“Well, I’m not going to get back on the road tonight anyway.” He threw her pack over his shoulder and grabbed his own bag out of the trunk. “Is there a place in there I can get out of these wet clothes?” He looked over at trooper Wayne and asked, “Is there anything else you need from me, officer?”
“If the Doc thinks you’re okay then I’m done here. Mind you don’t race outta town the same way you came in, okay, son?”
“You can count on that,” Scott said and headed back inside.
“Hold up Scott, I’ll show you where to get cleaned up,” Fred called out, shaking Wayne’s hand and telling him to say hi to his boy. He trotted up to where Scott stood and put an arm on his shoulder leading him back inside.
Scott crept into Ashley’s room with the stealth of a cat burglar. He slowly peered around the corner hoping she had gone back to sleep so he could leave her pack and get out. Maybe even leave a note wishing her well. But he wouldn’t be so lucky. When his head rounded the corner Ashley called him in, beaming like she was reuniting with her long lost brother.
“So they say you’re going to be okay.”
“Yep, Dr. Fred says you and that car are genuine heroes, he also says he doesn’t ever want to ride in that car again.” They both laughed. Ashley’s chuckle was tempered by a grimace of pain in her head. Scott thought she looked like something out of an old civil war flick, lying in bed with the top of her head bandaged.
“I brought your pack in,” he said, holding it up to show her. “Fred says they got in touch with your mom. Are you going to go home until you heal up?”
“Naw, Mom just took care of the paperwork with the hospital over the phone. She tried to get me to come home but I have to keep going. If I don’t I may spend the rest of my life thinking ’What if?’”
Scott hadn’t really recognized her as an adult until this moment. She yawned and apologized saying it must be the drugs. He set her pack beside the bed and promised to drop by in the morning before he hit the road, then without even thinking about it, he reached out, took her hand and gently squeezed it.
Fred was waiting outside her door. When Scott exited the room he put his hand on Scott’s shoulder and they walked out of the hospital together without speaking. The sun had set and the last of the day’s glow was fading behind the horizon. The shrubs and trees were still visible in the weak residual sunlight but they had lost all color and looked more like shadows than the vibrant greenery that tomorrow’s sunrise would again reveal. The automatic doors slid closed behind them trapping the quiet inside. Scott welcomed the sound of the street. Even the scream of an incoming ambulance siren was music that would chase the last of the quiet from his head.
Scott stood next to the Charger breathing in the muggy night air. “Feels like we got more rain on the way,” he said.
“Yes, it sure does.”
“How are you going to get home?” Scott asked. “I don’t think that SUV of yours is going to do you much good.”
“The wife should be here shortly. I called her while you were in the girl’s room.” Fred looked at Scott with an inquisitive look in his eye and asked how he ended up traveling with Ashley. Scott told him the story of the Mad Batter.
“Maybe you’re that girl’s guardian angel, Scott.”
“She’s in a boatload of trouble if that’s the case,” Scott said.
Scott got directions to a few hotels from Fred while he waited for his wife to arrive. Fred had seen the golf bag in the trunk and invited Scott to the club for a round. Elks is in great shape this year Fred added. Scott took down Fred’s number and said he’d let him know after his visit with Ashley in the morning. Just then a cream colored Chrysler 300 pulled up beside them and Fred announced, “And there’s my ride.”
Scott countered with, “you got a Hemi in that thing?”
Fred pointed at the C on the fender and waved as he got in the passenger seat and the car disappeared from sight. Standing alone in the ER parking lot Scott Randall felt at peace for the first time in three days and then he looked at the Charger.
Chapter Eighteen
Roger woke to a constant ringing echoing between his ears, bouncing from the left to the right. His stomach retched, but he fought off the urge to vomit. His bladder, which must have tripled in size due to the night’s consumption of Corona, had caused a bloated ache in his lower abdomen. A gurgling sound of pouring water somewhere to his right magnified exponentially the urge to relieve himself. So this is a hangover, he thought. Many times he had experienced what he thought were hangovers after college keggers, but they must have been just a warning of what could happen because this was infinitely worse. This is what he got for not heeding those earlier warnings.
