Getting it Straight

Apple in the Dark/Fall 2022

“Thanks a lot,” Moira said to no one, standing in the light evening rain, holding the Nice parking job, dumbass! note pulled from under the windshield wiper. She walked around the car parked in the grocery store lot,  examining it pulled halfway into the spot, end popping out on the diagonal. Her ex, Trevor, always hated how she parked, her short hair, her nail biting, how she pronounced chocolate (chawklet). What a day, she thought- getting reamed out by Dr. Springer for being two minutes late, dropping a bottle of olive oil in the grocery store, creating a slick in the path of a teetering elderly couple, saved by the mop-wielding grocery store employee just in time. Moira tensed as she turned the car’s ignition key. Backing up, she checked and rechecked the rear view mirrors. Her foot tapped the gas then the brake, while the windshield wipers made their rubbery sound - move, stop, move, stop, carefully, so carefully, so as not to offend.