Paved Paradise

Playing today’s hits

Photo by Raymond Kotewicz on Unsplash

Heat bounced off the parking lot of the abandoned shopping mall. Not even 7 am, yet the day was scorching—forecasts predicted 100 degrees F that day.

Cord sat in his car with the AC blasting cold air and the radio tuned to some generic “hits of the 80s, 90s, and today” station.

The text he received earlier said he was to meet the delivery guy at 7 am. He was five minutes early.

He witnessed a crow flying into the lone remaining tree by the lot. He remembered when he used to come here as a boy.

In earlier times, the lot was akin to a small jungle where he and his friends played and constructed a clubhouse. No one bothered them there.

Additional crows joined the initial one, and their numbers continued to increase until their squawking became audible over the closed window, playing radio, and blasting AC.

Distracted, he failed to see the motorcycle pulling in behind his car and its rider walking up to the driver’s side window until he sensed the guy’s presence and powered down his window.

“What the f… !” Cord breathed out before the guy squeezed the trigger, and his day faded to black.

The guy opened the car door, unlocked the trunk, powered the window up, and closed the door.

He walked around, lifted the trunk, and pulled out the insulated shopping bag. He unzipped it, looked inside to verify the bundles of cash, slammed the trunk shut, got on his motorcycle with the bag, and left.

It was 7:00 am.

The car’s AC blasted.

Cord’s blood congealed on bits of brain on the front car seats and passenger window.

The crows continued squawking.

Author’s Note

I veered off course from my inspiration while writing this story.

Hmmm. Did I, though?

Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell was my inspiration, one of my latest earworms. (I know the Counting Crows did a cover of this song featuring Belinda Carlisle. I like that cover although many people do not.)

For your viewing and listening pleasure, here is Joni Mitchell in an intimate concert setting singing Big Yellow Taxi.

Upcoming…

• A poem seeking understanding:

  Questioning, 29 June 2024

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