Chapter 5: Friday

Anthony woke up before the sun poked over the horizon, roused from his slumber by the incessant sounds of large semi tractors pulling in to the truck stop to refuel or to spend the night.

Holy hell, he grumbled as the sharp blast of a horn penetrated the walls of his Winnebago. What time is it?

Anthony groaned as he realized he'd only been sleeping for a few hours. I'm never going to make it to Denver unless I can get some more rest, he thought, but his attempts were thwarted as more and more truckers began their day.

"Fine," he said as he stood and stretched. "Four hours sleep it is. I suppose I might as well fill up here. I'll get a thermos of coffee and see how far I can make it, I guess."

Anthony quickly dressed and headed into the large gas station, which also housed a convenience store, a family restaurant and even laundry and shower facilities. As he made his way to the bathrooms Anthony passed what appeared to be a rest area, where four or five truckers sat watching the previous evening's sports highlights on a massive television.

"What's with the TV lounge?" he asked the cashier as he paid for his purchase.

"What's that?" she asked. She glanced up slowly from her glossy magazine, apparently uninterested in anything beyond the lives of the rich and famous.

"Back by the bathrooms is a television lounge. What's it for?" Anthony asked again.

"Oh that?" The cashier, who Anthony knew by her name tag was named Cammie, snapped her gum before answering. "It keeps the truckers coming back here. They can wash their clothes and catch a little rest before heading out."

"That's pretty cool," Anthony said. His father had driven trucks and he remembered the biggest complaint he heard on the rare weekends the entire family was together had been his father bemoaning the fact he was forced to sleep in the cabin of his semi every night.

"Whatever," Cammie replied, her head once again buried in her magazine. "Anything else you need?" She looked him over, a gleam beginning to show in her eye, and Anthony wondered momentarily when her next break was due.

She's not that bad looking, he reasoned. I doubt there's much action in a place like this, and I do need to score before I can get back on the road.

"I'm good," he answered. "Say, I was wondering if..."

"Next," she interrupted and Anthony stepped aside as a large tattooed trucker stepped in front of the register.

"Hey Cammie," he said, grinning widely. "What's new?"

"Not much, Darryl. Haven't seen you around lately. Been awful lonely without you... stopping by every week. Where you been?"

Anthony sighed as the oddly matched pair continued talking, grabbing his coffee and newspaper from the counter. I could be here a while, he realized as he began trudging back to the camper.

"Hey mister," a voice called from behind him.

"Yeah?" he answered, turning to see a bundle of rags with feet running up to him. On closer inspection Anthony realized the bundle was actually a scrawny girl. She had short blond hair and a dirty face, and Anthony estimated her age to be around seventeen.

"Where you heading?" she asked anxiously.

"Why?" he answered. The girl bit her lip before answering cautiously.

"I've been stuck here for two days. I'm trying to visit my sister in Morrison, but nobody seems to be heading west from here."

"You're at the wrong rest area for that," Anthony explained. "Most of the people who stop here are just passing through on their way to Chicago. If you want to head west you need to be on the other side of Omaha. People heading west gas up there and don't bother stopping here."

"Tell me about it," she groused, staring at the ground. Disappointed in his apparent refusal the girl turned to start heading back to the restaurant. Why haven't they kicked her out yet? Anthony wondered, looking at her tattered appearance.

"Where did you say you were going again?" he called after the girl, who spun suddenly, a hopeful look once again crossing her face.

"Morrison," she said. "It's in Colorado, just outside of Denver."

"Really?" Anthony asked, a glimmer of hope returning. "I'm hoping to get to Denver today actually."

"Seriously?" the girl asked. For some reason she once again looked at him suspiciously. What did I do? Anthony wondered. Was I too easy?

"Yeah."

"So what are you saying?" the girl asked, again looking at him through slitted eyelids.

"You need a ride?" Anthony offered. "I won't bother you I promise."

"Really?" the girl asked.

"Promise," Anthony said, grimacing as he remembered the rules of the competition.

"What?" the girl asked, seeing the change in his expression.

"I... I could be here awhile," Anthony sighed, not wanting to take advantage of the girl. This sucks. I finally have a chance to do something nice for someone and I can't.

"How come?"

"I just... I might have to stay here for a while, unless..."

"Unless what?" the girl asked, her exasperation evident.

Anthony frantically went over the rules of the contest in his mind, trying to remember the least amount of activity he could reasonably expect to count.

"I need to see your tits," he finally said, unable for whatever reason to look the girl in the eye.

"Is that it?" the girl laughed, reaching for the bottom of her shirt. "I had to do more than that just to get out of Minnesota."

"Stop," Anthony said, waving his arms at the girl. "There's one more thing. I have to video you doing it."

Anthony prepared for the girl to explode at him, amazed as she laughed at his fearful expression.

"What is this, like Girls Gone Wild?" she asked.

"No, it's... I can't tell you," Anthony sighed. "I'll understand if you don't want the ride," he said and turned to leave.

"No, wait. I'll do it," the girl called and Anthony could hear her footsteps as she ran to catch up with him. "Wait a minute," she repeated and he turned back.

