The Choice He Made

It was a frigid winter morning in Northern Pennsylvania. The sun had not yet risen as Sully started his 2003 Chevy. He had just completed a 10 hour night shift at the mill, and the snow was coming down hard. A snowstorm was nothing new in PA, but boy was he tired. The worries of paying the bills, putting food on the tabe, and getting that damn furnace fixed were weighing heavily on his mind, and he hadn’t gotten any sleep the day before. Sully thought back to the good old days as he headed down the road, when he was a kid. The warm summer sun beating down, swimming in the quarry with his brother. Not a care in the world. Those were the days. Now here he was, a 30 year-old man living paycheck to paycheck. A wife at home who’d been out of work for months due to a bad leg break she suffered chasing the dog down the street. “Damn dog. More trouble than he’s worth,” he thought.

The road ahead was a whirling wall of white, made even harder to see by the early morning darkness encompassing it. Sully gripped the steering wheel tighter, and squinted hard to try and focus. The lack of sleep was catching up to him, and he could feel himself slipping in and out. His eyelids began to droop down over his deep, chestnut brown eyes. He slapped himself on the cheek, “Nothing a little country music can’t fix.” He reached over and began scanning for his favorite station. After a few seconds of fumbling with the radio dial, Sully shifted his eyes back toward the road, just in time to notice that he was headed straight for a massive oak tree.

With a quick jerk of the steering wheel, Sully managed to avoid the oak, and come to a stop on a snowbank. “That was a close one. That coulda been it,” he thought, breathing heavily. Sully hopped down out of the truck into calf-high snow to assess the damage. Not a scratch. “Thank God. That woulda been just what I needed. Another thing to add to the list,” he thought as he patted the hood of his trusty old truck. He was about to climb back in and be on his way, when a muffled voice startled him, “Hello? Sir?”

Sully spun around to see a figure, cloaked in black, standing a few feet behind him. The man was small in stature, with piercing blue eyes peeping out from under a black cap. His scarf was pulled up over his nose, and his jacket was bundled tightly around him. “Could you help an old timer out?” he asked, “I just need a ride to work. I usually walk, but...well...the storm.” Sully was still a bit shocked from seeing someone out this early in such bad conditions, “Uh, yea, yea, sure. Hop on in!” Sully aided the old man into the passenger side of the truck. “Thank you young man. I don’t know if I could’ve made it there on foot.” Sully climbed into the driver’s side and pulled the door shut, “No need to thank me. I would hope someone would do the same for me...What’s your name sir?” The old man adjusted his cap, “The name’s Gabe. everybody calls me Gabe.” His black scarf remained pulled up over his nose, so only his eyes were visible. Sully started the engine and pulled out of the snowbank and back onto the road. “It’s good to meet ya, Gabe. I’m Sully. Where ya headed?” he asked. Gabe shrugged, “Oh, just head down the road aways. It’s not far.” Sully was perplexed by the vagueness of his answer, “Alright. Just holler when we’re close.”

The drive was silent as the sun began to rise. Visibility improved a bit, and Sully began to relax. Well, as much as you can relax with a stranger in the car. “So,” started Sully, “What do you do?” Gabe chuckled, “What do you think I do?” Sully glanced over at him inquisitively, “You want me to guess?” “Yes sir,” replied Gabe, “Go on and guess.” Sully thought for a minute. He was dressed all in black, out in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm, and headed down a road with nothing on it for miles. “Sir, I couldn’t begin to guess what you do,” Sully said with a hearty laugh. Gabe shrugged, “Eh, you wouldn’t have guessed it anyway.” Sully waited for the man to say more, but more didn’t come. “So, you gonna tell me?” He asked. The old man became very serious, and seemed to sink further into his cocoon of scarf and coat, “Nah. I’m not gonna tell ya.”

The rest of the drive went on in silence until the old man shot up his hand and allerted Sully that they had gone far enough. Sully looked around, but all he could see was snow coming down. “Are you sure you’re in the right place, Gabe?” Gabe nodded and began to open his door. He stopped and looked back at Sully, “Thanks for the ride, young man. Much obliged.” Sully felt a chill that wasn’t brought on from the gush of cold air let in by Gabe opening the truck door. He couldn’t help but feel guilty for letting him get out in such bad conditions in the middle of nowhere. What if the man was confused? What if he had Alzheimer's? He couldn’t just let him freeze out there. Sully pushed open his door and leaned out, “Sir, are you sure that…” but he stopped when he realized the old man had vanished. He looked around in all directions, but he could see nothing but the thick snow. “I hope he knows what he’s doin,” he thought as he turned the ignition. That’s when he realized something, since the close encounter with the oak tree, the radio had stopped playing. Sully pressed the scanner a few times and adjusted the volume, but there was nothing, not even static. “Must be the storm messin with the signal,” he assured himself. He was about to hit the gas when something caught his eye. There, on the passenger seat where the old man had sat, was a thick, black notebook.

