VII
Jillian read the date and entry of the book she had found.
“February 11th …searching – finding that perfect one is the real ticket. Today… it was nice to shut up such a talkative one… sounding like a yelping mutt…”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The driver clicked the automatic unlock on the car door, and with that the blonde slid into the seat beside him saying, “Thank you so much for the ride, you’ve no idea how much this helps.” She started to position her backpack between her knees on the floor.
The brown haired man got the shoulder strap, lifted and placed the bag in his back seat, “There ya go now you have more room. Sorry for the small car.”
Her very short, sun dress was nearly see-through. She beamed a thank you, and began playing with her red hair saying, “I was watching LOST, last night, and didn’t even realize the weather was recorded a while back. I totally missed the cold front coming in today. I didn’t even grab my jacket.”
She’s going to be a chatty one, oh great, he thought to himself, but offered a considerate glance nevertheless.
“My name is Jenifer by the way. I hope it’s not out of your way, but I live on the out skirts of town; yeah, this one.” She informed his questioning nod for a street direction. The young lady played with the multiple thin bracelets of her left hand, he noticed that her cheap nail polish was chipping and there were rings on all her fingers.
Just as he was going to give a fake name the girl announced, “My Aunt Cheryl is there waiting on me, she’s a hoot, a little on the weird side. But I love her. She’s paranoid about Alien abductions and time travel terrorist; seriously I think she just watches way too much television.”
The city was quickly behind them and the road stretched on in silence for a few winding miles as the skies grew paler. A moment later and the student announced, “Up here on the right you can make a turn, my trailer is the only house for the next three miles. It’s beautiful out here, but I’d rather live in the city. Wow, I really do appreciate this, wish I hadn’t missed the bus.”
The ash-gray skies looked like it was on the verge of snowing, but instead a heavy mist clouded the windshield. The temperatures were dropping as the Ford Mustang crept down the backroads. Ahead a quarter mile on the right was the private drive he was to turn on but the car made a detour pulling over to the side of the road near a run-off ditch. Scoffing a frustrated sigh the driver announced, “Man, I’m sorry, seems I got a flat tire.”
“Oh,” his blonde passenger exclaimed, “I didn’t even realize anything happened.” She was utterly surprised.
The older man unbuckled his belt informing her, “It’ll only be a moment, promise it won’t take much effort.”
As he began to exit the vehicle she also started to unbuckle, and injected with a smile, “It’s alright I can see my trailer house from here, I’ll just walk it.”
“No please,” he warmly smiled at her with a worried laugh, “Now that I got you this far I should at least be allowed to be a gentleman and get the all the way. Besides, the rain is starting to come down harder and you don’t need to be getting sick and miss classes.” His pleasant demeanor let her know that it was no disposition and so she settled back in her seat; he nodded a thanks.
Leaving the warmth of the car he got out into the cold of the country road. Rounding to the back, popping the trunk he gathered the items needed for the task at hand: jack, spare, and tire iron – the essentials. The other essentials would wait a little longer for the right timing. Going to the right rear wheel, he squatted for a closer inspection of the situation; he knew she was observing him, they always did. The rain continued, not as hard as he said. Beyond where the car was parked, beside an area of the asphalt’s broken street, laid a dirt culvert which was quickly filling up with run-off water, and beyond the brief clearing was a woodland thicket. The closest neighbors were miles away and the seclusion was a beautiful scene on any given day. ‘We’re certainly in the middle-of-nowhere,’ he muttered under his breath, noticing the girl smile back at him from the car door’s side mirror. Standing back up he went to her door and lightly tapped on the window, pointing down to its lock. After she cracked it, he opened the door all the way saying, “Sorry, Jennifer but I’m afraid with all this rain any movement on the jack and the car could –.”
“It’s okay,” she interrupted, “I’ll just get my stuff and let ya –.”
“Nah, it won’t take long. You can just stand here a second, like I said, don’t need you getting soaked before you get home.” That smile made her comply again, so she left her school pack in the back seat and got out of the car. He added, “It’ll all be over in a bit.”
She stood in the gap of the opened door as her slick sandals edged precariously near the culvert’s muddy slope. As the driver resumed his place near the rear of the car, a glance down the road saw her trailer home in a sheeting haze of rain quickly arriving. Soon her thin sun dress was drenched and clinging to her thin frame like a bathing suit. Nervously distracted with the bangles on her wrist, the girl instantly regretted leaving home that morning without having grabbed her jacket. Looking back at the driver, who was doing nothing, but looking at the wheel she asked, “Hey, are you sure it’s even flat, it looks good to me?”
He stalled a second as he switched the tire iron from one hand to the other, and then turned back to her with, “Oh, I guess it’s alright after all. I’ll just put this away.” Then, looking at how the sundress was clinging to her thin, rain-soaked body, he added, “Yep, looks like this won’t take long at all.”
Catching his inference, and how he kept readjusting his single grip of the tire iron made her green eyes widen with fear, “Uh, it’s alright mister, I can just walk from here to my trailer house, it’s just up the road a piece. My aunt is waiting on me anyway.” As she stepped back, to evade whatever it was that was on his mind, the blonde girl’s sandals slipped off the crumbling street. In that same instance, that she began to fall backward into the watery ditch, the bar in the driver’s hand took a hard swing in her direction. The momentum of both met with a loud cracking blow. A second later and the slow motion of it all sped up with her limp form splashing into the muck beside him in real time. With a sigh, his smirk grew into a broad smile, “See; not as long as I thought, now time to get to work.”
CONTINUE Reading... 8
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