Now Wouldn't You Like to Know

by Curtis Bennett

  “That’s right,” she chuckled, seemingly enjoying our verbal sparring.

  “Okay, be that way,” I said with a smile. “And to think that I was going to tell you all about my Latin and Asian lovers. No way now.”

  Diana pretended to be unfazed by the teaser I just floated.

  “Look!” I blurted, my voice breaking. “Did you see that? That sign says that KFC is just 10 miles ahead.”

  “Sounds good to me,” she replied, sitting up. “Besides, I have to use the ladies room and soon.”

  “Then its KFC,” I cheered.

  There was a pause.

  “Hey, Sheldon, dear,” she almost sang. “I have a unique question to ask you.”

  “What now?” I replied, making a mental note that she referred to me as dear.

  “Have you ever slept with a Native American?”

  “Have you?” I retorted, stifling a laugh.

  “I’m not telling.”

  “Well, I’m not telling either,” I said, wearing a clever smile.

  “Like I said before, you certainly amuse yourself, don’t you?” she said giving me a gentle shove.

  “I’m not saying if I do or if I don’t.”

  “Well, be that way.”

  “Whatever,” I quipped with a bemusing smile, slowing down as we neared an active construction site area.

  “Sooner or later, you’ll come running back to me with the answer.”

  “Oh, you think so.”

  “I know so.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Whatever.”

  Chapter 5

  There have been times I’ve eaten at KFC and I’d swear that I was eating someone else’s chicken, that is, someone who knew nothing about great tasting chicken. And then there was the special moments I’d sit down and eat at KFC and the experience was divine, just out of this world. Fortunately, this particular South Carolina KFC was operating on all six-cylinders. The mashed potatoes and rich brown gravy was right on, as well as the fresh tasting Cole slaw. And the green beans were cooked and seasoned just right. But the chicken, oh, the original KFC chicken I bought, tasted just the way the Colonel meant for it to taste. The flavor, along with his secret recipe, just burst in my mouth. And the warm flaky buttermilk biscuits, topped with butter…well, that just made my day.

  Glancing over at Diana, I paused to watch her dig in. She seemed to be enjoying her meal as well. Perhaps she was just hungry. Either way, we were all smiles.

  So far it had been an interesting ride. A long one but an interesting one. Diana was good company too; that is, when she wasn’t being introspective. More than anything, she wasn’t excessively chatty. Actually, she wasn’t chatty at all, just playful at times and inquiring. And that was a good thing.

  “Sheldon, how long before we head into North Carolina?” she asked, sipping at her drink.

  “Oh, I’d say in another two hours, why?”

  “I was just wondering, that’s all.”

  “Have you driven up to New York on I-95 before now?” I asked, picking up a drumstick.

  “No, I’ve always flown when I traveled.”

  “I see,” I said before biting into the best tasting drumstick my mouth had entertained in weeks.

  “You have any siblings?” she asked.

  “I have two brothers and two sisters,” I answered, biting off a piece of biscuit and dipping it in gravy. “And you?”

  “I’m an only child.”

  “Boy, that probably sucked.”

  “Sometimes,” she replied thoughtfully. “I mean, there were times I wished I had a brother or sister to play with but then again, I just about got anything I wanted from my parents being an only child.”

  “I see, so you were spoiled in other words.”

  “I guess you can say that I was,” she said unabashedly.

  “Now me, with four siblings around, I never went long without someone to play with or to get into trouble with,” I said. “And we were far from being spoiled.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  “Oh, like staying out past our curfew, especially my brother Robert and me, not doing our household chores, and skipping school,” I answered as I wiped a few crumbs and gravy from my mouth with a napkin.

  “Sounds like you two were pretty close.”

  “We still are.”

