Talk about being in deep shit, I wasn't sure what the hell I was going to do without any clothes other than what I had on or toiletries or worse yet transportation. Something had broken on my car and I lost all control of braking on my trip to San Francisco to look for a new job. It was a junker but it was all I had or could afford.
The road from LA up to San Francisco is called the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and the scenery along it is absolutely breathtaking but the cliffs it skirts are absolutely life threatening. It was on one of those turns that my brakes gave out. I made it around the next curve and then steered into the dirt wall along the right side of the roadway to slow the car. Letting the car drag along the dirt wall slowed it to a crawl but it was still headed off into the wild blue yonder. The edge of the roadway was now only a few feet from me with a three-hundred-foot cliff right over the edge. I managed to get the door open and jump before the car tried to imitate an airplane and launch itself taking everything I owned with it. While I was devastated with the loss and now almost a pauper, I was still alive. The only thing I had left to my name was the three hundred bucks in my wallet. There were also a couple of maxed out credit cards in there as well but a lot of good they were going to do me.
The company for which I worked in LA went belly up after outsourcing many of the jobs to India. They had given us two weeks severance pay but that had run out a week ago. A friend told me about a hot job market in Frisco so I was on my way. That was until I watched my car try to fly. Damn, I could have sold the rights to a movie company to film the flight if I had known it was going to happen.
I wasn't even half way there and San Luis Obispo was the next town and if I remembered right from other trips it isn't much more than an overnight stopping place for the trip north. Its main claim to fame being the Madonna Inn. The Inn is a large sprawling motel that is unique in that every room is decorated differently and the dining room is quite elaborate.
Well, I was standing at the edge of the road looking down at my now crumpled car a long ways below me with the waves lapping at it when the very next car stopped to see what I was doing and if they could help. They must have thought I was contemplating suicide standing there without anything else around me.
"Hello, is there anything we can do to help you?" The female asked from the passenger's seat.
"Not unless you know how to haul a battered car up from the oceans edge and put it back in running shape after you fix the brakes."
"Oh my God. Did your brakes fail and you had to jump from the moving car to save yourself?" the gal asked.
"Yep and took all of my earthly belongings with it."
"Geez, what a bummer." She said like a flaming idiot.
"Yeah, you could say that."
They were about my age and a decent looking pair. She was blonde with what appeared to be a nice body and he was good looking and appeared to keep in shape.
They were Annette and Mark, a brother and sister on their way to see a friend in a Frisco hospital. "We can give you a lift to Frisco if that would help." Mark announced.
"Oh God, that would be a huge help. I answered.
"Jump in."
Annette spoke up saying they had planned to stay the night at the Madonna Inn if that would be OK with me.
"Well, to tell the truth I guess I'll have to start hitchhiking from there for I damn sure can't afford the rates at that place."
Mark said, "Heck, don't give it another thought. I'll just get one huge room with twin king sized beds and you and Annette can share it."
"That would be great with me but Annette, how about with you?" I asked knowing full well she couldn't say no since her brother was the one who offered it.
"Oh, that will be fine and we are glad to be able to help."
"Hey, by the way, I'm Cathie."
We were at the motel in not much more than a half-hour and Mark was able to arrange a fantastic room. It had it's own name. "The Cave Room" and looked like as if it had been chiseled out of lava rock ... Quite the place! Each of the beds sort of nestles in a depression in the lava rocks and it gives a measure of privacy between the two beds. Hmmmm. The beds weren't king-size but nicely appointed queen size. I nodded to Annette and said if that were a going to be a problem I would hit the road again without a thought.
"Oh no, no. This will be fine."
I stopped off at a little gift/magazine shop they had on the premises and bought myself a toothbrush, toothpaste and comb. I had lipstick in my jacket side pocket. They didn't have any clothes for sale so I would have to wash out my panties and bra in the bathroom sink and hang them near the bed to dry. I told Annette what I was going to do and hoped she didn't mind sleeping with a gal who was in the nude. She raised her eyebrows a bit and assured me everything would be OK.
It was getting close to supper-time and Mark suggested we try the dining room he had heard so much about. We got a nice table and I guess one or both of them saw me choke up a bit when I opened the menu and saw the prices for their entrees. Whew, this would be a quick way to dig a hole in my three hundred dollars. I quickly figured on ordering a bowl of soup and even that was over ten bucks.