With difficulty he sat up on what he now realized was a lounge chair beside the pool. The nude stone woman poured water into the hot tub from her bottomless flask. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. With some encouragement from deep down, he raised himself to a hunched, but standing position. He tried to straighten up, but the strain on his bladder made that exercise painful. So he began to waddle, bent over like a ninety-year-old, toward the stairs to the apartment over the garage.
“Wow, you really look like shit, Vermont,” Beth said. She was standing at the top of the stairs in the same swimsuit she had worn the previous morning. He saw the mockery on her face but it didn’t hide the sympathy in her eyes.
Roger wondered briefly through his discomfort, how she could be so stunning and seemingly unaffected by the victory celebration. She had at the very least, matched him beer for beer.
“I feel worse I’m sure,” he said in a barely audible whimper.
Beth giggled prancing down the steps. “Nice look, Roger, not everyone could carry it off but it works for you.”
Roger looked down to see that he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He was barefoot and still had his baseball pants on, which were damp and one pant leg was pulled up past the knee. He looked at Beth inquisitively, she pointed to the pool where his shirt and one of his shoes floated motionless on the sparkling surface.
“You sure got game on the ball field, Vermont, but in a saloon you are one shameful greenhorn.”
His stomach retched again, with some panic he squeezed past Beth who was now standing on the bottom step. He climbed the stairs as fast as his triple weight bladder would allow. His gut had settled into a low rumble by the time he got to the guest bathroom. He stood over the toilet expecting the pressure to release in a stream that could rival a fire hose, but what came was barely more than a trickle. His bladder swelled to the point that it restricted flow. So he stood there trickling until the pressure on his plumbing was relieved. A sigh of relief escaped his lips followed by a surge of despair when he felt the inevitable heave.
He heard a light knock followed by Beth’s voice, “Roger, are you okay?”
He flushed and said he’d meet her at the pool.
It took him almost an hour to get downstairs. He showered, shaved and brushed his teeth twice. He smelled and looked much better but his head throbbed. His stomach had settled, although his abs burned like he had been doing sit-ups all morning.
“Holy shit, Bethy, look what the cat dragged in,” Bobbie said. Bobbie and Beth were sitting at the edge of the pool with their legs dangling in the water. They giggled a bit and Roger flipped them the bird and sat next to Beth.
“How ya feelin’, Vermont?” Beth asked in a truly sympathetic tone.
“Give me a few more hours and I’ll be good as new,” Roger said. He didn’t believe that, but he had to cowboy up in front of the girls. “I won’t be ready to travel today. You don’t mind me staying for another day, do you?”
“Well, if she wants you out of the guest room, Roger, you can sleep with me tonight,” Bobbie said, laughing.
Beth punched her in the arm and told Roger he didn’t have to leave until he was ready. He thought it unlikely he would be welcome if he were still here in a month, but he wouldn’t need the guest room that long.
&
nbsp; “I should be fine to hit the road tomorrow.”
“God damn, boy, you’re as pale as boiled pork.”
The three turned to see Jack Walker standing ten feet away wearing a denim shirt, pressed jeans and cowboy boots. “Listen, Roger, you really saved the day yesterday. That was the first time I didn’t have to pay for that shindig you attended last night.”
Beth was gleaming, as she could see where this was going.
“I understand you have school in the fall but if you want to spend the rest of the summer working here I’m sure I could find a spot for you.”
There it was, just what Beth was hoping for. “You seem to be moved in to Billy’s old room and you are welcome to it as long as need be.”
“I really appreciate the offer, Jack, but I really want to get to the Grand Canyon this summer,” Roger said without noticing the smile fading from Beth’s face. He stood up, faced Jack and added, “I’ve been planning this trip since I was a junior in high school and I need to see it through.”
