Entry #5

"The Highest Point"
by Melly


Drew howled. With his head outside the window, he howled.

It made Lydia laugh. "Gosh, I'm gonna… pee… my pants."

Lydia opened the window and leaned over. She felt the cold night air gushing towards her along with Drew's howls. She answered. Not in howls, but in barks. Small high-pitched barks, like those of a pincher's.

The electricity poles whizzed by as the car drove past them. "Hey, did you notice the sound each pole makes?" Lydia asked.

No one replied. No one heard her. It didn't matter. She continued barking. Drew continued howling.

A new sound. Lydia stopped barking for a moment, listening. It was a hoot. Hoot hoot. Strong. Right near her. She sat back down looking for the source of the hoot.

It was almost as windy inside the car and her hair was flying all over, like Medusa's snakes. Howls and hoots and coughs came forward in her mind again, pushing aside Medusa's image. Lydia searched for the sounds. Tom, near her, driving, hooting, Drew in the backseat still howling and Kathryn, behind her, coughing.

Lydia twisted to look at Kathryn; she was coughing with her hands around her neck and some foam coming out of her mouth. Lydia laughed. She reached a hand out to Kathryn while something in the back of her head was trying to tell her something.

Lydia squinted, concentrating, trying to. Kathryn stopped coughing. She stopped moving too. Lydia shrugged. She turned and with her head outside the window resumed barking.

[Melly lives in Toronto, Canada and does many things for a living, among them write. She blogs about writing and some other interests, mostly science, in All Kinds of Writing.]