Crimson Highway

by David Wickenhauser

“Thanks, Hugh, I appreciate it.”

  “No problem. We’ll be close to our delivery, and then the truck stop. You can shower when we park for the night.”

  Then Hugh had another thought. “By the way, do you have any money?”

  Jenny looked at him, and shook her head. “I started out with some, but I got robbed by another hitchhiker. He took every bit of cash I had. I guess I’m just lucky that’s all he wanted.”

  Hugh considered her last statement in view of what she had told him earlier. Jenny was one spunky, brave lady who had a whole lot more to lose than most girls her age if this guy had, indeed, got “all he wanted.”

  Then Hugh had an idea.

  “How about this? How about if I hire you to do a few chores for me? You can keep the windshield and mirrors clean, tidy up inside here—maybe even do some grocery shopping and meal preparations?”

  Jenny thought about his offer for a minute, then said, “That’s pretty generous of you, Hugh. I’ll do it.”

  “I know it sounds like I’m offering you a make-work job. But, I would actually enjoy getting a break from doing all that for awhile,” Hugh said.

  “Thanks. When do I start?”

  “You started this morning,” he told her, smiling. “How does fifty dollars a day sound? That’ll give you something to pay for your ‘girl things’ at Walmart.”

  “That sounds great. Thanks.”

  It wasn’t too much longer before Hugh found himself taking the Fernley exit he wanted for the Walmart there. He turned the truck into the superstore’s spacious, well-graveled lot and shut it down. He liked this Walmart so much that he had parked for the night there many times rather than at the nearby travel plaza.

  “We’re here,” he announced. “I’ll walk you in, and then we can separate to do our own things,” he said, seeing the relief on her face at hearing the last part of his statement.

  At the front door, he peeled five twenties out of a wad that he kept in his pocket.

  At her surprised look, he explained, “I pay cash for almost everything except fuel. And I keep a bit of extra cash on hand in case I have to go over a toll bridge or take a toll road.”

  Jenny gratefully took the money.

  “That will cover two days worth,” he said.

  Then he handed her a couple of fifties. “Buy yourself another set of clothes too … on me,” he said.

  Jenny just looked at him.

  “Don’t worry. I make good money driving, and I’ve got nothing else to spend money on. I want to see you happy,” he said, placing the fifties into her hand.

  Then they split up.

  All Hugh needed to do was use the restroom, so he finished before she did.

  He found a place outside to lean against a wall in the shade, and started a game of Solitaire on his smart phone. Several games later—many games later—when she finally came out, he saw that her hands were full of bags of clothes, “things,” and what looked like groceries.

  “What have you got there, Jen?” he asked curiously, trying to get a peek inside the grocery bags.

  “None of your business, buster,” she said playfully. “It’s a surprise.”

  “Well, let me help you carry, anyway,” he offered, reaching for the grocery bags.

  She let him have those bags, but kept the others for herself to carry.

  Back at the truck, he made himself busy fussing around outside doing a mid-trip inspection in order to give her time to stow the things that she had bought.

  “Let’s hit the road, Jack! Daylight’s awastin’,” she said, as she poked her pretty face out through the open driver’s side window, and smiled at him.

  “Oh, I almost forgot about your surprise,” he said, once they were back on the highway, and not very far from their destination.

  “What is it?” she asked excitedly.

  “You’ll see,” he teased.

  A few more miles down the road, he took an exit that appeared to be going off into nowhere. But, when he crossed the highway on the overpass, he took their truck into a huge, but largely undeveloped, business park, sparsely populated with giant distribution centers. There was a lot of open range land within, and surrounding, the huge complex.

  He pointed out to Jenny some of the DCs there, representing many well-known stores and enterprises. Among them was their final destination, a Walmart DC.

  “Is that the surprise?” Jenny asked, bravely trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.

  “Nope,” Hugh said as he found a wide spot on the shoulder to pull over. He then pointed out the windshield. “They are.”