  At that moment my cellphone rang. It was my cousin Michael down in Orlando. He wanted to know how I was making out and how far I had driven since I had left. I told him that I was in South Carolina and expected to be crossing the border over into North Carolina in a couple of hours. Before we ended the call, he gave me an update on the mail I had received in my absence and told me that Tiger Woods was twelve under for this week’s tournament and sat comfortably at the top of the leaderboard. The closest player was three shots behind. I then returned my attention back to Diana.

  “So, that was your cousin Michael,” she said.

  “Yep, that was Mike.”

  “I noticed that you didn’t mention me.”

  “I thought about it but decided that this wasn’t the time to get involved in a long conversation while we were eating,” I said cautiously.

  “Was that the only reason?”

  “The only one I could think of,” I said honestly. “Why?”

  “I was just wondering.”

  “You seem to do a lot of that, I’ve observed.”

  “A lot of what?”

  “Wondering.”

  “Oh, now you’re observing me,” she mused.

  “Well, I mean we have had quite some time to observe one another.”

  “Just admit it, you just couldn’t keep your eyes off of me, just admit it big boy.”

  “This isn’t about keeping my eyes off of you or on you; it’s about what I’ve observed during our interactions, plain and simple.”

  “Plain and simple, huh,” she said smiling. “Well, I’ve observed a few things myself.”

  “Like what?” I asked, tilting my head and giving her an inquisitive stare.

  “You like to analyze people, for one,” she began.

  “Look, what can I say? I am an analyst at heart.”

  “I can tell,” she said with a pleasant smile.

  “Anything else?” I was curious to know.

  “Well, you seem to be a pretty decent driver. Thank goodness for that.”

  “You’re welcomed, anything else?”

  “Oh, and you like to sing,” she said, rubbing her forehead momentarily.

  “Yes, I love to sing, anything else?”

  “Well, I’ve also noticed that you can eat the hell out of some KFC chicken.”

  “Hey, I’m not the only one,” I said, hunching my shoulders, my palms facing up. “Now, what else?”

  “Let’s see, I know you like drumsticks. You tore that one up really good. But you took your time savoring that chicken breast, I noticed.”

  “Hey, what can I say? I loves me some breasts,” I said defensively, with a smirk.

  “Yeah, I can tell,” she replied in agreement, then added, “Okay, you got me on that one.”

  We both broke out in laughter.

  Wrapping things up, we ditched our trash, refilled our drink cups, grabbed a few napkins for the road, and returned to the Navigator. This time Diana decided to seat herself just behind the front seats to watch television on one of two pull down television monitors. Logging onto Netflix, she began her movie search. She opted on watching a romantic comedy. Within minutes we were traveling north on I-95. So far the ride had been uneventful. And I was hopeful that Jack would stay out of the picture and out of our conversation, at least until we got to Philadelphia. I could only keep my fingers crossed.

  Thirty miles into our drive, I tilted my head to the left and glanced at my outside rear view mirror and noticed a black Pontiac Firebird coming up from behind at a high rate of speed. It seemed to be the same driver I had witnessed driving erratically thirty miles earlier before he pulled off at a rest stop.
At the time he was dodging in and out of lanes like a madman. Once again, the driver appeared to be switching lanes and passing other cars with little regard on how close his car came to the vehicles he was passing and without concern for how much clearance between the cars his car actually had. Several cars honked at him angrily in protest. Reckless driving the law would call it. It wasn’t long before the Firebird charged by me on my left. He must have been doing around 95mph or more. I looked to see if he was being pursued by law enforcement, just like one of those car chases you see the local news channel break into. There were no cop cars around or any police helicopters. This guy had free reign of the roadway.

  “What a fool,” Diana declared from behind me. “That asshole is going to get somebody killed.”

  “I know,” I said inhaling deeply. “Where’s a state trooper when you need one?”

  “Probably at a damn donut shop,” she chuckled.

  “Now, that’s a real possibility –” I began but never completed my sentence.

