Prom Night in Purgatory

“I’m not leaving Maggie here alone.”

 

“Johnny, I’ll get in the car, turn on the radio, and lock the doors.” Maggie shrugged. “Plus, it’ll take you ten minutes to get to Jillian’s house and be back here with your car. I’ll be fine. I used to ride my bike to and from this very school by myself, day in and day out.”

 

Johnny shook his head again. “No. We’ll walk. It isn’t that far.”

 

“In those shoes?” Jody laughed, looking at Maggie’s high red heels.

 

“I’ll carry her,” Johnny offered, as if he thought he really could carry her for three miles.

 

“In that dress?” Jody laughed even harder. “I’ll stay with Maggie. You jump in the cab with the guys, Johnny, and you and Maggie can take me home when you get your car,” Jody suggested cheerfully.

 

“Uh, Jody?” Jody’s boyfriend definitely did not like that idea. He obviously didn’t want Prom Night to end so soon, especially without even taking his date home.

 

“This is crazy,” Maggie sighed. “I can’t hold a speaker on my lap. It’s bigger than I am, and I sure as heck can’t walk home. Jody, we’ve already kept you guys long enough. Just let Johnny jump in the back, and I’ll wait here for ten minutes for him to come back with his car.”

 

Johnny scowled. He didn’t like her idea, not at all. Unfortunately, it seemed the only solution, so after some growling and some worrying, he wedged himself into the crowded bed of the truck, straddling a speaker and keeping the cymbals from crashing together while he kept the snare from toppling over on top of him. The others piled in front as planned, and Maggie walked to the pink Caddie, now alone in the completely deserted lot. She waved and climbed into the car. She turned the key and lit up the console, flipping on the radio to keep her company until Johnny returned.

 

Her phone bleeped. It was going dead. Maggie clicked on the picture messages Jillian had sent, hoping she had enough power to open them. The first picture that opened was the first one Jillian had taken. She and Johnny were standing close, and her head was tilted up to his. They were gazing at each other, smiles of pleasure curling their lips. Maggie caught her breath and felt her eyes swim. It was perfect; finally, a happy ending. Her phone bleeped again. She turned it off and sat back, smiling, with the picture filling her vision behind her eyes.

 

Johnny still had the radio tuned into the oldies station. A song Maggie faintly knew trickled out of the slightly tinny speakers and into the car. Maggie's smile broadened and her feet jived a little in time with the rhythm. She had heard this song somewhere before, but she couldn't place it. ”And we’ll be rocking and a’reelin...”

 

Lights flashed from behind her closed lids, and Maggie blinked in surprise. Johnny couldn’t be back already.

 

The lights slid past the Caddie, and Maggie's view was suddenly obscured by the people that were sitting on the hood of Irene’s car. She screeched and jerked upright, her eyes swinging wildly to the right. A mint green car, similar to Irene's in year and make, was parked next to her. Another pair of lights slid past and then another. A black truck with rounded edges and ancient curves jerked to a stop to the left of Irene's Cadillac, and Maggie cried out and then bit back the sound when the driver of the truck tossed a startled look her way. The driver's side window was down. The song that had been on the radio was now inside and outside of the car, as if the vehicles surrounding her were tuned into the same station.

 

“That’s Chuck Berry, folks...” An announcer’s voice bounced glibly over the tail end of the song, reading a commercial for Crest toothpaste: “Look Ma, no cavities!” Nobody on the radio spoke that way anymore. Maggie groaned in growing horror. How had this happened? She was in the car! This wasn’t possible! Maggie’s ever-accommodating brain supplied an answer almost immediately. She was wearing clothing from the 1950’s, listening to oldies in a car that had been in her family for decades. She groaned again and slammed her hand against the dash in frustration.

 

She wasn’t wearing her Saint Christopher medal. It hadn’t gone with her dress. She cursed herself and fumbled for her phone desperately, hoping for something to pull her back to the present. It was gone. Her purse, which had been sitting on the seat beside her only moments before, had disappeared as well. She had pulled her right foot from her shoe when she’d climbed into the car. The shoes were new, and she’d formed a small blister on her little toe while dancing. Her right shoe was missing. She looked down at her left foot, still wearing the high red heel and then at her bare right one and back out at the crowd that was forming beyond the car. Trying not to panic, she turned the radio off and rolled down her window a few inches, hoping to ascertain where -- and when -- she was.

 

“He’s here!” a girl squealed, and the voices beyond the Caddie’s windows rose and fell in excitement.

 

“Kinross is here!” The shout went out across the parking lot.

 

“Paula, don’t say anything!” It was Irene’s voice. She and her friends must be the girls sitting on the hood of the car.

 

“Yeah, Paula!” someone chimed in. Was that Shirley or Cathy? Maggie knew she had heard that voice before. “You always spill the beans!”

 

“Roger is up to something!” Irene said in a low, firm voice, and her friends quieted down. “He wants us to send Johnny inside the school, but don’t any of you do it!! Do you hear me?”

 

“But Irene!” Paula wailed. “He’ll be mad! He is still your guy, isn’t he?”

 

Irene didn’t respond. Maggie began to shake. She knew where she was. Oh, heaven help her! She knew where she was.

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

2011

Amy Harmon's books