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It's about trying to find a new life (so far) .... It was written by myself and Amy (her link is: http://www.writerscafe.org/writers/Red%20Orchid/). It's only the prologue...the rest of the story will come.

 

The trucker left me off about a quarter mile from town. It was a warm night with overly saturated air. The walk to town didn’t bother me. I didn’t have to carry anything but my coat. I figured the stroll will be good for me. If I was lucky the cleansing, moist air would take the musty smell from my clothes. I guess that was my souvenir from the nice man, who gave me a ride.

My thoughts were walking about three steps in front me. I mean, I had just left myself behind. My whole life. My car and job…my wife. The reasons I don’t remember but the justification was there. I actually wish I could remember. But I assume it will be something that will hit me on a day when I thought the sun couldn’t be any brighter.

I walked toward the glowing clouds above my destination. It was quiet, with a peaceful wind weakly making its way through the weeds in the ditches. Suddenly, a huge commotion rose up beside me. A huge flock of blackbirds flapped and clattered their way away from me with such a riotous noise that I had to stop. When they had moved off and the sound dissipated…I shook my head with a grin. My life had been like that lately, loud and in my face. It was definitely time to get away from all of that and be myself. I had put myself in to little labeled boxes and it was time I ripped my way through all of them and moved on. If I didn’t it would be like traveling on a treadmill. There’s no progress, no change of scenery, and frankly, I don’t need that kind of exercise.

This was one of those towns that was big enough to have a 24 hour gas station, but small enough that it would be empty this time of night. I walked in to the convenience store, that was absolutely painted with fluorescent light. I bought a pack of smokes and something to drink. Then I made a little small talk with the clerk, mostly because she was cute but also because I needed to find a motel. I was tired and sorrowful. I just wanted to sleep. The motel was in the next town over but she was just getting off and she said I could catch a ride in the back of her truck. It was warm enough and I wasn’t going to argue. I step back out into the night. I pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and walked over to the dark side of the building. In my current mood, the night was far more comfortable. 

She came out of the store after awhile and yelled for me. I came back around the front of the building. “My truck’s just over here. Hop in the back, we’ll be there in ten minutes,” she said without even looking at me. This kind of trust was unimaginable to my urban mind. I thought to myself, “People must sleep good in this town.”

Dust rolled through the air as she pulled off from the gravel parking lot. I pulled the front of my shirt over my nose. I leaned back and dreamily watched the scenery as her rusted F-150 rumbled down the road with me in tow. When we arrived, I peeled my newly sore a*s from the bed of her truck. “Thanks,” I grumbled to her as I picked my coat out of her truck. She nodded and pulled away kicking up a cloud of dust beside me.

I shuffled to the office of the shabby, but well cared for motel. The greasy character watching the television refused to move until I rang the bell 30 feet from his head. "B*****d," I thought to myself. I plunked my credit card on the counter, along with my driver’s license and requested a room. I wrote “Nike size 10” in the license plate box, smiled and signed for my card.

Relief flooded through me as my key slid into the lock of my room. “Home sweet home,” I mumbled to the harvest gold and brown striped curtains. My near-lifeless hand deposited my rumpled coat on the bed as I drifted by on a beeline to the bathroom. I guess the motel was a little nicer than I thought.   The counter in the bathroom was loaded with all the stuff I decided not to bring. From the cheap red toothbrush and toothpaste set too the two inch bottle of body wash, it was all there. I decided to just brush my teeth and go to bed. I stripped down to what God gave me and slipped under the covers. Sleep came sudden. I don’t remember completing a single thought before I woke in the morning. 

The next morning, I opened my eyes to the small horror of forgetting where I was. At least I wasn't thinking of my situation. Leave it to fear to help you through a tough time. I walked in the bathroom and took a long shower. I needed to keep clean if I was going to put the same clothes back on. I used all the things on the counter top, right down to the miniature coffee maker. Then I packed as many of those things as I could into my pockets, grabbed my coat and left. 

The sky was mostly gray with the sun peaking through at occasional spots throughout the horizon. It’s like it was thinking my thoughts. I smiled and thought to myself, “Man, I should write this s**t down.” The town I was in now was much bigger than the other one. It had stop lights, a department store, and it even had parking meters. It was almost a subtle reminder of home. Home...there I was thinking of my past, as “home”. It was no longer my home. “This,” I thought, taking in the horizon, “is my new home.” The world was my oyster...God damn, I hate oysters.

I decided on breakfast at a dingy café nestled between a barber shop and a Ben Franklin. I took in the assortment of locals dotting the interior of “Bea’s Hive” as I perched on a stool at the counter. A large woman in a ruffled apron, presumably Bea, wordlessly set down a glass of water for me. I ordered the two egg breakfast with eggs over easy and white toast. This would be the first white bread I would consume since I got married. My wife always insisted on hearty wheat bread, the kind that seemed to have birdseed imbedded in it.

