Brian Sanders was looking for a parking space at his job when he saw a car from his distant past appear in his rearview mirror and for just an instant a forty-year-old memory came flooding back into his mind.
It was the last race of the year-Jack Torry with his pitch-black Buick 442 and Brian with his Chevelle SS. At the start, Torry jumped ahead, but Brian eventually caught up and won the race. Even after the race the two remained casual friends, but after graduation Jack split for California and that was the last Brian had heard from him.
A week later the old Buick appeared again and this time Brian decided to follow it. The black car headed out of town until it came to a salvage yard and then disappeared in the labyrinth of old wrecks.
Brian went into the office of the salvage yard and found an old man in overalls squinting at a computer. "What can I do for you sir?" the man asked Brian. "I'm looking for a car" he answered. Any particular kind of car?" the old man inquired. "A 1968 pitch-black Buick 442."
The old man got up and motioned for Brian to follow. Together they went out into the yard and walked to the end of a long series of junk cars. "Here it is" the man proclaimed pointing to a twisted pile of wreckage. "The owner was killed in a race back in 81. I kept it as a memorial of sorts."
Brian walked around the rusted hulk remembering his long-ago youth. "Did you know Torry?" the old man asked. "Yeah, but I never knew he ended up here." Brian responded. At dusk, Brian drove away from the salvage yard and watched as its sign shrank to a small square in his rearview mirror and then vanished altogether.
