Short Story

Shadows In The Rearview

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Gerry & Sue’s Weekly
Prompts Weekend Challenge,
incorporating the word ‘melancholy’
and Fandango’s FOWC – ‘worry’.
This is my story.

Image by Me & ChatGPT

She sprang out of the rain and into my cab with the grace of a gazelle. She told me to “just drive” and by the tone of her voice I knew to keep my trap shut. I caught a glimpse of her in the rearview. She was a vision wrapped in a pall of melancholy, her tears mixing with the city’s neon glow like a bad dream. I drove, but my mind was on her – a beautiful stranger lost in her sorrow.

“Baby,” I thought, “what’s got you so twisted up? Did the lover’s moon betray you? Did you give your heart so freely only to have it break? Love’s a savage beast, isn’t it?” I could smell the perfume of her grief from where I sat; it clung to the air like worry mixed with regret. I wanted to reach back, to offer a comforting word, but she was a goddess and I was a nobody.

I glanced at her again, her face half-illuminated by the streetlights, a haunting portrait of despair. “Maybe I could be the distraction you need,” I mused. “You know, take you in my arms, kiss the tears off your face, show you how a man is supposed to treat a lady who’s been broken into a thousand pieces.”

Who was I kidding? I was just a man behind the wheel, plying his trade. Yet, in that stillness, I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I could just pull her out of that abyss, I’d become more than just a cab driver …. I’d be her knight in a rusty chariot, chasing away her blues.

NAR©2025

This is “It’s A Lonesome Old Town” by Helen O’Connell

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge -Melancholy.
FOWC With Fandango — Worry

All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

24 thoughts on “Shadows In The Rearview”

    1. I was thinking about Harry’s song the whole time, Jim, but knew I wanted an older, bluesy song and one sung by a woman. This is a great old Sinatra tune from his “Only the Lonely” album (my favorite of his), but Helen did a fabulous job. Thanks so much, Jim.

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  9. Beautifully done, ..& such a emotive story, Nancy, … with the narrative in the cabbie’s head, …but the words left unspoken, … What if, … as Fandango says, … if either of them found the courage to speak, … so many what if’s in this life, …💫

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