Karma

Karma

"What goes around comes around," Sandra McKinney shouted back at her boss, "Don't think you can just fire me and get away with it Mr.
Gibson, this is sexual discrimination,"
The tall distinguished looking man that had employed her for the past
seven years laughed. "No this is firing a lazy employee Miss McKinney and there is no law against that."
She glared at him then turned and left the third floor of the Milton
Building for the last time, her things in a box in her arms. She fumed
in the elevator as it moved slowly down to the ground floor, and she
fumed as she made her way out to her car, the new mint green jeep that
she now couldn't afford, she fumed as she pushed her small box of
personal items into the back and she fumed as she climbed into the
front seat and pushed her keys into the ignition. The engine came to
life with a quiet feline purr and she fumed as she pulled out of the
car park and onto the street.
"Damn job, who needs it anyway," she muttered as she pulled onto Finch Street and began her long drive back to the house that she now couldn't afford, "I was gonna quit anyway, lousy office job,"
The streets were busy with mid-afternoon traffic and this only added to
her already finely tuned fuming. Yet she ignored it all, her mind
solely focused on the many ways she could make her now ex-boss suffer.
So what if she had skipped out in the middle of the day for a facial?
And who cares if she forgot to write down a couple of messages? It's
not like they dealt in life or death situations, they were an insurance
agency for Christ's sake.
She slammed on the brakes as a small convertible pulled out in front of
her and shouted language that would make a sailor blush at the driver.
Then finally pulled out of the swarming cars and onto the empty road
that ran along the edge of the Partridge Canyon, the road that would
take her out of the city and into the quiet residential area of
Southport where she had lived for the past two years. She sighed as she looked out at the road in front of her, it was empty apart from one
solitary car that loomed ahead. She narrowed her eyes as it grew nearer
and sighed again, this time impatiently as she realised it was exactly
the same as hers, same make same colour.
"Is nothing sacred," she mumbled as she pressed her foot down on the
accelerator and moved closer still. The car moved before her, slowly,
much slower than was necessary.
"Come on," she said angrily as she pressed the horn twice.
She glanced past the car to see if there was room to overtake but the
winding of the road wouldn't allow her to see clearly and she wasn't
about to risk it. She banged the horn again as her mobile began to
ring, a shrill distinctive ring that echoed loudly into the canyon on
her right. She glanced behind her.
"Dammit!" she said as she reached carefully back into the box as the
loud ringing continued. She had programmed the tune into it herself, so
she would never confuse it with someone else's phone but now as it went on persistently it quickly became irritating.
She fumbled in the box, her hand groping for the small rectangular
phone that she now couldn't afford. Finally her fingers felt the small
rubber buttons and she pulled it out and pushed it to the side of her
head.
"Yes?"
The voice was male and unfamiliar as it began by addressing her as Miss McKinney just like her boss had.
"That's Mrs McKinney," she corrected him impatiently, "What do you
want?"
The man hesitated and then carefully informed her that her Husband was filing for sole custody of their son Aidan.
"You have got to be kidding me," she said ignoring the mans attempts to continue, "We're still married or has his feeble brain forgotten that
fact, just because he's living with that hussy doesn't mean we're not
still husband and wife,"
The man tried to speak.
"You tell Mark that if he thinks he's keeping me from my son then he's
even stupider than he looks." She took a deep breath and hung up the
phone just as the man began to speak again, then glancing at the
lighted screen she switched the phone off and threw it back into the
box.
"Bastard!" she said as she turned her attentions back to the car that
still crawled along in front of her, she slammed her hand on the horn
once more and revved her engine.
"Come on for Christ's sake." She shouted as she pulled right up to the
back bumper of the mirror image jeep, "This isn't a funeral parade you
know."
Still the car never increased its speed.
The windows, tinted just like hers, prevented her from seeing the
driver but she could make out a silhouette that kept peering out into
the canyon and then back at her.
"What are they doing?" she said to herself, then looked up at the
heavens and sighed. "Why me?"
She pressed her foot a little harder on the accelerator and edged
slightly closer, honking the horn again as she did so, the figure
looked back again but didn't speed up although the car did appear to be
making some new noises that didn't sound at all healthy.
"Come on," she edged closer again this time tapping the bumper just
enough to make the car jerk forward slightly.
Now the car infronts horn sounded.
"What are you honking at me for, I'm not the one driving like an old
woman," she shouted, pressing her own horn as she did so, then smiling as she settled back in her seat. "Damn women drivers," she said then laughed to herself.
She watched the car skulk ahead of her for a few minutes before her
patience finally ran out completely, she honked her horn repeatedly and
allowed her front bumper to once again make contact with the one
infront.
Nothing.
No response.
She did it again.
Still nothing, although the silhouette did seem to be waving it's arms
around.
She smiled and pressed her foot on the gas once more.
