{"id":198,"date":"2024-12-09T06:32:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T06:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2025-11-07T02:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T02:32:17","slug":"dirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/09\/dirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Genre: Comedy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plot: A Taxi Driver who is Hailed by His Doppelg\u00e4nger<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words to use: cab, directions, mirror, backseat, stranger, look-alike, twin, Deja-vu, mystery, resemblance, dream, vision, destination, reflection<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smell of rain on asphalt filled the night air, a mix of oil and chemicals co-mingled. It washed the stench of humanity\u2019s lower orders down the drains. No one of any quality was down on street level anymore. My cab<\/strong>ancient, the yellow paint dulled through time. It wasn\u2019t equipped with all the modern conveniences, like the cabs that took the wealthy to their fancy areas a half a mile up in the sky. I drove and waited for fares to come my way, hoping to stave off hunger for the day. Changing the dial of the radio, I hopped from one old station to another. I am so happy they still have this ancient technology to broadcast news and music through the old stations; it gives me something to listen to while I waited and drove through the dark, dank streets of the bustling metropolis. I remembered that I haven\u2019t seen the sun in months. Those days were few and far between now after the last war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dream<\/strong> was to find a way up to the top. I watched the skies, the zipping cabs, the wealthy in their long coats and sparkling dresses that traversed the walkways. I changed a station, \u201cnow in the news, a new break through in DNA technology. You can clone yourself, with the tiniest amount of DNA\u2026.,\u201d boring, I thought and changed it quickly to my usual jazz station. The sounds of brass and despair echoed within the cabin of my cab. Outside, the sound of water hitting the undercarriage as my tires found deep potholes, like the lakes for rodents. Driving through them seemed to have rearranged my insides. Out of the corner my eye, I saw the motion of a hand raised, beckoning me to stop, so I pulled over quickly, I had to eat. People never disappointed me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stranger<\/strong> got into the backseat<\/strong>, their black jacket wet, the hood pulled tightly obscuring the face. Their reflection<\/strong> was barely visible, only a pale protruding nose that seemed familiar. I was fascinated with the mystery<\/strong> that this new human brought to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere you headed?\u201d I asked, trying to find the stranger in the dark recesses of the backseat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKeep heading east,\u201d the deep voice was barely a whisper. Strange, I thought, but this city teemed with strange people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan do,\u201d I pulled away from the rotting curb and I heard the rustle of fabric, and I declared exasperation at the night we were experiencing. The stranger agreed with the assessment. It was quite a dreadful night in amongst all the other dreadful nights that existed down here in the squalor. \u201cDo you have a particular destination<\/strong>, because I will need directions<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust keep going, I will let you know when we are closer,\u201d the voice began to feel impatient so I decided to just let them be, I didn\u2019t need to worry. The farther we went, the more they owed me and the that meant more money I\u2019d have to bring home. I\u2019d drive them all night if I had to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPull over here,\u201d a rustle of movement shook me from my mindless task. I knew where we were, a coincidence that we were outside my apartment building. Must be a coincidence, right? I couldn\u2019t be crazy, I hadn\u2019t started seeing the vision<\/strong> like the other ones. I stayed away from that trash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStrange you wanting to stop here,\u201d l turned in my seat, the strangers face was illuminated by the bright lights of the convenience store that was still opened. It was the same store I shopped for necessities all the time. I hoped to go get myself something good for tonight\u2019s dinner later. Deja-vue<\/strong> struck me while looking at his profile, but I couldn\u2019t put my finger on it. At least not from the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs it strange?\u201d His voice hit my ear drums differently. It was me, but not the same echo inside my head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe not,\u201d the stranger turned toward me. It was like looking at myself in the mirror. A twin\u2026how could that be? I didn\u2019t have a twin. I sat staring at the stranger. \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you mean, who am I?\u201d My look-alike<\/strong> mimicked me. The resemblance<\/strong> was uncanny now, in the fluorescent lights. \u201cI am you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My stomach dropped and nausea spread through my arms and legs, my fingers tingled. What does this mean, my eyes widened. What was going on? What was the news program talking about earlier? Doppelg\u00e4ngers and DNA? Dazed and confused, I sat and watched the stranger pull out his hand from his pocket and blew the contents of his palm in my direction. The world turned colors, spinning like the old carnival rides from decades ago. The next thing I knew, I was laid in a pool of blood, but not my blood. A gun rested in my hand and the cops surrounded me reading me my rights. Oh sh\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 Rachel D. Knepp.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author\u2019s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means\u2014including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods\u2014without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in reviews or critical articles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genre: Comedy Plot: A Taxi Driver who is Hailed by His Doppelg\u00e4nger Words to use: cab, directions, mirror, backseat, stranger, look-alike, twin, Deja-vu, mystery, resemblance, dream, vision, destination, reflection The smell of rain on asphalt filled the night air, a mix of oil and chemicals co-mingled. It washed the stench of humanity\u2019s lower orders down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,27],"tags":[5,7,10,11,4,20,12],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-comedy-fiction","tag-author","tag-fiction","tag-shortstory","tag-story","tag-storywriter","tag-writer","tag-writingprompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}