Rick Dash was on a 400-mile walk, alone with nothing to prove. The boss had ordered him to take time off because in the past three years he'd taken off only official holidays simply because on those occasions the entire plant closed down.
It had been three years since Rick's marriage broke up and the subsequent divorce so he hadn't done much socializing from the day his wife tossed him that bombshell. Amy had always organized the socializing and after she left him for that bastard Fitzgerald he'd not wanted a lot to do with women.
Mr Masters told him to get out and live life for a month. Rick would remain on full salary.
"What could I do with all that time?"
"Fly to Guam or perhaps go whoring in Mexico. My boy your options are limitless. In your position I'd go fishing and whoring. If you can't decide on anything, just get up and go."
So the chief engineer who headed the eleven specialists that kept the plant running to produce garden furniture and outdoor decorative art sold in thirteen countries, decided to just head out of town and start walking. The destination he picked was 404 miles away. That should soak up time.
It was early fall so Rick thought he'd walk ten miles the first day and increase that distance by two miles a day until he could average twenty miles a day but making adjustments to finish each afternoon somewhere large enough to rent a room for the night and bath his feet. That should take him about twenty-two days to complete his journey, more if he stayed over any where but if his feet held up he'd avoid doing that. He'd been walking five miles every night on pavements to break in his tramping boots and toughen up his feet. He wore steel-capped boots every day at work so thought his feet would be partly conditioned. God he wasn't walking across Arizona or the Sahara.
The thirty-seven year old who was fit through gym workouts and swimming finished up at work on Friday at 4:00 and set off next morning. The first day was a breeze and the days that followed were even easier. What he liked about it was he had time to smell the flowers, as they say. People who stopped to offer him a ride often wanted to chat, so he remained patient, knowing he could walk into the twilight if necessary. Sometimes the people who stopped offered him accommodation en route and he accepted a couple of those but found it meant getting away late each morning because he couldn't be rude an leave early after receiving friendly hospitality.
One thing Rick hadn't thought of was the huge amount of thinking time he'd have. At home he pottered around and went to the gym. It was a new lifestyle for him on the road. He began to think about finding feminine company again.
Approaching mid-afternoon on his second last day on the road, Rick entered the small village and knew this would be the tough one, the smallest community en route. It might have a rooming house but that was unlikely. His best hope was it had a bar and he might fall into conversation with someone who'd offer him a bed for the night. He hadn't missed out getting a bed so far so his optimism held. It was raining but he had a change of clothes sealed in plastic in his backpack.
On the outskirts of the village he saw a woman beside her house spinning the wheels of her mired vehicle, digging the ruts even deeper. He ran over and yelled, "Switch off your motor."
Although startled she obeyed.
He opened the driver's door and now the redhead looked frightened.
"It's okay I'm on a hiking vacation. Your vehicle is mired. I can extricate the vehicle if the car has a jack and you can show me where there are two planks."
"What will you do?" said the woman in her late twenties.
"Free your car. That's what you want isn't it?"
"Well yes. But you'll get wet."
"I'm already wet."
The woman got out and putting up an umbrella said, "I'll open the trunk. You'll find the jack there. Here let me take your backpack. I'll put it in the dry on the front porch."
She opened the trunk with her remote and Rick handed her the backpack.
"This is a foreign vehicle. Is it front or rear wheel drive?"
"I wouldn't know. I just drive it. It has reverse gear if you wish to go backwards."
Rick sighed and bit back a comment about where were women when brains were given out.
The vehicle was front-wheel drive. Rick was surprised she'd got it stuck but when the jack sank just by its own weight he realized the ground was water-logged and beyond the front wheels. He pushed the jack in the slot under the vehicle and jacked. The base of the jack sank perhaps eight inches until it hit firmer ground.
She was standing beside him holding the umbrella over him.
"Don't, you'll get wet."
"I feel awful you getting wet on my behalf."
"I really would prefer you not getting wet. I'm already soaked."
"I couldn't find planks, only blocks of firewood and tools and the lawnmower and an old car cover."
"Car cover. What is it made of?"
"Stuff."
Rick breathed through his nose heavily until that flashpoint dissipated. She looked highly intelligent but had gaps. Well he couldn't arrange flowers or bear to change diapers so he wasn't such a hotshot was he?
"Take me to it."
"To what?"
"The old car cover made of stuff."
They sloshed to the detached garage beyond the back of the house.
He said conversationally, "This is good shelter for rats."
She moved closer and took his arm, saying she had never seen any.
The cover wasn't canvas but some poly-something that probably was even stronger.
"This will do. I'll place it under the front wheels and then get to you reverse the car very slowly. This material will give the tires just enough grip providing you go very slowly and I push."
"It would be better to go forward."
"There's an even deeper bog in front of the car. Probably a drain is blocked if this driveway doesn't usually block in the wet."
"It doesn't. Are there really rats there?"
"Where?"
"In the garage."
"Dunno. Borrow someone's fox terrier and take it in there, closing the doors. It will soon sort things out for you, either yawning or going into a frenzy and ripping around looking for vermin."
"God you are hugely intelligent."
Rick laughed. "You're wrong about that. I'm an engineer, sneered at by professions that exalt themselves more."
"Including prostitutes?"
