Flash Fiction 33: Spin the dice

The little red vw bug was everything she'd dreamed of -- complete with the hideously wonderful pink fuzzy dice. She sat in the driver's seat and let the pride and excitement fill her. She'd bought it. With her OWN money. To travel across the country -- one great adventure before settling down to being, ugh, an adult. When would she ever be able to take two months off again? Possibly not until she retired. So despite her parents' pressure to get a real job and start paying off the student loans, Ellie was going adventuring. In her little red bug with her perfect pink dice. She turned the key and the car revved to life. Pulling out of her parking spot she fiddled with her ipod, trying to find the perfect song to start out her adventure. Finding a song that brought her instantly back to highschool, she cranked the volume and smiled as she drove out. She made it about 10 minutes before hitting the reality that is traffic. Apparently just because she was going adventuring didn't mean everybody else was going to skip the daily commute and let her have the highway. Sitting still in the fast lane, she amused herself by making the fuzzy pink dice swing as she daydreamed of the things she might do over the next few months. Her only plan was that she had no plan. Drive till she felt like stopping. Visit small towns. Take sideroads and photos. Tons of photos. Thinking of that she reached over and dug her camera out of her bag on the seat beside her. Knowing she shouldn't be taking photos while driving, she ascertained the risk to be essentially non-existent; what could she hit when she and everybody around her was sitting still? Her car wasn't even in gear. Focusing the camera on her dice she started them swinging again. Playing to see what would give her the best effect, she separated the two dice and let them fall towards each other. She snapped the picture a second before the dice hit, and glanced down to see the image on her digital screen. She felt a small thud; hardly believing somebody could've rear-ended her when nobody was moving she quickly looked up hoping she hadn't missed the cars in front starting up again while playing with her camera. But there were no cars. Stunned and very puzzled she looked behind her to see a transport truck lying on its side, emergency vehicles all around it, and a steady trickle of cars being filtered through on the shoulder, one at a time. Somehow, unbelievably, she appeared to be on the other side of the traffic jam. Putting her car in gear with shaking hands, she quickly merged with the filtering traffic, before anybody noticed her little red bug sitting where no car should be. Weird. Very weird. But handy. Puzzling over what could possibly have happened, Ellie decided she'd never know and it was best not to tell anybody about it. Randomly warping to the front of a traffic accident, while a convenient skill, was not one many people would believe in. She settled in to drive for several hours -- she wasn't planning to do long drives very often on her trip, but she was still way too close to home to be worth stopping. The highway stretched long in front of her. Horizon framed by a brilliant blue sky. She lowered the windows, letting the tornado whirl through and blaring the music accordingly. Spinning the dice for the pure pleasure of it she laughed out loud in the enjoyment of the moment. Her contacts became fuzzy and she rubbed them to clear them again. Only to see a sign for Manitoba???? She shrugged it off, still several hours from there. But shortly she realized she had indeed crossed the boarder. Ok starting to get just a little weird. It didn't take her long to figure it out. Testing her theory, still wondering if she was losing her little mind, Ellie banged the dice together while thinking of her friend Sarah's place in BC. Next thing she knew she was sitting in her driveway. Fastest cross-country trip EVER. Amazed at her new abilities Ellie couldn't help but test them out. Knocking the dice together, she found herself by a beach in LA. She'd never even been there before! Just thought "LA beach". And all of a sudden Ellie's summer trip took on new life. A tap of the dice and she was in Paris. She'd always wanted to go to Paris. Never thought she'd be able to afford to. Took a picture of her, her little red bug, and the Eiffel tower and then let the dice swing before anybody noticed her mislocated Canadian license plates. Next stop, the pyramids. She spent two months traveling the world, never staying anywhere long having neither local currency nor appropriate paperwork, but enjoying every minute of it and taking tons of photos nobody would ever believe. Landing her car on top of Ayers Rock had her slightly concerned, but after a brief photo op, the dice took her to Sydney before anybody noticed. Out of money and nearing the time she was to arrive home, she decided on one last stop at Sarah's home -- this time she'd actually go in rather than sitting in the driveway. She separated the dice once more and let gravity and magic do their thing, but as the dice hit, the worn string gave and the fuzzy dice broke. When she looked up in dismay it was to find herself in the middle of a farmer's wheat field. She managed to extricate the little red car and driving for a while was pleased to discover first, that the signs were in English, and then half an hour later her heart returned to normal when pulling into a gas station, she was able to confirm she was in Canada. Northern Saskatchewan rather than BC, but at least the right country. She drove her little car home the old fashioned way -- seeing at least part of the country she had planned to travel on the way. The dice were ceremoniously duct-taped together (with pink duct-tape of course), but by this point their only power was holding the memory of a magical summer experienced by a girl and her bug.