Trixie's Curse

Trixie's Curse

Trixie smiled proudly as she turned the key in the ignition of her own car. Beside her, Lauren's grin matched her own. Trixie's father didn't approve of joy riding but she figured as long as she owned her own care she could do what she wanted with it.

It wasn't very fancy, or very new, but neither Trixie nor Lauren cared about that. Neither of them were older than eighteen, still filled with the novelty of owning something as powerful and important as an automobile.

“You mentioned something funny about the used car salesman who sold you this.” Lauren said, when they were on the road, “What was it?”

“I'm not really sure.” Trixie said, “He just seemed to be in an awful hurry to be rid of it. He mentioned something about misfortune dogging his footsteps.”

“Maybe it's cursed.” Lauren giggled, “Maybe it grows wings and flies on it's own or something.”

The next night the two girls went to see a play at a theatre some distance away. Driving home down the dark road they were so engrossed in their conversation that Trixie scarcely noticed when she met a a car coming the other way. Automatically she switched off her brights so as not to blind the other driver and turned them on again as soon as he had passed. No sooner had she done so than another car appeared around the bend. The third time she got frustrated.

“There seems to be an awful lot of traffic out tonight.” she said,

“Maybe there's an event somewhere.” Lauren offered,

“Not this late.” Trixie said, switching off the brights for the fourth time, “That settles it. As long as there is this much traffic they're staying off.”

two or three minutes went by. Then five. Then ten. Trixie and Lauren resumed their conversation. The road was empty; deserted. A light drizzle began to fall. Trixie flipped her brights back on. A car crested the hill. Trixie turned off the brights and let him pass, then she turned them on again. No sooner had she done so than another car passed. Trixie growled and left them off, but for the rest of the drive home not another car was seen.

She thought no more of it until the next time she was out on a long empty road in the dark. She turned her brights on, a car came. She left them off and saw no one. Turned them on, a car came. She counted ten cars in a row but when she left her brights off she saw no one. The next time she saw Lauren she mentioned it.

“I'm thinking about what the salesman said about misfortune dogging his footsteps.” she said to her friend, “I'm beginning to grow frustrated myself.”

“I'm sure it's just coincidence.” Lauren said, shrugging,

Trixie shook her head. “I'm not thinking of coincidence.”

“What are you thinking of then?”

“I'm thinking of a curse. Remember? Like you said the first time we drove it?”

Lauren burst into fits of laughter and Trixie laughed too, but it was true. The next week they tested it. They timed it. It was true. Within a minute of turning the brights on on Trixie's car, another vehicle would appear approaching them. Every time, without exception, within a minute.

“No one will believe us,” Lauren said, serious now.

“i wonder who cursed it and why.” Trixie mused, “I suppose we'll never know.”

“Just pretend the brights don't work,” Lauren suggested, “And that it's too much trouble to get them fixed. No one will notice, no one will care, it's your car after all.”

Time went on and they took no more notice. It wasn't terribly inconvenient, and Trixie had to wonder what kind of malicious fairy would go through the trouble of making a curse that could be so easily disregarded.

Winter came. One night, in the middle of December, Trixie was coming home down a deserted road late at night. She had been to see a friend who lived several hours away and had stayed later than she meant to. Conditions were steadily deteriorating and Trixie was beginning to worry about what would happen to her if something went wrong with her car. There wasn't a house for miles and no one would be out on the road. What if she slipped on the ice and went off a bridge? No one would find her. She would freeze to death!

Bravely Trixie tried to put such thoughts out of her mind. She would be fine. She reached out turn on the radio to see if she could find some Christmas music to raise her spirits. Then it happened.

She took her eyes off the road and didn't see the batch of ice. Her tires skidded and the wheel was yanked out of her grasp. Panicking she hit the brakes, too frightened to remember not to. Even as she saw the guardrail rush to meet her that warned of a steep embankment, her fingers remembered what her mind could not and her left hand moved to pull the switch that flipped on her brights.

It took a while to recognize her surroundings when she woke up but soon enough Trixie realized she was in the hospital. Then the memories came flooding back. The icy road, her fears, and the crash. Soon enough her parents were there, telling her how worried they'd been and how glad they were she was all right. Amazingly she wasn't seriously hurt. She'd banged her head on the steering wheel at the time of the impact and that was what knocked her out. She had a mild concussion but no broken bones. She could go home whenever she felt up to it.

“It's amazing!” the doctor said, who explained all this to Trixie and her parents, “There were no serious injuries, but alone on a night like that, by the time we found her it would be too late. It's almost miraculous. Someone driving by at just that moment, who saw it all and didn't hesitate to help... it's amazing. You are a very fortunate young lady.”

Trixie smiled to herself, wondering what Lauren would say. It was no use mentioning it now because no one would believe her.