:6:

She couldn’t believe it was happening.

Everything Martha had worked towards for 8 long years was finally coming true. Sure, she had cried herself to sleep most nights, praying, hoping, dreaming that it would happen. But she never expected it would be like this.

She quickly hopped into her beat up Honda Accord, and found herself smiling with wry delight. She dug for her keys in her coat pocket, and pulled out the bottle of Peppermint Schnapps instead. The Peppermint Schnapps. She forgot she threw it in there before her encounter with Bill.

For a brief moment she thought of running back into the house and pouring it down the drain.

“Screw it.”

She decided to have one last sip. But once it touched her lips, she couldn’t stop herself. She threw her head back and downed half the bottle.

As her car made its way out of the Oak Bluff Gardens parking lot, she had another gulp. By the time she made her way to the highway, the bottle was nearly empty. She liked the warm tingle spreading across her body. She felt ready.

Martha took one last swig of her Peppermint Schnapps, threw the bottle out window, and raced off towards Ext 38. Tonight was her night, and she wasn’t going to let anything—including Peggy Harris—get in her way.

TF