Crimson Highway

by David Wickenhauser

  So, Hugh had no choice but to leave the road, and come to a stop on the shoulder.

  He could see from their “colors” that it was the same gang as the two riders that had passed them near Mojave.

  The lead guy got off his bike. He must have been 6’5” and pushing 300 pounds. He had a shaved head, and a very pronounced walrus-type mustache. His fellow gang members ranged from having shaved heads to hair being overgrown and grizzled, and from having three-day stubble to their faces being completely hidden behind an unruly, unkempt mop of beard.

  As a whole, they were a motley lot of uncouth, typical biker-gang types. To top it off, they looked to be very unfriendly and aggressive as they all got off their bikes. They surrounded the cab of the truck in a half-circle around Hugh’s driver-side door.

  Hugh just stared at them. Normally, he was not afraid of anybody, and knew he could take care of himself in most situations, but there were a lot of them. Too many.

  The lead guy pointed with two fingerless-gloved fingers at Hugh, and then pointed at the ground, making it very clear that he expected Hugh to get out of the truck.

  Hugh shook his head, and mouthed, “No way,” again.

  Then, to his horror, he saw the top of Jenny’s blonde head as she walked past him in front of the truck’s grill, and right toward the gang of bikers. She had somehow opened her door, and climbed down on her side of the truck without Hugh noticing. The gang members parted to let her inside their semi-circle.

  Hugh immediately opened his door, and jumped down onto the dirt shoulder to try to get between Jenny and the bikers.

  She came right to his side, stood real close to him, and hooked her left arm through Hugh’s right arm.

  The lead giant was the first to speak. “Hey, Jenny. How ya doin’? Are you OK?”

  “Yeah, Huey, I’m fine,” Jenny answered.

  Yeah, Huey, I’m fine? What the hell is going on here? Hugh’s mind just screamed questions.

  A similar-looking giant on Huey’s right then spoke. “Jenny, is this guy treatin’ you right?”

  “Yeah, Dewey, he’s treating me real good,” Jenny answered.

  Dewey?

  Then, a guy who could have been a triplet to the other two, spoke. “So, young lady, is he your man, then?”

  “Yeah, Louie, he’s my man. And he’s a good one,” Jenny answered.

  Hugh couldn’t hold it in. He started to say, “Huey?” and wanted to follow with “Dewey?” and “Louie?” But Jenny put a squeeze on his arm that was actually painful. She leaned in close to his ear, and hissed a whispered warning at him, “Don’t say a word! On your life! Not … one … word!”

  Then the Huey giant stepped right up to Hugh, who could smell the man’s indescribable odor. It came to Hugh’s mind that it would take some thinking to parse exactly what special ingredients made up the man’s smell.

  Huey put his face inches from Hugh’s. When he spoke, however, he was talking to Jenny. “Your uncle asked us to watch out for this truck. He figured it might be coming through here some day soon. He said you might be held hostage by this creep.”

  The “p” in creep was followed by a little blob of spittle that landed right on the tip of Hugh’s nose. Hugh didn’t move a muscle, although it was difficult to not cringe away from the giant’s sour breath.

  “Huey, tell my uncle I’m just fine. I’m this guy’s old lady now. We’re together. OK?”

  “Ohh-kay!” the giant answered, punctuating his drawn-out statement with two jabs at Hugh’s chest with his pointing fingers held out stiffly—and then he turned away. Those were painful jabs, not playful ones.

  Thank God that’s over, Hugh thought, tempted to reach up and massage his sore chest.

  The gang retreated, and began assembling around their scoots. Then the giant turned, and signaled for Jenny to come over to him. Jenny released Hugh’s arm, and went after them. They encircled her, and Hugh could hear her talking, but couldn’t make out her words. The circle of gang members expanded and contracted as the men alternated between agitation, and listening quietly, as Jenny told her story.

  Finally, Jenny scooted quickly back to Hugh, and took up station next to him again with her arm in his. She leaned up to whisper into his ear, and quietly said, “Don’t show fear. Don’t back off. But, whatever you do, don’t retaliate or act threatening,” she warned.

