By Matt Ankney
The Road – Part 1
The metallic blue and white 1974 Plymouth Satellite’s ignition refused to turn over. Gary winced each time he tried to start it, the pink rabbit foot keychain jerking back and forth with every fruitless attempt.
The road beyond was covered in thick Ozark fog. A symphony of crickets, cicadas, and frogs serenaded the stranded moonshiner in pitch blackness.
Twenty gallons of pure white lightning lie concealed in the car’s rusty trunk.
Gary shuddered, thinking about what just happened. Finding an old Ford Model A idling in the middle of the secluded country road, faint headlight beams casting long silhouettes, he drove past peering into the abandoned vehicle.
Up ahead, something unusual was obstructing the road.
Approaching with caution, Gary saw a skinny male figure wearing only dingy denim overalls and a crude paper mache head of a raven, hand-painted black with eyes made of amber glass ashtrays.
The moonshiner braked hard, stopping fifty yards from the motionless Birdman hoping it was just a teenage prankster high on drugs.
