Crimson Highway

by David Wickenhauser

  But, on a given night at a truck stop one could see a small gathering of drivers around a portable barbecue grill, for example. Or, it would be just that a group of drivers would casually gather to chat.

  His musings were interrupted when Hugh noticed something new occurring outside. All drivers’ heads were turned, and focusing in the same direction—staring. Hugh followed their gaze to see what they were looking at.

  “Wow!” He said out loud to no one. “They don’t make ’em like that anymore!”

  Walking through the parking lot was a truly gorgeous gal.

  This beautiful girl walked poised and confident through, and past, her horde of admirers, and made a beeline right for Hugh’s truck. All the other drivers were turning their heads watching her to try to see where she was headed.

  As she got closer to Hugh's truck, recognition dawned, and then his stomach suddenly dropped out from under him as if he had just been shot up in an express elevator.

  “Jenny!” he shouted, embarrassing himself because he didn’t mean to say her name out loud. He hoped she hadn’t heard him.

  Smiling, she opened the passenger door and climbed up. “You like?” she asked, twirling with her arms out so he could inspect the miracle that a shower and a clean set of clothes had worked. She had put on the plain running sweats and T-shirt, but on her they looked like they were custom fit for her trim figure.

  Hugh had not known that underneath all those dirty, bulky layers of old men’s clothes she actually had a very slim, well-proportioned body. He was definitely aware of that now.

  The main miracle, however, had been worked with her dirty, unruly mop of hair. She had definitely taken his advice to wash it. Her naturally wavy, blonde hair bounced, just touching her shoulders as she moved about in the cab's small sleeper area.

  She had a beautiful face—clear complexion, not a blemish, except for a light dusting of freckles across her cheeks.

  The whole package, if one had to put a name to it, reminded Hugh of Meg Ryan as a young actress.

  “Wow!” Hugh exclaimed. “Who are you? And what are you doing in my truck?”

  They both laughed at that. It was awfully good to hear laughter after the strife of their earlier encounters.

  Hugh glanced outside the windows, and saw a crowd gathered around his truck. They were stealing glances inside Hugh's truck, trying not to act obvious. But it was clear that they were attempting to catch a glimpse of this beautiful girl who had just walked through the parking lot.

  He tsk, tsked at them, and drew the side window and windshield curtains shut that closed them off from the world, and gave them privacy. As he did that, a cheer went up among the crowd.

  “What’s that all about?” Jenny asked.

  “Nothing. Must be something happening outside. Don’t worry about it.”

  He stood there for a full minute, looking at her, trying to think of something to say.

  Becoming uncomfortable, they both decided at the same instance to break the awkward moment by saying something. “What’s for dinner?” she asked. But her question got stepped on my Hugh’s “Let’s eat.”

  They both laughed nervously. Then Hugh motioned for her to sit on the bottom bunk while he turned on the microwave to heat their hot dogs.

  “Sumptuous fare, m’lady,” Hugh said, bowing. But he felt stupid saying that, because he didn’t ever talk that way. He definitely needed to bring himself under control.

  “Why, thank you, brave knight,” she said, nodding at him, playing along.

  There was awkward silence again between them. This was getting downright ridiculous.

  “Listen, Jenny,” he said. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. You obviously aren't the same girl that I picked up earlier today. Who are you … really?”

  “I’m someone who has made a decision. And I’m very happy about it,” she answered. “And, thank you for the clothes, and for the shower, and just for being you, Hugh Mann,” she said shyly, and with an affectionate tone.

  She continued, “You picked me up off of that awful highway. And, even though I really did act like a first-class bitch, you bought me clothes and things, and paid for this shower.”

  But, Jenny wasn’t finished. “You really are a good man, not what I expected. And I’ve decided to behave better,” she said.

  Hugh didn’t know what to say to that. He covered his confusion by busying himself preparing their dinner.

  Serving the hot dogs, he cracked open a couple of cold soft drinks. Then he heated up the beans.

  They sat close together on Hugh’s bottom bunk, lightly touching thighs, hips and shoulders so they could “doctor” their hot dogs with the plastic throw-away utensils that Hugh used. The proximity of this beautiful, freshly showered, clean-smelling girl sitting on his bed next to him was extremely unnerving.

  To break the uncomfortable silence between them, Jenny asked Hugh to tell a story about his early days of driving.

  “You really want to hear more?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do. Please.”

  Hugh thought for a moment, and then remembered one of the most embarrassing days he had ever had in his almost fifteen years of driving.

  “It was my second day of driving after I had gotten hired by a freight company. I was a brand new rookie driver, scared to death. I was sent to pick up a load down in Southern California, but when I got there I discovered that one of the trailer tires was flat. So, I called my company, and they directed me to a truck tire repair shop that was fairly close to where I was.”

  “You can drive with a flat tire?” Jenny asked.

  “Yeah, a trailer has eight wheels, and if you go slow, and only a short distance, you can drive it, sure,” Hugh answered.

  “So, I’m making my way over to the repair shop, but I’m noticing that the trailer is handling funny. I thought it was just the flat tire.