The bumpers made contact, and then with a screech of tyres the car that had stood in her way was just...... gone.
She slammed her foot on the brakes and squealed to a stop.
What had just happened?
She glanced over her shoulder at a spot in the small wall that ran
along the side of the road that now appeared to have a huge hole in it, she stared at the tyre marks that ran to the edge of the Canyon and then vanished.
"Oh shit!" she said.
She turned back and stared at the empty stretch of road that ran ahead
of her.
What now?
Her mind raced, practically laying out her entire future, police,
court, prison. She shuddered then taking a deep breath she cautiously
opened her door and stepped out.
"Calm down Sandy," she told herself, "Panic and your as good as
dead."
She walked slowly back to the broken wall and nervously peered over the edge. The canyon was deep and the jeep was gone from view but a long trail of wreckage left a path to it's location.
"Oh shit!" she said again, this time her voice trembled as she spoke.
"Hello?" she called, her voice echoing below her, she glance to her
left and right but she was still alone, "Are you alright?" she called
quieter now.
Nothing.
No sound but the echo of her own voice.
[I'm a murderer] she thought then told herself off for doing it.
"It was an accident," she said as she walked back to her car and
reached into the back grabbing her phone, "It wasn't my fault..... entirely, I mean they obviously shouldn't have been driving at all," she made her way back to the wall, "I can't be held responsible, it was driver error or whatever they call it," she punched numbers into her phone, "Honestly, it wasn't my fault."
A voice asked her what the emergency was.
"There's been an accident," she told the female voice, "A car went over
the edge of Partridge Canyon,"
The voice asked her for her name.
"Karen Gibson," she said after a pause.
So the bosses wife got a phone call from the police, so what? Stupid bitch never liked her anyway.
"Look it's gone right into the canyon, a green jeep, one occupant, come
and find it and do whatever it is you guys do you can't miss the spot
it's the bit with the big hole in the wall!"
She hung up and once again peered over the edge.
She didn't like the drivers chances.
"Sorry" she said then walked to where her car was waiting and sat on
the wall, she put the phone down beside her and rested her head in her
hands.She sat that way for several minutes, before she realised if she stayed any longer she'd still be there when the ambulances arrived.
She stood up and jumped into her car, slamming her foot on the gas,
then easing slightly when she reminded herself that that was how she
got into this in the first place, but still she drove as quickly as she
could away from Partridge Canyon and towards the safety of her
house.
When she finally pulled into her driveway she realised she was shaking
all over, she left her box in the car and hurried into the house
slamming the door behind her and falling back against it. She was
breathing heavily now and she had to slide down the door to the floor
before her legs gave way beneath her and did it for her. She thought
she was going to pass out, for a second she was certain of it, but she
closed her eyes and took several deep breaths and eventually the
feeling passed and she pulled herself to her feet.
"What's done is done," she said as she made her way up to her bedroom, "There's nothing I could do now even if I wanted to," she walked into her bedroom and threw her coat onto the bed then lay down beside it, "No point in ruining two peoples lives is there," she yawned as she stared up at the white ceiling of her bedroom, tiredness had swept over her like a tsunami and she was at it's command and it was telling her to sleep. Reluctantly she closed her eyes and then everything went black.

When she awoke she thought she had had a terrible nightmare, she sat up and looked around her small cosy room. Everything looked normal. She glanced down at the work clothes she still wore, then at the coat that lay by her side.
"Shit!"
She got up, showered and changed into her comfortable clothes. After
all why did she need to dress up it's not like she had a job to go to
was it?
She ate breakfast, tried listening to the early morning radio shows,
even tried watching good morning Southport on local T.V. but the
combination of Kip Flounder's cheesy grin and the headache that was
beginning to pound behind her eyes proved too much to take so she
swallowed a couple of aspirin and switched of the T.V. She tried
everything to keep her mind occupied but as was inevitable it wondered
back to the events of the day before with every available
opportunity.
"I need to do something," she told herself, forcing her voice to sound
cheerful. Then she remembered her box. It was still out in the car and
it needed sorting. She smiled half heartedly and strolled outside and
retrieved it, sitting on the sofa and placing it before her. The first
thing she saw was the picture of Mark she had kept on her desk, she
picked it up and looked at it. His stupid grin, even cheesier than Kip
Flounder's if that was possible, his ridiculous haircut that made him
look like a military man when the only thing that connected him to
anything army-like was Swiss-army knife he had hanging from his key's.
She remembered the day the photo had been taken, it was on their trip
to Hawaii, he had insisted on wearing the loudest Hawaiian shirt he
could find and as she looked at it behind the little square piece of
glass she found herself starting to laugh.
