The Road Home 1

Finishing a job late on a Friday afternoon is not good, especially during the summer. The roads are crowded with people getting an early start to their weekend plans. Most of them are in a big hurry and not in a good frame of mind. I particularly hate it when I'm over three hundred miles from home, as the case today.

I do have several options as to routes. One is a four-lane highway to the east straight through the middle of Houston at rush hour. I don't think so. The other is a twisting route over numerous, small, narrow two lane back roads, somewhat better, maybe.

I headed north on a main highway, while mentally going over the highway choices in my head. Here in southeast central gulf coastal Texas there aren't too many choices that add up to a straight line to the northeast without making a lot of road changes. Although this highway would take me almost halfway home and then I would need to work myself back to the east.

I figured I'd worry about that later as I set a steady pace of the speed limit plus five. This is fast enough not to be run over by the weekend maniacs but slow enough not to draw the eyes of the local or state laws that will be out in force after the weekend warriors.

Things started off fairly well. Some tie-ups in one of the smaller towns and a speeding SUV loaded to the gills tried to run me off the road while he was passing on a curve, just the normal stuff. Right about dark things turned to shit. I topped a hill and had to hit my brakes hard, traffic was stopped and backed up for as far as I could see.

Mentally I'm searching for a way around this mess without doubling back to far. I even went so far as to pull the map out of the console to check it. As far as I can tell its forty miles back to the nearest main road that would be of any help and that's not much help as it goes way around to the west.

As far as where the small, dirt, county roads go, it's anyone's guess. I remembered seeing two of them just a few miles back so I decide to turn around and check them out. Before I can, I see a pair of headlights coming toward me so I wait for them to pass. It's a small white four-wheel drive SUV. You know the type; the kind that looks like it was designed by Tonka on a motorcycle scale.

I waited a couple of minutes to see if there were more but it was the only one so I guess the road was still blocked. Probably someone like me that didn't like to sit and wait or it might be a local that knew a way around this mess. Turning around I headed back south over the hill. Traffic was now backed up past the top of the hill.

I had figured on following the white truck if it turned off but when I cleared the hill, it was gone. It must have turned off, but where was the question. I passed a county road to the left then two more on the right before I came to a short bridge.

Turning around again I went back to the second one to the right and turned. Stopping a short ways down the road, I got out of the truck and checked the sandy dirt road surface for signs of fresh tire tracks. There were none that I could see by the truck lights.

Back in the truck, I backed out into the main highway, went north to the road to the left, and turned into it. When I checked the road surface, there were several sets of tire tracks. One set was narrow like what would have been made by the little SUV. What the heck, all I could do was get lost or end up back where I was. The road was dirt and narrow but it was fairly smooth and dry.

After a few miles, the road had made one long sweeping curve to the north then several gentle bends as it crossed two creek bottoms. I was making fairly good time but to where I didn't know. I hadn't passed any houses or side roads so I drove on through the thickly wooded countryside.

Topping a rise I slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel to the left, sliding to a stop crossways in the road. There was a ninety-degree turn ahead and the little SUV was sitting at an odd angle with its rear sticking out in the road.

A woman and a girl were standing in the middle of the road. I had missed them by only inches as they scrambled out of the road. Exiting the truck I saw the girl standing on the side of the road but the woman was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is your Mom?" I yelled at the girl. She stared at me and pointed to the ditch.

As I ran toward her, I asked loudly, "Is she hurt?"

The girl just shook her head and grinned. "I don't think so. Just all wet and highly pissed."

I slid to a stop and looked at the girl sharply, then walked over to the ditch, and looked down into the dark. The ditch was far deeper than it looked and three quarters full of water. The woman was standing with the water up to her breasts and cussing softly to herself. The top of the ditch was over her head and slippery with mud.

"Are you all right?" I asked moving closer to the edge and squatting down.

Looking up she replied, "Physically I'm fine, other than being cold and wet. Mentally that's a whole other story, which I will discuss at length when I get out of here."

