THE GHOSTS OF MIKE AND JEFF, a short story by actung. Date added: 2009-06-26. Times viewed: 1399.
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Neither Mike nor Jeff knew each other. Their separate journeys on the same long stretch of road would most definitely alter both their lives. The night was cold; the previously fallen rain had already begun to turn to ice. Road side lights were few and far between. Mike received a blow out to his front right tyre which forced his car off the road and into a ditch. Jeff knew the road like the back of his hand, he had traveled it so many times before without incident so when Mike made his way out of the ditch and on to the road, he had totally caught Jeff by surprise and Jeff only hit his brakes the moment he had also hit Mike. As Jeff’s car swerved and came to a halt his head collided with the steering wheel and completely knocked him out.
As Mike let go of his grip and came off the bonnet of the car he noticed two things, 1. There was no one in the car that had just hit him and, 2. There was a body on the ground. He thought it must be the driver of the car that hit him, but how could that be? The windscreen was still in tact and none of the car doors were open but on closer inspection Mike realized that the body on the ground was that of his own. The impact of being hit by the car had killed him and his soul; his ghost had clung on to the bonnet of the car leaving him at a complete and utter loss.
Jeff awoke in the middle of a road to the sound of an oncoming truck which blew its noisy horns, and Jeff just got out of the way as the truck driver shouted profanities as he passed by. Now Jeff noticed two things of his own. 1. With the sun shining it was plain to see that it was now no longer night time and, 2. Neither his car nor the guy he had hit were anywhere to be seen. Jeff assumed he had spent the night unconscious on the road and that whomever he had hit must be ok and probably took his car so he thumbed a lift back into the town.
It wasn't long before he got that lift. There was a newspaper on the dash board of the car he got into. ‘Is that today's paper?' Jeff asked to which the reply was ‘yeah', after looking at the headline Jeff said ‘sorry mate, this is yesterdays paper', ‘it can't be, I just picked it up this morning, it even has today's date on it'. Had Jeff gone back in time?
As Jeff got out of the car that brought him back to the town, he had the strange sensation of de ja vu, as he seen himself get into his own car and drive off. The other him was wearing the same clothes as he was, he must have somehow just gone a small amount of time into the past. Jeff knew that his other self had a few errands to run, and that it would be at least an hour before the accident was due to happen.
When it began to get dark, Jeff, being in a bit of a panic, managed to organize himself a lift back out onto the that long stretch of road, whether faith has anything to do with anything or not, it was some coincidence that Jeff had organized him self a lift with Mike whom had said he was going that way anyway. Sure enough along the journey Mike’s front right tyre blew out forcing the car into a ditch.
As Jeff climbed up out of the ditch and onto the road he was hit by an oncoming car, and when the car came to a halt, Jeff let go of the bonnet only to see himself laying on the ground. He knew he was dead. When Jeff looked to his right he could see Mike kneeling over his own body too. ‘Don't you see?', said Mike ‘you have just killed us both‘. Both Jeff and Mikes bodies disappeared, but their ghosts remained, and as Mike crawled of the ditch to see Jeff unconscious in another car, he thought ‘what the hell?', moved Jeff into the passenger seat and drove him to the hospital, leaving the ghosts of Mike and Jeff to roam the long dark stretch of road for all eternity arguing over what had happened and whose fault it was, Mikes for coming out of a dark ditch or Jeff’s for hitting them both .... ??
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