  He got a huge kick out of the surprised expression on Jenny’s face as she discovered what Hugh had brought her here to see.

  What they saw at the side of the road just in front of their truck, and starting to cross the road in front of them, in fact, was a herd of wild horses. They were a protected herd of completely wild horses that roamed freely over the thousands and thousands of acres here.

  There were signs all along the roads warning motorists to watch out for them, as there were no fences to keep them in, and they crossed the road wherever they wanted.

  The herd ran across the road right in front of their truck, magnificent in their wildness. Then they galloped on down a hill, and disappeared into the distance.

  “That is really something,” Jenny exclaimed breathlessly when they were gone. “Really incredible. Who would have thought!”

  Hugh just smiled.

  “You mean, you knew about this? And you thought of me? And you planned to bring me here so I could see this?” she asked him, beaming.

  “Thanks, Hugh. Really … thanks,” Jenny said, leaning back in her seat, smiling happily.

  Hugh pulled back onto the road, and drove in the direction of their delivery destination, which was just a little farther up the road. On the way, he pointed out to Jenny the little truck stop on the right where they would be stopping for the night.

  “I like coming to this Walmart DC,” he said, “especially if I can plan it around quitting time, because this truck stop is so convenient. You can take your shower here.”

  “Are you planning to take a shower, too?” she asked him.

  “Are you saying I need a shower?” he asked.

  “Yes. Frankly, you are beginning to get a bit ripe,” she said, quoting word-for-word what Hugh had said to her just a couple of days ago.

  “Touché,” Hugh said, laughing. “You’ve got me there. I guess it has been a little while, huh.”

  “Yep,” she said, nodding.

  Hugh took care of business at his delivery fairly quickly, dropped his load in the assigned spot, and hooked up to an empty trailer. Paperwork with the DC office completed, he entered his “finished” macros into the Qualcomm computer.

  Before he’d even had a chance to drive away from the facility, a chirp from the Qualcomm indicated that his next load assignment was already coming across.

  He read the pre-plan, acknowledged it, and headed out of the facility for their night’s parking place.

  “Well, Jenny, we’re dead-heading again to another interesting place,” he told Jenny. “We’ve got to go all the way down 395 to a tiny little town on California’s east side, to pick up a load of bottled water.”

  “That’s interesting?” Jenny asked.

  “In a way, yes,” he answered. “You’ll recognize the bottled water company’s famous label, but you’ll be surprised at that place when we get there.”

  Hugh pulled into the little truck stop a few minutes later. They gathered the items that they would need for their showers, and headed to the driver’s facility.

  This wasn’t the kind of place that gave shower credits for buying fuel, and Hugh never got fuel there anyway, so he paid cash for their showers, collected their towels, and went into their separate shower rooms.

  He admitted that Jenny had had a good idea. The shower felt good.

  He stood under the hot water for a long time, and could feel it
dissolve the tension that the past couple of days had built up in him. And he tried, unsuccessfully, not to think about Jenny right next door taking her shower.

  Despite the long shower that he had taken, he finished before Jenny did. He hung around in the store, absentmindedly browsing through all of the typical truckers’ store items that he’d already seen in hundreds of other places like this one.

  When she finally came out, the transformation had been ratcheted up several notches from the time he had seen her after her first shower. At that time, she had become merely beautiful. This time, she was downright stunning! Beautiful was an entirely inadequate word to describe how she looked.

  She had apparently done some serious shopping at Walmart. She walked up to him wearing a pair of silky slacks that clung to her in all the right places. She had on a stylishly modern top—the kind that shows just a little bit more cleavage than what Hugh had always felt was appropriate. But, on her, it was just right.

  She had applied just a little bit of makeup, although Hugh had never thought that she ever needed any. She had also spent a little more time with her hair. In short, she looked perfect.

  Hugh noticed Jenny nervously searching his face, seeking clues from his expression as to what he thought of her appearance.