After about 10 minutes or so, the plate was set down in front of me. It was an egg eyed smiley face with bacon for lips. I was beginning to like this town more and more. I was just about to make my new breakfast friend into a cyclops when I heard her voice. It was a familiar voice, that I couldn't place. That added some nervous energy. "Asking if you're from around here seems like a ludicrous question...so I will just ask, why here?" Of course, I had a mouth full of food so I held my fork up as if to say "Just a sec, while I chew". I hadn't turned around yet.   I finally swallowed, wiped my face and spun on my diner stool to face this voice. Stabbing me in the heart with a burnt piece of bacon would have caused less surprise than her being here. "Lucy," was all I could get out before my eyes had to leave her again. 

Lucy was the girl that I would have married if men never had to be idiots in their late teens. Idiots, who do, say, think, and act in all the wrong ways, at all the wrong times. I would have been her’s forever, if kissing her tasted even remotely like pot. She stormed out of my place one night and I never saw her again. Now she's here in- ...Jesus, I don't know where I am. I'm lost, hungry, and I have a possibly disgruntled “ex” staring me down quizzically. 

"If you think you need to apologize for being young, dumb, and in college...then you must be an old, dumb graduate," she said putting her hand on my shoulder. "You clean up pretty good there, Jack." I turned my gaze back towards her eyes. She was just as attractive as she had been in college. That's about 8.5 or so; but the grading curve on these numbers, as you get older, becomes so crazy. "I wouldn't give my wife an 8.5," I mistakenly said out loud.

"What? Your wife, huh? Give her an 8.5 what?" Lucy asked on queue. “You don’t look like a wife dressed you this morning. So, you’ve been vacationing in…” She looks around the room and taps a nearby waitress on the shoulder. “Excuse me, but where are we?”

“Bea’s Hive,” she said looking confused. “It’s a restaurant. Are you feeling ok, honey?”

Lucy smiled. “I mean, what town are we in? What state for that matter?”

“Oh, well you’re in Sunshine, Indiana. It seems you needs some sleep.” said the waitress as she walked off into the kitchen. Lucy took a couple of steps and slowly sat down next to me at the counter. She ordered herself a breakfast hearty enough for a trucker and turned to me.

“I’m a trucker,” she said. I about fell off my stool. She was clearly reading my thoughts. This was definitely not going to be ok. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

Thankfully I didn't have to make much of a contribution to our conversation. She gave a brief blow by of her life since we'd last seen each other while I shoveled in the remainder of my breakfast face.

When her food came, I stopped eating to watch her. She dressed her meal like nothing I'd ever seen: salt, pepper and Tabasco on the eggs, ketchup and mayonnaise on the hash browns, maple syrup on her sausage. How could that waitress possibly have seen this coming? What the hell was Lucy going to do to her toast!?

Suddenly she dropped her knife and stared at me. "Huh?" was all I could come up with.

"Kids." She said, "Do you and your wife have any kids?"

"My wife?" pause. "No, no; no kids. She couldn't. Or I couldn't. I'm not sure, I..."

"Sorry." Her ears turned a little pink; it made me smile. Here was that shy girl I remembered again. All this talking was unlike the Lucy I knew. This trucker thing was throwing me off a little. "Me neither, I mean... that's how I started on the road. Glenn and I had a scare. I even had a positive test. Then we went to the clinic and the home test had been wrong. After seeing the relief on his face like that, I just couldn't look at him again. I played it off for a few days and then I just left. I grabbed my grandma's necklace, a few books and half of what was in our savings account and left. The only person I ever talk to anymore is my mom, I send her postcards from all over. She said Glenn stopped by once to ask after me and three weeks later my stuff came FedEx’d to her doorstep. Figures. A*****e."

God, she really was pretty. She was flushed down to her throat now. She certainly didn't smell like the trucker who dropped me on the highway last night.  Before she proceeded to destroy her egg with scents of condiments, she smelled a flower dipped in Orange Kool-Aid. A Trucker, unbelievable. "Aw well, I guess I really didn't want him to be upset or care. I just knew it wasn't right, that we weren't right. It was like a cold stone in my belly. I didn't want to see all the things and people that reminded me of him.” She takes a bite and chews slowly. “ That reminded me I was wrong.  I mean, I almost married the guy."

"How long has it been?" I asked her. "Since you left, I mean?"

She looked down and then off to the side while she squinted a little and crinkled up her nose in thought.  I thought newborn puppies would have a hard time being that cute. "Like two years? It was spring when I went.  I remember the mud, so yeah, a little over two years."

I looked down at her plate, her food was more than half gone.  How she did it? I had never heard her stop talking. "So how 'bout you?  I can't see you livin' in Sunshine, God Damn, Indiana." her eyes scanned over the room.

