This game we play (flash fiction)

My boyfriend and I have this game we play one Sunday a month

one of us blindfolds the other and the one who isn’t blindfolded drives somewhere

the last time it was my turn to drive

Randall tied his blindfold on the driveway and we took off in the Corolla at around 4:30 pm

After about twenty minutes, I stopped to pick some sunflowers I’d noticed along the road

they were someone’s crop, but it didn’t much matter to me

they were the biggest ones I’d ever seen and when I got back in the car I squealed with pleasure

“it smells like flowers in here.”

“Nice one, Sherlock.”

We drove for an hour more

“Cheri, this better be worth it.”

“Shuttup, Randall — last time you blindfolded me, and took me

to the gun range.”

“You said you liked it, baby.”

“’cause I love you. Anyway it won’t be five minutes now.”

“Oh baby, you’re sweet.”

he put his hand on my thigh and tried to get something going

“You like that?”

“Eh.”

He laughed.

Later, I pulled into the deserted Ace Auto Shop lot

Killed the engine.

“Okay, can I look now, buddy?”

“No.”

I parked, grabbed my basket, got out of the car to his side

I took him by the hands and slowly guided him out of the seat

he looked so helpless without his eyes, so I laughed

“Fuck you.”

I laughed some more,

then gently guided him through the lot and across the highway and finally onto a field of grass

I settled for a spot about 40 paces from the barbed wire fence

there was a gravel basketball court without nets on the hoops beyond it

and beyond that a long, low brick building with a lot of windows

Except for this wire, this place could have been a high school, I decided

“Sit down,” I ordered him.

He did.

I brought out my supplies from the basket

and went about setting up the purple and blue blanket, the newly plucked sunflowers, double cheeseburgers from In N’ Out, and a pair of milkshakes

“Okay. You can take off your blindfold.”

“Where the hell…”

Blindfold removed, his eyes went left, and then right

and then they finally saw Scott State Prison

where he’d served five years for B & E not that long ago —

a place that still returned to him in dreams

He might as well have question marks for eyes in that moment

I handed him his burger with pickles and ketchup spilling out the side

“I thought it would be nice to see this place as a free man,” I explained. “Come on, let’s eat some burgers, then we’ll get in the car and drive away.”

He was just staring, expressionless.

It was then that it occurred to me how stupid I had been to bring him to this place.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, buddy.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

I didn’t know what to think when he put out his hand.

“Where are we going?”

“I want to give you a tour of the grounds, buddy.”