The ditch was narrow and steep, almost straight up and down. I walked up, and then down the roadside to see if there was a flatter place to exit, there wasn't. What did they dig ditches with around here, a backhoe or a trenching machine. Sitting down above the woman I dug my boot heels in as solidly as I could and leaned forward extending my hands toward her.

"Grab my hands and I'll try to pull you out. Use your feet against the bank if you can get a grip."

She looked at me for a long moment, then reached up and grabbed my wrists as I grabbed hers. I could feel her trying to get a toehold on the clay bank as I tried to lift her. She finally got a hold and started up as I used my legs to stand up and my back to lift. Her toehold gave way and she fell heavily.

Her upper half was on the top but the rest hung down the bank. She released my wrists and started to slide back into the ditch. I reached over, grabbed a hand full of material at the top of her cut off jeans, and pulled. Grabbing my leg, then my belt she wiggled forward almost on top of me.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." I said.

"Speak for yourself; I've got the wedgie from hell." She replied as she rolled over and tugged at the frayed bottoms of her cutoffs. "Not to mention cold, wet, and now muddy."

I stood up and backed away, not knowing what to expect from this woman. The girl was right, she wasn't hurt, but she was most definitely pissed. I was getting out of the line of fire, so I walked over to my truck, and got it straightened out in the road with the lights on their truck.

When I got back out, the girl said, "I told you he wasn't leaving. Although from your attitude he probably should."

"Watch your mouth young lady; I'm still your mother." Turning to me the woman continued, "You'll have to excuse her; she's in the authority testing stage and sometimes has a mouth on her."

"Must run in the family," I muttered.

The girl laughed and the woman looked at me sharply but held her tongue. "Okay." I said, "Let's see what can be done about your truck."

I retrieved a flashlight and a tow strap from my truck and walked over to survey theirs. The right front wheel was hanging over the ditch and the front axle was on the ground. I opened the driver's door and turned the wheel hard left.

Moving to the back I attached the strap to the rear corner of the frame and laid it out to the right side of the road. I repositioned my truck over the strap end and hooked it to the frame. Returning to their truck I straightened the wheels back up.

As I walked back to my truck the woman asked. "Do you want me to get in and help drive it out or at least steer?"

I stopped and looked at the truck and ditch, and then at her. "I'm kind of worried about someone being in there, if it slips. That ditch is quite a bit wider than where you fell in but just as deep. You could stand by the open door and keep the wheels straight or turned just a little this way. Be prepared to get out of the way if there's any problem though."

Getting in my truck, I watched her walk over to the SUV. Yes she was wet and muddy, cold too from the looks of her hard nipples showing against the thin wet material of her dark tank top. All in all, a very good looking woman.

When she waved she was ready I placed my truck in reverse and slowly backed up. As the strap took the strain, the rear wheels of her truck moved sideways and back, just what I wanted it to do. Easing off the gas, I held the brake then slipped the transmission into forward and eased the strain on the strap until it was barely slack.

Leaning out the window, I yelled, "Take it out of gear, and get in. Don't start it just be ready to apply the brakes."

She nodded and got in as I got ready to backup again. Moving back, the strap took the strain and stretched as it moved her vehicle until the right front wheel touched the bank. The steering wheel started to turn and she grabbed it, trying to hold it straight.

Suddenly the force of my truck and the stretch of the strap overcame the weight of the smaller truck and it popped up level and rolled free. I stopped and the woman frantically pumped the brake pedal. I had to quickly back up another ten feet before she got it stopped.

I got out, unhooked the strap from both vehicles, and put it away. The woman walked over to my truck and said, "No brakes, I had to use the emergency brake to stop it. They worked fine before; I must have broken something."

"Probably a line, I'll get the flashlight and we'll check it out."

Sure enough, a line was pulled apart on the right front. It also appeared that the spring mount was twisted at the frame. I told her what I'd found. She was not a happy camper to say the least.

After she stopped cussing to herself, I said, "We can move it a short ways, someplace off the road where it'll be out of the way and I can give you a ride." I offered.

She looked at me for a long moment before replying, "You've been a great help and we thank you but we'll try to go on in our own truck."

