A New Kind of Sign language – Read my lips
Carter doesn’t spend much time outside of work. In fact, he would work around the clock if he didn’t need to sleep. And, in his line of work, he needs at least some sleep. Carter drives a truck for the local refinery. Lately they have been allowed almost all the overtime they can stand. And Carter has taken advantage of every opportunity.
In fact, it has been a bit of a relief to stay occupied. Having his mind somewhere else, keeps it away from where it shouldn’t be. Carter slows the truck. The next scheduled stop on his route is just ahead. He would be here for half an hour. Twenty five minutes if he really hustled. The roads on his route are mostly empty at this time in the morning. In fact, most people consider four in the morning the middle of the night.
Carter didn’t mind. He enjoyed the empty roads and the quiet of the predawn hours. As he muses, he checks his surroundings. The road is quiet and there is almost no traffic. Therefore, he should have no trouble pulling into the lot of the station. He slows the tanker truck to accommodate the turn. He’s so intent on lining the truck to the entrance that he nearly misses the entrance sign.
A New Kind of Sign Language
He didn’t think much about it, at first. Admittedly it seemed like a coincidence when he saw it. It wasn’t until later that he recognized the connection. In fact, he would have missed it if not for the entrance sign. The sign itself was high in the air. The store owners probably had a telescopic pole for changing the letters on the sign. Carter got a good look at the sign because it was just above his turn.
Happy Birthday Hannah. Remco’s manager of the year. Carter eases the truck into the parking lot. He intends to get this done quickly. He has two more stops on this route. After this shift he has three days off. Not only is he going to catch up on his reading, but also his yard work. Then he remembers the strange, but pleasant, scent that happens more and more frequently these days. It’s almost ghostly.
In fact, he thought maybe something paranormal was happening. Furthermore, he just began researching some things this week. It seems that some ghostly events are followed by, or combined with, certain scents. For example, cigarette smoke. It is widely accepted that the scent of lit cigarette, is a signal of a ghostly encounter, or event. But this scent is way more special than a lit cigarette, he reminds himself.
Read My Lips
Now it is nearing sunrise and Carter is on his last stop. He resets the counters as he waits for his truck to empty. The sun will be rising soon. Furthermore, he’s ready for his days off. The more he thinks about it, the more he feels a compulsion to spend some serious time reading. He is thinking this precise thing when the counters all reset. Automatically, and on their own.
Carter watches in amazement as the screen on his fuel tablet blinks in unison with the digital counters on all the tanks. It was like a strange sign language, although they were not linked. Then, incredibly the fuel station lights begin blinking in unison. The effect is disorienting. Carter watches as the blinking lights go faster and faster.
Until everything flashes brightly one final time. Then all the counters on the tanks flash once more and then stay lit with the same message. In fact, the station lights, and all the fuel pump numbers, have the exact same message. It’s just one word, a name. But it’s no longer just a sign language coincidence to Carter. He stares at the word feeling perplexed, and mystified. Hannah. Who is Hannah?
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