It was late December; a brand new year was just around the corner. With each New Year comes an injection of hope for a brighter, happier, more successful future. It is a time of reflection; when people resolve to discard negative habits or even unwanted facets of their character, and strive to better themselves. Not Tommy though, he didn’t give half-a-fuck. Tommy was a good guy. He sometimes had a dickhead-like quality to him, but was actually very sensitive, and he had a big, mushy heart. He was something of a recluse, having become disenchanted with society and all it’s venal inhabitants. He had also all but given up on the opposite sex, as most of his past experiences with girls had been disappointing, to say the least, and a bit traumatizing in some instances. He just didn’t have much luck in that department, and seemed to be a magnet for the psychotic. In fact all women were psychotic, as far as he knew. “Drive safe, call me when you get there,” said his bespectacled mother, as she held her arms out, demanding a hug. “I will. I love you ma,” Tommy said, embracing her. “I love you too, dear,” she said, contentedly. He then resolutely extended his hand to his brother-in-law, who stood with his arm around Tommy’s younger sister. They performed the contrived action for the thousandth time. “Eric.” “Thomas.” “You take good care of this one,” said Tommy, nodding his head towards his sister. “Will do, Tommy,” said Eric, looking at Tommy sardonically. Tommy took a breath and looked up at the sky, trying to prime himself into saying his next line with a straight face. Then, he looked Eric straight in the eye and cleared his throat. “You’re a very lucky guy.” He managed to say the words, but couldn’t keep his mouth from forming into a big, beaming grin afterward. “You are such a jackass,” said his darling little sister, and gave him a punch in the arm. Tommy chuckled. “Oh, you kids,” giggled Tommy’s mother, whilst shaking her head. As he got inside his old and crummy little car, Tommy felt a sense of relief wash over him. The holidays were finally over with, as were all the phony, monotonous social customs that we still adhere Erenköy escort to for some reason. He was finally free to return to his apartment and spend his free time lounging around in his underpants, watching horror films and eating frozen pizza. “Come on now, you rusty old bitch,” he whispered, as he put the key in the ignition and turned it. The engine spluttered laboriously and failed to ignite. “You God-forsaken WHORE!” he roared, and started beating the wheel with his fists. Suddenly becoming self-aware, he looked to the right to see his mother, sister and his sister’s husband still standing in front of the house, and looking at him keenly. He smiled and waved to them and they all smiled and waved back. Turning back to his dashboard he took a deep breath to calm himself down. “I’m sorry, baby. Come on now. You can do it,” he whispered and turned the key again. The engine spluttered and coughed and ignited, rumbling as loud as thunder. “Yes!” he exclaimed, raising his arms up victoriously. He turned to wave to his family one more time but saw his mother was yelling something at him and pointing to the side. The noise produced by the engine completely drowned her out. “What?” he shouted. “Here comes Christina!” his mother screamed. “What?!” He got out and saw Christina walking toward the luggage compartment with two suitcases and an enormous handbag. She was the neighbor’s daughter. She looked kind of gothy because she mostly wore black, had fair skin, dark brown hair and really dark brown eyes; they were almost black. She too had her problems with the opposite sex, and considered men to be piggish, infantile and wholly annoying. Her New Year’s resolution was to give up on heterosexuality and try going lesbo. Tommy and Christina used to hang out as children, until Tommy set the hair of one of her dolls on fire. He would later apologize, but she opted to avoid him after that. And so they went their separate ways, never associating with one another for the rest of their childhood and adolescence. Nowadays, they both live and work in the capital and sometimes run into each other içerenköy escort bayan when they go home during holidays. They remain completely indifferent to one another, but act polite when they have to interact. This year, Christina ran into Tommy’s mother at the local grocery store, and related to her how tiring it can be traveling by bus, then by train and bus again to see her parents. So, Tommy’s mother offered up her son to drive her back to the city. Christina declined at first, but reluctantly agreed because Tommy’s mother insisted. “You said you’d give her a ride back to the city, silly. Don’t you remember?” said Tommy’s mother. He did not, and figured he must have been drunk when he agreed to this. “Yeah, of course! Let me help you with that,” he said, taking Christina’s luggage and placing it in the trunk of his car. “Thanks,” she said. She realized he had completely forgotten about her, but she didn’t care, and so they went. Driving along the long and winding road in a tin can with wheels, Tommy and Christina made their way through a snowy winter wasteland. For the first 30 minutes of the journey they sat in complete silence. Christina looked over at Tommy, who was fully focused on his driving. “So thanks a lot for doing this,” she said, attempting to break the silence. “No problem,” he replied, “You wanna listen to some music?” “Sure,” “The radio doesn’t work but I have some mixed cd’s in the glove compartment,” Christina opened the glove compartment, revealing a cluttered pile of old cd’s. She grabbed a bunch and started looking through them. “Well, I can’t read your handwriting. So I’ll just put in a random one,” she said, sliding one of the cd’s into the radio. The music helped fill the palpable void of silence. “So have you seen any good films lately?” Tommy asked, trying to keep the dialogue going. “I don’t really watch movies so much. I prefer reading,” “Really? Like books and such?” “Yeah, science-fiction and fantasy are my favorite genres, but I read all sorts of books,” “Oh, cool. So, do these books you read ever have unicorns in them?” “Yeah, I guess Escort Tuzla so. Why?” “I think I read somewhere that unicorn urine tastes like champagne,” “You’re stupid,” “I know right? Hey, I’m gonna take this shortcut,” “What shortcut?“ Tommy steered the car off the main road and onto a side road that was surrounded by trees. “This great shortcut through these woods, I found it on the internet and took it on the way here. It’s kind of a desolate road, but it shortened my travel time by at least an hour,” “Whatever,” said Christina. An hour later, they were still driving through the barren woods. Looking out the window at the leafless trees, Christina saw the sun was starting to set. “Hey, it’s starting to get dark out, and this road is totally unlit,” “Don’t worry, we’re almost there,” Tommy said, assuring her. Just then the car engine exploded with a loud bang and the hood of the car started smoking. They looked at each other wide-eyed. “No!” yelled Christina. “Mmm, this is not good,” said Tommy, trying to stay calm and pulling up to the side of the road. Tommy looked into the engine while Christina attempted to call for help on her mobile. “I still can’t get a signal,” she said. “Well, that figures; we’re in the middle of nowhere. But it’s alright because I managed to fix the engine,” “Really?” “No. She’s dead,” he said, slamming the hood shut. “Fuck! I can’t believe we’re stranded here! Our only hope is that someone passes by,” said Christina, her frustration becoming audible in her voice. “That’s right, but as you may have noticed, there aren’t that many cars coming through here,” said Tommy, who was also starting to get worried as the sky went completely dark. “The worst thing we can do right now is panic,” he said. “Fuck you, Tommy! Why the fuck did you have to take us through these fucking backwoods?” Christina snapped. “Jesus! I’m sorry! It’ll be alright, look…” Tommy said, reaching into the car. “This is our food supply. We need to make it last,” he said, holding out an orange and a chocolate bar. They spent the night in the car; Christina laying in the backseat and Tommy sitting in the front passenger seat. They agreed to sleep in shifts in case someone passed by, but it was cold and uncomfortable so they barely slept at all. Eventually, morning rolled around and they continued to wait for help. “I gotta go pee,” Christina said, “You stay here and keep watch,” “Watch out for snakes!” said Tommy.