  He definitely wasn’t going to disappoint her. “Wow!” he exclaimed. “Miss McDonald, you are one beautiful girl!”

  Jenny stiffened at the mention of her last name. She knew she hadn’t told him, and she had been careful to hide it with her thumb when she had shown her driver’s license to him. For the moment, though, she decided to let it pass.

  Hugh sensed her discomfort, and realized he had made a mistake. He too, however, decided to let it pass.

  “Thank you, Mister Mann. Shall we go to dinner?” Jenny said, recovering quickly. She put her arm inside his as they left the building and walked back out to the truck, for all the world like two people on a date.

  Just before they got to the truck, Jenny jerked her arm out of his and stopped walking.

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “Can you find something to do out here for awhile, so I can get things ready?”

  “What’s going on?” Hugh asked.

  “You’ll see,” she answered, an enigmatic expression on her face.

  “OK, no problem. Just let me know when it’s good for me to come in.”

  Hugh puttered around the truck and trailer for awhile checking equipment. He tried to see what she was doing inside the cab, but she had drawn all the curtains.

  He then took a leisurely stroll around the perimeter of the truck stop in order to give her more time to do whatever she was doing.

  On his way back to the truck he could see her standing outside looking for him.

  “There you are,” she said. “OK. This is my surprise for you. I hope you like it,” she said beckoning him to climb up and enter the cab.

  Hugh was truly surprised, and amazed, by what he saw. Jenny had covered his little pull-out tray with a large doily as a tablecloth, and had set a beautiful table using chinette plates, shiny, silver-looking plastic ware, and even plastic glasses that looked like crystal goblets.

  “You like?” she asked.

  “Like? Heck, that’s beautiful!” he remarked. “And, something smells delicious. What further surprises do you have for me, Jen?”

  She opened the microwave door, and Hugh saw a large microwaveable plastic plate filled with an assortment of pre-cooked foods.

  “I wasn’t sure what your favorite foods were, so I bought a good assortment,” she said, as she lifted the plate out, and stood there ready to serve up.

  “From the looks of it, I’ll be wanting some of everything,” he said, seeing that she had bought some lobster, and shrimp, steak, mashed potatoes, and an assortment of vegetables.

  She had selected this assortment, all pre-cooked, from the Walmart deli counter.

  Jenny looked pleased by his remark, and did just what he asked.

  They sat side-by-side, crowding close together in order to both eat off of the little table.

  They ate without talking. But it was a comfortable silence.

  The only thing bothering Hugh was that he realized that Jenny had done all this—the shower, the stunning outfit, the makeup, the meal—for a reason. And he was not entirely comfortable with what that reason might be—what all this might mean to her.

  When they had finished, she cleared their plates, saying, “Don’t get up. There’s more.”

  “How could there possibly be more?” he asked her.

  “You’ll see.”

  She reached into the refrigerator and took out two smaller plates with a very rich-looking, chocolate-mousse pie type of dessert on them.

  “Wow!” Hugh said. “I didn’t think this could get any better.”

  They dug into their desserts, Hugh making appropriate appreciative sounds, which he didn’t have to fake. It all was truly delicious, and entirely to his liking.

  “Definitely not hot dogs and beans,” he remarked, remembering their first meal together that he had prepared.

  They worked together cleaning up, tossing everything into a garbage sack. “A lot easier than doing dishes,” Jenny admitted, laughing.

  They took the garbage out together, then stayed outside for awhile to enjoy the pleasant evening.

  Truth-be-told, Hugh thought, he felt the truck’s sleeper cab to be a little too confining right now. He needed to think, and distance himself a little bit from everything that had happened this evening.

  They walked for a little bit more, both lost in their own thoughts. Neither felt the need to make conversation merely for the purpose of filling empty space.