  Three car lengths ahead of us cars began to diverge in different directions. The sound of cars colliding and metal and fiberglass impacting, along with the sound of glass shattering into a thousand little pieces, gripped me. Diana grabbed my arm and let out a horrific scream that sent chills throughout my body. Then like a scene out of a Hollywood movie, a huge cloud of dirt suddenly appeared on the shoulder of the road where someone’s errant car began to flip over and over again on its side. Vehicles directly ahead of me slowed down. Eighteen wheelers slammed on their brakes. The screeching sound of hot brakes all around us was chilling and unnerving.

  Right away I instructed Diana to call 911 as I slowed down and pulled over to the shoulder of the road and leaped out of the Navigator to see if I could assist. Running to the back of my SUV, I frantically opened the rear door and grabbed my fire extinguisher, then joined a number of drivers bolting over to where the damaged car rested on its side. Not the least surprised, it was the black Pontiac Firebird that had been speeding and driving recklessly.

  A fire suddenly broke out at the rear bottom of the car as I made my approach. Black smoke billowed skyward. While others struggled to free the driver and a passenger, I activated my extinguisher and aimed it at the fire in hopes of putting it out or at least containing it long enough for the occupants inside to be pulled to safety. Thankfully a trucker came charging towards the car with a fire extinguisher in hand as well. Together we were able to douse the fire before it could reach the gas tank and blow. But we were taking no chances. We both backed away once the occupants had been freed.

  Within ten minutes state troopers and EMS personnel and fire trucks converged on the scene. Broken glass was everywhere. The smell of gasoline fuel was prominent and sickening. Going over to the area where the car’s occupants were being treated, I caught a glimpse of the two and both looked to be in bad shape. Whether or not they’d survive this senseless tragedy, I had no way of knowing. That was for a higher being to decide.

  After the professionals had taken full charge, I turned and headed back towards the Navigator. Diana sat waiting for me in the front seat this time. I walked to the back of the SUV and placed the fire extinguisher on the floor. Walking back up to the front, I opened the door and climbed in beside her.

  “Are you alright?” she asked with caring eyes.

  “I’m fine,” I replied.

  “Do you think the people that were inside of the care are going to be all right?” she asked before I could strap on my seat belt, her voice anxious.

  “I don’t know Diana,” I said, exhaling. “They got banged up pretty bad.”

  “Could you see how many people were injured?”

  “I only saw two, the two that were pulled from the car,” I answered, still in a state of disbelief myself. “But it’s possible there may have been others who got banged up a little in other cars that got rammed by the Pontiac.”

  “Any children involved?”

  “Naah, I didn’t see any children, thank God. Just a young couple.”

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked, touching my arm with her hand and gazing up at me.

  “Yeah, I’m all right,” I assured her. “What about you?”

  “I’m nervous as hell,” she answered. “That collision shook me up pretty badly. When I called 911 I was talking so fast they couldn’t understand what the hell I was saying. They kept telling me to slow down. I managed to slow down somehow, though.”

  “Don’t fret. Everything’s going to be all right,” I assured her as I leaned over and gave her a gentle hug. It was a hug I needed just as much as she needed it.

  “Thanks, I really needed that,” she said softly.

  Leveling my eyes on hers, I said, “Look, traffic is beginning to pick up. We better get back on the road, okay?”

  “Absolutely,” she mumbled as if she was still half-dazed, her eyes fixed on the overturned Firebird a few car lengths ahead of us.

  Slowly and carefully, we pulled off the shoulder of the road and merged into traffic passing slowly by, then heading away from the scene of the wreck. I didn’t want to refer to it as an accident because this was preventable.

  Once we were underway I waited until I had reached a cruising speed of 60mph before activating the cruise control. Diana’s hand touch my hand after I leaned back to get a little more comfortable. The tenderness of her gesture was just as comforting.

  “That was a very courageous thing you did back there Sheldon,” she said, after clearing her throat.

  “I just did what I’d want someone else to do if I were in a similar situation.”

