Journey to the Unknown

by Jacqueline Francis

  1) Always appear friendly and approachable

  2) Maintain eye contact when talking to a driver to show you have nothing to hide

  3) Don’t cover your face. Look presentable.

  4) Don’t keep your hands in your pockets.

  5) Don’t be rude to the driver.

  6) Smile!

  After reading the last one, he went back to looking at bus routes. It was clear that he and hitchhiking weren’t going to get along. This morning, however, those tips proved to be helpful. He had only walked for about forty-five minutes before Brady picked him up. He was a friendly guy, but just like Kevin, he was not a big fan of talking, which made the drive quiet yet companionable. Brady was a family man. It was evident from the pictures of his wife and two kids that were stuck to the dashboard. Based on one day and two rides, Kevin could conclude that family men were more sympathetic to his plight.

  “All right,” Brady said, bringing the truck to a stop, “so you need to go back up this road right here and take the I-90 East. Now, I don’t know exactly how to get there, never been out that far, but as you go from place to place, you’ll figure out how to get to Florida.”

  Kevin reached to the back and grabbed his two duffle bags. “Thanks a lot, Brady. I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem. I would want someone to do the same for my son.”

  Kevin smiled as he hopped out. Yep, family men were his best bet.

  “You take care of yourself and have a safe trip.”

  He watched the eighteen-wheeler drive out and gave some thought to his next move. He could walk back down the road to the on-ramp, or just wait it out here at the gas station. In the end, waiting at the station seemed to be the option with more advantages. There was more likelihood of someone actually stopping here than at the on-ramp and because of the distance he was traveling, it also gave him the benefit of time to actually have a discussion with the driver. He needed to find out exactly how far he could get before he jumped into the car with some stranger.

  The other convenience was the store behind him if and when he needed refreshments. He had no idea how long he was going to wait before he found another willing driver.

  It seemed like hours had passed. Eight drivers had pulled in and after brief discussions with them, Kevin was still left stranded. All of them lived in or around Yellowstone County and none of them were even heading in his direction. It was looking hopeless and he resolved that he would wait another hour and if he still didn’t have a ride, he would find a way to the nearest bus station. If he remembered correctly, Brady had said that there was one about two miles away. He could walk if need be.

  Taking a bus was a last resort. He wanted some control over where he went, where and when he stopped, and who he was stuck with for hours at a time. The thought of sitting on those uncomfortable seats for days with nothing but ten minute stops along the way were enough of a deterrent. A bus meant no showers, brushing his teeth in restrooms, sleeping in the station during a layover…No. He liked his personal space too much and that was enough to make hitchhiking the more appealing alternative. He would just have to take this day by day and see which options suited his needs at any specific point in his trip.

  More minutes went by and he decided to go into the store to get a bottled water and maybe something to nibble on. He was hungry, but he still didn’t have much of an appetite to put down an entire meal.

  He picked up his duffle bags and walked into the store. There was a short girl at the counter, a tiny little thing dressed like she’d been trekking through the artic. She must’ve had about twelve packets of Skittles on the counter in front of her. That was a serious sweet tooth.

  Kevin walked past her to get to the fridges at the back of the store and took two bottles of water. After a moment’s thought, he took another bottle in case he needed to take that two mile stroll to the bus station.

  “How do I get to the I-90?” the girl asked and it immediately caught his attention.

  “Dear,” the man behind the counter responded with amusement, “you’re practically there. Did you not see the signs?”

  “I’m not sure. The signs are all on the wrong side of the road.”

  The cashier chuckled. “You mean the right side?”

  “Which is the wrong side,” she replied almost helplessly.

  Just from that small snippet of conversation and her accent, Kevin could tell that she wasn’t from around here.

  “So what you have to do is get back on this road,” the cashier explained. “The Old U.S 87. Turn right at the first traffic light for the I-90 East and the second for the I-90 West.”

  “That’s it?” she asked, sounding a little sheepish. “How did I miss that?”

  Another chuckle burst out of him. “You were looking on the wrong side of the road. Where are you headed, little miss?”

  “Georgia…Atlanta.”

  It took a second for it to sink in and, when it did, Kevin almost dropped all three bottles of water. Georgia? She was going all the way to Georgia? That was, like, ninety percent of the way to Florida. He could be there in a couple days. It was impossible. His brain couldn’t even fathom the luck that he had just run into.

  Don’t get ahead of yourself, he told himself.

  She may not even agree to him tagging along with her. She didn’t know him. She could see him as some creepy weirdo and just drive off. He needed to play it cool.

  “Thanks a lot, sir.” She shoved her Skittles into the pockets of her huge jacket and headed for the door.

  Kevin quickly placed the bottles of water back in the fridge, flung his bags over his shoulder, and raced out after her. Excitement was brimming inside him. What incredible luck. He slowed his pace so that he didn’t come across as a deranged stalker ready to attack, but maintained a brisk walk to catch up to her before she got into her car. She had just opened the door of her blue Prius when he tapped her on the shoulder. She wildly spun around, a shrill gasp escaping her lips, and he had to grab her elbow to stop her from crashing to the floor. Her light brown eyes were wide, filled with fear and surprise.

