Clay ambled into Doctor McCafferty’s office Saturday morning without an appointment. When he called Clay into the examining room Clay bellowed,
“Take this damn thing off of me!”
“Clay, you have until the end of the week before that comes off. I’ve already told you twice before.” The white haired doctor shook his head at his patient. “Men make the worst patients. You need to enjoy this time you got off.”
“How can I enjoy my time off when it’s too cold to go fishing, I can’t drive to the casino and I ain’t got a lady? Doc, just take it off and put me on some type of removable cast.”
Dr. McCafferty scowled. “Sit up on the examining table you big baby.”
Clay was happy to do so and didn’t care one ounce if the doctor thought he was a baby. He walked out of the office half an hour later free of the cast and couldn’t wait to get home so he could soak in a hot tub and scratch all the dead skin from his leg. First he was going to have lunch and then he’d call Kenyon Trucking to be put back on the schedule. He would need to take the truck in for maintenance. Any truck sitting around for over a month would likely have some problem or other and he didn’t want the trucking company to stall his trip
He was becoming excited. It would be good to get back on the road.
“Hiya Clay.” Sue greeted him.
“Hi Sue. Hi Pauline.” He nodded to the new girl who smiled in return. He should probably find out her name so he wouldn’t have to keep referring to her as the new girl. When she was out of earshot he asked Sue for her name.
“Well,” Sue took that opportunity to gossip. “Her names True but it’s really Trulane. Best anybody can put together, she came from Michigan, at least that’s what Duane said and he should know since he works at the bus depot. Says she comes in every night and stays in the bathroom for nearly half an hour. I bet she’s in there taking a bird bath or shooting dope.”
“Oh…kay.” Clay replied. “Thanks for the info.” True returned to the counter where she began cleaning. He noticed she cleaned a lot, which made her far more useful than Sue who scampered away to take another order.
Pt 2
Tiffany was happy to allow True to work another double. It was Saturday and the place was bustling with activity. The evening crowd was different than the morning crowd and for the first time True faced some customers who weren’t quite as good-natured and were downright unfriendly.
A family requested to move to another table once they saw that she was their waitress. A man kept staring at her and when she brought his order he ‘accidentally’ touched her thigh. When she brought his check and he tried the move again, she expertly side-stepped his touch and he glared at her and mumbled something nasty beneath his breath. He didn’t leave a tip.
A table of men ogled her every move and made comments about Obama, calling him names and making other disparaging remarks about minorities. Tiffany overheard them and went over to the table where she talked to them quietly. True saw her only say a few words but the men stopped their harassment campaign although they continued to ogle her.
True kept her face and voice calm but when they left she went into the walk-in freezer and privately dried her tears. She had only moments to get herself together because the diner was too busy for her to give in to her emotions, but when she left the walk-in Jeb called her over.
“I need you to help me in back. Tiffany can take over for you out front.” It would kill her tips but True breathed a sigh of gratitude. Her hands were shaking, she would have spilled something or screwed up somehow in the state that she was in.
Jeb might act like a hard-ass but he had a good heart.
True’s feet were sore by the end of her shift and she was happy to return to the truck that night. To make sure no one would see where she slept she walked towards the motel before darting back to cut through the woods where she ended up at the truck and out of sight of the diner.
True slipped off her jeans and t-shirt. She had to preserve them for the next day and didn’t want her clothes wrinkled. She wrapped her hair and then with a yawn climbed beneath the blankets. It was barely ten o’clock but she’d been working since eight that morning and sleep was all that she could think about. Even though the compartment was initially chilly, by the time she fell asleep it had warmed up nicely pulling her into a deep dreamless sleep.
Pt 3
Clay was a little disappointed that Kenyon wouldn’t put him back on schedule until the end of the week. He mostly did regional runs, making stops through Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati, which allowed him to return home each night. During the Holidays they had him do long hauls across country, which kept him on the road for nearly a week at a time.
He’d loved doing the long hauls but Joanie hadn’t. Maybe if he’d kept to regional work she wouldn’t be some other man’s wife.
Clay itched to get back to work where he didn’t have to constantly sit around rehashing his failed relationship. The divorce had taken place nearly a year ago and although he was over her, he still wasn’t over it.
Ambling around his home with nothing to do gave him more time then he wanted to dissect his divorce. He was lonely for companionship, but a relationship was something that he promised himself he would never again embark upon. It hurt too much. It wasn’t just Joanie that he had divorced, but the smell of his woman on his pillow, her presence filling the house when he got off the road and the feel of his woman’s loving arms…
His brow furrowed. His woman was now some other man’s woman and love was just a rim shot. He slammed the door once again on those thoughts and focused on the present.
Kenyon would expect him to bring his truck in for pre-trip testing on the day of the haul and since he was an owner operator any repairs had to be made out of his own pocket.
He wasn’t taking any chances that Kenyon would cancel the trip because they found something so he’d have his buddy Bodie take a look at it.
Bodie ran a service station and he’d drop it off there when he went up to the diner. After he picked it up he would clean out the inside. Something was sure to be spoiled in there. He hadn’t looked at in a month in a half. For all he knew there could be spoiled food in the mini fridge. He certainly wasn’t leaving the inverter on to drain his battery.