"You're such a loser," she said to the grinning face in the frame,
"That bitch is welcome to you," She threw the picture aside and delved
deeper into the box, her seven years working for Gibson hadn't amounted to much, she had a few little plastic toys that used to sit on her computer monitor, a couple of magazines that she used to read when she got bored and a pot plant that was long past dead. She lifted the empty box and stood up looking into it and sighing. The suddenly something hit her. Like someone had punched her in the face and stomach at the same time. She fell back onto the sofa, her pulse speeding up dramatically.
Her phone was missing.
Her mind flashed back to the day before and she suddenly knew exactly
where it was. She had put it on the wall and on the wall was where it
was now, unless the ambulance people had found it, then they would find out it was hers and she may as well confess to everything. She began to shake again.
Her mind raced.
She had to go back and get it, had to make sure no one knew she had
been there, make sure no one knew that she had caused the
accident.
[It wasn't my fault]
She jumped up and ran out of the house, her mind focused solely on the
task at hand. She left her front door ajar as she leapt into her car
and tried to start the engine, it spluttered once then fell quiet.
"Oh don't do this to me," she begged, she tried again and this time the
engine purred to life. She sighed relieved, perhaps she had hit the car
harder than she thought and had damaged hers in some way.
"Calm down, Sandy," she told herself as she began to drive, "Panicking
will only get you into even more trouble," The sound of her own voice
was somewhat comforting, and after a few thousand deep cleansing
breaths she felt almost like she wasn't a killer returning to the scene
of the crime.
Almost.
She drove too fast and too carelessly, swerving more than once to avoid
an accident, and she received more than one horn honk and several hand gestures and harsh words, but she paid no mind to any of it. She was a woman on a mission. It took her less than half of the usual hour to reach the road than ran parallel to Partridge Canyon, and the fact that
some parts of the road had a central reservation meant that she would
have to drive all the way to the end go around and come back down the
others side. It was early, but she knew she had missed most of the
early morning traffic that usually ran into the city. If she was lucky,
and lucky was something she was not feeling at all, she could drive
around, find her phone (please God) and be back home by lunch time. She tried to keep her eyes on the road ahead of her but they kept sweeping the Canyon wall, like a spotlight looking for an escaping prisoner.
There was no Police tape or crime scene type paraphernalia that she
could see, but she wasn't experienced in the art or criminal activity
so she didn't really know what to look for, but still it seemed too
clean somehow, too undisturbed. She ignored her concerns and kept
driving until she was finally able to turn around and go back down the
side of the road she had been on the day before. The moment her front
wheels crossed from DeLancey Street to Canyon Road she slowed down, until she was almost crawling. She peered across the passenger seat and into what she could see of the Canyon.
"Geez," she muttered, "That's a long way down,"
She shuddered and pulled back, not allowing herself to think about it
too much.
"What's done is done," she told herself again, but she knew it wouldn't
go away, she was subconsciously preparing herself for the many
nightmares she figured were to come if she were to get away with it at
all. She slowed even more as she neared the spot she thought it had
happened, but there was still nothing. No tyre marks, no break in the
small wall. She frowned as she continued to peer out at the old bricks
that stood at around three feet high and didn't hear the engine behind
her at first but when the distinctive melody of a mobile phone began to
echo out into the Canyon she froze in her seat.
"No way!" she whispered, "What are the odds?"
She glanced back and her heart stopped for a split second as the mint
green Jeep moved closer.
The driver honked their horn.
"You gotta be kidding me," she said looking back at the road ahead then the Canyon to her right, "What is this the frickin Twilight
Zone?"
The horn sounded again behind her and this time she honked back then a voice was audible behind her and she began to shake for the third time.
She knew the voice.
She knew the car.
She knew what was coming next.
She braced herself as the car's met and jerked forward, her seatbelt
pulling tight across her shoulder.
"Oh shit," she said a phrase she had used far too often over the past
twenty-four hours. She half turned in her seat and tried to wave at the
driver behind her, but she knew it was pointless, she just had to try
and control the car but the engine suddenly creaked and
spluttered.
"Please no!" she whispered, and tried to speed up but it wouldn't have
it. Then the car behind made contact again and she was again thrown
forward with a sudden jolt that hurt her neck.
She grabbed the steering wheel and held it tightly, trying desperately
to keep the wheels facing the road ahead. She was tempted to close her eyes, hoping if she did when she opened them she would be asleep in her office in the Milton Building taking one of her mid afternoon naps, but she didn't she kept her eyes trained on the road. The car edged closer again and this time the contact was a little harder, her car swerved for a second then steadied and for a second she thought it was going to be alright but then a loud pop sounded ahead of her and her car took a severe turn to the right.
"NO!" she screamed as her car met the wall and kept going, she glance
back briefly, just in time to see her car come to a screeching stop on
the road above, then she looked at the Canyon that she was about to get to know personally.
"Shit," she said, "I've heard about people killing themselves but this is ridiculous!!"
Then everything went black.