  Being so close, he got a whiff of her. She smelled like…a childhood, something familiar that could take a mind back through time. Something sweet and strawberry, like bubblegum or ice-cream.

  “Don’t hurt me,” she whispered, sounding panicked. “I have pepper spray.”

  “Easy.” He slowly released her elbow and lifted both hands to show he meant no harm. “No need for that.”

  That wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for, but he only had himself to blame. It was the beard. He definitely looked like a creepy stalker. He remembered his hitchhiking tips. Appear friendly and approachable. And Smile! The latter took too much effort, so he went with the former.

  “Sorry for sneaking up on you like that. I didn’t mean to scare you. Um…I overheard you in there…um…You’re going to Georgia.”

  He didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes grew even wider. Yeah, eavesdropping probably made him seem even creepier.

  “Yes,” she replied, not sounding any less panicked. She was actually pressing her back against the car to get further away from him so he took a step back.

  “I was wondering…I’m going to Florida…it’s the same direction and I wanted to ask if you…wouldn’t mind giving me a ride…just to Georgia and then I’ll find my own way.”

  “Oh.” She visibly relaxed, but still looked wary. “It’s a bit of a strange request.”

  “Yeah.”

  She gave it some thought. Actually, she gave it a lot of thought before she smiled at him. A cute smile despite the fact that she had an odd type of face. Definitely not ugly, just different. Skin the color of rich honey, which looked soft and…touchable, however, every feature seemed a little too extreme for her small, oval face. Her eyes were too wide. Her nose was too sharp. Her lips were just a little too plump. But when all those features came together, it almost worked. It was the type of face that if you stared at it long en
ough, maybe—just maybe—it could be pretty.

  “Okay,” she said softly.

  “Okay?” His eyes almost popped out of his head. A bucket of relief tipped over inside him. “Really? You’ll take me to Georgia?”

  She shrugged like it was no big deal. “Yes.”

  “Oh, my God! Thank you! Thank you so much. Um…I’m just gonna run back in and get some water…and then we can go.”

  He raced back inside and grabbed two bottles of water, trying to get what he needed and pay as quickly as possible so she wouldn’t have time to change her mind. She was already back in the car when he came out again. Soft murmurs floated through the air as he approached and her words became clearer as he got closer.

  “What were you thinking?!” she snapped, glancing at herself in the rearview mirror. “Adventure, yes. That’s what’s this trip is all about, but picking up strange hitchhikers? Are you crazy? He could be a rapist or a serial killer.” It was obvious she was having second thoughts and Kevin decided to hang back and listen to her scold herself. “Who does that? Who just goes around offering rides to random strangers? What was I thinking? I’m a moron…I could leave. I don’t owe him anything. I could just drive away and not look back…No! Relax, just take a deep breath and relax. He’s probably a normal guy and I’m blowing this out of proportion. I wanted to make friends, I wanted to meet new people. That’s what I’m gonna do.”

  Kevin felt a little more comfortable to move to the window when he heard that.

  “He’s not a very big guy. If he tries anything, I’ll just—”

  “Am I interrupting something?” he cut in, leaning into the driver’s window.

  “No.” Her eyes met his and he could see the torrent of questions.

  “Is there…something you want to ask me?”

  “Yeah…uh…are you planning on killing me and burying my body somewhere in the wilderness?”

  His eyebrows creased a little. It was an odd question, because it seemed like she would take any answer at face value. “Just out of curiosity, what would you do if I said yes?”

  “I would drive off and leave you here.”

  “Hmm…then no. I have no intention of killing you.”

  Her panic returned immediately. “I’m confused. Do you mean that? Or are you just saying it so that I’ll let you jump into my car?”

  It wasn’t the question that was odd. It was her and he needed to allay her fears so that she wouldn’t leave him stranded. “Look, I’m a fairly decent guy. I wouldn’t hurt anyone, especially not someone who was kind enough to give me a ride all the way to Georgia. Okay? I was just messing with you.”

  “Okay.”

  And just like that, she was convinced. She opened the door and got out. He was grateful, but it was very unnerving. He was expecting her to grill him a bit more, but she just took his word. She did, in fact, accept his answer at face value. He could very well have been a rapist or a murderer and yet she trusted what he said so easily. Was it just his charm, or was she really that naïve?

  “C’mon,” she said as she got out of the car. “Let’s get your stuff in the boot.”

  He didn’t know what she was referring to until she reached the trunk. The word boot made her accent more prominent. It was strange. She was Indian and he could definitely hear that, but it was distorted somehow, mixed with something different. Australian maybe?

  “Isn’t this weird?” she asked. “I mean, what are the odds of the two of us meeting like this?”

  “It’s weird,” he agreed with a nod.

  “Here we are, both of us traveling across America, going in the same direction at the exact same time. It’s weird. Stuff like that only happens in the movies…or those corny romance novels, you know the ones where the author is just trying to force two people together and thinks of this completely ridiculous scenario to make them meet.”

  “I don’t read romance novels.”

