Munger Road

new shorty from Mallory Smart

collage by Kyle Anderson

MUNGER ROAD

by Mallory Smart

Dave’s been dead six months and still texts like we’re cool.

The first time, I was drunk in the Portillo’s parking lot and thought it was some kind of glitch.

Second time, it just said: you coming out here or what.

No name. Just a number I should’ve deleted.

I didn’t believe in ghosts, but I believed in Dave’s bad ideas. And of course I knew the story before he ever told it.

Munger Road was something everyone did. Your cousin. Your sister. Somebody’s older brother who swore it happened to a friend.

Every place has an urban legend. Jersey has the Devil. West Virginia’s got Mothman. Ours was Munger Road.

You park on the tracks. Dust the bumper with baby powder. Put the car in neutral. Wait.

If you get handprints, the dead kids saved you.

If not, you were already dead and didn’t know it.

It was the Kirkland Signature of hauntings. But we still did it.

Dave brought Axe instead of powder. Said nothing haunts like eighth-grade confidence.

He once made …