Brad stopped the car and looked at the sign.
“Huh”, he said, “I wonder what that’s all about.”
Jennie looked up from the map and gave him an inquiring glance.
“What what’s all about?”
“The sign.”
She looked out the front window at the rusted sign.
“Probably means we should keep right.”
“Yeah, but what’s with all the bullet holes? Is it a statement of some kind?”
“What kind of statement?”
“Oh I don’t know. ‘Keep right or else’? Maybe it’s something more philosophical.”
“Philosophical?”
“Sure, you know. Maybe ‘keep right in life or it will blow you away’?”
“Ah, it’s one of those moods. OK, I’ll play along. Maybe it’s a political statement. We are in the middle of the bible belt, after all.”
“What, like ‘keep right, liberals are fair game’?”
“Could be.”
“Maybe it’s anti-left handed propaganda.”
“Maybe it’s a defiant stance to the establishment wanting to pigeon-hole everyone down the same path.”
“Oooo, good one. Maybe it’s a statement about the region that it’s pointing towards … where is it pointing, anyway?”
“I’m not sure. Your ‘shortcut’ disappeared from the map a while ago. Might be pointing to Nebraska … could be pointing to Oklahoma … could be pointing to Hawaii for all I know.”
“Huh. I wonder what they could have against Hawaii.”
“It’s probably not Hawaii.”
“Still, you gotta wonder what they shot it all up for.”
“What who shot it all up for?”
“Them, you know, the omnipresent them.”
“Gotcha. Might be they just don’t like directions.”
“So you’re saying we shouldn’t stop to ask where we are then?”
“No, that’s not what I am saying. Not at all. We’re good and lost from your ‘shortcut’.”
A large pickup truck roared up the road behind them and swerved into the far lane. A man leaned out of the passenger window, aimed a rifle, and took a shot, hitting the sign and making a new hole in the perforated directions. The truck sped off down the road. The two men in the truck gave out a victorious yell as Brad and Jennie’s car disappeared behind them.
“What you think them outta towners was doin’ just stopped there, Clem?”
“I dunno, but man I pegged that old sign! How fast were you going?”
“Huh, oh maybe 45 or so. Looked like they was talkin’ ’bout somethin’. Maybe they was discussin’ the transient nature of the universe, what with them pointin’ at that shot up sign and all.”
“Oh, yer in one of them moods. OK, I’ll play along.”