"My name is Brice. This here is grandpa," the driver introduced themselves, "He's not really my grandpa. Nope, not mine. But it piss him off so much. Specially if I call him gramps front of others. So it stuck." He laughed at it quietly as if it was the very first time he was saying it, and it was downright charming, she thought. He'd shared private banter with her and it felt welcoming. She smiled. Augie just groaned and rolled his eyes. He looked old and scruffy but she thought Brice looked handsome. "Augie," said Augie.
"I'm Connie," she introduced herself, "and thanks again so so so much for picking me up, that was really so amazing of you, I was stuck there for hours." She was genuinely grateful and sounded relieved. Her voice sounded young and chirpy. She held the ice cold can to her black eye and it felt better. Brice started feeling self conscious about not being so articulate. Her subtle yet rich perfume had wafted throughout the cab and though he didn't recognize an orchid in it, he recognized its earthy half. Exotic, yet smelled so familiar.
They were driving on a divided highway at the top of the mountain heading vaguely toward the next town over when they slowed down for a sharp turnoff onto a narrow gravel road. The blinker relay was clicking loudly in the silence. The other road looked deceptively tricky to get on. First there was a big bump to cross over at a nasty angle and then it seemed to slope downward somewhat steeply and wind leftward at 90 degrees. Brice angled them carefully for the turn. Augie seemed to supervise, hovering over his seat, checking their mirrors. "You're clear, just take 'er slooow," he drawled. To Connie, it seemed like they overshot the turn but then swung crazily to fit.
Connie had a great view of the whole scene, and she suddenly got worried about which way they were heading. The truck looked kind of big and they were turning onto a tiny single lane road over a bumpy culvert surrounded by deep ditches. The road looked really curvy with a cliff on one side in the near distance. The moon lit it up so neatly, she could see the sea glinting far beyond the ancient guardrail, miles away. Brice got the right front tire partly in the grass but carefully cleared the entrance fences and within seconds lined them up mostly straight and came to a full stop to evaluate. The road ahead curved left after 50 yards.
"Keep it in bull boy," Augie said. Brice nodded and apparently did just that, whatever it was. This was crazy, Connie thought, Brice stomped on the clutch twice and shifted and was giving it what sounded like lots of gas but the truck was barely moving. Seconds went by. It felt like minutes. The whole cab was vibrating violently and yet they hadn't moved an inch. Five seconds went by, maybe. Maybe they were moving, she wasn't so sure. It was so loud and chaotic. The engine started sounding like it was whistling.
"Watch the boost," Augie warned him gently, "watch the boost," and Brice backed off the gas pedal a smidgen and the whistling sound quieted down. Instrument gauges were swinging widely in tune with the motor. The vibrations settled and the truck slowly picked up speed and just as it got barely moving, Brice was already pumping the brake pedal. Augie said, "raise the suspension and lock the diff," and Brice hit a few switches after settling to a stop. They regained traction and the truck was moving forward more willfully, but it seemed to lag a few seconds behind his actions. Turning left, he hugged the right side of the curve so wide and Connie covered her mouth, certain they were about to hit the rickety guardrail and drive off a cliff. Instead, they slowed down so very neatly and turned with the road, they flowed with the road.
"Real heavy," Brice said quietly. Augie looked back at her and expanded for him, "We're kinda real heavy right now, so we gotta take it real slow because the trailer can push us like we was a baby stroller." He emphasized both reals, and he looked concerned. To his credit, he knew where her eyes were located. "Just clearing the first hump, nothing to worry about." Augie didn't sound so sure of himself, Connie realized but she nodded along, wondering just how heavy they were because they had problems getting over a tiny bump at the beginning.
That particularly made her worry.
The downward road looked as beautiful as it looked scary in the dark. Moonlit rocky wall on the left, tree canopies on the right hiding the steep embankment. Brice shifted a few gears and kept the engine revving high but not whistling anymore. The next turn was barely three hundred yards away, cut in stone, a crazily sharp switchback to the right. He alternated the earlier maneuver and Connie couldn't help but be impressed with his driving. From where she was sitting, it felt like they were driving a house! Brice wasn't even watching the road, his eyes were glued to his rear view mirrors, watching the trailer clear inner edges of the road.
They picked up some speed after that turn and this time the whistling engine didn't cause grandpa to complain. Though, Augie chattered non-stop. Brice split up into high range and methodically shifted as the road flattened off somewhat. In a few hundred yards a leftward turn came up fast. Connie's swell felt a little better and the root beer warmed up, so she opened the can and drank and it turned out she was thirsty after all. Augie chuckled at that and said, "using all parts of the buffalo, hah-hah." Brice steered single handed using a spinner knob and downshifted through the turn. He looked so competent doing it, Connie thought.
At the next turn, Brice came to a complete stop and grandpa got out and walked ahead of the truck, spotting him. He checked out the ditches on either side, then guided the truck to inch forward at impossible angles, waving his arms confidently. Connie wanted to ask a question or two but realized Brice was concentrating so she kept it to herself. Just as they cleared the curve, she gasped and realized she'd been holding her breath. She thought driving this house was impossible to begin with, and yet the two of them were making it their bitch. Her heart beat fast. Riding along was surprisingly thrilling.
"Keep it under two," Augie said and Brice muttered "yep two, grandpa," and nodded. Connie got confused.
"Uh, two miles per hour? We're going like 20," she wondered outloud curiously. Augie turned back to face her and smiled. How could anyone not smile at her?
"Two thousand RPMs, we gonna be running hot going downhill the whole time. Gotta save the valves, already overdue for a rebuild," he explained. She didn't really understand, but, she appreciated the level of detail he went into because it sounded genuine and not patronizing in the slightest. She grasped that they were hurting for money and trying to cut every reasonable corner to save. That's something she understood very well. "Oh."
Next few switchbacks were sharp but didn't need a guidewalk, and then the next two did. At the last one, Connie felt frustrated because grandpa was constantly zipping left and right for clearance checks and it looked so inefficient, tiring. He was stumbling over ditch rocks in the dark and finally Connie blurted out, "Can I help? I can watch the left side." It sounded like the less complicated one. She felt reasonably confident that she could manage it.
"Sure?" Brice asked and hoped she wasn't just being polite. A second set of eyes would really speed this along.
She hopped out of the truck instead of answering, taking a cue from his silent type playbook, and walked in front of the headlights waving at Augie. He understood what she was doing right away and without questioning her returned to the harder side, now fully able to focus on the narrowing curve. Brice snuck a peek at her ass again and wondered what the hell she was doing out here to begin with. But, he was glad she was there because the two of them maneuvered the truck through the turn far faster than one person could have managed by hisself. She was fast at picking up hand signals and much prettier to look at than Augie.
"Hell yeah," Augie called out happily and high fived her as they got back in the cab. Connie grinned, feeling useful for once.
Some minutes later, they went out again and spotted another turn, and then another. Connie tripped over a rock hidden in the tall grass and screamed in surprise. She was down on the ground with her legs spread wide in the blinding headlights and both Brice and Augie called out after her, worried. She just sat there and laughed, flashing them red panties.
