Mountain Madness. Jimmy Dale Taylor
need to go on,” she said.
“Where are we at?” Jimmy asked.
Jay had stopped at a filling station to check the oil and put in a can of STP. He climbed back inside the car where Jimmy was eating a Butterfinger candy bar he’d purchased from a vending machine. “Yreka,” Jay said. “We’ll wait a while to gas up. How we doing on beer?”
Jimmy wondered where in the hell Yreka was. “Four left,” he said.
“That’ll last a while. Let’s hit the road.”
The boys had been reluctant to leave her on the highway alone. They seemed to actually care about Terrie’s welfare. They’d had their stop planned at Medford, and she had insisted that she would be all right. And so they had taken her through the town, as far as the Talent Exchange, and wished her a safe journey.
It would soon be dark, not a good time for a woman to be stranded there. Whatever ride was next offered, Terrie Tidwell would have to take. Terrie’s head was turned toward the southbound traffic. She didn’t see the light-colored Oldsmobile heading north, nor did she realize that the driver had spotted her and was already dreaming of what she’d look like naked. Had she known what terror the night would hold she would have left her suitcases alongside the road and run for her life.
The day was drawing to an end. Glenn True Clark was hot, tired and horny. He was regretting all the possible lays he had passed along the highway. And then he saw her, a slender chick standing on the west side of 1-5, two suitcases beside her and leaning towards California. There was no doubt in his mind his luck had changed. Even though her purple sack dress concealed the exact formation of what lay beneath, he was certain she would be shaped just right.
What he had to do now was turn around, head back, and entice her into his car before some other stud beat him to the prize.
This one wouldn’t last long. Young and supple and willing, he would bet. The sign at the exit read: Talent. Perhaps this was an omen. Glenn pressed hard on the gas pedal.
“Hey, man, what’s going on?” Jimmy’s head raised up from the backrest and he rubbed sleep from his tired eyes.
Seconds later, Glenn hit the brakes, throwing his passenger into the dash and causing his head to bump the windshield and his revolver to fall from its hiding place.
“Damn!” Jimmy shouted as he reached for the gun and placed it back on the ledge. “Watch what you’re doing. What the devil are we pulling off for? We aren’t ever gonna get to Seattle.”
Glenn didn’t come close to stopping at the sign that ordered him to do so. After a cursory glance to satisfy himself that the road was clear of oncoming traffic, he shot a quick left.
As Glenn gunned the engine, he said, “I spotted something across the highway thumbing her way south that looks better than anything you’ll see in Seattle. Maybe she’ll have a sister for you.”
“She can’t be that good.”
“We’ll soon find out. At least she’s here and not a thousand miles away.”
“Man, it ain’t no thousand miles to Seattle. We keep driving and we’ll be there by morning. You want me to take the wheel, I’ll do it. I’ll drive us all the way up there without even stopping except to buy gas and more beer.”
“Nobody drives my car but me.”
Glenn cranked the wheel again and headed down the entrance ramp to 1-5 south. When he saw the chick still standing there beside her two suitcases, as appealing as a magazine model, he pounded on the steering wheel and shouted, “Hot damn! Don’t go nowhere till I get there, baby.”
This was going to be so easy it was almost criminal. The fact that Glenn had daughters nearly as old as the girl he was determined to pick up and use as a means of relieving tension didn’t deter him for one moment.
So far as he was concerned, women who stood alongside the road were asking for it. Probably wanting it bad. She wouldn’t have to wait much longer. Glenn was willing to give her a ride in his car but then he damned sure intended to ride her. A fair enough trade, he thought.
Terrie was shivering. The sun was sinking low. Hitchhiking had seemed to be a wise decision during earlier daylight hours but it now threatened to become a nightmare. The competition for rides was stiff. In the short distance she’d traveled this afternoon, there had been scores of hitchhikers, most going in her direction.
When the speeding car slowed and pulled off the road near her, Terrie looked relieved. Two men were in the front seat. No problem. It was the one-man rides that gave trouble.
The passenger side door opened and a young man stepped out. He didn’t say a word but folded the seat forward and placed her suitcases inside. As she crawled in after them, the driver said, “Where you heading?”
Terrie wasn’t sure where. “Sacramento,” she said. “I have a job waiting for me there. In a bank, you know.”
“This is your lucky day,” Glenn said. “We’re on our way to Sacramento.” Tell ‘em anything, he thought. Had she said Phoenix, that’s where he’d say he was going.
Jimmy slumped down in his seat. The girl was right behind him. This, they didn’t need. He had no idea where they were, but there was no doubt that Sacramento was many miles away. They had stopped there some time in the morning and now here it was almost sundown.
“I’m Jay and my little buddy here is John,” Glenn said. “What’s your name?”
“Terrie.”
Terrie settled into the white leatherette seat. But then she glanced up to see Jay eyeing her in the rearview mirror. She shivered.
Jay partially turned his attention to driving and she turned to John who had a melancholy look on his face as he sat up straight and stared out the side window. John acted as though something was really bothering him.
What in the hell is going on? Jimmy wondered as dreams of Seattle and its beautiful girls began to evaporate. Why was Jay heading back the wrong way?
Here they were, twenty-four hours after leaving San Francisco, and they still hadn’t left California.
At this rate they would be lucky to reach Seattle before winter. Although he had no idea of how far they were from Sacramento, he was certain they would probably lose another day making the round trip. Maybe two, depending on what his new acquaintance had in mind. All because old Jay was horny enough to stop for any hitchhiker wearing a dress.
He looked over at the girl. She looked tired, real tired. He looked at his driving companion. He knew what was in the old guy’s head. Jimmy sighed.
As Terrie closed her eyes, looking relaxed, it was obvious she didn’t realize Jay was watching her and planning just what it would take to get her panties off. First he would have to get her filled to the gills with beer and wine so she would see things his way. At least soused enough so that she would offer very little resistance. And then. . . . What came next depended on her. He was damned sure going to get him some of that within the next few hours. If she resisted—well, there were ways to handle those kind of women.
The car slowed. Terrie opened her eyes. There was a sign proclaiming the Ashland exit. Jay, watching her in the rearview mirror, said, “I’m thirsty. Why don’t we stop at a store and get some beer. You like beer?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Jimmy didn’t pay any attention to the name of the town. He knew only that they had traveled south for a few miles and now they were exiting. Maybe this meant they would soon turn north again. With Jay, you never knew. They had been on the road a day and a night and it didn’t seem as though they had gone anywhere.