s nothing out here but farms and small towns. The small towns that you pass by are simply at a crossroads and have names like Lancaster, Chesterton, Anderson’s Corners and a lot of other names that you forget as soon as you pass by the little town. You really don’t care where you end up; you had a full tank of gas when you decided to drive until you’re out of gas. You wander aimlessly, taking random turns down dirt roads.
When night falls, you have half a tank of gas left. You’ve also shrunken a few inches since this afternoon, but it’s hardly noticeable. The road that you’re on leads to someplace called “Hidden Springs”….no doubt, another little town that if you blink you’ll miss it. You simply drive on into the night, little caring where you’ll be in the morning. To take your mind off of things, you have put on your favorite CD and sing along with old songs.
At around one o’clock in the morning, the car starts to sputter. It looks like the car has ran out of gas. You manage to pull the car off of the street and get out. You’re about six inches shorter than you were. There’s no traffic on the street at all. As you look around, you see a sign.
“Hidden Springs 1½ Mile
Gordon 10 Miles
Port Amanda 40 miles”
“Guess I’m going to Hidden Springs” you say aloud.
You begin to walk down the darkened street. There’s no streetlights here out in the boondocks, but you see some lights up ahead, no doubt belonging to the town you’re going to. As you continue to walk, you shrink down another three inches. Your about the size of a teenager now, and your clothes are starting to get a little baggy on you. You’re going to Hidden Springs because you’re tired and in need of sleep. You wonder just how small you’ll be in the morning.
You see another sign as you reach the crest of a low hill. The sign reads: “Welcome to Hidden Springs -- Home of the smallest man in the world”
Hidden Springs is bigger than those four-corner towns that you passed by earlier in the day. The population of this town must be 15,000 or there about. You see a hotel nearby and make for it. According to the hotel’s sign, there’s free HBO and Showtime. You enter the hotel’s lobby, where a lonely man of about 20 is behind the counter. The young man is watching the TV behind the counter, pointed away from you. As you get closer to the counter, you begin to feel dizzy and have a shrink spurt. Your doctor did say that you might have these shrinking spurts during the week. You were about the size of a teenager, but now you’re the size of a big toddler or small child. All of your clothes have fallen off of you and surround you like a tent. Now you can’t even see over the counter. You clear your throat loudly. In about a minute, the young man finally spots you.
“What are you doing up this late, little girl?” he asks.
“I’ll like a room and I’m not a little girl” you say sternly.
“Oh” said the man. “so we have another little person in town”
“I’ll like a room” you repeat.
“Oh, sure” said the man. “you can have Room 135, it’s just down the hall”
"Um...I might have trouble getting into the room at my size" you say, as the man gives you a keycard for the room.
"No problem" said the man.
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