Blue Maneuver Read Free

me.
    Run !
    Sounded like a plan to me. I could call the cops from the safety of my own home. I spun on my heel. The motion jarred my arm, and the burning sensation engulfed my chest. Home. I needed to get home. Through the weeds and over the sidewalk. Thorns scratched at my legs as I plunged into the overgrowth.
    “Don’t run!”
    Yeah, like that’s going to happen. I was an optimist not an idiot. I focused on the bright yellow concrete columns like goal posts. Leaping over a knot of weeds, I landed in a mud puddle. Water sprayed in every direction and invaded my shoes. I stepped out of the mud with a slurping noise and reached cracked asphalt.
    I’m close. Just a little further and maybe I’ll avoid those lightning bugs high on pixie dust.
    Something hit the back of my left thigh. Stinging spread from the point of impact and an inferno of heat chased after it.
    Darn it! That’s twice the suckers have stung me. When I get home, I’m gonna douse myself with bug spray! I cleared the columns. My sneakers sunk into the mud. Twigs bent under foot as I ran.
    Fiery pain wrapped around my head. I felt like a human torch. Black tainted my vision, edging out the familiar surroundings.
    Keep going. You can make it . My internal cheerleader grew fainter and fainter.
    I sprinted on. Funny how the bug bites didn’t affect my coordination.
    The last bug slammed into the back of my head.
    Blackness consumed my vision and I stumbled. Aw snap! If I’d known I was going to take this many trips, I would have packed! My right knee hit the ground first. Where was the pain? Had the last bug been a good bug? My thoughts disappeared under a tidal wave of nothingness.

Chapter Two
     
     
    I struggled in that murky place between sleep and waking, awareness and oblivion. Rolling over to put out the heat licking my back, I groaned. Please God, don’t let the air-conditioner be broken! I couldn’t afford another bill. Hair tickled my nose and cheek. I brushed it away but it came back, stirred no doubt in the breeze of the overhead fan.
    I snuggled deeper into my soft mattress, putting off facing another day of frantic unemployment and plain oatmeal. Out of sheer cussedness, the sheets felt clammy against my skin and smelled faintly of dank grass. I blocked the unpleasantness.
    It refused to be blocked.
    Shaking my head, I struggled to sit up. Nausea chugged up my throat and pink dusted my closed eyes.
    While the world bucked and swayed, my brain clasped at the bobbing thoughts. Not my room at all. And… Pictures scrolled inside my head, accompanied by the pounding of gremlins and the rumble of an engine. The park. The dawn. More images—each led to another like pearls on a string. Mr. No Show Personal Trainer. The near splits on the sidewalk, Mr. Parks and Rec and…
    And the dead body.
    “Oh, God!” I tasted last night’s nuked dinner of shoe-leather parmesan and gagged on the lump before I managed to swallow it down. Some things should only be experienced once, even if they did cost a budget friendly ninety-nine cents.
    Stop procrastinating, Rae. Your feet are propped up on a dead body . Another thought hovered in the fog clouding my mind. Its presence lingered like a malevolent stalker, but I couldn’t glimpse more than an impression. Sighing, I opened my eyes and glanced at my feet.
    A log.
    My feet were propped up on a log. Laughter bubbled on my lips. I moved my legs. Rough black bark ripped away from the bone-white trunk and scratched at the exposed skin above my ankles. Good heavens, it had been a dream.
    All a dream.
    Truck tires crunched gravel. From the corner of my eye, I watched Mr. Parks and Rec drive out of the horseshoe-shaped lot. A few branches and mounds of black garbage bags bounced in the open truck bed. At least, he hadn’t witnessed this humiliation.
    I reached up to brush my bangs out of my eyes. Just as my fingers skimmed my forehead, pain blitzed my nervous system. My brain sloshed around and my eyes ping-ponged