“Damnit!” Sully whispered, “Must’ve fallen out of his jacket.” He reached over and grabbed the notebook to look for a full name or address inside. It was heavy, like a brick. Sully opened the first page, but all that was there were two arrows sketched in lead. One was pointing up, and the one parallel to it was pointing down. “Weird,” thought Sully. He began flipping through the pages until his fingers stopped on a cut out rectangle about halfway through. Inside the etched out rectangle, was a wad of cash consisting of hundred dollar bills. Sully’s mouth dropped open. The old man had a hidden stash of money in his notebook! He counted the cash carefully. “$20,000...That old fart has $20,000 in here,” said Sully shakily. “Could he have been a thief? A hit man? No, he’s too old for that. What was he doing with $20,000 on him?” A million thoughts rushed through Sully’s mind. He flipped the notebook over and opened the back cover. Written on the back was a small note that said “If found, please return to 128 Frolly lane, Erie, PA. It’s all I have.”

Sully leaned his head back against his seat’s headrest. He stared blankly up at the sealing, his hot breath creating smoke in the icy air. “What in the hell do I do?” he asked out loud. He could sure use that money, besides, that old man was being really sketchy. On the other hand, it would be wrong. He had the address, he could easily drive it over when the storm cleared. Sully cursed over and over in his head. $20,000. That could pay off all the bills he’d been stressed about. But it was wrong. IT WAS WRONG. The battle raged on in his mind. “That old man isn’t responsible anyway. Why was he carrying it around in a snowstorm?! He had to know he could lose it,” he thought. “But what if he needs it? What if he can’t survive without it?” Sully banged on the steering wheel with frustration and groaned loudly. He thought about his wife, and about how they’d been wanting to start a family, but couldn’t because money was tight. This could be a fresh start. This was a blessing.

Sully slowly closed the notebook and placed it down on the seat next to him. He would keep it. That was his decision. That money was his. A surge of relief flooded his body as the reality of his choice sunk in. Sully tilted his head back and laughed in disbelief. Things were about to change for the better. He put the truck in drive and slowly pulled back on to the road. He couldn’t wait to get home and tell his wife about his find. Would she be happy or sceptical? Sully was pondering the possible reactions his wife would have when something appeared about 20 feet ahead on the road. Sully slammed on the breaks and the truck came to a halt. He blinked a few times to try and make out what it was. The figure slowly moved closer, made visible only by the headlights of the truck and the dim light of dawn. Sully’s heart began to beat faster as the dark creature became more clear. It was the old man, Gabe.

Sully couldn’t move. “How did he get ahead of me? Is he back for the notebook?” he thought as he sheepishly rolled down his window. “Hey there!” He called. Gabe didn’t say a word. He just stood there, cloaked in black, about five feet from the hood. “Can, can I help you? You uh...you lose your way?” stuttered Sully, feeling the sweat begin to roll down his forehead. Again, the old man said nothing. Sully didn’t know what to do. Maybe Gabe knew his notebook was in the truck and was waiting for him to give it back. He couldn’t give it back, he couldn’t. Sully spoke again, “Listen, uh, you’re blockin the truck there man. I need to get home.” Another few seconds of silence followed before Gabe finally spoke from behind his black scarf, “You failed.”

Sully’s face drained of color. He failed? Failed what? Failed to give the money back? He didn’t know how to respond. “You failed!” This time Gabe shouted it angrily. Sully shook his head confused, “Wha-what do you mean I failed? You sure you’re OK, man?” Gabe began to move closer, slowly. Sully’s heartbeat had quickened to the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. “Hey, look. You’re starting to scare me. What’s going on?” Gabe finally reached the driver side window, and looked eye-to-eye with Sully, not blinking or showing any emotion. Sully sat frozen as the old man began to pull down his scarf. What he revealed, frightened Sully to his core. Gabe’s mouth was gone, no lips, only a fleshy mess of ripped skin surrounding his sharp, yellow teeth. “Wha-what are you?! What do you want?!” Shouted Sully in terror. Gabe laughed sinisterly, “You hit that tree back there, Sully. You went through the windshield and broke your neck. This was your test, you see, the test every human gets when they pass.” Sully’s skin went cold. He looked around frantically, only to see his vehicle was somehow back at the oak tree, smashed in the front. His bloody body lay 10 feet away, covered in a thin layer of snow. “This was your judgement, Sully,” continued the old man, “you either go up, or down, like the arrows in the book.” He then reached out a pale, white hand and laid it on Sully’s shivering shoulder. “You failed the test, Sully. You’re going down.”