Elaine Struthers was on her way to see her friend Roberta, everyone called her Bobbie. There were five girls that worked there, at CED, out of about 100 girls that had become close friends. When Roberta received a job offer at double her salary she said 'adios' to her friends and flew to Portland. Elaine and Bobbie remained close and spoke just about every other day. Bobbie had spoken to her during her lunch hour. Then at 5 PM PST she called Elaine again, excitedly she said...
"Elaine, it's Bobbie, you make about 32.5 now right?"
"Yeah, but what's ...
"There's a job opening Monday, it starts at 65 K, goes to 110 K, Interested?"
"Wow, are you kidding me? Sure I'm interested?"
"There a hitch, you gotta be here first thing Monday morning. The gal that has the job now, her husband is in the Navy and is being transferred to Boston or Newport News I'm not sure which. But she's leaving the end of the month. When does your vacation start?"
"I'm taking next Friday as a sick day, and then I have the next three weeks off."
"That's perfect."
"Listen, I know you have been doing CAD work for the last two years. Everyone comes to you to show them what they're doing wrong. So you're like the company expert. That's what they're looking for. I happen to know the head of HR. He's married, but every once in a while we hook up. I'm positive if I introduce you and you show him what you can do, you've got the job. Why don't you take the 'red eye' tonight and I'll arrange an interview for you tomorrow around 1:30 PM. That way you can sack out at my place. What do you say?"
"I say, I'll see you in the AM. I'll call you if I have a problem getting the flight. I'll take a cab from the airport. Leave your key under the mat, that way I won't have to wake you. I'll sack out on your couch."
"Fuck that, my alarm goes off at seven. I have to be at work at eight AM. Just strip and get into my bed and go to sleep. I'll call the house about 11:45 AM. You can get coffee on the corner at Dunkin Doughnuts and still have plenty of time to get to your appointment; it only takes 15 minutes to get to my office. Have a nice flight, and try to get some sleep on the plane. I'll see you tomorrow, bye."
The interview went like clockwork. She even enjoyed bantering with him. It was when he asked her to do some things with the graphics program that she surpassed all his needs. He had told her...
"I didn't know you could do that with this program. Can you start the first of the month?"
"Absolutely that fits perfectly with my plans."
Later when she was talking with Bobbie she told how things went.
"The interview went perfectly. Mr. Harmonson was duly impressed by my ability. I start the first of the month. You were right I'm at 65 K. I can't believe it. There is a flight to Chicago at 6:45 PM on Virgin America. I already booked the flight. Tomorrow I'll let the super know I'm not renewing my lease. I'll tell everyone at work I'm driving cross country to visit you in Portland. Friday I'll start packing my car with my stuff. I'll do it slow and easy. By Saturday afternoon I should be finished. Then sometime Sunday morning I'll start my journey. I'm going to do it in slow easy stages. I want to see some of this country, and I'll be talking to you every day, letting you know about my progress. I'm really excited about my trip."
Her first stop was in Iowa, and then on into Nebraska, from here she managed to get a bit lost but eventually got into Wyoming. Here the weather turned bad and she hit heavy rain. She was climbing high into the Rocky Mountains. Somehow she got off the interstate and she was traveling on smaller roads. The rain got so bad she couldn't see the roadway clearly, so she started hunting for a turn out to stop at. She was hoping to park and wait for the storm to pass. An old Jeep station wagon pulled into the same turnout and parked. She guessed the driver had the same idea as her. Park here and wait for the storm to pass.
It was already getting dark and with the heavy rain it was difficult to see the other vehicle. Elaine had climbed into the back of her car. She was stretched out on the back seat listening to soft rock on her iPod while she munched on Nachos from a family size foil bag. Her cooler was open and she was drinking from one 22 oz. bottle from her 12 pack of diet Lipton tea.
The rain was pounding on the roof of her car and she was starting to fall asleep. She decided that since the rain didn't sound like it wasn't going to stop soon she might as well catch some zzz's. She folded the bag closed and used the bag clip she bought to keep the chips fresh. She closed the bottle she was drinking from and put it back inside the cooler.
She had been lying on a blanket that she had spread across the back seat. Now she wrapped it around herself lay back down on the seat and in a matter of a couple of minutes she was fast asleep.
*****
His name was Cody, Cody Bronson. He spotted Elaine in that big grocery store in that city just before your car climbed into the mountains. She was buying Nachos and diet Lipton Tea. She also bought a cooler and some frozen plastic packages of blue ice to keep her tea cold.
She sure was pretty. He had never seen anyone that pretty before. She was much prettier than that Jesse Howell. He had captured Jesse over a year ago. He had raped her constantly, two, sometimes three times a day. She never stopped crying. Always moaning about going home to her momma. Then one day she tried to escape.
He watched her scampering down the rocky trail. He thought to himself then, that girl was going to kill herself. Sure enough she tripped, banged her head on a boulder and rolled off the trail to fall 2300 feet to smash into some rocks. That wasn't the end, her body bounced off the rocks to fall an additional 3500 feet into the rock filled fast running stream at the base of the ravine. What a waste. She wasn't a great fuck, but she was better than nothing.
This girl was something else. The moment he saw her he knew he was going to take her. He followed her outside. She was talking to some woman.
"Yes mam, I am traveling alone. I want to see some of this country. This is my great adventure. I'm starting a new job in about three weeks in Portland. My friend Bobbie got me the interview with the head of HR. She and he were friends so he took the interview and I got the job."
"Well if you ask me, I think you should get a motel room and wait till this storm passes. Some of these rain storms can be fierce."