A Twitterer's Tale

I have died everyday waiting for you.

Darling don't be afraid I have loved you.

For a Thousand Years

I'll love you for a thousand more.....

Susan's voice rang through the car as she sang along to the Christina Perri song playing on the radio.  Her eyes focusing on the mile markers as she drove.  One little green sign flashes by after the next.  Mile marker 3.  Mile marker 3.1.  Mile marker 3.2.  Susan turns down the radio and replays the voice message left on the cell phone provided by the television studio.  This was the first time Susan had ever been on a game show and she was doing her best to win, or at least make it into the finals.

"Congratulations contestants for making it into the next round of 'Follow The Signs'"  Susan felt the tingle of excitement all over again as she heard the instructions for what had to be the fifteenth time.  "On this level we're taking you on a little adventure.  To get there you'll have to do what contestants?"  Susan's arm shoots up into the air as she yells to the voice coming from the phone.  "FOLLOW THE SIGNS!!!!!!"  She quickly lowers her arm when she sees the perplexed face of the neighboring car.  Embarrassed, she slows down allowing her onlooker to pass in front of her as she continues to hear clues for her next challenge.

"In the trunk of your automobile, you will find a portable electronic bulletin board.  When you reach your assigned mile marker, you must pull over and immediately set up your billboard in front of your car."  Susan shrugs at the simplicity of her challenge as the voice continues.  "Sounds easy right?  Well don't get too confident yet.  You need to do this very quickly or you may miss the sign our roving field agents will be sending your way.  When you see the sign, you need to type it into the Bulletin boards remote keypad so that our eyes in the sky can see.  If you correctly identify the sign in the allotted time, you're onto the next level." 

The next part of the recording is where Susan really lucked out.  The mile marker assignments.  "Susan Godfrey, you are at mile marker 5.8.  Roderick Jacobs...you are mile marker 7.5.  John Delango...mile marker 9.9......"  And it went out farther from there.  Susan's was the closest.  It really was her lucky day.

"Mile marker 5.8" she gasped as she saw the marker and pulled over.  Flinging her car door open, she jumps out and retrieves the billboard from the trunk and sets it up in front of her car.  Nervously she looks down at the cell phone before taking a quick scan of her surroundings.  Nothing in particular stood out as cars whizzed by her on the busy roadway.  The flow of traffic was divided with a concrete divider separating the east and west bound commuters.  As Susan stood on the shoulder of the eastbound side, she looked all around her for the elusive sign.  Nothing but water was behind her and across the divider nothing jumped out screaming "Look at me!!! I'm the sign!!!"  Looking down at the time again as a feeling of dread starts to creep into the pit of her stomach.  "I couldn't have missed it" She bites down on her lower lip as she scans the area once again. "I got here so fast.  There's no way I missed it."  Giving a quick glance of prayer to the sky as the dread begins to grow even more. 

As she looks down, a brief shimmer of light catches her eye in the distance on the westbound side of traffic.  "What's that?" she feels her breath stop as she stands up on the tip of her toes trying to see it again.  Between the concrete divider, passing cars and her less than average height, she couldn't quite make out the shape of the approaching shimmer.  "DAMMIT" she mutters as she acts quickly and jumps up onto the hood of her car.   With the increased height, she begins to make out the shape as it nears her on the opposite side of the road.  "A worm?" she squints her eyes trying to make out the image more clearly.  She shook her head as her eyes confirmed her first conclusion.  A large Mylar balloon, that appeared to be running on some kind of remote control, floated by her on the other side of the road.  "Ok?" she jumps down from the hood and pulls the controller from her pocket for the bulletin board.  She types in the letters W-O-R-M and hits send making the electronic billboard light up with the clue she had seen.  "What the hell does a worm have to do with any of this?" she shrugs as she leans back against her car and waits for a response on the cell phone they gave her.

After a few minutes, she starts to wonder if the worm balloon had actually been the clue she was meant to look for.  Keeping her eyes on her surroundings, she watches the cars as they pass by in front of her.  Suddenly she jumps up as one particular car catches her by surprise.  A small object flies out of the car's window and lands in the grass of the shoulder about 100 yards behind her car.  When she looks up at the car the object comes from, she sees a man in the front seat aiming some kind of rifle or machine gun into the rear seat.  Susan didn't know a thing about guns but she was sure about what the man had been holding.  On instinct, she moved around to the other side of her car and ducked slightly behind it until the car had passed out of sight.  "Jesus Christ" she presses her hand to her head and runs her fingers through her hair as she looks down at the cell phone in the other hand.  "Will you hurry up please!" she yells at the phone willing the show to release her from her current position. 