  “I turned into the repair shop driveway, pulled up alongside the repair bays, and went in to get the work order setup. They took down my information, said it would be a little while, and told me to just go ahead and wait in my truck.”

  “So, I’m sitting there for only a couple of minutes when the shop owner comes up to my window. He’s pretty pissed off. And I’m wondering what is going on?”

  “What happened?” Jenny asked.

  “Well, he wanted to know if I was the wise guy who ran over the water main valve on the grass strip next to his driveway. Naturally, I didn’t think I did it, and told him so.”

  “Did you do it?” Jenny asked.

  Hugh nodded. “He let me know in no uncertain terms that the wet tire tracks from the broken water main, which was gushing twenty feet into the air by now, led right to where my truck was parked.

  “Obviously, it was me. I must have cut the corner too tight, and hit the valve. This guy was really angry. Not only was there a geyser of water gushing up getting everything in the front of the shop area wet, and creating a river running down the street, but the whole neighborhood would have no water until the geyser was shut off, and the broken water main valve was replaced with a new one.

  “It took several hours for the water line to be shut off somewhere else down the street, and a new valve replaced. In the meantime, I wasn’t exactly getting service with a smile.”

  Then, Hugh continued, telling Jenny that his troubles were far from over.

  “After my tire was repaired, I drove around behind the building to exit where I saw a truck just like mine had done previously. Only thing is, I absolutely could not make the turn. I almost hit the building with my trailer.”

  “That would have gone over real well with the shop owner,” Jenny said.

  “Yeah. I was pretty shook up by this time. I backed up, and straightened out. I got out of the truck to try to calm down. It was then that I noticed what had been causing all my problems.”

  “What was that?” Jenny asked.

  “I had forgotten to slide my trailer tandems,” Hugh said, explaining to Jenny t
hat a driver could slide the trailer axles backward and forward. By California law the tandems must be no farther than forty feet from the kingpin, which is about 10 feet from the rear of a fifty-three-foot-long trailer. That shorter wheelbase gives the tractor and trailer combination a tighter turning radius, able to handle corners better.

  When Hugh had picked the trailer up at the shipper, he hadn’t checked to make sure the tandems were slid forward. The shipper had slid them all the way back to give more stability for when the forklift drove in and out of the trailer while loading it.

  “That’s why it felt funny while I was driving it to the repair shop, why I wasn’t able to make the turn into the shop without running onto the grass strip and hitting the water valve, and also why I couldn’t make the turn around the building like countless other trucks had done before me.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “I moved my tandems all the way forward. That allowed me to make it around the building and onto the driveway exiting the shop property. Only thing is, during the time that I was in the shop, a lot of people had come to work, and there were a lot of cars parked along the road where I had to exit the driveway.

  “It was extremely close getting out of there. I cleared the cars on both sides by only about an inch.

  “As I was driving down the road I was thinking, ‘All I need to do now is run over a guy in a wheelchair, or a mom pushing a baby stroller, and my day will be complete.’”

  “Don’t tell me … You didn’t,” Jenny exclaimed.

  “Almost. You’ll never believe what happened. At the very next corner where I had to make a right turn there was a mom pushing a baby stroller on the sidewalk with a toddler running loose slightly ahead. And, a guy in a wheelchair was just rolling up to the corner. He sat there with his toes hanging over the curb.”

  “You’re kidding?”

  “Absolutely true. You never saw a truck take such a slow, wide turn as I did going around that corner,” Hugh said. “I wish I could say that was the only incident I’d had in my years of driving, but it’s not. It was just so memorable because it was literally my second day on the road as a solo driver.”

  “What a funny story, Hugh,” Jenny said, smiling.

  Hugh nodded, and smiled back. “Yeah, I guess it would be, if it wasn’t me it had happened to.”

  Hugh noticed how easy and comfortable the conversation was between them now … so much different than when they had first met.

  “So, Jenny, tell me about the decision that you made before coming back to the truck that made you happy and smiling.”

  “I can’t, Hugh … I just can’t, for now,” Jenny said, a cloud coming over her expression.

  Ignoring that for now, Hugh said, “Well, we’d better clean up and turn in. We’ve got an early morning tomorrow. He gathered paper plates and plastic utensils and threw them into his trash.

  “Come on, I’ll walk you into the travel plaza for a final visit to the restroom,” he said. It was fully dark by now.

  He left her at the entrance to the women’s restroom, saying, “I’ll wait outside for you after using the men’s.”

  Hugh finished first, naturally, and then went outside to wait for Jenny.

  Jenny returned after an unusually long time. She seemed to be in a somber mood, not talkative, so they walked back to the truck in silence.

  As soon as they got back to the truck, and into the light again, Hugh saw that something was wrong. She had been crying, and it looked suspiciously like she had a fresh blemish on her normally flawless cheek.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Hugh yelled, frightening Jenny.

  “Nothing … nothing, just … nothing!” she yelled, starting to cry again.

  “Something happened! Did somebody hurt you?” Hugh demanded.

  “Look! I just ran into the restroom door. OK? Now drop it!” Her crying had turned to anger.

  Hugh was dismayed at the sudden return of the ugly clashes that they’d had before, something that he thought was behind them.