  “Me act threatening?” Hugh whispered back at her in ironic disbelief.

  Before Hugh could say anything else, the lead giant came right back up to him again, got almost chest-to-chest with him, and then gave him a good thump on his left shoulder with the heel of his right palm. That hurt! Hugh thought but kept as neutral an expression as he could—for Jenny’s sake. Any other time, he’d be trading punches with the guy by now.

  The giant then abruptly turned to his right, Hugh’s left, and hit Hugh a grazing blow with his shoulder as he walked past him.

  Then, one by one, each of the remaining gang members did the same thing. They each, in their own way, thumped, jabbed, poked, or smashed at Hugh before turning away, and walking toward their bikes.

  Hugh hurt all over, grateful that it was finished, and that he had apparently passed the “test.”

  Then, the Huey giant came back.

  Oh, for crying out loud. Now what?

  “Jenny, give me your cell phone,” Huey ordered.

  Jenny fished the phone out of her pocket—the one that her uncle had given her.

  Huey turned it on, and gave it a minute to boot up. He then jabbed a series of taps on the screen with the tip of his giant index finger. Hugh wondered how he did that … how this Neanderthal knew how to do that.

  When Huey handed the phone back to Jenny, he jabbed Hugh again on his now-very-sore chest. “All she has to do is tap once on the contact I put on her home screen, and me and all my buddies will hit the road. Wherever you are, we’ll find you. And you’ll be dead meat,” he said, jabbing roughly again for emphasis. “Understand?” Jab.

  Hugh nodded.

  “Let’s ride,” he said to his buddies. And they were off in a deafening, thunderous roar.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hugh and Jenny climbed back up into their seats, but Hugh didn’t start the engine.

  He just sat there, not saying anything, looking at Jenny. She, in turn, just sat in her seat looking all innocent and pretty.

  Finally, Hugh broke the silence.

  “You know, Jenny, just when I thought you couldn’t possibly surprise me with anything more, something like this happens. What the hell was that all about? And how on earth do you know these guys?”

  She didn’t answer him immediately. Instead, she just sat there smiling, with a smug expression on her face, which didn’t set well with Hugh.

  “Dammit, Jenny! Answer me!”

  “You can calm down, Hugh,” Jenny finally responded. “And you can be a little more appreciative.”

  “What on earth are you talking about?” Hugh demanded.

  “Hugh, you might not realize it, but I just saved your life. Or, at the least, saved you from a really bad beating,” Jenny answered.

  “Go on,” Hugh said.

  “Those guys pulled us over because my uncle had asked them to bring me back home, and to ‘take care’ of the truck driver who had kidnapped me. When I saw who it was that had pulled us over, I knew that’s why they were here. And that’s why I got out of the truck, and then latched on to you,” Jenny said.

  “I didn’t do that because I feared them,” she went on. “I did that to show them that we were together, and that I was with you willingly. It’s the only thing that kept them from piling up on you, and messing you up real bad.”

  “What was that huddle with them all about,” Hugh asked, only slightly mollified by her explanation.

  “I was giving them a shortened version of what had been happening for the past few days,” she said. “I told them that I was afraid of my uncle, that he had held a gun to my head, and that he was threaten
ing my little brother.”

  “Go on,” Hugh told her.

  “They didn’t like that one bit. They said they would see to it that my brother was protected. They wouldn’t do anything about my uncle right away as long as he didn’t try to harm me or my brother. But they said they’d keep an eye on him to make sure of that.”

  “What was that poking, and jabbing and hitting all about at the end?” Hugh asked.

  “Well, they said you couldn’t be my old man if they didn’t approve of you … that you’d have to pass their test. And, I agreed,” she said, smiling.

  “That’s just real good of you,” Hugh replied with more than just a little touch of sarcasm.

  “I knew you could take it. But, you need to know that if I hadn’t agreed, or if you hadn’t passed the test, you’d be lying by the side of this road in a bloody mess right now.”

