The Last Midnight Run
an excerpt

“Have you heard about Eddie?” Mabel asked.
Shirley tilted Mabel’s head forward and buzzed the back of her neck. “No. What about Eddie?” She swiveled Mabel’s chair around and started snipping at the bangs, humming as she worked.
“He was in a terrible accident two nights ago. They rushed him to the hospital, but he died on the way there.” Mabel sniffed and reached into her purse for a tissue.
“Eddie is dead? What happened?” She waited for Mabel to blow her nose, and then combed the bangs into place. “How is that? Are they short enough?”
Mabel put on her glasses and squinted at the mirror. “A little bit shorter. I don’t want to have to pay for another cut too soon.”
Shirley nodded and started snipping again. “Tell me more about Eddie’s accident, Mabel.”
“Well, he’s been making some extra runs at night, you know, for some extra money. They’re really short right now. You know how it is when you’ve got two little kids and all those bills.”
“Darned right, I know!” Shirley grimaced, remembering her own difficult situation not so long ago. “But what’s this about an accident?”
“Anyway, he was making this midnight run, and something happened to the truck. Lizzie didn’t really know the details, and she’s beside herself, poor dear. Oh, and those poor little ones without a father.” Mabel sniffed again.
Shirley swiveled the chair again and started to roll Mabel’s white hair into curlers. “Poor little Meggie and Amy. They must be so confused. Do they understand at all what happened?”
“I don’t know. They just looked up at me with those big, blue eyes. Anyway, I offered to help Lizzie out with any of the arrangements she needs. She seems to be in shock.”
“But I still don’t understand what happened, Mabel. Start at the beginning.” Shirley rolled the last curler into place. “Do you want to sit under the dryer?”
“No, just wrap my kerchief around it. I like it to dry naturally. It frizzes so easily these days.” She took a sip of her cold tea and made a face. “Can you pop this in the microwave for a minute?”
Shirley walked over to the cluttered kitchen counter and placed the cup in the microwave. “So, tell me about Eddie. You keep leaving out the important details.” She smiled at her eighty year-old customer. Mabel was a sweet lady, but oh, so hard to have a conversation with. The tangents she’d wander off into!
“Oh, yes. Well, he was making one of his midnight runs. His last midnight run, poor dear. Something happened to one of the wheels. I think Lizzie said something about loose lug nuts. Well, the tire popped off and the truck lost control. He must have been going around a sharp curve and the truck went down the embankment and crashed into a tree.”
“How awful! That’s so unlike Eddie, too. He usually takes such good care of his truck.” Shirley refilled her coffee cup, grabbed a package of cookies from the cabinet and sat down with Mabel. “Would you like a cookie?”
“Oh, yes, thank you.” She took a chocolate chip cookie and chewed it, thoughtfully. “That’s what Lizzie said, too. But he’s been doing so many of these runs lately, maybe he was tired. It couldn’t be good for his health, not getting enough sleep like that. He might not have checked the tires before left.”
“I suppose it’s possible.” Shirley shrugged. “Where did the accident happen?”
“It was somewhere on Interstate 80. You know that really hilly section near the New Jersey - Pennsylvania border?”
Shirley nodded. “Yeah, I know the spot. The cops always like to hide in that stretch and look for speeders.”
“That’s it. Actually, there was a cop hiding there that saw the accident, so they got him out of the truck and off to the hospital pretty quickly, but it was already too late. His skull had smashed into the windshield.” Mabel took another cookie. “I could tell Lizzie didn’t want to remember the details, but I guess she needed to talk to someone. She only saw him once they’d had a chance to clean him up a bit, but she said he looked a mess.”
“I hope she’s not planning an open casket viewing.”
Mabel shuddered. “No, that’s out. She wants it to be very quiet. The girls have had such a hard time already, so she doesn’t want to stress them any more than she has to. She’s having the funeral tomorrow morning at the Baptist church at ten, and then Eddie wanted to be cremated. She’s going to honor his wishes.”
“That’s wise. How old are the girls now?”
“Meggie is six and Amy is three. I think Meggie understands her dad isn’t coming home again, but Amy kept watching the door. She looked confused and frightened.”
“Poor little dears. And Lizzie isn’t terribly old, either. Wasn’t she just sixteen when Meggie was born? How is she holding up?”
“You know her -- she’s dizzy Lizzie, as usual. That girl should have been born a blonde. I simply don’t know how she’ll cope. Eddie handled everything at their place. Lizzie barely just handled the girls.”
“I’ll have to stop by later today with a casserole. She’ll forget to feed the girls if we don’t keep an eye on her.” Shirley got up to refill her coffee. “More tea, Mabel?”
Mabel glanced at her cup and shook her head. “No, dear. If I have any more, I won’t sleep tonight.” She glanced at the clock. “I’d better hurry. I promised Joe I’d stop by for a quick visit on my way home. He’s not well, you know.”
Shirley smiled. Joe wanted nothing more than to have Mabel stop in and visit him, and she knew he was faking his latest illness. Why he didn’t just ask Mabel to marry him was a mystery to her. The two eighty year olds were perfect for each other.
“Well, then you’d better not keep him waiting. Good thing you just had your hair done.”
Mabel handed Shirley a twenty before she left, and Shirley stuffed it into her pocket. As she cleaned up the cookies and cups, she glanced at the mirror. Rats, another gray hair. She grabbed her comb and pulled the gray strand underneath a curl, then gave it a quick spritz with the hairspray.
One of these days she’d have to bite the bullet and start coloring her hair, but for now she just tried to hide the strays. They didn’t look too bad in her red hair. Sort of like highlights.
Oh, who was she kidding? She looked every inch of her forty years, and she was damned proud of herself for surviving that long. She just didn’t want to look any older than she really was.