  “But if you did, wouldn’t you be rolling your eyes right now? I know I would. I would just be like…stuff like that never happens, but here we are, in real life. It’s so weird. I don’t believe in destiny, but it’s like…it was meant to be.”

  That was a lot of words in a short space of time and Kevin felt the stirrings of doubt in the pit of his stomach. She was really, really odd. She opened up the trunk and he stuffed his duffle bags on top of the three bags that were already in there.

  “You’re really good looking, by the way.”

  The comment was unexpected and strange and took him completely by surprise. His head snapped up to look at her. “What?”

  “You…you’re super cute, not in a normal cute kind of way. More like in a Larry the Lumberjack kinda way, like lure your victims into the woods so you can hack up their bodies into tiny pieces kinda way.”

  He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m struggling to see how that can be appealing.”

  She smiled, not in the least bit perturbed. “Well, Larry has to lure his victims into the woods somehow. That’s the appeal you have.”

  “Thanks,” he said even though he didn’t mean it, and with that he realized that this was a bad idea. Luck had turned out to be a relative term. There was absolutely no way he would be able to travel cross-country with this girl. She was crazy and now he was seeing the dangers in hitching a ride with strangers. He was the one who needed to be worried. She tried to close the trunk, but he caught it midway and pushed it back up.

  “You know what? I think I’m just going to take the bus.”

  Somehow this brief interaction made him rethink his reservations about taking the bus. Actually, the bus couldn’t possibly be that bad.

  “What? Why the sudden change of mind?”

  He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he thought she was a complete psycho. It was obvious she didn’t know and he didn’t want to be the one to break the news to her. “I don’t want to inconvenience you. It’s a really long trip and I don’t want to impose.”

  “It’s not an inconvenience,” she said quickly. “Really. Like you said, it’s a very long trip and I could use the company. It’ll be so much fun, two friends road tripping through the US, living the American dream and—”

  “We’re not friends,” he stated curtly.

  He didn’t take the term friend lightly and he didn’t like the offhanded way she used it. It was very clear that she didn’t know what it meant. She seemed taken aback for a second and he understood why. The comment hadn’t exactly been polite. Barely ten minutes with her and already his asshole side was rearing its ugly head.

  “I know.” She looked up at him with light brown eyes that were almost hopeful. “But maybe…we could be.”

  Something about the way she said it, that silent plea, made it impossible for him to grab his bags and turn away. It was a peculiar change of events. One minute he was desperate for her to give him a ride and now she was the one who seemed desperate for him to go along. He wanted to say no. For the sake of his sanity, he should say no, but there were other reasons why he felt compelled to go with her. A girl travelling all by herself—she was an easy, unsuspecting target. Judging by how easily he convinced her that he wasn’t a killer, it was likely that she would end up hacked up and buried in the woods somewhere. He didn’t want to have added guilt when he eventually saw her face on the news with the word MISSING flashing below her picture.

  I’m gonna regret this, he thought with a heavy sigh. “Okay.”

  “Great! This is going to be great, I just know it.”

  He hopped into the passenger seat. “I’m Kevin,” he said once she got in too.

  “Jasmintha,” she responded, shrugging off her oversized jacket and tossing it into the backseat. She pulled off her knit cap next and it was then that he noticed her hair: thick, pitch black hair twisted into a single braid, so long it probably reached her backside.

  The car was like a small furnace, but he said nothing about it as he strapped on his seatbelt. “Jasminda.”

  She smiled,
looking slightly irritated. “No. Jasmintha.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  She started the car and slowly backed out of the parking bay. “No, you didn’t.”

  He tried again. “Jasminda.”

  “No. Jasmintha.”

  “That’s what I said!”

  “Tha. Tha. With a TH, not with a D.”

  This was a lot of tension and they hadn’t even gotten onto the road yet. “Look, it seems like we agree until Jasmin, so that’s what I’m gonna call you. I’m gonna call you Jasmin.”

  She glanced over at him as she maneuvered around the gas pumps. “Jasmin? It’s a little flowery. And very girly. A little too girly.”

  “I’m not sure if you know this, but you are…a girl.”

  “What?!” She slammed the brakes, jerking forward. “I’m a girl?” She ran a hand over her hair, then tapped her hands over chest as if searching for breasts. “It’s okay. False alarm, everyone. I am a girl. I was so confused for a second.”

  She glanced at him again, looking very amused with herself, and he just shook his head. She was fucking bat-shit crazy. Now that he was facing her, he noticed something. He unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over into the driver’s seat.

  She immediately tensed, shrinking back into her seat, and fast as lightning, her hand shot up holding a small canister. “P-pepper spray.”

  It was barely a threat, seeing as though the nozzle was aimed at her and not him. He grabbed it and tossed it into the backseat before she hurt herself.

  “I’m a black belt in tae-kwon-do,” she warned.

  “I quiver.” He leaned closer, so close he caught her strawberry scent again, so close it was uncomfortable for both of them. “Seatbelt.” Reaching over to grab the strap, he pulled it across her chest and clicked it into place. He sat back and clipped his own seatbelt on again.