  Finally, Hugh said, “We’d better head back and turn in. I’d like to get an early start tomorrow. Our load delivers in Tracy, California, about 2 pm, two days from now. I’m thinking I’d like to make it all the way to I-5 tomorrow and park for the night at least an hour up the road. It depends on how much drive time I’ve got left after getting loaded at the water facility. At the very least, I’d like to make it to Bakersfield.”

  Jenny’s ears perked up when she heard that last part. But she didn’t say anything.

  They went into the drivers’ lounge for a final restroom visit, then walked back to the truck.

  He stayed outside to give her a chance to change. She had told him earlier that she had bought a nightgown to wear to bed.

  When he climbed up into the cab, Jenny had already turned off her top-bunk light. Hugh got into his bunk, stripped down to his shorts, and turned off his own light.

  “Jenny?”

  “Yes, Hugh.”

  “Thanks for an enjoyable day, especially the meal. That was fun,” he said.

  “You’re welcome. Goodnight, Hugh.”

  “Goodnight, Jenny.”

  Chapter Twelve

  They were up early the next morning.

  By now, most of their morning preparations were a familiar routine. The only difference this morning was that Hugh had stepped outside sooner than normal to do his pre-trip in order to give Jenny a chance to alight from her bunk, and to change out of her nightgown.

  Jenny then jumped down with rags and squirt bottle in hand to take care of her own morning chores.

  Hugh told her that this was going to be a great day to travel. The skies were clear, the temperature was comfortable, and traffic would be light. They’d miss Reno’s morning rush hour.

  The only hitch, he explained to her, was the high-wind area in the Washoe Valley, south of Reno on 395. That’s where the Nevada Department of Transportation prohibits trucks during high winds from staying on the main highway, and forces them to take a parallel side road. That side road hugs the hills, which shields the wind somewhat.

  “You never know if the high-wind-warning signs will be lit,” he told Jenny. “The breeze is building a bit right now, so it might be getting worse by the time we get there.”

  “Is it a lot out of our way?” she asked. />
  “Not by much. The main problem is it’s slower going through some rural residential neighborhoods, and there are a couple of stop signs,” Hugh answered.

  They got settled into their seats, and Hugh pulled out of the little truck stop, and back onto I-80.

  “I liked that place,” Jenny said, once they were headed down the highway.

  “Yeah, it’s alright,” Hugh responded, not sure what Jenny was referring to.

  Hugh had to concentrate on driving through Sparks, and then into Reno. The turnoff to merge onto 395 south was difficult to maneuver at best, but it was worse now that there was so much construction going on.

  As they left Reno and approached the Washoe Valley, Hugh could feel the effects of the wind picking up. It’s something about that valley, he thought. It seems to act as a sort of funnel to channel the wind, and kick it up into high gear.

  “Uh-oh,” he said. “Looks like we’re going to have a little breeze. Watch for the Trucks Prohibited sign. If it’s lit, we’ve got to take the alternate route.”

  Sure enough, before they had gone too much farther, they saw the flashing sign telling drivers of trucks, motor homes, and travel trailers to take the alternate route.

  Hugh slowed, exited the highway, and turned onto the secondary road.

  Traffic was sparse as they passed by the homes and ranchettes that dotted this area. Hugh observed the forty-five-mile-an-hour speed limit, and disabled his Jake brakes in deference to the local residents.

  He approached the first stop sign, stopped, then started to pull out to get going again.

  Suddenly, and without warning, two guys jumped onto the cab steps, one on each side of the truck. They held onto the side mirror mounts and tried to open the cab doors. When they found them locked, they pounded on the windows, and motioned for Hugh to stop the truck.

  “No way, Jose!” Hugh shouted back at the guy on his side of the truck through the closed window. He stomped the accelerator and quickly worked the gearshift in order to reach a greater speed, and possibly shake these guys off.

  At the same time, amongst all the commotion, he could hear Jenny screaming. The guy on her side had reached in through her partially open window and was trying to grab her by her hair.