When I awakened the next morning, Harlan was already dressed and reclining in an easy chair. His eyes were closed wearily, as though he had not yet had enough sleep.
\n\u201cMorning, Ware,\u201d I called. \u201cHow\u2019s the head?\u201d
\n\u201cGlad you\u2019re awake, Andrews,\u201d he replied. \u201cI am bad company for myself this morning, On top of knowing that I made a damned ass of myself last night, I\u2019ve had a most horrible nightmare that hangs on like a leech. Can\u2019t seem to shake it off, even now when I\u2019m wide awake. Serves me right, of course, after what I did last night. What do you suppose possessed me, Andy?
\nCan\u2019t excuse myself on so few drinks. And that hellish dream! Got to tell it to you, Andrews, even though it\u2019s silly as the deuce; then maybe I can forget it.\u201d
\nHe glanced up shamefacedly to see if I was listening as he continued: \u201cThe whole thing started out of a great glare of light that almost blinded me at first and which I realized afterwards was the headlights of a car. A speeding car, coming toward me, which for no reason filled me with great glee. Then I became conscious that it was Pat\u2019s car, and there was Pat speeding toward me\u2014toward all of us, as fast as she could. She was coming to the party, of course. As I ran down the long, dark road to meet her, waving my arms and shouting greetings, I saw something white in the seat beside her. Then, as the car drew nearer, it became\u2014that thing in there!\u201d He nodded toward the studio, as he covered his eyes.
\n\u201cThen I could see Pat\u2019s face, and it was no longer smiling as she grappled desperately with the thing that had its long, bony hands on the steering wheel and was turning it against Pat\u2019s strength toward the steep, dark embankment at one side of the road. Terror-stricken, I tried to run to help her, but I couldn\u2019t move an inch! You can\u2019t imagine the horror that gripped me as I stood there in, the dark road, unable to move, while that thing battled with Pat over the wheel, swerving the speeding car dangerously from side to side of the road, getting nearer and nearer the embankment until, with a great crash of broken glass and a shriek from Pat, they plunged over into the darkness below. Then I woke up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I awakened the next morning, Harlan was already dressed and reclining in an easy chair. His eyes were closed wearily, as though he had not yet had enough sleep. \u201cMorning, Ware,\u201d I called. \u201cHow\u2019s the head?\u201d \u201cGlad you\u2019re awake, Andrews,\u201d he replied. \u201cI am bad company for myself this morning, On top of knowing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pulp-classics","tag-stephen-andrews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}