I recently started a new job delivering packages for a big international company. After training, and jumping around on different routes, I finally ended up delivering in Enid, America. It's not bad now that I know the town, but it does have one major drawback. Enid is an hour away from the station. That means an hour drive to and from, driving a big noisy truck with no radio. On the way to Enid, I usually think about the deliveries I have to make and work out the first hour or two of my day. But the trip back is boring. Nothing to do but think about getting home. And thinking about it doesn't make it happen any quicker. With no music to distract me my mind tends to wander. I start looking at things on the way like landmarks. They help prove I'm getting closer, but it doesn't kill much time.

So I've started noticing other things. The over all scenery is not much to look at. I can count on at least one farmer burning or disking his field. Wow. I've learned to look at the small things, like how many turtles I've passed today. How many alive, how many dead. I've also started noticing other things lying on the side of the road. Strange things, that seemingly have no reason for being there. Like today, I saw a bag of McDonalds food. There was a sack, a burger and a large order of fries strewn on the shoulder. A little way farther was a black flip-flop. How do these things wind up there? Do you ever wonder what stories lie behind the barely trivial details of the world? Like I said, it's a boring trip and my mind needs something to pass the time...

"God, it's hot," Jeri said as she tried to keep her long dirty-blonde hair out of her face.

"Mm," replied Billy. He wasn't much for words. Besides, when Jeri was around, he didn't need to say much. She talked enough for both of them.

"Where are we going today?"

Billy just shrugged. They usually did this at least once a week. Billy had a nice late 70's Malibu that he had gotten from his grandfather. It was brown and gold, and a convertible, which is what made the road trips fun. Jeri helped sometimes, when she didn't talk non-stop. He always picked where they went, and Jeri managed to find something interesting to do while they were there. Kate...well, Kate supplied the weed. That was all that Kate was good for as far as Billy was concerned. She was a hippie, and very into it. No meat, no leather, save-the-animals kind of person, and it wore on his nerves. But Jeri wanted to smoke, and Kate was the only connection they had. So he was forced to endure love-child ideals rammed down his throat just to get a buzz. But with no job during the summer, and Kate only sharing if she got to go with them, all he could do was make the best of it. Luckily Kate was blissfully asleep in the backseat.

Billy wasn't sure if the weed they had smoked had been laced, or if they had just smoked too much, but he was having trouble concentrating on the road and Jeri was unusually quiet. And Kate, if it knocked out a hard-core user like Kate...he shuddered inwardly, "Hand me a burger."

They had stopped at McDonalds on the way out of town, and since Kate was asleep, they got real food. She never let them eat good stuff when she was around.

Jeri dug in the bag and handed him a hamburger. Billy nodded thanks, and let his eyes scan her body. Jeri was attractive and had a nice tan and well-curved body. Their road trips typically ended up at some lake or pool, and to that end Jeri was only wearing a bikini. A lime green suit that covered little. He looked down her legs, he liked them very much, and then at her feet. He loosed a little chuckle. Jeri was a nice girl, but she had some weird thing with her feet. She never went barefoot. Never. Even in her house. Billy had gotten used to it as one of her little quirks.

"Look out!" Jeri screamed.

Billy jerked his head up, and yanked the wheel to his left. He had almost run off the right side of the road. That last joint was really messing with his head. The car swerved almost off the left shoulder before he got it back in the lane.

"What is going on?" Kate grumbled from the back seat.

"Great," Billy said under his breath. He took his cheeseburger and slid it between his legs hoping Kate wouldn't see.

It didn't matter. She saw the sack, "You got McDonalds?!?" She sputtered for a moment, unable to manage anything coherent. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I wanted some REAL food. Not that crap you push on us 24/7," Jeri replied. She was a tad perturbed. She hadn't even taken a bite of hers yet, and now she wasn't going to be able to enjoy eating it.

"You know I don't allow meat, especially that fat soaked crap!"

"Chill out, Kate," Billy said calmly, trying to ease the situation. "We were hungry and you were passed out."

"That doesn't make it okay!" She was sounding a touch hysterical.

"Look, bitch" Jeri said flatly. "We'll eat what we want. We're seventeen, and you are not either one of our mothers. Shut up. And don't watch if it bothers you."

Billy heard a small squeak from the back seat, but nothing else. Maybe that's done with, he thought. He was wrong.

Jeri dipped into the sack to grab her something, when Kate reached over the seat grabbed the bag and threw it out the car. In his side-view mirror, Billy saw the sack hit the shoulder and tumble a few feet before rolling to a stop. He glanced at Jeri who was looking back in stunned silence. Then she stunned him by launching herself at Kate in the back. "I'll kill you! You, you...over-bearing bitch!"

Billy would've laughed at the absurdity of it, if it hadn't been so dangerous. Jeri's feet were pressed against the door, and she was stretched at an angle clawing at Kate. He put his right hand on her to try and get her back in the front while he tried to steer with his left.

Kate grabbed Jeri's hair and pulled causing her to lose leverage and tumble into the back seat. Her feet flew over her head and landed on the trunk. Knocking off one of her sandals, and nearly causing her to fall out the back. She grabbed onto the seat, scared to death and watched her sandal bounce down the road. Just as she was ready to try and pull herself back in, Billy slammed on the breaks. She jolted back up into the car, then slammed her head into Kate's when the car swerved violently.

When the car finally came to a stop, Jeri poked her head over the seat, "What was that all about?"

"Some damn dog ran out in front of me! I damn near hit it."

Jeri looked around. "I don't see any dog."

"It ran off. Do you think I like trying to kill us just for the fun of it?" He looked back,

"Are you two all right?"

Jeri brushed the hair out of her face and rubbed her skull, "I've got a bump on my head. Kate's out cold, again."

Billy sat up and turned, "She's still breathing so that's a good sign."

"She deserved it," she said without pity. "I'm starving, and I lost a sandal!"

Billy turned back around to hide his grin. He put the car in drive, checked the traffic, then drove across the median and started heading back for Enid.

"Why are you turning around? The toll gate is right there."

"That's enough fun for one day."

"Hmph!" was Jeri's reply. She crossed her arms and pouted, but said nothing else, until she remembered her bare foot. "We have to stop and get my sandal!"

Billy just sped up, and looked to the left. When he passed the flip-flop and then the sack, it was all he good do to keep from laughing. Although he did wonder where that dog had come from.

As the toll both appears on the horizon, I know I'm only a few more minutes from home. The exit off the turnpike is the best point of my return trip. As I top the hill before the gate I notice some skids marks that swerve across the two lanes. I wonder if one of the ladies in the booths saw what happened. I'm not chummy with any of them, so I don't ask. All these little things I see make the trip a little more interesting, but I imagine I'll never know the story behind any of them...

© 2009 Ravenai