“That’s the way to do it,” Jimmy laughed as he rushed past her with some rope, a knife and some duct tape in his hands.  “Now you’re playing God!”

     She looked on; trusting in what her future husband must think is right.  He forced the old man into a small wooden chair, pulled his arms behind it and tied them up tightly with the thick rope.  Next he tied the man’s legs together and finished by wrapping the rope tightly around his stomach and the back of the chair.  “Heh,” Jimmy laughed, “any last words?”

     The old man looked away from the young punk and stared into the eyes of Darlene, searching for a reason for all of this.

     Jimmy then tore off a length of duct tape and strapped it over the old man’s mouth.  “You ready to go?” he asked Darlene.

     “Yes,” she said with a relieved smile.

     “Great.  Keep the gun on him while I get the truck started.  I don’t want to give him a second to get our license plate number,” he instructed as he hustled around the counter.

     “Okay.”

     “You are wonderful,” he said as he patted her rear end.  Jimmy then grabbed the Cokes and ran out the door.

     Darlene whipped her head to the right to knock the hair out of her eyes and smiled.  ‘Hm,’ she thought, ‘just like Bonnie and Clyde!’

     The blazing hot sun poured in through the door and windows as a bead of sweat trickled down from her brow and into her mouth, forcing her to make a sour face.  She tried peering through the windows, but the advertisements blocked her view of the truck.

     “I wish he’d left one of those Cokes here,” she mumbled, while wiping her forehead with her arm.  She looked around the store at all the groceries and noticed a freezer full of ice cream and Popsicles.  “Too bad I don’t have time for one of those right now.  He’ll be pulling up next to that door any second now and I’ve got to be ready to go.”  She tried to look through the window once more but to no avail.  “Come on, already!”

     Finally she moved away from where her feet were planted and moved towards the door.  She saw the blazing hot sun cooking the desert that surrounded her.  She saw those beautiful mountain ranges high above the plains.  She saw the dusty highway, and the sign that read “LAST CHANCE”.  And she saw the pump that they had pulled up next to.

     She also saw a cloud of dust, blowing in from the direction her future just went.

THE END

Robert Ford is the author of Christlike and The World of Hek, Book One: Forever.  Both are available wherever books are sold.  Also available on Nook and Kindle.