Two-Lane Blacktop

A man in a pick-up on a dark rainy blacktop sees a woman's arm jut out for help from the side of the road.

Rain had let up. Patrick twisted the turn lever, setting the wipers to intermittent. A few drops gathered on the windshield before the blades stuttered across, flicked them away. In the pickup's low beams, slashes of white glinted sharply on the blacktopped rural road but the edges faded to shadowy murk. He focused on the headlights' reach, squinted as he passed an abandoned car on the shoulder.

Patrick glanced into the rearview and, as expected, found only night. This was no high-traffic throughway, and the thunderstorm kept away back road boozers.

When he looked ahead, a white arm jutted from the darkness into the opposite lane on his left. A woman's face flashed by, mouth open wide. Patrick thought he heard her muted cry.