Crimson Highway

by David Wickenhauser

  Take it slow, Hugh had to remind himself.

  “OK, so all I need to clear up right now is what happened after Bakersfield,” Hugh said. “Let me take a stab at it.”

  He told her his thinking that she had gone running back to her uncle because of what she had overheard when he had been talking to James. He said he believed that she hadn’t known what her uncle was doing when he had placed the cell phone in Hugh’s truck as a beacon pointing them right to where Hugh was.

  Hugh said he believed now that she had no idea they were going to kill him at that last foiled hijacking, but that she did aid and abet their attempt to hijack his truck.

  At that, Jenny nodded guiltily. “I’m really sorry, Hugh.”

  Hugh continued. He admitted that cutting him loose had definitely been in her favor, and that there hadn’t been any overt acts against him ever since that time.

  “That about cover it?” he asked her.

  Jenny nodded.

  “One last thing,” Hugh said.

  “Yes?” Jenny replied.

  “Your father. Are we OK with that? For once, and for all?”

  Jenny nodded again. “Yes, Hugh. I realize now that you didn’t have any choice, and that my father was just hanging with the wrong crowd. If it hadn’t been you, it would eventually have been someone else.”

  “And, as for my part,” Hugh said. “I am deeply sorry for what I did to your father … and those others, too. I’m going to do everything I can to avoid anything like that happening again.”

  “I know, Hugh. It’s all over with. I don’t think we need to worry about it anymore.”

  “One last thing. I apologize for what I did, and I am asking you to forgive me,” Hugh said.

  “I forgive you, Hugh.”

  Hugh and Jenny went upstairs—Jenny to change clothes in her room, and Hugh to do a chore in his bedroom.

  He took Jenny’s cell phone off of his nightstand, and turned it on. After it had finished booting up, he located the app that Mary had found earlier. He pressed and held his fingertip down on the icon until a context-sensitive menu popped up.

  He wanted to disable that tracking feature so he could leave the phone with Jenny.

  He tapped the “uninstall” item on the menu, and watched the hated, tattletale app go away. Too clever by far, Hugh thought, concerning Jenny’s uncle.

  He figured he had time to hasten away from the ranch before the uncle could muster his resources and make the drive all the way up from Bakersfield to almost the Canadian border to try to intercept Hugh.

  That would take, what? a good eighteen or nineteen hours to do. That’s if the uncle had dropped everything, and had left the minute he got done talking to Hugh. Hugh knew that wasn’t very likely. So Hugh expected to be long gone on the road to Spokane before the uncle could get anywhere near him.

  Furthermore, Hugh would leave word with his parents about his plans. If the uncle decided to try coming onto the ranch to make a grab for Jenny he’d find himself tangling with a couple of very angry, Idaho-reared, Hugh-sized protectors.

  Unfortunately, Hugh had guessed wrong. Unknown to him, her uncle and his remaining partner in crime had not returned to Bakersfield from the failed Reno hijacking. They had buried their dead partner in the desert, which was ironic because that was the fate that they had planned for Hugh.

  Then, they had followed the tracking device as far as Boise, where they had lost the signal when the battery got used up. They had waited there in a cheap motel hoping that someone would find the phone and charge it up.

  The wait had been advantageous for them, since it had given them a chance to heal up from their most recent encounter with the hated truck driver. All they had to do was wait for the app to come up, and to pinpoint where Hugh was.

  That’s exactly what happened. So even as Hugh was making his plans to leave the next day, Hugh’s uncle and his friend were within a couple of hours of Sandpoint, and would be ready to discretely follow Hugh’s truck whenever it left his parents’ ranch.

  Hugh heard a knock at his door.

  “Come in,” he yelled to whomever it was.

  It was Jenny.

  “Mary and I are going to ride. Would you like to join us?” Jenny asked.

  “No thank you. Not this time. I’d like to visit with my mom for a bit,” he told her, grateful that she would be out of the house for awhile.

