CW: A journey to remember.

“She stopped to pick up the hitchhiker despite her parents warnings.
What harm could an old woman do?”
– a prompt for this week’s CW piece.
[Source: @DailyPrompt]

 

Diana was down on her luck. Even more so than usual.

The guy she thought she would spend the rest of her life with broke off the engagement a week before the wedding, because he fell in love with someone else.

“Fell in love” – she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

On top of that, she just got fired because she overslept and didn’t show up for a court case.

She buried her face in her palms.

“Give me your hands” – the psychic said.

They both closed their eyes and sat in silence for a moment.

“You’ve been cursed” – the seer announced.

“What?” – she asked, taken aback.

“Cursed. Do you know by whom?”

Diana sighed, realizing that this was silly.

“Sit back down.”

Diana obeyed, and the Gypsy woman cupped her hands.

“I see an open road.

A … red… Lamborghini.

Stopped on the side of the road.

Utah.

That’s what the road sign says.”

Diana freed her hands from the woman’s hold.

“What is it?”

“After I passed my bar exam, my parents got me a Lambo for my solo road trip across the country.

They were uneasy about me doing it alone, but I needed to decompress after law school.

“Don’t pick up any hitchhikers” – they said jokingly, as I got into the car.

“Parents” – I thought to myself and drove off on an adventure of a lifetime.”

Diana couldn’t believe it, but the more she thought about the whole situation, she knew that the psychic was right. She had been cursed.

“I was on my way through Colorado, when I saw this frail woman sitting by the road, holding a sign “Need a ride to Utah”. Since that was where I was going, I decided to help her out.

“Don’t pick up any hitchhikers” – I heard my parents’ voice in my head, but I quickly dismissed it.

This was a woman half my size, probably 60 years older than me, and there was no one else in sight.

“I’m going to Cali. Wanna ride?”

It took her forever to just get up from the crate she was sitting on. I was doing a good deed.

“Thank you, kind soul” – she said as she got into my car.

We chitchatted for a moment, but after a while, I started regretting picking her up.

“Can you close the roof?”

“Can you drive slower?”

“Can you change the radio station?”

“Can you turn off the radio?”

“Do you have any snacks?”

“Do you have any OTHER snacks?”

“Can you stop in the next town so I can get PROPER snacks?”

She just wouldn’t shut up. When she wasn’t asking for favors, she was asking questions about my personal life. Enough was enough. I had to do SOMETHING.

“Utah” – I saw the sign from afar.

That was my chance.

“You said you needed a ride to Utah. Here we are. Now get out” – I said, stopping right in front of the sign.

“We’re not in Utah. Yet” – she said and looked at me with challenge in her eyes.

I drove 10 more feet just to pass the official entrance marker and put the car in park.

“Safe travels” – I said to her, but she just sat there without responding, or moving.

I pulled the keys out of the ignition and got out of the car.

“Get OUT” – I raised my voice as I opened her door.

She still wouldn’t budge, leaving me no choice.

I have bipolar disorder. You know?

I just couldn’t take her abusing my kindness, so I yanked her out of the car as gently as I could.

She finally got out.

And so I locked her door, so she couldn’t get back in and rushed to the driver’s seat.

“And safe travels to you” – she said.

I heard her laughter for as long as I could see her in the rear-view mirror.”

“I can fix this” – said the seer with a smile.

***

P.S. As always, you are more than welcome to use this prompt to inspire your post. If you decide to write something, be sure to pingback to this post, so that I can get an alert and check out your post. (A post on how to do pingbacks can be found here.) If pingbacks are not your thing, feel free to simply leave a link to your piece in the comment section below. The more, the merrier!

Stay golden,

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