  “And that brings up something that I’m real curious about,” Hugh said. “How do you figure into this whole motorcycle gang thing? I know what kind of women hang with them. And if you are as innocent as you say you are …”

  Jenny cut him off. “Hold on there, pal,” she retorted angrily, throwing herself back in her seat with her arms crossed. “I am nobody’s Harley babe. Never have been. Never will be.”

  “Well, it sure looks …” Hugh said, but got cut off again by Jenny.

  “Well, it’s not!” she retorted again.

  “OK. Then tell me about it,” Hugh said after a few moments had passed.

  “For several years after high school I worked behind the counter at the local Harley shop. It was just a job,” Jenny said. “I got to know the guys who would come in. They liked me, and sort of adopted me as their little sister. You know about the code that these guys have about their moms and sisters.”

  Hugh nodded.

  “They protected me. And, if anybody even looked at me they would get rough with him real quick. That’s what made it hard for me to have a serious boyfriend,” she said.

  “Ahh, I think I understand now,” Hugh said.

  “Yeah. I didn’t always appreciate their attention and protectiveness, but it did actually come in handy more than once. My uncle always moved with a pretty rough crowd. And it was sometimes comforting to know my biker gang friends were at my back.”

  Hugh nodded his understanding.

  “And think about this,” she told Hugh. “You are the first that they have ever approved of for me. That’s some kind of big deal in their minds.”

  “Yeah. Big deal,” Hugh responded sarcastically.

  “In fact, you are sort of an honorary member of their gang. You’re an official Bakers Town Bad Ass,” Jenny said, clearly enjoying herself. “Now we need to go into town and get you fitted out for a new Harley.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Hugh said, shaking his head in disbelief as he reached to crank up the engine. “I can’t believe how upside down my life has been since you came on board.”

  “It will teach you not to pick up hitchhikers,” Jenny said, outright laughing at this point.

  “Oh, by the way,” Hugh said. “Was that some kind of joke? Huey, Dewey and Louie? Do you know how hard it is not to laugh when you hear that?”

  “I am so glad you didn’t laugh,” Jenny answered him. “They are extremely sensitive about their names.”

  “Then, why don’t they do something about it?” he asked.

  “They did. They are cousins whose moms didn’t know what they each were naming their boys. So, they decided early on to take different names. Huey, for example, is Roc, without the ‘k’.”

  “So, why do you call them Huey, Dewey and Louie?” he asked.

  “I found out about their names a long time ago, and began teasing them about it,” she said. “I’m the only one who can use their real names. They accept it because they think it’s a cute little-sister kind of thing to do. Anybody else, and they’d probably pound them into the dirt. That’s why I had to warn you not to say a word about it.”

  “Well, I guess I should thank you for that,” Hugh said.

  “You’re welcome,” Jenny responded sweetly.

  Hugh got the truck pointed down the road again, planning to stop at the truck stop for fuel before continuing on to where they would be stopping for the night.

  He had no idea that in a little while his life would be turned upside down yet once again.

  Hugh pulled into the fuel island of the truck plaza. While he pumped fuel, Jenny jumped down and dutifully performed her window and mirror cleaning duties—much to the enjoyment of every other truck driver there.

  As she stood on the fender and leaned way over to wash the windshield, she looked back over her shoulder and winked at Hugh. Obviously, she knew what was going on with her admirers, and she was getting a huge amount of enjoyment out of it.

  Hugh hung up the fuel nozzles, then told Jenny, “Climb up. I’ll park, and then let’s go inside and use the facility. We can also see about grabbing something for dinner. The drop yard where we are going is just a place to park, with not much in the way of amenities.”

  As they were locking up, Hugh snagged his cell phone. He thought he’d try one more time to reach James.

  Hugh made sure that Jenny had rounded the corner in the travel plaza store to go to the women’s facility, and then held back in order to call James. This time, James answered right away.

  “Howdy, partner. What’s going on?” James said, recognizing Hugh’s caller ID.

  “Oh, man, James, you wouldn’t believe what all has happened since the last time I talked to you,” Hugh said.