  “It still took some nerves to go and put out that fire once it started,” she continued. “I mean, that gas tank could have exploded. And I was so afraid that it would.”

  “I tried not to think about that, honestly,” I said, looking over at her.

  “Just the same, I’m proud of you,” she continued with her thought.

  I turned and gazed into her smiling face and said, “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

  “You’re welcomed,” she replied. “I think I am going to try to get some sleep now. Wake me up please when we get around five miles from the border, okay?”

  “Sure thing,” I said, reaching back with my free hand and grabbing a pillow for her to rest her head on.

  It was another twenty miles before I completely got rid of the jitters and could finally relax. With Diana resting peacefully, I took the liberty of gazing at her from time to time. She actually looked the part of Sleeping Beauty. Convinced that she was in a deep sleep, I decided to increase my speed now and start passing cars again. I held back on doing so while she was awake so that she would not have flashbacks of that speeding Firebird just before it crashed. I knew that her nerves were fragile right after that, as well as my own.

  A while later I woke her up with a gentle nudging of her shoulder, just as she had requested me to do. Stretching her arms, she yawned and looked up at me.

  “Where are we?” she asked, looking about.

  “About three miles south of the North Carolina Border,” I answered.

  “Wow, we’re really making progress.”

  “Yes, we are,” I assured her.

  “Hey, did you just see that? We just passed a billboard that read South of the Border 3 miles. What’s that?” she asked. “South of the Border.”

  “It’s a carnival-like stopover for curious and road weary travelers,” I answered. “They have shops and restaurants and amusement rides and even hotels. Why, you want to stop there?”

  “Sure, why not, I need to use the ladies room.”

  “Okay, we’ll do that,” I said. “Besides, we can sit somewhere under the shade and eat those sandwiches my aunt made for us and the salad we have in the cooler as well.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” she beamed.

  “Well, let’s do it,” I said, giving her a high five.

  Chapter 6

  With less than a mile to go be
fore we arrived at the North Carolina State line a large tower topped by a humongous Mexican sombrero came into view. I told Diana that the towering sombrero signaled the location of the tourist trap called South of the Border. She appeared excited. Minutes later we took the exit that guided us into the attraction. The buildings were of a Mexican-styled architecture and were painted in warm earth colored tones, shades of brown and yellow.

  Once parked, I stepped out of the SUV and went into the back to retrieve the ice cooler, Diana scrambled to put on her shoes and gather her things. Pulling the visor downward, she checked her hair in the pearl lit visor mirror. Facing me, she said that she was ready.

  After a short walk we found a place to sit down in the shade. While I removed the sandwiches and salad from the cooler, Diana went to use the ladies room. When she returned, I went off to use the men’s room. Before exiting the restaurant, I purchased two drinks and a large bag of chips. I rejoined Diana at her side minutes later. She had already begun to eat her sandwich. My aunt had made us deli-cut ham and turkey sandwiches.

  “Man, this is so good,” Diana said savoring every bite of her sandwich.

  “Yes, it is,” I agreed wholeheartedly. “I have to give it to my aunt, she can throw down when it comes to cooking.”

  “Yes she can,” Diana added, taking a sip of her drink. I had bought her a bottle of Peach Snapple.

  “Look, I have something I want to ask you Diana,” I said, still chewing my sandwich. “I don’t want to dwell on Jack, but I was curious as to how he knew where to find you yesterday morning?”

  “You mean at the bus terminal?”

  “Yes. I mean, does he have some sort of GPS system that tracks your comings and goings?” I chuckled.

  “The only way he could have tracked me there was through his phone.”

  “His phone?”

  “Yes. Not long after he fell asleep that night, I attempted to call the bus station to see what their schedule was like for the following day. I had attempted to use my cellphone but discovered that it needed to be charged. So while he was sleeping his drunk off, I took his phone and made the call. I just could not stay another day in that place with him there.”