Hitchhikers Read Online Free Page B

face in her fur.
    “It could be good, living alone. Maybe I’ll
even stop blacking out.”
    It would be warm all the time in Texas.
    “Just you and me. Would you like that,
Lila?”
    She pants in my ear, hot doggy breath.
    “Yeah, Lila’s a good name for you. What do
you think?”
    She could sleep at the foot of my bed.
    “Just you and me.”
     
     

 
-11-
    I reach the highway around dinnertime. Not
that I’ve eaten any dinner, my stomach reminds me.
    Trucks roar by going 70, 80 miles an hour,
blasting right through this middle of nowhere place. Lila whines;
she doesn’t like being so close to the road. I stay on the
shoulder, out of the breakdown lane. None of these big trailer
trucks are going to stop for me; too much work to slow down. I’m
tired of walking but I don’t have much of a choice – that’s the
thing about following the highways, they’re boring. A long stretch
of flat road. No houses or trees. Out here some of the farmland is
close enough if I get desperate for food
    Hitchhiking isn’t legal most places. I didn’t
know that when I started out but it seems to be a pick up line with
truckers. “Hey, kid, you know you could get arrested for hitching?
Come on, get in.”
    After a while I learned that I didn’t even
need to stick a thumb out like they do in the movies. Nah,
scuffling along the side of the road looking homeless makes people
feel kind. “You need a ride somewhere? It’s awful cold out there.”
It makes other people predatory. “You need a warm place for the
night, kid?”
    The setting sun to my right burns over the
landscape, turning ugly browning fields into golden valleys and the
gray clouds to red and orange streaks in the sky. It doesn’t last
long, though. Within twenty minutes all is the same dim color, and
now headlights wash over me and Lila, making our shadows shorten
and lengthen over and over.
    Not so long after the sun dies, a dirty white
van flashes its red brake lights after passing us and rolls over
into the breakdown lane.
    I walk on past. The passenger side window is
rolled down.
    “Hey! You need a lift?”
    The driver looks to be in his thirties,
clean-shaven and dark hair. His smile consists of even white
teeth.
    “Sure,” I say. I open the door.
    “That your dog?” he asks, squinting down at
Lila.
    “No,” I say. “She’s just a stray.”
    “All right. Hop on in.”
    I look down at Lila. “I told you you couldn’t
come,” I say to her as a good-bye, then climb into the van.
    It’s too dark to see her in the rearview
mirror as we drive away.
    “So, where ya headed?” the man asks. He
fiddles with the radio, tunes in to a classic rock station.
    “Texas.”
    “Yeah? That’s cool, I’m headed there
myself.”
    I keep my face carefully blank.
    Already I miss Lila’s fur, her closeness.
Even though I couldn’t see her as we drove away, I imagine her eyes
watching after me, wondering why I’m leaving her.
    “I’m Paul. What’s your name?”
    “Dan.”
    His teeth flash in the dark. “Nice to meet
ya.”
    I have only the briefest moment to wish he
would stop talking before he starts talking again.
    “So what’s in Texas?”
    I shrug.
    “Family?”
    black pulse blocking out oncoming
headlights
    “No.”
    “Friends?”
    shut up I know what you’re really asking
for
    My hands shake as I hang on to the door
handle. I have to swallow back the bile in my throat.
    “Ah, well. I understand. Can’t trust people
out on the road, right?” More teeth. All I see are his teeth.
    For a time he is blessedly silent, if you can
count singing along with Aerosmith quiet. He taps his fingers on
the wheel, “I know... nobody knows… where it comes and where it
goes…” Nervous loudness, trying to fill up the empty spaces.
    I breathe and try to calm down.
    fight or flight you oughta run run run
    I can’t kick it down. I shove my hands in my
pockets to hide my fists, clenching, nails biting my palms. My jaw
clenched tight.
    The van cruises through