"You watch that cursin’ in here!" the waitress butt in.

“I’m sorry, m’am. I just haven’t seen this man since he left me naked in the back of my car. You gotta love junior high.”    Lucy smiled as big as the sun as the waitress face sunk to the floor. She just quietly turned and walked away.   Lucy turned to me. “She had to know I was kidding about the junior high, right?” She turn back towards the waitress. “Hey, come back here. I was just kidding about the junior high thing. I’m sorry, I just like to mess with people.” The waitress looked up but didn’t move.   Lucy rolled on, “ Come on, seriously, I am sorry. Could I get some rhubarb pie?”

The waitress reluctantly smiled and started walking back towards Lucy, "No, it’s too late in the season for rhubarb, we got peach."

She crinkled her nose again, good God, I thought I was going to faint. "How 'bout a chocolate malt, then."

"Sure hun. You want anything, sir?"

I wanted to say, “Yeah, a little bit of oxygen and possibly a deliberator but instead I said, "Just a little more coffee and the tab." I turned back to Lucy. "Well, I was living in Philly. I started a business with Ben, you remember Ben? (She nods and rolls her eyes). Well when that tanked, I wound up bouncing between sales jobs for a while...ah hell, it doesn’t matter Luce."

The waitress brought out both of our bills. I swooped up her tab too, when they came, and plopped my card over both of them. I may not be working, but I was hoping she'd return the favor with a ride in her truck. I sure as hell hope she's headed west.

“Oh you can’t pay, Todd, you’re going make me feel like a hooker,” said Lucy.   Suddenly the waitress slams her fist down on the counter.

 

“I asked you to watch your language in this restaurant.”

 

Lucy noticeably choked back a laugh. “I am sorry, I constantly forget my place…” as Lucy was talking I finished signing the receipt and gave the waitress an ample tip. Lucy continued, “…That must be why I was always leaving the priest’s office naked.”

 

“Get out of this restaurant, now” fumed the waitress.   Lucy laughed and grabbed my hand and pulled me out the front door. 

 

“Holy s**t, that was funny.” 

 

I smiled but I was too distracted to really laugh. I was trying to find a way to asked this woman if she would take me to Nevada, or Idaho.   My thoughts were rising up and I wanted the mountains. 

 

“So Todd, do you need a lift?”   She was reading my mind.   In a momentary lapse I thought of her 16 and naked, again. Is that legal?   It didn’t matter. I thought about how slowly we went from nicely kissing outside her car to seriously going at it in the backseat. It was movie like. Did she see all of this as well? Dear God. “Todd!” she snapped.

 

I shook my head and wiped the slightly creepy smile off my face. “Sorry, Lucy, what?” 

 

“Do you need a lift? My rig is right over there.”

 

“Honestly, Lucy, which direction are you heading and how far?” I said, surprised at my own candor.

 

“Well, God Damn Todd, do you want to know what time I’ll need to pee next too?” she smiled.  

 

“No, I just...” I trailed off and looked at my shoes which were now a dusty tan from all the gravel blowing about.

 

She stepped over to me and put her hand on my back.   It felt like she shocked me. I suddenly felt like a could fly and didn’t need to ride in her truck. I even reacted a little and she pulled her hand away.   “Todd, are you ok? I mean, seriously, do you need help?”

 

There was a minute when I looked up at her and then quickly looked past her. “I…ah…I don’t need help, but I do need a ride.   Can you do that for me?”

 

“Sure, you look like you could use some mountain air,” she has got to stop doing that, “ and I have a load going to Cheyenne.   You are more than welcome to join.”

 

In that instance, all the feelings I have ever had of being stuck, or frozen, or dead, were just gone.   They drifted away on the breeze that blew me into her arms.   I didn’t say anything, at first, I just hugged her. She hugged me back.   I pulled away, smiled, and said, “Shotgun!”

 

We turned and walked towards the little hotel that sat near Bea’s Hive.   I packed up my stuff in record time and suddenly we were flying down the road.

 

 

Author's Note

Amy and I worked very hard on this. If you review it, make sure you tell her too. Her link is found in the description of this piece.

Reviews

[BelieveInCelia]

You and Amy did a great job....keep writing...what happens next?!
Celia

[Dr. Ni]

This is AMAZING. Gripping, can't stop reading it because I want to know what happens next writing. And the graceful figurative language! Ah, this Ph.D. is STARVED for writing by artists who understand that words well put together reek of simile, metaphor, symbolism as well as good storytelling and action that keeps us on the edge of our seats. The opening pages of this jointly told tale are almost as carefully constructed as the cut crystal of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, by far her most literary book and most perfectly constructed one.

I'm on the edge of my seat and I am loving the language. Bravo!

Love and blessings,

Dr. Ni (please pass on to Amy too!!!)