"Mom!" the girl said.

I waved my hand at her and said, "That emergency brake is quite awkward to use and not real safe." As she started to protest I held up my hand. "That twisted mount has the spring in a bind and could cause it to break and the truck could go out of control and into another ditch. Also do you know where this road goes? I don't."

She looked at the girl and back at me. "Okay." She said, thinking about what I'd told her. "You seem to know what you're talking about and no I don't know where this road goes. We were just tired of waiting in traffic. Stupid, stupid idea."

"No, Mom, just a stupid place for a stupid sharp turn." The girl said.

Her mom smiled and said, "Okay, Lets load up and see where this goes or we could go back and see if the highway is clear. I just wish I could clean up and get some dry clothes on."

"No problem." I told her. "I've got a five gallon can with some water in it in the back of the truck. There's also a towel; soap and a wash clothe in there somewhere. First though we need to get out of the middle of the road."

*****

I drove around the curve and about a quarter mile farther I found a wide turn out on the side of the road. We moved her damaged truck there. Chris, the girl, and I loaded their stuff into my truck while Dixie, the mom got cleaned up. She hung a blanket over the barbed wire fence to make a screen, and proceeded to do the best she could under these conditions.

When she finished she brought everything over to the tailgate of my truck and sat down to wash the mud off her feet. The flared skirt and peasant blouse looked good on her. Not as good as the wets cutoffs and tank top, but good. She put on a pair of sandals and ran a brush through her short dark reddish brown hair, a good-looking woman by all means.

Dixie was five feet seven inches tall with long tapered legs, nicely flared hips, and a fairly flat tummy for a lady in her late thirties, I'd guess, and nice if not smallish breasts. Not that I would ever say such a thing about her breasts to her or near her.

Her face was oval with high cheekbones and dark brown eyes. High arched eyebrows and a mobile mouth made her face very expressive. She had a habit of licking her lips with just the very tip of her tongue that I found to be very exotic and erotic. I don't believe she was even aware she was doing it.

Chris was a slightly shorter copy of her mom but with red hair and green eyes. There was no mistaking them for mother and daughter. I will have to say that Chris had passed her mom in the boobs department some time ago.

Loaded up, I got in the truck with Chris beside Dixie and me at the other door. "Well, which way? Straight ahead or back to the highway?" I asked.

Chris said, "I want to know where this damn road goes."

"Hey, you may be eighteen but watch the language. There's no need to cuss this damn road. It's not the road's fault, that some idiot asshole put a curve in a blind spot. I want to know where it goes myself so I guess we go ahead." she finished with a grin as she realized what she had said.

I laughed and said, "Monkey see, Monkey do." Chris laughed and Dixie gave me a hard look.

Putting the truck in gear, we moved out and down the road. Checking the dash clock I was surprised to find it was almost midnight. We had gone nearly ten miles when the road forked. I stopped and studied the two roads trying to decide which one to take.

I looked over at Dixie and said, "The right one has most of the traffic but the left is a wider, better road."

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "You've got me, I haven't a clue."

"Take the left one." Chris said.

I shrugged and turned the wheel left. The road ran straight for several miles before it curved slowly back to the right. I had the feeling we were once again headed north but with the moon down it was hard to tell. Several curves, another ninety-degree turn, and three narrow bridges later we came to a stop at a stop sign.

There was a two-lane asphalt road in front of us, but which one. I turned on the cab light and reached for a pen and note pad. I wrote down the county road number then got out my map. Chris was asleep with her head on Dixie's shoulder.

"My best guess would be to the right until we get a road number." I said to Dixie.

She nodded and yawned, so I asked, "Where were you two headed before this all started?"

She looked over at me and blinked several times. "North of Austin about forty miles to a friend of ours. You don't need to take us all the way there, just to a phone so we can call and get help fixing the truck."

It was a little after one and no help would be available until at least eight. That was seven hours from now and we were about two and a half-hours from Austin. I explained these thoughts to Dixie as I pulled out onto the highway.