  “Fine, I’ll drop it … for now,” Hugh said.

  He pointed to the upper bunk. “You obviously are familiar with how to get up there. That’s where you’ll sleep. You’ll find a spare sleeping bag that you can use.”

  She climbed up into the bunk.

  Hugh slid into his lower bunk and turned off the lights from the panel on the bulkhead next to his head.

  “Good night, Hugh” Jenny said. “You really are a good man. No matter what happens, I just want you to know that’s what I think.”

  Confused because of the sudden changes in temperament that this girl seemed to be capable of, Hugh could only mutter, “Good night.”

  As soon as Hugh heard Jenny’s slow, steady rhythm of breathing meaning that she was asleep, he booted up his laptop and signed onto the Internet. He had a subscription for the travel plaza wi-fi account..

  He was determined to get some questions answered.

  First, he did an Internet search for the name Jenny McDonald. There were way too many of those, and none of them seemed to be “his” Jenny. He tried Jennifer McDonald, with the same results.

  Then he accessed his Facebook account. He didn’t participate in all of the Facebook activities, or keep his main page updated, but he liked to be able to see what the few “friends” he had on Facebook were doing on their pages.

  A search revealed that there were no Jenny, or Jennifer, McDonalds who looked like they would be the girl who was sleeping above him in his truck right now. She apparently wasn’t tuned in to social media, or plugged in, or whatever they called it these days.

  Failing to find anything about Jenny, he then did a search for the attempted hijacking near Susanville.

  There was an article in the Lassen County Times, which covers Susanville news, about the attempted hijacking. Hugh didn’t learn anything new from the article. But, one detail caught his attention. According to the reporter, law enforcement personnel put out a “be on the lookout” for four men traveling together.

  The only description of the men was provided by the truck driver, who was able to say that he saw only two of the hijackers. They were described as being in their 40s, and large. They had caps pulled down low, partially obscuring their faces, so the driver couldn’t provide further description of the two guys.

  Hugh then signed off of the Internet, and shut down his laptop.

  What he didn’t know, couldn’t know, was that if he had pursued the McDonald lead a bit further he might have discovered an obituary from fifteen years ago for a Sam McDonald that was archived on the Bakersfield Californian website.

  Cause of death was not mentioned, as was often the case when suspicious circumstances were involved. But, the obit notice did state that he was survived by his seven-year-old daughter, Jennifer, a one-year-old son, Jimmy, and a brother, Adam.

  Chapter Six

  Hugh’s cell phone alarm woke him at the time he had set—6 am.

  He yawned and stretched, swiveled his butt on his bunk and turned so he could sit with his feet on the floor. Movement in the bunk above reminded him that he had company … female company … so he quickly ducked back into his bunk to put on his pants and a T-shirt.

  “Good morning, Jenny. Up and at ’em,” Hugh said when he was finished getting dressed.

  Further stirring in the bunk above told him that Jenny had heard him, and was probably ready to come down. Hugh went forward, making a pretense of checking his GPS in order to give her the chance to climb down from the bunk and adjust in privacy any clothing that she might need to.

  “We’re rolling out at 7 am sharp,” Hugh said, turning and seeing that she was down, and had herself all together. “We have time for a quick breakfast, and a restroom visit, and then off we go.”

  “Restroom visit first,” Jenny said.

  As they had done before, Hugh and Jenny walked together to the travel plaza and went into their restrooms.

  They met again outside shortly afterward,
and walked back to the truck.

  Breakfast consisted of cereal in paper bowls with plastic spoons, and milk from the fridge.

  There was no small talk. Hugh couldn’t blame Jenny. She had been through a lot lately, most of which he was sure he didn’t even know about. And she was probably fretting over being left behind once they got to Burley.

  He tossed their bowls and spoons into his trash bag, and then took the bag with him to throw into the nearby trash barrel. Then he did his pre-trip inspection. Everything checked out OK, so he entered his “on duty” into the Qualcomm, and cranked up the engine.

  As usual, despite the unusual things that had happened since yesterday morning, Hugh had a feeling of well-being once he heard the pleasant diesel rumble of his truck’s engine coming to life. He really, truly enjoyed driving, and was most comfortable when he was in the driver’s seat behind the steering wheel of a moving big-rig truck.

  Jenny remained silent, moody, caught up in her own thoughts.

  Once on the highway, Hugh broached the subject of what was going to happen today—before noon, in fact. “We’re about three hours from my delivery at Burley,” he said.

  “I’ll drop you anywhere you want me to once we get there. Or I can pick a travel plaza and set you down there.”

  She nodded without looking at him.

  “I know you’ve got a cell phone, and I know you’ve been in contact with someone. So, it’s not like I’m abandoning you way out in the boonies all alone. Right?”

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  “Look. Don’t think this is easy for me either,” Hugh pleaded. “In some strange way, despite the rough start since you came on board, I feel protective toward you.”

  Jenny’s eyes started tearing up at that, and she wouldn’t look at him.

  “It’s just that I can’t let you stay with me. I’ve got a job to do, and you’ve no doubt got somebody looking for you. It’s time we both return to our normal lives.”