Night Run
By Wallace Stroby, first published in The Highway Kind
When a man has an altercation on the road with a motorcyclist, he tries to forget about it — until he stops at a gas station and finds the motorcyclist's bike in the parking lot.
Author
Published in
Year
Words
Collections
Plot Summary
It is late at night, and Kirwan has just driven into Florida, on his way to a morning meeting with a landscaping company. He is changing lanes when he hears a loud honk, and swerves back over to avoid hitting a motorcyclist who was in his blind spot. There is nobody else on the road, just Kirwan and the motorcyclist, and the cyclist keeps pace with Kirwan and shouts loudly at him. He gives Kirwan the middle finger, and then cuts in front of him and stops abruptly so that Kirwan has to slam on his breaks to avoid hitting him. The biker drops next to Kirwan again, and when Kirwan turns to look at him, the biker is pointing a gun at him. Kirwan skids into the shoulder of the road. He watches the biker grin at him and drive away. After driving for a while, Kirwan stops at a gas station to pee. He sees the motorcyclist's bike parked in the lot, and when the rider returns, Kirwan decides to follow him with his headlights off. They head away from the freeway and into more rural landscape. As the biker reaches a bridge, Kirwan turns on his brights and accelerates towards the biker. The biker jolts around to look behind him, and his motorcycle hits the side of the bridge. The rider is catapulted off the side. Kirwan walks down to the motorcyclist, who is moaning on the ground below the bridge. He begs Kirwan to help him, and when Kirwan asks if the man remembers him, the man shakes his head. Kirwan tells the man he will go get his phone and call 911, but turns around partway and walks back to the man. He grabs the man's head and thrusts it under the canal water, and then drops a large stone on his head. After ensuring there are no bubbles coming from the man's mouth, Kirwan takes the cash from the man's wallet and pockets some white powder from the man's saddlebag. Kirwan returns to his car and heads for the freeway to make his morning meeting.
Tags