“A man who knows what he wants and makes it happen. I like that, son. You go do what you gotta do. If you need to make a few bucks before September rolls around the guest room will be there.”
“Thanks, that really means a lot, Jake,” Roger said.
“You’re still a smartass, son.” Jack put out his hand and Roger extended his. With a quick shake, Jack turned and headed back toward the house.
“He really likes you, Roger,” Bobbie said. “I can’t remember seeing anything like that before. And it’s not just the damn ball game. He sees something in you.”
Bobbie stood and motioned to Beth as though they had a plan and it was up to her to get it in play. Bobbie walked away, and as she got to the stairs going up to the apartment, she made the same gesture. It was a shoving motion like one you might use to urge a child to join the line to jump off the diving board for the very first time.
“So you’re planning to leave tomorrow?” Beth asked in a voice that said, “I don’t really want to hear the answer.”
“Yeah, I’m already a week behind where I thought I would be.”
“I wish you would take Daddy up on his offer to stay the summer.”
“Beth, you know I like it here. But it’s like I told your dad, I really need to do this.” He looked right at her and before he could stop himself he said, “Why don’t you come with me?”
“Do you mean it?”
He didn’t think he did but he also didn’t think he could take it back. Sure it would be nice to have some company and sure Beth was beautiful company, although this isn’t what he planned. But he said, “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t mean it.”
She kissed his cheek and ran away leaving little wet footprints on the stone. She didn’t follow Bobbie up the stairs. She followed Jack back to the main house.
Roger was left sitting on the edge of the pool wondering what had just happened. Two days ago, he hadn’t known any of these people and now he was offered a place to stay and a job. He invited a swimsuit model to join him on his trip and she seemed to be willing. The weird thing about that, he wasn’t totally convinced he wanted this gorgeous girl to come along. Having all distraction gone, he found the pounding in his head to be unbearable so he went back to the guest room to lie down.
Four hours passed before Roger was brought to consciousness by a honking horn outside his window. Beep, beep, BEEEEEEEEEEP. He looked toward the sound and the light streaming through the window caused his eyes to close to slits. He felt much better. The pounding in his head had been reduced to a low grade hum that intensified with each beep. When he got to the window and looked down to the source of the noise, he saw Beth standing beside a shiny lemon yellow Jeep. She waved up at the window with one hand, the other still on the horn of the Jeep.
She stopped beeping and yelled, “Come on down, Vermont.”
Roger laughed. Beth had released the horn and was standing with her hands on her hips.
“Well, are you coming down or do I have to come up there and drag your scrawny ass down here?”
He laughed aloud and shaking his head walked to the door leading to the stairs. When he walked out into the sun, which was well past being high in the sky, Roger said, “What the hell is that, Beth?”
“It’s a Jeep, Vermont,” she said hands still on her hips. “Don’t they have Jeeps in the east?”
“Yes we have Jeeps. But what are you doing with it?”
“Well, I told Daddy I was going to the canyon with you and he said, ‘Not in that Challenger you’re not.’ I said ‘shit no, we’re going to hitchhike.’” Beth broke into a hysterical laughter. “You shoulda seen the look on his face. He said ‘Bethy, you go see Billy. He’ll have a Jeep ready when you get there.’ So here it is.”
“So it’s Billy’s Jeep?”
“No stupid. It’s yours. At least for a year. Daddy owns a Chrysler dealership and Billy runs it for him.” She threw the keys at him and ran around to the passenger side. “Well, let’s go for a ride.”
“What do you mean it’s mine?”
“For a year, Vermont. Daddy told Billy to set up a one year lease. We have to go see Billy before he closes to finish the paperwork. Come on, let’s go.”
“Beth, I can’t even afford the insurance for a year on that car.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. It’s got Daddy’s fleet insurance.”
Roger surrendered and quick stepped to the Jeep. The top was off; a tarp was stretched across the cargo area behind the rear bench seat concealing the results of Beth’s shopping trip.
