by Haydn Wilks
***
Maybelline walks through the automated doors with a bag of groceries in her left hand, her right fumbling through her purse for the keys to her pick-up. Hers is one of few vehicles outside the Super Stop, a convenience store situated on Route 54. Flat brown plains dusted with scrub and dotted with pylons stretch out uninterrupted in all directions. Across the highway, Maybelline sees a young girl, standing alone. Something about her seems strange. Maybelline slows down to look over her sleek black hair, loose canvas clothing, and dusty reddish-brown skin. The girl stares back at Maybelline. Maybelline averts her eyes and carries on towards her pick-up, finally finding her keys at the bottom of her purse. An 18 wheeler truck tears down the highway ahead of her. As the truck comes closer, its horn blares. Maybelline glances back at the girl, now standing in the middle of the road. Maybelline screams as the truck’s brakes screech. She drops her groceries to the floor with a thud of bursting milk carton and crack of breaking eggs. The 18-wheeler’s momentum keeps it careering forward, far past where the girl was standing. It comes to a halt and the truck driver clambers out. He and Maybelline scan the road and his truck for some sign of her. They see nothing. It seems to Maybelline that the little girl – the li’l Injun girl – disappeared on impact.