  “Oh,” he added, as she started to make her way down the stairs. “Can I pick you up about 8?”

  “You got it, Mister Mann. I’ll be all dolled up, and ready for you,” she replied over her shoulder as she descended the stairs.

  I’ll bet, Hugh thought. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

  Hugh found his mom in their all-purpose craft, laundry and game room. She was sitting, and working on mending some clothes.

  “Hello, son,” Martha said. “Listen, before you start with what you came down here to tell me, I just want to mention one thing.”

  “I know, Ma. Go slow,” Hugh said, beating her to it.

  Martha laughed. “I guess you know me pretty well, like I know you,” she said.

  “Yes, Ma. I’m almost afraid to go out and visit Buck, ’cause I’m afraid he’s going to nag me to ‘go slow.’” They both laughed at his unintended pun.

  Hugh then told his mom what his plans were for leaving early the next morning—and why he was planning to do that.

  “You’re going to break her heart, Hugh,” his mom said. “But, I see your reasoning. Jenny and I had talked at length about how crazy her uncle is, and how dangerous he’ll be if you ever encounter him again. So, I agree that it is for the best. I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

  “Me too, Ma. Me too. I’ve never met anybody like Jenny before. And I’m afraid I’m … I’m …”

  “Falling in love?” Martha suggested.

  “Yeah, that too,” he said. “What I was going to say was that I’m afraid of losing her.” Hugh was embarrassed. He’d never had this kind of conversation with his mother before.

  “She’s a great girl, Hugh. You definitely have our blessing. And you can count on us to protect her until you come back for her.”

  “Thanks, Ma. That takes a load off.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The whole family, except for Mary, was assembled at the base of the stairs waiting for Jenny to come down.

  A whispered wolf whistle from Roly alerted them that Jenny was about to make her entrance.

  “Behave yourself, Roly,” Martha said. “This is Hugh and Jenny’s moment, not yours.”

  Jenny started to descend the stairs, followed by Mary.

  Once again, superlatives came up short in any capacity to describe how beautiful Jenny looked. She was wearing a very stylish evening gown of Mary’s that looked like it had been designed just for her. The design allowed for just a hint of cleavage, which, if done right, could be more alluring than showing too much. And, on Jenny, it was perfect.

  She also wore minimal makeup—at Mary’s insistence—and the effect was stunning.

  Her gorgeous blonde hair had been styled in a way that was not normally “Jenny,” but, once again, the effect was stunning.

  “I’d of given anything to look like that at that age … or any age,” Martha said wistfully.

  “You did, and you still do,” Hugh, Sr., said, putting his arm around her waist.

  “Thank you, sweetie,” Martha said, patting his hand.

  As Jenny reached the bottom stair, Hugh held his arm out to her. She crooked hers in his.

  “Shall we?” Hugh asked, leading her toward the door.

  “Thank you,” she said to Hugh. Then she turned to Mary, and winked, while mouthing a silent thank you to the beaming eighteen-year-old.

  “I want to be Jenny when I grow up,” Mary expressed quietly to her mother as Hugh and Jenny made their way outside.

  “You mean you want to be like Jenny?” her mother asked.

  “Nobody co
uld be like Jenny. You can only be Jenny,” Mary replied, sighing.

  “She’s had an extremely rough life, daughter,” Martha said. “Be glad you haven’t had to grow up like she did.”

  Once on the road, in his mom’s borrowed going-to-town car, which thankfully wasn’t painted pink, Hugh asked Jenny how her riding went.

  “It was great. I wish I could have been Mary growing up,” she said.

  “Yeah, the ranch is quite a place to live,” Hugh admitted. “But it wasn’t like that for me when I was still living there. Almost none of what you see and enjoy about the ranch was here. All there was for me was grueling work, work, work.”

  “I know. Your mom told me all about it,” Jenny said.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. She admitted that they all but drove you away and into the Marines. They are very, very sorry for that.”

  “Wow. You know more about that than I do,” Hugh remarked.

