The night is always filled with demons on the road. Something he always knew. It was 11:30 and the rain was driving hard against his windshield making the yellow lines his only companion. He knew this was a bad idea from the start in his old 78-ford truck, but he wanted to get to warmer weather and once he got to Florida he could get something else. At the time, it sounded like a plan, but the clicking coming from inside the block unnerved him.
His thoughts went back to the rest stop thirty miles back where the waitress told him to stick to the main roads because the back way were desolate this time of night. He turned up the radio to an old George Straight tune. Some calming music to drown out the knocking from the engine he thought. Outside the storm raged in intensity.
Thunder and lightning cracked around him lighting the road for a second and shaking the old truck. He was edging along at 35 when a bolt of lightning struck a hundred yards from the road. The thunder roared, but his attention was focused on the large clunk and dent from under the hood.
The engine stopped and he hit the wheel swearing as he coasted to the edge of the road. Without the sound of the engine, he could hear the gravel crunching under the tires as he came to a stop. He rested his head on the steering wheel wondering what he was thinking when he started this trip. As the song on the radio ended, he clicked it off and looked up at the hood that he could barely see through the rain. He did not need to go look to know what was wrong he threw a rod. He looked forward and backwards and saw no lights.
“I guess I’ll go take a look old girl, but I think this is where you’re going to stay.” He said with a sigh.
He searched around the cab looking for his rain gear then remembered he had put in the back with his tools under everything else he owned. He closed his eyes and tilted his head down.
“Why oh why.” He said shaking his head. He leaned back into the seat then reluctantly opened the door and was hit with a rush of cold rain and warm air. He was soaked before he even got out.
The journey around to the hood was against the wind and he had to lean into it to stay balanced. He popped the hood and it flung up smacking against the windshield putting a foot long crack across the driver side. His luck was not improving. Once he wiped his glasses, he could see the rod sticking tauntingly up from the block. Out of shear stubbornness or stupidity, he tried to push it back down. He knew even if he could it wouldn’t help the situation, but it would make him feel better. It wouldn’t budge. A quick inspection of the rest of the engine revealed nothing more than the normal problems that were always there. He moved around and grabbed the hood pulling it back down and latching it.
“So now what the hell we going to do old girl? It’s thirty miles back to where we came and I have no clue how far ahead of us anything is.” He paused waiting for an answer that he knew he wouldn’t get.
“Well I’m wet anyway I might as well start walking. I’ll bring back a tow truck for ya” He said slapping the hood and pulling down the rim of his hat to shield his eyes from the pellets of rain.
Grumbling to himself, he started to trek down the road. As he reached the first turn in the road, he heard a car coming towards him. He looked up and could see a pair of headlights coming towards him.
“Thank God.” He thought to himself.
As they approached, he could see it was a truck. He moved into the lane and started waving his hat in the air hoping to get the drivers attention.
“Please stop please stop.” The voice in his head kept repeating. As it approached the truck slowed to a stop next to him. Slowly the window cranked down.
“Bad day to pick for a walk in the country.” The driver yelled over the hammering of the rain.
“I didn’t choose to be out here.” He said with a smile that no one could see.
“My truck threw a rod about a half mile back. I was going to see if I could find some help and a dry spot to stand in for a bit.”
“Well it’s your lucky day. If you kept walking you wouldn’t find anything down that way till tomorrow afternoon on foot. Get in and I’ll take you to a phone and you can see about getting some help.”
He quickly obliged and got around to the passenger side of the truck and got in. As he closed the door, a ragged towel hit him in the face.
“Dry yourself off a bit” The driver said in a light feminine voice. He perked up and looked over at the woman sitting in the driver seat. Though his rain covered glasses, he could make out a blonde and not much else. Quickly he dried his glasses and looked again.
“And could ya put that under yourself when you’re done.” She said as she began to pull away.
“Truck threw a rod huh?” she queried him as he roughed out his hair. “What type of truck?”
“An old 78-ford. Had here for quite awhile. I knew something was going to happen from the sounds it was making.”
“Truck that old you have to baby. They take a lot of care to keep on the road.” She said shaking her head slightly.
She slowed as they came up on his truck. With great caution, she pulled in front of it illuminating it with the headlights. She could see the upraised dent in the hood and the large spider crack in the windshield.
“Ok I know what happened to the hood but what’s with the windshield? You get upset at the thing and smash it?”
“No. When I went to lift the hood it got away from me and must have cracked it harder than I thought.” A frown crept across his face.
“There a good garage around here that might be able to help me out?”
“Yep up the road a bit is Stan’s. You passed the road on your way to here, but probably couldn’t see it. Its pretty far back off the road.” She peered hard over the steering wheel looking hard at the humbled wreck in front of them.
“Not sure if it would even be worth it to have him take a look. It’ll probably be cheaper just to get something else.” She backed the truck up and pulled around to the side.
“There anything in there that you need?” she asked looking at the piles of soaked bags in the bed of the truck.
“Some dry cloths, but I know everything in there is soaked so I guess not.”