IOU - 1 Dragon

Adver checked his watch.

He sat alone in his car in an empty parking lot. The rain was battering his windshield as his mind wandered. He thought the rain might actually fill the world this time... Like a cup left under a dripping faucet until it overflowed and drowned us all.

He tried to banish the incessant downpour by projecting himself backward in time to the last day he remembered without rain. He was a few moments into a memory of blue skies and bright sunny days when he realized he was only thinking of a movie he saw once, and he actually had no recollection of a time before the storm.

He was checking his watch once more when a car pulled into the lot and positioned itself opposite of his. It was Dorge.

It was very obviously Dorge... He knew his car... He could see him in the driver seat... But Dorge had insisted on an intricate headlight flashing code to signal that this exchange was a go. The lights began to flash in varying patterns... Long flash... several short flashes... a period of medium length flashes... Adver checked his email, and barely noticed it in his peripheral vision. He knew that Dorge didn't actually think this code was important... He just acted like he thought it was important because it would annoy Adver.

Finally, the flashing stopped. Adver returned no flashing reply and stepped out of the car into the downpour. Dorge followed suit, but with an umbrella, rain coat, and hat that made him seem like he belonged on the pages of some 1930's detective novel. Adver did not own an umbrella. It was maybe a little silly, but he always thought if he had one, it would just be one more thing to remember to carry with you, and look like a jackass when the weather forecast was wrong. How many times do you really get caught out in the rain in your life? Quite often lately... Maybe he should buy an umbrella.

Adver walked to the trunk of his car and it popped open. Dorge appeared from around the passenger's side. Inside the trunk was a long slender tube, double sealed to protect from the rain. A wraparound label visibly read "Spl-" and then trailed around the edge of the circular tube.

"That it?" Dorge asked eagerly. "Yup" Adver replied. Dorge was leaning his umbrella across his shoulder and spinning the tube in his free hand. "Everything looks in order." he said. "Yes" Adver replied, "It's all there... there's just the matter of the dragon...where is it?"

"The dragon?" Dorge looked annoyed... "I just told you with the headlights that there was a problem with the dragon..."

Adver sighed. "Dorge...She's not gonna like this... The deal was art for a dragon. Now you have the art... What do you think she's going to say when I return with no dragon?"

"Stall her" Dorge said "It's coming, I swear! There were just a few setbacks... Do you know how hard it is to transport one of those things? Besides, what were you going to do with a dragon anyway? You're just here in your little car?"

"My back seats lie forward to make the trunk larger..." Adver said absently while looking up into the streaming water... He was soaked to the flesh now, and his spirits were drowning with him. "No dragon." He thought. "How am I going to explain this."

"Fine" He said, wiping water from his face. "Take it... But I want an update on the dragon as soon as you know something."

Adver shut his trunk and walked back toward the driver door, his feet making splashing sounds as he went. The bottoms of his just slightly too long jeans were soaked. "But Dorge," he hesitated "If you don't deliver... You know she wont stop with just my head, right? This is a fine mess you've gotten me into."

Dorge said something that sounded like "It'll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine" but he had already shut the door.

"No dragon." he repeated. "Well this is just lovely."

3 is the Limit

White lines.
They stretch on into the darkness at the edge of the headlights reach.
The car is silent. Adver's mind wanders. His passenger stares into the blackness at the side of the car.

Dorge stirs... He seems to be staring at an undetermined point in space.
"Uhh...Ahh.... ACHOOOOOO!!"

Adver says nothing. Assaulting people with "Bless you"s after their nasal passages have just exploded is insufferable.

The white lines keep flowing, like that scene at the end of Terminator.

"Ahh.... uhhh... ACHOOOOO!!!"

Adver follows the lines. Maybe he should turn on the radio. Maybe there should be some sound other than the road and...

"ACHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

His hands tense upon the wheel. "Surely he knows the rule." He thinks.

"Uhh..."

His inner voice screams. Dont do it.

"Ahhh..."

DONT

"ACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He jerks the wheel hard right. The car leaves the ground. They're in a free roll now. Adver maintains a hate stare throughout the whirlwind of blood and metal. Dorge is... Is he... Laughing?



Adver startles awake at the sound of a passing truck. Fallen asleep at the rest area. Dorge is walking toward the car.

"Did...Did they have any coffee?" Adver mumbles.

"Nothing." Dorge says, "They had some chips though. Sea salt and black pepper. These are going to make me sneeze like crazy."

Adver's eyes narrow.