She jumps as the phone buzzes in her hand indicating the incoming text message. "OH god!!" she shakes her head as her fingers nervously press at the keys to retrieve her next instructions. 

CONGRATULATIONS MS. GODFREY!!  You found the clue and we saw your sign!  You made it to the final round!!  Proceed to The Cantina Mexican Bar in the center of town on the corner of Main & Central Avenues.  Go to the bar and order a shot of Tequila with the worm.  You'll receive your next instructions at that time.

"Thank god" she lets out the breath she had been holding a moment earlier.  As she starts to slide the phone back into her pocket, she hears the sound of another car's tires as it pulls up behind her.  A man in a black hoodie gets out of the driver seat and begins to pace back and forth through the shoulder's grass as he mutters and curses to himself.  "Where is it?"  he moves closer to Susan who is now gathering the electronic billboard hurriedly  "WHERE THE FUCK IS IT?"  he yells over at her as she attempts to put the billboard into her back seat.  "I don't know what you're talking about" She replies as she circles around to the driver's side of her car.  "You don't?"  he heads straight for her as she pulls open her door and he quickly kicks it back shut with his foot.  "Look" Susan jumps back  "I don't know what you're looking for and I have to go"  Her heart begins to race in her chest as the man's mostly hidden face makes no change in expression.  His cold wild eyes stare at her silently for a moment.  "You need to go?" he repeats back to her finally as he puts his hands into his pockets.  Nodding her head quickly as she fights back the tears of fear forming in her eyes.  "Yes" she whispers as she again reaches for her car door.  "You're lying" the man's hand comes back out of his pocket and a knife presses against her stomach.  "WHERE IS IT?"  Shaking her head as the tears fall free from her eyes  "Please" she begs "I don't know what you're looking for"  Her eyes go out to the road hoping that the show was still watching somehow or maybe a passerby would come to her aid.  "I don't know why you're here"  She looks back at him trying to plead with the man holding her life in his hands.  "Please don't kill me.  I don't know anything.  You don't have to hurt me"  The man's expression finally changes as a smile curls upon his lips.  "Oh yes I do"  She gasps as he presses the blade and pierces her skin.  His eyes glow at the sight of her terror.  "You're a woman all alone.  What else would I do?"  The pain rips through her middle as the knife is thrust into her stomach and she is blinded with a bright white flash of light. 

A scream pierces her eardrums as she is jolted upright in her bed.  Immediately her hands run across her stomach as she feels for the knife wound.  Her heart still racing as she slowly begins to realize that everything that had just happened had been nothing more than a dream.  "Thank god" she breathes out as she feels herself start to sob.  "It was so real.  All of it"  Sitting up, she wraps her arms around her legs as she tries to calm down from the nightmare.  After several long minutes of near rocking in place, she feels her heart rate returning to normal.  "I guess I need to go get ready for work" she admits as she wipes her eyes removing any traces of her emotional breakdown.  "I can't believe a dream affected me like that"  she shakes her head as she walks out of the bedroom and picks up her phone to check messages and her Twitter account. 

Two messages from her mother prying into the single life of her aging daughter... "God mom"  She lets out a sigh as she presses the Twitter icon and notices the blue glow under the CONNECT @ icon.  "A couple Mentions and a follow" she comments out loud,  "Not bad.  There could have been nothing"  Her eyebrows arch as she nods at the truth to the thought.  Curiosity and a need to clear her head from her previous dream, has her clicking the link to her new follower.  "Johnnie D" her finger scrolls through his page.  "Only 2 followers.  Following 17 and has tweeted a whopping 5 times"  She lays her phone down on the table "I wonder how he came across my page?"  As she moves to get up from the sofa and get ready for work, her phone rings.  "Hello" she answers.  "Hi.  Is Ms. Susan Godfrey available?"  A pleasant sounding woman's voice inquires.  "This is her speaking.  How can I help you?"  The woman's voice automatically picks up on the excitement level.  "Ms Godfrey!!  I'm Madeline Hines from KG57 TV.  CONGRATULATIONS!!!  You've been selected to be a contestant on FOLLOW THE SIGNS!!!"  Susan' s face paled as she gripped tightly onto the phone.  "I've what?" she manages to whisper as she falls back down onto the sofa.