#mangostory

Chintu Lomdi bazaar mein sabse bada aur chamakdar aam paane ki koshish karta hai. Lekin uska lalach use musibat mein daal deta hai. Kya Chintu apni galti se seekh paayega? Janiye is mazedar aur shikshaprad kahani mein.

Haki shook the rain from his hair as he unlocked his apartment door. A block away the East Central snake train pulled away from the station. Haki's studio apartment shook faintly as the train rolled along its track.

He sighed and dropped his keys on the small table in his kitchenette. He locked the three security clamps on his door into place. Somewhere down the hall he heard the couple from 408 arguing and cussing. A baby cried on the floor above. Someone was listening to the radio too loud in the floors below. Haki fell onto the mattress that served as his bed. He felt lonely. Even though he had been with Striker only hours earlier, he wanted to talk to him again. He fiddled with his cell phone and wondered if Striker would think he was strange for calling. "Mn...maybe tomorrow. Give him a breather or something." Haki mused. But his fingers continued tapping lightly on the buttons. He typed up a short text message: "Thanks for letting me have dinner with your family. it was good."

He hit send and settled back on his bed. There was a soft tap tap tap from the leaky faucet in the kitchenette. His eyes closed slowly. Before he could drift off, his phone chimed cheerily. He sat upright and checked the screen. A bright smile spread across his face at the reply.

His mind started a frantic pursuit of anything but reality. Every shifting shadow in the trees, each oddly shaped cloud. Faces, figures, something kept itself in the corner of his eye. He had to stay in a state of alarm, unrest as he leaned against the cold glass of the car window. The hum of the highway reverberated through his skull. It eased the desperation of his mind and aided the slow protection that formed from imagined things. Layer after layer formed over his soul as he watched trees and fence posts flying past. There was something following the car, just out of sight. If he focused and tried very hard to see it he would never have to reach his destination. He would never have to accept what was real. He could dwell in a place where something was following the car, where something might attack the car and upset the world. He would never have to go to home again. The world would be altered so much he would have to steal cars and stockpile supplies. He would form a band of survivors who were ever watchful for the Something.

Do you ever wonder if there's someone sitting in the back seat of your car? If you look at just the right time, you'll see them out of the corner of your eye. They are in the rearview mirror. But when you turn around, or  get the chance at a stoplight or a parking lot to look, there's no one there. 

You start to drive again, or a car in front of you slows too quickly, or the light turns green. But you can still tell there's someone there. There might be more of them now. Two or three, you can't be sure. But you feel them sitting there, idly staring out the window or at the back of your head. Who are they? Why are they riding with you? How did this impromptu carpool with them, or him, or it begin?