Member-only story
Indian Mound Road
Teens sneak out at night and find…
A soft whirring hummed through the four in the morning silence. Two bicycles, lights extinguished, rolled through the inky Virginia neighborhood.
The fat, smiling moon — a waxing gibbous for those who care about such things — had abandoned the June sky hours earlier. Off to the east, light pollution from the DC suburbs bleached the horizon. Porchlights hinted at oversized houses on ten-acre lots. Sycamores sprouted from shadowy dells, remnants from the days when Holsteins polka-dotted the land.
A few muscular pumps at the pedals brought Sam’s bicycle atop a rise. On the downslope, captured air ballooned his jacket. Malik wheeled in his wake, skinny legs pushing the bike furiously forward. Malik’s pulse dropped a few beats with each wheel rotation as he became more confident of his escape from home.
“Looks like we did it, Malik,” Sam said, coasting, with a backward peek. Neither wanted their parents to kibosh this clandestine adventure, especially Malik. His parents believed Sam to be a bad influence. At least, that’s what his mother said. His dad just gave him The Look, potent with unspoken and ominous power.
But Sam made Malik laugh. Sam took the world like a Rubik cube and twisted it around, changing Malik’s perspective. Malik knew Sam. His parents didn’t.