  “Your mom is very easy to talk to.”

  “I know,” Hugh said, remembering his heart-to-heart with his mom just that afternoon.

  They arrived at the restaurant. Hugh let the valet park the car, and he and Jenny walked arm in arm to the hostess station. His reservation was checked, and they were shown to their table.

  “This is beautiful,” Jenny remarked. “The view out over the lake is incredible.”

  “I wanted to get here for the twilight time. That’s when the lights start to go on across the lake, and on the boats in the marina here. The reflections on the water are mesmerizing.”

  As is your beauty, and the twinkle in your eyes, Hugh added, but only to himself.

  The waiter came up, and offered to take their orders.

  “I’ll order appetizers,” Hugh said, then asked Jenny if there was any seafood she didn’t care for.

  “No, I’m willing to try anything, especially in a restaurant like this,” she replied.

  Hugh ordered Portuguese clams, and crab cakes to start.

  “Would you like the wine list, monsieur?” the waiter asked with a false, but not unpleasant French accent.

  “No thanks,” Hugh answered. “I’m dr… not a drinker.” He hoped that Jenny hadn’t caught that he almost said he’d be driving tomorrow.

  “Very well, sir, I’ll return with your appetizers, while you peruse the dinner menu.”

  Hugh decided on the pistachio crusted trout, and Jenny said she thought the stuffed halibut looked good. Then she held her hand up to her mouth, and whispered, “Oh, my, the price.”

  “Please don’t insult me, honey,” Hugh admonished her with mock seriousness. “I’ve told you, I’ve got nothing else to spend money on other than the occasional pleasure. And this date with you is definitely a pleasure for me,” he added.

  “For me to,” she said, looking directly into Hugh’s eyes.

  Hugh’s heart skipped a beat at her direct gaze. Was he ever going to get used to her beauty? He hoped not.

  “This isn’t a truck stop diner, that’s for sure,” he said, which caused him to become reflective.

  “We sure have been through it, haven’t we?” he said. “I think we have both changed a lot since we first met. You are hardly the same dirty, smelly vagrant that I picked up barely two weeks ago.”

  Hugh saw the expression on her face. “Whoops, I guess that didn’t come out the way I meant,” he said.

  “Don’t worry, Hugh. I know what I put you through back then, and how much trouble I have caused you.”

  Hugh reached across the table to take her by the hand.

  “Sweetheart, those days are past us, now. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

  The waiter brought their appetizers, and then took their order. They continued to make small talk while eating their clams and crab cakes.

  As Hugh had promised, the gathering twilight brought out the magical lighting effects of this extraordinary place. The effect that the soft lighting gave to Jenny’s appearance almost took Hugh’s breath away. No one could paint a picture, or make a photo, that could reproduce what Hugh was seeing in front of him right now.

  “Jenny, I …” Hugh had started to say, but the moment was spoiled by the appearance of the waiter bringing their dinners.

  After they finished eating, and were enjoying their coffee, Hugh took Jenny’s cell phone out of his pocket and showed it to her. “When we get back, I want you to put this someplace safe. I uninstalled the tracking app, so it should be OK to use.”

  “Why would I need this, when I’ll be with you?” Jenny asked.

  Her question caught Hugh off guard. “You never know, we might get separated … maybe at a truck stop or something. It will just be good to have,” he said, thinking quickly. He hated himself for being so duplicitous with her, when he was well-aware that she was being totally honest with him these days.

  Hugh paid the tab, and left a generous tip, then ordered up their car.

  On the way home, Hugh told Jenny about the moose that Buck had alerted him to on the forested ridge above the ranch.

  “The thing about those critters is that they are almost impossible to see at night,” he told her. “It’s something about their hair. It’s dull, and doesn’t reflect light. You have to be real careful driving on these roads in the dark.”

  “That reminds me,” Jenny said. “What’s the true story about Old Grouch? And don’t tell me another joke.”

  “It’s a long story. You sure you want to hear it?” Hugh asked her.

