Anna Ascending
Kevin Joseph Reigle
I drop the prostitutes off at the truck stop and get a scornful eye from a local cop that’s sitting in his cruiser drinking a Mountain Dew. As they walk around to the back of the gas station, I point at the rideshare sticker on my windshield.
“They hired me.”
The cop lowers his window. “Don’t get cute, buddy.”
My phone dings with a ride notification. I shrug at the officer and put the car in reverse, backing out of the parking space. I accept the fare on my phone and follow the directions.
When I arrive, a lone girl sits on the sidewalk wearing a backpack. She approaches the driver’s side window. The radio is playing softly, tuned to an AM station. She introduces herself as Anna and we share quick backstories. She tells me how hard it is being trans.
“I need to make a couple stops. Is that okay?” she asks.
“You’re the one paying.”
We cross the bridge, and she tells me to turn left. I ease onto a dirt road. She points at a trailer that looks blue in the moonlight.
“Is this it? It doesn’t look like anyone’s home,” I say.
“Yeah, this is the place.”
Anna knocks on the trailer door and waits. There aren’t any lights on inside. No one answers the door.
My phone falls into the cup holder as I squirm to loosen the seatbelt. I pick it up just as Anna gets back in the car. With a flick of her thumb, she points over her shoulder.
“Let’s go,” she says.
I back up and turn left out of the trailer park. We pass several darkened store fronts when she tells me to pull into an apartment complex. The only light is at the far end of the complex. She points at it.
“Park over there.”
When I do, Anna gets out and rings the bell. I know the guy who answers. It’s one of my drug dealers, Galen.
Galen squints as he looks past her through the windshield. It takes him a moment, but he recognizes me. Anna hugs him as I get out of the car.
“I didn’t know you knew Anna,” Galen says.
“Oh, yeah, we’re old friends,” Anna responds before I have a chance to say anything.
Inside, Galen puffs on a joint and passes it around, first handing it Anna, then me. Galen’s boyfriend, Mark, sits in front of the television watching Catfish. I inhale until my lungs hurt.
On the coffee table are Oxy tablets that Galen picks up, licks, and crushes. He rolls a dollar bill, and we all take a snort. It hits me fast.
Galen gets up from the couch and goes to a bookshelf. He pulls out a shoebox and removes a small baggie. He hands it to Anna, who puts it down her shirt.
She looks over at me. “Are you ready to go?”
“I am if you are,” I say.
We leave Galen’s apartment. Red and blue lights flash past the apartment complex. I panic and freeze. Anna seems unfazed. She laughs and tells me to chill out. I do my best.
Anna reaches for the radio as she gives me directions to a motel. I pull into the gravel lot beside it. The stones ping off the bottom of the car as we turn in. I park near a small walking bridge.
Anna jumps out and lays down by the trees. She takes off her shoes and wiggles her toes. Her right hand smacks the gravel. “Lay down with me.”
“Why?” I ask.
“If you don’t lay down, it won’t work.”
I lay down and look at the moon. Anna tells me she hopes they come tonight. They didn’t come last night.
“Who didn’t come?” I ask.
“The UFO. You should have seen the inside of the ship. I wish I wouldn’t have come back. This time I won’t. Will you stay up there with me?”
“Up in space?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure, I’ve got nothing going on this week.”
Anna reaches down her shirt and pulls out the small baggie. She takes out two pills and hands one to me.
“Put this on your tongue,” she says.
I put the pill on my tongue and feel it dissolve. Anna takes the other and begins to shake. I wait for something to happen. Anna’s shoulder presses against mine. A noise catches my attention from the woods. I try to turn, but she kisses me.
A flashing light blinds me from above. The wind picks up as I hear the trees rustling. A voice calls out, but I can’t understand it.
Again, the voice speaks as the light spins. I feel something hard pressing against the top of my head.
“Get up here,” the voice commands.
I can see the outline of a figure, but my eyes won’t focus. I’m pulled to my feet and the light snaps off.
A police officer stands in front of us. It’s the one from the gas station. He helps Anna up, calling her by name. Then he asks me, “What’s your story this time? Did she hire you, too?”
Kevin Joseph Reigle’s short stories have appeared in Beyond Words, The Dillydoun Review, Drunk Monkeys, Bridge Eight, Pensworth, Prometheus Dreaming, BQW, Bright Flash, CafeLit and others. He is an English Professor at the University of the Cumberlands.