Crossing Tinker's Knob

by Cooper, Inglath

  “They just took a right,” Holden barks. He unbuckles his seat belt and sticks his head out the window, yelling into the wind. I can’t understand what he’s saying, although I’m pretty sure it involves profanity.

  “Why don’t we just pull over and call 911?” I suggest.

  Thomas ducks his head to see around a produce truck loaded with bushel baskets of tomatoes and cabbage. “They won’t catch them before we do.”

  I have to admit we’re gaining on them. I can now see the way the guy holding the guitar case keeps throwing looks of panic over his shoulder. He’s making scooting motions, too, like he can force the motorcycle to go faster in doing so.

  I drop my head against the seat and close my eyes, forcing myself not to look for a few seconds. That only makes the lack of control worse, so I bolt upright and hold onto Hank Junior tight as I can.

  We’re two car lengths behind them now, and the motorcycle driver has taken his craziness to another level. He zips past a mini-van, laying the bike so low that the end of the guitar case looks like it might touch the pavement. I hear and feel Holden yank in a breath.

  Thomas cuts around the van and lays on the horn. We’re right on the motorcycle’s tail now and, in the headlights, I see that both the driver and his buddy are terrified. The front of the truck is all but touching the license plate of the motorcycle, and I don’t dare think what would happen if they slammed on their brakes.

  “Slow down!” I scream, unable to stand another second. At that same moment, the guy holding the guitar case sends it flying out to the right of the bike.

  It skitters on the asphalt, slips under the rail and disappears from sight.

  “Stop!” Holden yells.

  Thomas hits the brakes, swings onto the shoulder and then slams the truck into reverse. Suddenly, we’re backing up so fast my head is spinning.

  “Right here!” Holden shouts and before Thomas has even fully stopped the truck, he’s jumping out the door and running.

  “There’s a flashlight in the glove compartment,” Thomas says, leaning over me.

  I’m too stunned to move, and so I sit perfectly still, willing my reeling head to accept that we’ve stopped. Hank Junior barks his approval, and I rub his back in agreement.

  Thomas hauls out, flicking on the flashlight and calling for Holden. Within seconds, he’s disappeared from sight, too. I tell myself I need to get out and help look, but a full minute passes before I can force my knees to stop knocking long enough to slide off the truck seat. I hold onto Hank Junior’s leash as if my life depends on it and teeter over to the spot where I’d seen them hop over the guardrail.

  The drop off is steep, and vines cover the ground. I can’t see much except in the swipes when cars pass and lend me their headlights. I catch a glimpse of the light way down the hill. I hear Thomas’s voice followed by Holden’s.

  “Are y’all okay?” I call out.

  “We got it!” Thomas yells.

  I’m so relieved I literally wilt onto the rail, and send up a prayer of thanks. Hank Junior and I wait while they climb up. Holden appears first, looking as battered as his case. Thomas is right behind him. As soon as they reach the top, they both drop down on the ground, breathing heavily.

  “Man,” Thomas says. “What I wouldn’t give for the chance to beat their tails!”

  They gulp air for several seconds before Holden fumbles with the latches on the case and pops it open. Thomas points his flashlight at the interior, and my heart drops.

  “Well, that’s not good,” Thomas says, his big Georgia voice dropping the words like boulders.

  Holden picks up the guitar. It hangs limp and useless, broken in three places. He holds it the way a little boy would hold a baseball glove that got chewed up by the lawn mower. His expression is all but grief-stricken.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Thomas consoles.

  “Then whose fault is it?” Holden snaps, his blue gaze lasering me with accusation.

  “Those two butt-wipes who stole it,” Thomas says tightly.

  “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t insisted on stopping to help her!”

  “Man, what’s wrong with you? Her car was on fire. Chivalry ain’t that dead.”

  Holden hesitates, clearly wrestling with a different opinion. “We didn’t have to give her a ride to Nashville.”

  “No, we didn’t,” Thomas agrees. “But that ain’t who we are.”

  I stand and dust off my skirt. I walk to the truck, Hank Junior trailing behind me. I climb up on the back tire, reach for my guitar and return to where the two of them are still sitting. I pull out my own lyric notebook and the flash drive that contains the only two song demos I’ve been able to afford to have made. I stick that in my pocket, close the case and hand it to Holden.

  “You take mine,” I say. “I know it won’t replace yours, but maybe it’ll work temporarily. Y’all have been real nice to me. I’m not gonna ask any more of you. Thanks a lot for everything.”

  And with that, Hank Junior and I start walking.

  If you liked this sample, get a FREE copy of Nashville – Part One – Ready to Reach! Part Two, Part Three and Part Four are available at the links below.

  Nashville – Part Two – Hammer and a Song

  Nashville – Part Three – What We Feel

  Nashville – Part Four – Pleasure in the Rain

  ♪

  Get in Touch With Inglath Cooper

  Email: inglathcooper@gmail.com

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  Free Stuff!

  Get a FREE copy of Nashville – Part One – Ready to Reach!

  Nineteen-year old CeCe Mackenzie leaves Virginia for Nashville with not much more to her name than a guitar, a Walker Hound named Hank Junior and an old car she’d inherited from her grandma called Gertrude.

  But Gertrude ends up on the side of I-40 in flames, and Nashville has never seemed farther away.

  Help arrives in the form of two Georgia football players headed for the Nashville dream as well. When Holden Ashford and Thomas Franklin stop to offer CeCe and Hank Junior a ride, fate may just give a nod to serendipity and meant to be.

  *

  And get a FREE copy of the audio book for Truths and Roses!

  First love. Second chances. Secrets with the power to change lives.

  When Will Kincaid’s professional football career comes to an abrupt end in a single night, he’s left to figure out what he’s going to do with the rest of his life. He heads home to the small Virginia town where he grew up and crosses paths with Hannah Jacobs, the only girl in high school who had ever rejected him. It’s Hannah who once made him question the choices he had made, and it’s Hannah who’s making him question them all over again. But with the weight of a secret he’s managed to hide from the world his entire adult life hanging over him, he can’t afford to question his choices.

  Hannah Jacobs had once made the choice to deny her feelings for Will Kincaid, at the time finding it the only possible option for a young girl intent on burying a nightmare she only wanted to forget. The life she’s made for herself as a librarian in Lake Perdue is a quiet one, and she’s hardly prepared for the day when Will rams his fancy Ferrari into her dependable old clunker. But for Hannah, Will Kincaid can only stir up memories she had long ago put away forever. And there’s nothing at all good that can come from bringing them back to life again.

 

 

 
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