  “Sure, take as long as you want. I’ve got the rest of my life to hear it,” she said.

  That “rest of my life” part was not lost on Hugh.

  As if on cue to save him from having to respond, Hugh barely had a split second to see the moose that suddenly and without warning loomed up right in front of them. It was all but invisible in the darkness, even when it was finally illuminated by the headlights.

  He swerved violently to avoid the large animal, barely missing it by its whiskers.

  “That’s one animal that you don’t want to hit,” he said. “They’ll total a car and, what’s worse, their long legs have them so far off the road, they tend to go right through a windshield. I’ve seen pictures. It’s not pretty.”

  “We sure don’t have that problem in Bakersfield,” Jenny remarked, a little shaken by the moose encounter.

  Hugh parked the car in the garage, and he and Jenny walked to the house.

  He walked Jenny up the stairs to her room.

  At Jenny’s door, she turned to face him.

  Hugh hated awkward moments, so he solved that problem by bringing Jenny close to him, lifting her chin again like last time and giving her a good, long kiss on the lips. He started to pull away, but her hands were now behind him, one on his back, and one behind his neck. He settled in for another long kiss, which was growing in intensity, and putting him in dangerous territory, temptation-wise.

  Jenny finally released him, and stepped back half a step. “Would you like to come in?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Jenny, please believe that I would love to, more than you will ever know, but I won’t, can’t. I hope you understand.”

  “I don’t know. I’ll try, Hugh. This is brand new territory for me.”

  “Then trust me,” Hugh told her.

  Hugh opened Jenny’s door for her, and guided her gently toward it. “Good night, sweetheart. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Good night, Hugh. And thanks for the wonderful evening. All of it.”

  Then she disappeared into her room.

  Hugh stealthily backtracked one door, and whispered through the crack where Mary’s door was slightly ajar, “You get back into bed, you little stinker.”

  He heard a rustle of nightgown, and the sound of somebody settling into bed. That scamp, he thought. She’s going to be a handful for some guy, some day.

  Hugh walked into his own room. When he spotted himself in his dresser mirror, he hated what he saw.

  I’m blowing it. All I hope is
that she doesn’t hate me too bad in the morning when she finds I have left. I hope she understands.

  Hugh spotted several piles of cleaned and folded laundry stacked on the end of his bed. There were also several bags of food, and other items that he needed for replenishing his truck before going back out on the road again.

  Bless my mom, he thought. She’s one in a million. She understands.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Hugh awoke before daylight, before anyone else was stirring. He had already packed everything the night before, so he was ready to make the trip down the stairs, and through the house to his truck.

  He stopped at Jenny’s door, and blew her a kiss. Please understand, he silently pleaded.

  At his truck, he loaded his things into the cab, and did a quick pre-trip in the dark.

  Once back into the driver’s seat, he regretted the loud noise that would result from him cranking the big diesel engine to life, but there was nothing that could be done about it.

  He didn’t give much time for the engine to warm up, but backed out of his parking spot, and drove slowly down the driveway at idle speed.

  He’d already checked messages on his Qualcomm, and knew that he had a 10 am pickup in Spokane, and a 6 pm delivery in Portland. That would be an easy one, and he always enjoyed driving along the scenic Columbia River Gorge.

  “Good-bye, Jenny. I love you,” he said quietly out loud as he passed through the massive ranch gate.

  Dawn broke, turning the highway crimson as he went up the onramp and headed to Spokane. Once again, as it usually always did, well-being flooded Hugh as he settled into his seat, and had his steers pointed straight down the highway. No doubt about it—he loved to drive, especially at this time of day.

  He felt completely refreshed, and was determined to put the events of the recent past behind him.

  A couple of hours later, he pulled into the shipper’s location—Northern Sky Breweries. His was a pre-load, pallets of kegs of beer, so he merely had to hook up to the loaded trailer, and pull away from the dock. He drove to the staging area, and exited the truck to go into the shipping office to complete the paperwork.