“What’s all that?” he asked with the look of a nine-year-old who just got the new Schwinn he asked Santa for.
She grabbed the tarp and pulled it back revealing a complete set of camping gear. A tent, sleeping bags, stove, lantern, cooler. It looked like a sample pack for a Coleman salesman. Roger sat stunned and speechless. The gear in the back of the Jeep must have cost more than he made last year.
Beth brought him back asking, “You okay, Vermont?”
“Beth, I can’t take the Jeep or any of this.”
“Look, the car is just a loan. And the gear, well if you don’t want to take it with you after the trip then it will just get stored in the barn until the next ice age. Or maybe me and Bobbie will use it. Now if we don’t get moving we’re going to miss Billy at the dealership.”
Roger started the Jeep and sat for a moment listening to the engine, his hand on the steering wheel thinking. He felt odd, like when he was little and his Granddad used to give him a dollar whenever he came to visit. His mother would always give him a look. Later, she would always caution Roger and his sister that Granddad had better things to do with his money. Surely Jack Walker had better things to do with his money, even if he did own most of Nebraska.
“Vermont, you have to put it in gear or it won’t move,” Beth said.
Roger followed her instructions without saying anything and the Jeep lurched and stalled. He restarted it a little embarrassed and with a smoother release of the clutch, they sped off toward the long driveway.
They got to Walker’s Chrysler about ten minutes before closing. Billy was talking to a pretty young woman at the reception desk. Beth had quipped to Roger that Billy always hired cheerleaders to work the reception desk and then spent a great deal of effort and money trying to get in their pants. She also mentioned that he was fairly successful.
A balding salesman dressed in black pants and a red polo shirt with Walker Chrysler embroidered on the sleeve was sitting at a desk in one of ten cubicles located around the perimeter of the showroom. On the desk a small placard “Bob Johnstone—Sales Associate”. Across from him a young couple, both dressed in jeans and western shirts sat nervously as Bob typed in the last of the offer to purchase on a new Caravan. The couple exchanged anxious smiles and then Bob left them while he retrieved the sales contract and presented it to Billy at the reception desk.
Billy and Bob the salesman walked over to the young
couple, everyone shook hands, smiled and Billy left Bob to get all the signatures.
Beth and Billy hugged, and then Billy shook Roger’s hand.
“How ya doin’, slugger,” Billy asked.
“Better than I did when I woke up,” Roger said.
“No doubt. You were in sad shape when you left the party.”
Billy motioned for the pair to follow and they all went in to Billy’s office. Billy gave Roger a few pieces of paper to sign and told him to enjoy the Jeep. Beth got up and went to the restroom. Roger expressed his feeling about accepting the Jeep. Billy eased his mind, telling him that Jack was thinking of making it an MVP prize every time Three-B’s won the annual ball game. The only thing Roger had to do was bring it back when the lease was up.
When Beth returned, Roger and Billy were sharing a laugh about some of the gaffs from players on both teams during the game. The laughter broke off when she entered and asked what was so funny.
“Billy was just sharing some stories about your childhood,” Roger replied and the two men shared another chuckle that broke off when Beth pinched Billy’s left arm hard enough to make him squeal. Roger side stepped away from her and Billy told him to be careful around her. Billy laughed harder; Roger decided it might be best not to respond to this one.
“Okay then, that’s all we need to do here. I guess I’ll see you both at dinner tonight,” Billy said as he ushered them back out to the showroom.
Roger looked at Beth with a confused expression, “Dinner?”
“Oops, sorry, Bethy,” Billy said, leaving them, he returned to the receptionist.
“Daddy said that since I was leaving for a few weeks that we should have a family dinner. He said I should bring you along.”
Roger had already met the parents, but being invited to “The Family Dinner” was a whole new level. Things were moving way too fast. He wasn’t feeling bad about Paige anymore but this felt like a going steady kind of thing and he had only just met Beth. His stomach began to feel queasy but he said, “Sounds like fun.”
The Nightcrawler Page 13
