American Night- a Web Novel

A man returns home one early morning hour to find his fiancée sprawled in a pool of blood. What else could he do? He takes to the road -two-thousand three hundred and forty-seven miles- to avenge her death. Caught in the no-man's-land between loneliness and blood-lust, this wronged lover has to decide at every turn whether the road to vengeance will ever bring him back to what he's lost. Or will he become lost? -somewhere out in the American Night. All materials © SethJ 2006.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

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How much farther does the driver have to go? He made it to Michigan as planned, though it took a little longer than he originally estimated....
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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

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“We can’t go no further. There’s nowhere left ta go. So juss get.” That comes out more pleading, more regretful, than the driver intended. ...
Thursday, April 03, 2008

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That doesn’t explain why the driver is so shocked to see that his gun has been raised, and now points at the hitchhiker’s chest. He did it w...
Tuesday, April 01, 2008

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The hitchhiker doesn’t move for a very long time. Standing perfectly still on a cold winter night, one can actually feel the darkness creep ...
Thursday, March 27, 2008

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Clayton Street is darker. Only a few porch lights remain lit here. This street is not traveled frequently enough to warrant the rows of stre...
Tuesday, March 25, 2008

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The company inside: he could take or leave. A lot of them, some of whom he would consider former buddies, wouldn’t take so kindly to him sim...
Thursday, March 20, 2008

Dearborn

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The city is laid out on a gird, with Michigan Avenue cutting through like an electric current. The driver follows its gauntlet of neon signs...
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Sturgis, Michigan

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The driver dials Mr. Warshansky one last time, on a phone outside Carter’s Drug and Grocery. It’s in the process of closing down for the eve...
Thursday, March 13, 2008

Gary, Indiana

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It’s already dark by the time the driver reaches Gary. The array of smokestacks, cooling tanks, and any number of industrial skeletons huddl...
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

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The signature at the bottom, following upon a hasty “Furever yur man,” is as incomprehensible as the jumble of letters on the page. That doe...
Thursday, March 06, 2008

Joliet

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Though the sun may hang listlessly over the horizon all day, when it finally goes down, it ignites the land in a gold and purple blaze. The ...
Tuesday, March 04, 2008

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The hitchhiker drops the folded pages with a wheeze. He traces in his mind their trail of blood. It leads right up to and beyond the dual mu...
Thursday, February 28, 2008

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Slain Cop, Murdered Biker: Evidence Points to a Connection The body of the text tells the rest of the story; or what a reporter could scratc...
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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What were the words exactly? The bathroom door swung open and he had half his face to the wall, pleading with the receiver in his hand. What...
Thursday, February 21, 2008

La Salle, Illinois

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The middle-aged woman sitting next to the hitchhiker seems friendly enough. She got on shortly after they crossed the river into Rock Island...
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

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“He’s bout, five six, five seven, light brown hair, brown eyes…” The driver is doing even worse, and he knows it. From somewhere in the mess...
Thursday, February 14, 2008

Davenport

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A peculiar collection of men catches the driver’s eye as he’s gassing up at “Lil Billy’s Gas n Go”. They’re huddled across the street, guard...
Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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The minutes that follow, on the edge of that same scratchy chair, are unbearable. The driver recalls as much as he can of the phone call. Th...
Thursday, February 07, 2008

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He lifts the receiver on the desk effortlessly, as if in a dream. In another instant, he’s on the phone once again to Mr. Warshansky. “I won...
Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Iowa City

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The city is white with a recent snowfall. There’s not a lot of the stuff, just enough to lend the streets, sidewalks and buildings the gleam...
Thursday, January 31, 2008

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How long it’s been, exactly, is indeterminable. The driver puts a hand to the hanging orb of sun as it barely clears a ridge of pines in the...
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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The truth is like the acrid smell of burnt metal, emanating from the pickup. It engulfs the driver, so he dare not breathe, and makes his st...
Thursday, January 24, 2008

Fort Winslow

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The engine chokes to a gurgle even before the smoke starts rising from the hood. It smells of burning rubber. Not the good kind, like at the...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008

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“Anything for you, dear?” Everyone under forty -even two killers- is a “dear” in the eyes of paternal Midwesterners. There’s no question of ...
Thursday, January 17, 2008

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“Who is this?” “I’m sorry Mrs. W’shansky, I don’t mean to take up your time…” “Oh, it’s you. Well please don’t.” “Please. It’s very m’portan...
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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There are enormous oak cabinets arranged against every wall. Behind their locked glass doors is displayed an incredible amassing of porcelai...
Thursday, January 10, 2008

Grinnell, Iowa

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It’s only with the Iowa border that the driver’s road atlas of “America’s Heartland” begins. That’s just as well, because its tangle of mul...
Tuesday, January 08, 2008

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A thought disrupts him, and makes him wish he never delved into the topic in the first place: what if the killer felt nothing? Is it possibl...
Thursday, January 03, 2008

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“At’s arright. I got it.” The hitchhiker dodges cars as he makes his way across the busy main street. “Crazy somofa…” He can survive angry g...
Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Omaha

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The city is already bustling with that peculiar type of middle-America industriousness inherited from burgher grandfathers and prim, Nordic ...
Thursday, December 27, 2007

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There follows the familiar sound of a sack of flour hitting the asphalt, accompanied by a hurt grown. The driver can’t be sure why the hitch...
Tuesday, December 25, 2007

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“Is something the matter?” “Now.” He snatches the card but he obviously already know with whom he’s dealing. “So you’re all the way from Fre...
Thursday, December 20, 2007

Weston

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They hear the inevitable whirl of motorcycle engine ten miles before Omaha. The driver is surprised by how quickly they were found. The morn...
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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Confusing it for an offer of a makeshift tourniquet, the driver initially waves it off. “Thanks, but’am not bleeding that much.” The words a...
Thursday, December 13, 2007

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“What was that?” He spots a woman’s high-heel shoe laying flat on the third step from the top of the motel’s stairway. It glistens, singular...
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

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Those last few words pass the hitchhiker by, but he hears “biker” and puts his lick-cleaned hands on the linoleum. “It’s right there on the ...
Thursday, December 06, 2007

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“What can I get ya?” The clerk interrupts his wiping of the counters only for a second, to inspect the hitchhiker. He obviously gets many ma...
Tuesday, December 04, 2007

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There’s no way the hitchhiker could sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see a bright blue afterimage of the room; like a photo ne...
Thursday, November 29, 2007

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The driver suddenly wearies, not just at the return of his murderous suspicions of the hitchhiker, but at everything: the whole trip –to Mic...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

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Before the driver is the hitchhiker –who hasn’t responded to the driver’s protest, which causes the latter to doubt whether or not he actual...
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

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“Whatta we do now?” the hitchhiker searches the driver once he’s fully caught his breath. It’s obvious that the driver is calling the shots,...
Thursday, November 15, 2007

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“It’ll be five for the night, and five for deposit.” The driver drops two crumpled fives on the counter while the clerk reaches to the pegbo...
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Lincoln

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Since the hitchhiker is covered in blood, it is the driver that checks into the motel. A bearded man is asleep behind the counter. The littl...
Thursday, November 08, 2007

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In the next moment, the biker and his woman are on the hood. The front of the pickup lilts with the weight and a there is a denting noise li...
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