"If it's not too much out of your way or trouble we'd appreciate it." She said.

"It's no problem at all; I'm in no hurry to get anywhere in particular. There's a road sign, we're going the right way. You get some rest and I'll get us headed in the right direction."

She gave me a rough set of directions to her friend's ranch before drifting off to sleep. I made pretty good time and was just southeast of Austin when Chris sat up and looked around while stretching as much as she could in the crowded truck.

Softly I explained where we were. She nodded her head and said, "Is that a gas station ahead? I've got to pee, big time."

I chuckled and turned into the drive of the all night convenience store. I could use a rest stop myself, and a cup of coffee. I eased to a stop, got out, and stretched. Chris was trying to untangle herself from the console and her mom without waking the latter up.

By the time, she got to the edge of the seat and ready to exit the truck, her little short sundress was up around her waist. She sat there a moment and looked around. I was doing some looking of my own.

The top two buttons below the scooped neckline were undone and I can assure you there was no bra under there, just firm young breasts. They were of the same even tan as her face, arms, and legs. She sat with one leg at the front edge of the seat and one at the side of the seat. The height of the dress showed bare thighs and a hip almost to her waist.

A small wisp of reddish brown hair was peeking over the top of her left thigh. As she swung around farther and slipped off the seat, I caught a glimpse of her almost hairless young sex. There was a large wide V of short hair on her mound; the rest was smooth and slick.

Standing beside me, she stretched and bent to loosen her stiff muscles. This was having the complete opposite affect on part of me, so I shook my head and turned to go in the store. She followed and then headed for the John. I was paying for a large cup of coffee and a couple of cokes by the time she returned.

Back at the truck, Dixie was awake and blinking like a young owl in the bright lights. Chris opened her mom's door and said, "Rest stop, Mom. Use it or lose it," and handed Dixie one of the cokes I'd bought.

Dixie stuck it into the drink holder on the dash and got out. Like the rest of us, she had to stretch and bend. I sipped my coffee and watched. Dixie made her trip inside and returned with a pack of cinnamon rolls and another cup of coffee. Opening the pack, she handed each of us one.

Around a bite of cinnamon roll, Dixie said, "I could call Wayne and see if he or his wife could come pick us up. That way you could continue where you were going."

I looked at my watch; it was three thirty AM. "It's only another half hour, maybe a little more before we get there. Let them sleep; I thought I might be able to catch a nap once we get there. I've been up going on twenty hours now."

"I don't think that would be a problem. They're really nice people. I could drive from here if you don't mind; it would give you some rest." She paused for a moment then continued, "Luckily there are no hidden ditches here."

Chris and I both laughed. "I don't have any problem with your driving. How about you Chris?" Chris had a large mouth full of cinnamon roll, so she just shook her head and rolled her eyes. I had to chuckle at her expression.

*****

Dixie drove north through town sipping on her coffee. I sipped on my coffee and tried to ignore the hot hip and thigh pressed tightly against mine. I tried not to think about the small warm hand resting from time to time on my thigh an inch or so below my manhood. I'd have gotten more rest driving.

When we passed out of the lights of town, Chris turned slightly toward me and rested her head against my shoulder. Her right hand and arm was now between us with mine wedged on top, which helped, but her right breast pressed against my bare arm. It was warm and firm through the thin material of her dress. It moved slightly as she breathed.

Okay, I thought to myself, I can handle this. Then she moved slightly and placed her left hand directly on top of my manhood. I nearly spit the sip of coffee I had in my mouth. I looked over at her face; she seemed to be asleep from her regular deep breathing.

I knew I wouldn't sleep, that warm small hand had my total attention. From time to time, a bump in the road would cause her to move it slightly. Visions of her breasts and sweet young thighs and sex chased each other through my mind whenever I tried to relax.

By the time, we exited the interstate and turned into the county road I was hard as a rock. The county road was fairly rough and crooked. I glanced over at Dixie as we made a ninety-degree left. When we were straight again she glanced at me and grinned.

"It's the ones I can't see that give me trouble." She said.