For anybody interested Evan and Elle did not perish in the automobile accident. While their van was demolished to fragments, they walked away unmarked, physically.
As for psychologically, they were enhanced, if anything they marveled at life all the more. The experience had filled them with renewed verve, for a bit. They were somewhere in northern Florida and it took Evan and Elle a few days to sort themselves out, putting up at a worn motel while shopping for a car.
Soon they were on the road again, now kitted out in an old tub of a station wagon, chocolate brown. The only thing evidently wrong was a tricky light bulb in the dash, and it was priced to sell.
They were headed for Key West, “Because it’s wonderful and life is short,” as Evan said.
Elle, in the front passenger seat, made a game of lowering the visor, sliding wide a cover which in turn switched on a light over an embedded mirror. Elle tugged on her lower lip, and jutted her jaw. Evan thought this made her look like a fish.
“What are you doing?” Evan asked, less patiently each time.
“I’m looking for gold, my darling,” Elle responded, staring at the watery pink reflection of her gaping mouth in the mirror. Her critical eye zeroed in on the seemingly trillions of lines around her lips and her thoughts soured.
Late in the day and the chocolate brown tub motored south of Miami. Here the daylight waned and stars flickered on. A smile of a half moon leered in the darkening royal blue sky. The highway narrowed and road signs abandoned all pretense of prim civility and blazed colorfully lit billboards of pirates and naked ladies and lots and lots of liquor stores.
“Sips?” Elle whispered, in her infantilized way.
Instead, Evan sunk his foot on the accelerator; half convinced that if they could just reach their destination everything would be ok. He tried to distract his wife with anecdotes, junk he had memorized earlier that day, back at the rank motel. This worked for a few miles.
“I need vino!” Elle implored suddenly, starting to cry softly.
With a couple of hours yet to go Evan felt outgunned and he pulled into the welcoming bosom of a 24 hour drive-thru alcohol warehouse.
When he rejoined the highway Evan was concerned to notice the dashboard lights were dimming. He was having a hard time making out the controls.
But with the glow of Key West visible he decided to go for it. After the best of a bottle of merlot Elle was defanged and the couple merrily accompanied the Rolling Stones on the radio, singing heartily, “I can’t get no…”
From nowhere came a truck, smashing into the station wagon…