  “Spill it, pal. What’s happened?”

  “I don’t have much time to talk, but the main thing is that this hitchhiker I picked up—you’re not going to believe this—but I’ve found out she’s the daughter of one of the guys that we had that fight with my first night on your truck fifteen years ago.”

  “Whoo, boy!” James exclaimed, then added, “But, wait. I thought you had gotten rid of her.”

  “It’s a long story. But, she’s back with me again,” Hugh replied.

  “Wow,” James said.

  “Yeah, and here’s what’s worse. Turns out, she’s the daughter of the last guy we took down. Remember? What you probably don’t know is that he died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. We killed him, James.”

  “So, what does she think about riding around with the guy who killed her father?” James asked.

  “That’s just it. She doesn’t know. She’s been harboring this hatred of that guy all these years, and I haven’t been able to bring myself to tell her that I’m that guy. James, it’s downright unreal what I’ve been going through.”

  “I can imagine,” James replied.

  “Yeah. Hey, I’ve got a lot more to tell you, but she’s probably coming out of the restroom by now. I’ll call you later,” Hugh said.

  “Well, buddy, if there is anything I can do, let me know,” James offered.

  Hugh walked toward the restrooms, expecting to see Jenny waiting for him. She still hadn’t come out, so he went into the men’s.

  When he came out, she still wasn’t in sight, so he dawdled around the store aisles, looking once again at the same things that he’d seen in hundreds of other truck stop stores.

  He checked his cell phone clock, and discovered that it had been over a half hour.

  That’s long enough. He walked toward the women’s restroom.

  “Excuse me ma’am,” he said to a matronly looking lady who was getting ready to go through the door, “can you check and see if there is a young, blonde girl in there? She went in about a half an hour ago, and I need to know if she is alright.”

  The lady nodded, and disappeared through the doorway. She came out momentarily, and announced that there was nobody in the restroom.

  “Are you sure? A young, pretty, blonde girl?”

  “Quite sure,” the lady said. “There is nobody in there.”

  Confused, Hugh went back to the store a
rea, and walked all around. He thought she might have stopped at the sub shop, or had gotten in line to buy chips and a drink, or something.

  He approached a grizzled old driver who was standing in line. “Have you seen a pretty, young blonde girl in the store here?” he asked him.

  “No, buddy. But if you’ve got an extra one I’d sure be interested,” the old driver answered with a leer.

  Disgusted, Hugh turned to the girl behind the counter. Before he could ask her the same question, she said, “I saw her. She was standing right around the corner from where you were talking on the phone. Something caught her attention on a clothes rack, I think.”

  “So, where is she now?”

  “I don’t know,” the girl replied, “she all of a sudden got real agitated, stood there for a minute, and then bolted out of the store like she was in a real big hurry to go somewhere.”

  “What did she look like when she was leaving?” Hugh asked, grasping to understand what had happened.

  “Well, all I can say is she was extremely red in the face, and looked like she needed to go somewhere to cry her eyes out. What do you suppose that was all about?” the clerk asked Hugh.

  Hugh thought he might have an idea, and cursed himself for not being more careful when he was talking to James.

  He bolted out of the store himself, sure that he’d find Jenny at the truck, and hoping beyond hope that he’d be able to explain himself to her.

  She was not there. He walked the whole truck stop, down every lane, looked between every truck, and then did it again. Then he remembered his cell phone, and took it out to call her. But, then he just stared at it, not knowing what number to dial.

  What a fool! he hollered in his mind, as he realized that he had never thought to get the phone number of the phone that Jenny carried around. He angrily stomped back to his truck hoping, but not believing, that she might be sitting on the running board, having cried her eyes out, and was now willing to hear Hugh’s explanation and apology.

  “Jenny, I …,” he started, as he came up to the truck, but stopped himself when he realized that she wasn’t there.

  Completely dejected, and hating himself for being so careless on the phone, he climbed back into his truck, and sat in the driver’s seat, hoping and praying that he might see her walking out of the dark shadows, and coming back to the truck.