But the more he thought about it the more he wanted to sit behind the wheel of his truck. He was doing nothing but roaming around his house anyways. He looked at the clock. It was a little after eight pm. He could walk into town, have a few beers at Stubby’s and then drive himself home in the truck. That way he could get up early, get the inside cleaned out and delivered to Bodie in time for him to have lunch. Clay grabbed the keys to the truck and headed out the door.
The diner was still opened. They stayed open until ten on Saturdays to feed the drinkers that spilled over from Stubby’s. Clay bypassed the restaurant and went abound back, trying not to favor his leg too much. He still walked as if he was in a cast—stiff legged and held out like it was a peg leg. The doc wanted him take physical therapy, maybe he would. It ached in the cold and took a while to loosen up.
After a few home brews at Stubby’s, which was a grocery store during the day and a bootleg joint at night, Clay made his way over to the Last Stop Diner. He fished his keys out of his pocket, happy to see his truck. He owned the truck, which hadn’t been an easy feat even though it was an older model Freightliner. But he had been determined to buy it outright and end his career as a company driver. As an owner operator he now had control over his trucking, but best of all this baby was all his clean and clear.
He disengaged the locks and climbed inside, being careful of the weight he was placing on his leg. His butt, which was now a lot smaller settled into the familiar seat and he sat there a few moments relishing the feel of being behind the wheel again before he started the engine.
True’s eyes popped open. She froze trying to understand what was happening. There was a rumbling sound and movement. Oh my God! The truck was running. She quickly tossed off the blankets and felt around for her jeans in the dark.
Clay tilted his head. The truck smelled strange, better than it should like soap or shampoo had spilled over—although he didn’t use soap or shampoo that smelled this frilly. The truck should be stuffy and stinky but wasn’t. Then he heard a faint shuffling sound from the sleeper compartment.
Hell no! Someone was in back. Clay scrambled out of his seat and yanked back the vinyl curtain separating the sleeper from the driving area. He expected to see one of those damn meth heads that wandered the streets on the weekends but blinked when he saw the half dressed waitress from the restaurant.
True’s eyes widened. She had one leg in her jeans and she stopped and grabbed the blanket to cover herself. She was just in panties and an oversized t-shirt. She cowered against the far corner of the bed.
“What the hell are you doing in my truck?!” Clay demanded.
True was struck dumb at the look of rage on the big white man’s face. He looked even more like a bear than ever before with his five o’clock shadow covering his jaw. His eyes were dark where before they might have been blue, and his hands were balled into fists as if he wanted to punch her.
Her heart hammered in her chest in terror. Oh God, she wasn’t dressed and she was in a confined space with an angry man.
“I asked you a question!” he shouted. “How did you get in here? Did you bust out my locks?! I will skin you alive if you fucked with my truck!”
True was trembling. She felt like she was about to pee herself.
He reached out and gripped her shoulder and gave her a shake when she failed to answer. “How did you get inside?!”
“I-I…” tears sprouted in her eyes but he just gave her another shake. “The window!” She finally managed.
His eyes moved to the window where it was now closed and latched. He looked around and saw that a piece of support had been broken off the table beneath the window and a piece of trim was missing from the cabinet adjacent to the window.
Clay ran an angry hand through his short hair. Everything from the table was missing, a clock radio, maps, an outdated itinerary and some receipts for food and gas.
“Where are my things? What did you do with them?!”
The tears spilled down her cheeks. “They’re in the drawer! I swear I didn’t take anything. I came in through the window and I know that I broke that piece of molding but I bought glue to repair it. But…it was too dark to see. I’m sorry mister! Please, I’m so sorry--Don’t hurt me.”
Clay’s anger receded like a splash of cold water. He saw himself from the outside looking in, a big guy screaming at a cowering half dressed girl, putting his hands on her, physically assaulting her, threatening her…
She was terrified, tears and snot was streaming down her face. She obviously wasn’t a threat to him. What in the hell was he doing?! He had just been so shocked that someone was in his truck, possibly someone trying to steal it or vandalize it.
Clay took a deep breath instantly releasing her. “Look, calm down. I’m not going to hurt you. Just…get dressed and come to the front.” He slowly closed the vinyl curtain to give her privacy. He sat down in his seat and ran his shaky hands through his hair. He could still hear her soft muffled sniffs. He hoped she wasn’t planning to jump out the window but a few minutes later she opened the partition and came to the front, taking a seat in the passenger seat alongside of him, but evidently too ashamed or too afraid to look straight at him.
She seemed even smaller than he thought when he saw her in the restaurant. She was huddled in her coat shivering, her long braids flowing over her shoulders as she stared down at her hands.
While getting dressed True had considered trying to get away, but even if she could climb back out of the window without breaking her neck or dislocating her hip there was only one way for her to leave town and that was by bus. And it wouldn’t be a tough thing for the man to have a cop waiting for her at the bus stop. She was just going to have to take her medicine like a big girl. Hadn’t she been doing this all of her life? In foster care the bigger kids made her take her ‘medicine’ and more recently she had closed her eyes, shut her mouth and allowed Carlos to give her her medicine.
Right now she sat huddled in the seat and allowed her mind to drift away while she waited for this man to give her her medicine.