Naugatuck Valley Community College
Winner of the Luke S. Newton Memorial Award for Short Fiction
Butterfly Kisses
1st Place - Short Fiction Robert Andreotta*
He rode along at a steady 55 miles per hour. There hadn’t been a speed limit sign in miles, but he knew it couldn’t be more than 25. It was a few minutes before two in the morning, and he should have arrived yesterday. Where the hell am I? His map was spread out on the dashboard, but with the moonless night and how fast he was going Matt knew that trying to read anything right now would be pointless. I’m too dependent on my phone, he thought. He grew up years after the annual Rand McNally had even somewhat respectable sales, and by the time he was behind the wheel his car had a state-of-the-art Garmin GPS stuck to the dash. Now even Garmin was a name of the past. Either way his cartography skills were severely lacking, and his phone had no service. I just gotta get out of the boonies he thought. Out of the boonies had been his mantra for the past 45 minutes, but they kept on going. Thousands of trees lined the roads, pavement was riddled with potholes, and now even mailboxes were few and far between. Where the hell am I? Matt thought again. He looked down at his fuel gauge and let out a groan. “Motherfucker” he muttered to his empty vehicle. He would have to pull over. He would have to spend the night out here in the middle of nowhere. When the sun rose, he would have to walk up someone’s driveway with his tail tucked between his legs and borrow a phone to dial his way out of this mess. He still had an 8th of a tank left, but with mailboxes being so sparce he knew he should stop near the next one he saw. He looked down at the roadmap laid out on his dash, hoping against hope to have miraculously gained some navigational skills. Movement flashed in the outskirts of his vision and he snapped his eyes back on the road. The deer was a brown streak as it bolted into his path. Tires squealed as he simultaneously slammed on the brakes and jerked the steering wheel hard to the right. The deer ran past without even sparing a glance and disappeared into the opposite side of the woods, completely out of harm's way. The same could not be said for Matt. His car was spinning out of control and he was heading straight for a tree. He cursed himself for his stupidity. Why am I driving so fast? Why did I take my eyes off the road when it is so damn dark? And why the hell isn’t 51
