The morning sun was barely over the horizon as I looked out the windshield of the old truck as it was taking me away from the city. It loomed behind me, the city and the sun as I hit the interstate westward. I was tired of the smog, the overcrowding and throngs of people scurrying about wasting their lives away. The bed of the pickup was filled with everything I owned barely piled over the sides, covered with a silver tarp as I headed to who knows what. I didn't know and for that matter, I didn't care. All I knew is I was leaving what I known for forty years I lived in a city that was filled with self-centered, narcissistic, and psychotics. Drugs reigned the low life world, money reigned the higher class. The people in the middle were stuck, trying to crawl out of the squalor of existence.
I was sure of one thing, a friend I had known since I was a kid had joined the Army and had gotten stationed in Colorado somewhere. He told me the mountains were fantastic, and the air was clean. He said, "You can breathe without gagging at the disgusting smells." So west I headed, waiting to see mountains and clean air. He told me you could see for miles, to the east, plains. The west was the Great Divide, mountains that stretched out for hundreds of miles. I saved for three years, squirreling away as much money as I could, I had saved plenty. I sold my car, a Lexus that was only a year old and bought this old pickup. I had the engine worked on and got it running good, fresh oil, coolant, battery and belts. Soon as I took care of everything I left not looking back. I only looked forward.
When I got to Chicago, I pulled into a truck stop, filled up the gas and ate a late night meal that tasted like a mix of cardboard and ketchup. There was a couple a few booths over from where I was seated and the waitresses, which was it. I was drinking my third cup of newspaper filtered coffee, when I heard the couple start arguing. My back was facing them so I couldn't see them but they were arguing about what I took as the guy was giving the woman a ride and I guessed was expecting her to put out for gas. When she began yelling at him, he grabbed her arm and she screamed out in pain. I tossed a twenty on the table, stood and walked back to the table where they were. I grabbed his arm and twisted it back hearing a pop come from his elbow. As he winched in pain, he released her arm and she immediately stood from the booth and came behind me. I watched her as she moved around me, she was in her thirties and strawberry blonde hair just shorter than me. I looked back at the guy, his arms was turning blue and his face was redder with anger. I figured he was going to do something and the only way to get out of there was to knock the asshole out. I drew back and nailed him right in the face, he fell back nose starting to bleed but unconscious.
I turned to the woman. She smiled at me. "You need a ride?" I asked.
"Yup! Just have to get my things from his car." She said as we high tailed it out of the café. We stopped at a Lexus, yeah I know. The doors were locked. I wrapped my hand in my coat, drew back and punched the glass out with shards shattering flying everywhere. She screeched then leaned in getting a duffle bag out of the back seat. We ran to my truck and she got in the passenger side, tossing the duffle in the back. I got in the driver's seat and started the truck, both of us looking back at the café and the waitress waving her hand at us to get the hell out of there. I headed out back onto the interstate as fast as I could, not spinning any tires and driving safe as I could. I didn't want him to have anyway to figure out which way we went. Once we got to speed, I levelled off, maybe five miles an hour over trying to put as many miles between us and the asshole.
We were silent for a long time. Then I asked, "Are you okay?"
She smiled, "Yeah, thanks."
"My name is Carl, I hope you are going west?" I asked.
She laughed, she had a nice laugh, an honest one. "My name is Jennifer, I am now."
"Which way were you headed?"
She leaned against the back of the seat stretching her jean clad long legs out, "was headed south, I am coming from Minneapolis. How about you?"
"New York." I said with a sneer.
"Hmmm, where you heading?" She asked, I replied, "Colorado."
"Oh nice!" She paused a moment, "Mind if I tag along?"
"No, not at all..." I thought for a second, "and I will pay for the gas."
She laughed again and I laughed with her. She hadn't realized I heard most their conversation.
"That jerk picked me up in Rochester and said her was heading to Dallas." She thought for a second, "I think he was some kind of salesman."
"That figures. He was going that way anyway but thought he had a chance at some free pussy." I said.
"OH yeah, that's exactly what her thought. He stunk and was a low life piece of shit." She opened the window a little bit as I drove on.
We rode in silence till we the Iowa border, the sun coming up behind again. She offered to drive for a while, "You look tired, I can drive."
"I can make it till Des Moines. We do have to stop for some coffee though." She agreed.
A couple exits later we saw another truck stop so I exited, pulled in straight to the pumps. "I am going to fill up here again. Gives us enough miles on the tank." I handed her twenty dollars and she started leaving, then stopped and turned around, "How do you take your coffee?"
