Man on the Side of the Road

I will always remember this moment very clearly in my mind. It was years ago, but the strangeness imprinted the moment in my mind. It was a summer night and I was driving down Whitmore Lake Road in Michigan. With me was my girlfriend at the time, and she was asleep in the passenger seat. She was using her arm to support her head, her elbow was on the car door where it ends and the window begins, with her hand against her head.

I had just left a lighted area of the street, my headlights illuminating the road ahead of me. It was then that I saw a man standing on the right side of the road. I can remember many of his features, a button up red and black flannel shirt, and blue jeans that covered work boots. He was just... standing there... staring at me as I rounded the corner.

It made me anxious, and I had no choice but to drive past him. At first, nothing happened and I went by, my anxiety lessened. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw motion. For an instant, maybe half a second, the man seemed to leap at us, his body flying through the air towards my car. His hand reached through the glass of the passenger window, grabbing my girlfriends wrist. He pulled, and her arm was pulled towards the window, her knuckles rapping against the glass. Then, he was gone. But I remember his bearded face, eyes filled with rage, and his mouth open wide as though he were screaming.

I'll never forget that face.