"What?" Anthony asked, wondering if she'd had a change of heart.

"I have to get my stuff. I left it in one of the storage lockers. Can you wait a minute?"

"Sure," Anthony smiled. "See the big Winnebago over there?" he asked, pointing to his vehicle. "That's me. I'll be waiting."

"Cool," the girl said, excited to finally be able to leave the truck stop. "I'll just be a minute," she called over her shoulder as she scampered back to retrieve her belongings.

What am I doing? Anthony wondered as he climbed into the driver's seat and grabbed the video camera. Is this really worth it?

Anthony had been hesitant about being a contestant, but the allure of the prize money coupled with his dissatisfaction at his current job had led him to accept the old man's offer. It was just too tempting, he sighed.

Anthony looked out the window and was amused to see the girl struggling as she walked across the parking lot. She seemed to be trying to haul two large plastic garbage bags, full of something, but the thin material kept breaking. Anthony jumped down from his seat and ran to help.

"Here, give me one of those," he said, taking the large and as it turned out, weaker of the two bags, which quickly tore apart. Anthony doubled over with laughter as a torrent of underwear and socks began blowing away.

"Don't just stand there," the girl shrieked. "We have to get my clothes!" Before Anthony could say anything the girl was off, chasing after her clothing. Anthony could see the chase was futile as gusts of wind picked up the light pieces of cloth and quickly blew much of it away.

"Now what am I going to do?" the girl moaned, close to tears as she returned to the Winnebago with only a few pieces of clothing in her hands.

"Don't worry about it," Anthony said. "We'll just have to go shopping."

"I don't have any money to go shopping!" the girl shouted. "That's why I'm hitchhiking in the first place. Do you think I like doing this?" In a rage the girl dropped what she was holding and quickly jerked her shirt over her head, showing Anthony her smooth girlish breasts, held against her body with the sheerest of bras.

"Stop it," Anthony chided. "Put your shirt back on. I said we'll go shopping and we will."

"What do you expect me to do?" the girl asked as she tugged the shirt down past her breasts. "I thought all I had to do was show you my boobs."

"Well, you have to show me your boobs, but you have to do it inside the camper and I get to video you, remember?"

"I remember," the girl replied sullenly.

"Good. And I've just added another condition," Anthony said, grinning as the girl's face went from surprise to outrage in a matter of moments.

"What?"

"You have to let me pay for your clothing. It was the bag I was carrying that broke, after all."

"Yeah, but that wasn't your fault. If I wouldn't have left in such a hurry..."

"Left where?" Anthony asked.

"Home."

"Wait a minute. How old are you? Are you running away?" Anthony began to worry a bit about the girl.

"I'm twenty," the girl answered, making a face as she saw Anthony's look of disbelief. "I know I look young," she sighed. "I have my driver's license somewhere, just let me show you."

"That's okay. I believe you, I guess. But you said you were running away?"

"No. I said I left in a hurry. Stop putting words into my mouth."

"Sorry. Jeez... okay then, go ahead."

"Okay, but can we start driving. I'm sick of this place."

"Sure," he answered and the two quickly climbed into the Winnebago.

"Is that your camera?" the girl asked nervously, looking at the small video camera lying on the dash.

"Yeah, why?" Anthony asked, having forgotten their agreement.

"Don't you want to see my boobs?" the girl asked.

"Oh. Right. Hold on a second," Anthony stammered, fumbling as he made sure everything was working. "Okay, go ahead," he said as he pointed the camera at the girl's chest.

"Do you need to see my face in this?" the girl asked shyly, brightening visibly when Anthony shook his head. She pulled her arms back through the sleeves of her shirt and after a moment's rustling around, one hand emerged to drop her bra to the floor of the Winnebago.

"Any time," Anthony said, glancing up from the viewfinder.

"Okay. Here goes," the girl said, and hesitantly pulled her shirt over her head, exposing her breasts to Anthony's eyes. He filmed for a few seconds before quickly snapping off the camera.

"That's good," he said. The girl quickly dropped her arms to her sides, allowing her shirt to fall back down over her chest.

"That wasn't so bad," she said.

"I agree. In fact," Anthony said, "I think it was spectacular." He laughed, but the girl just shook her head.

"Don't get all weird on me, okay? I just want to get to my sister's place."

"I'll be good," Anthony promised. "That was just... it was just something I had to do."

"I don't want to know about it," the girl said, her hands threatening to cover her ears. "You do what you want. I don't really care right now if you're some sicko, just as long as I get to Denver."

"I'll get you there. You said earlier you were from Minnesota, right?" The girl nodded. "What a small world. I grew up in St. Paul."

"No way," the girl said. "That's where I lived."

"Really? Where?"

"About ten miles north of downtown. It wasn't really St. Paul, but that's what everyone knows so I say I'm from there, it was actually a little town called..."

"Falcon Heights," Anthony interrupted, a look of amazement on his face.

"Yeah."

"Holy shit," Anthony swore.

"What?"

"As soon as I turned around I thought I recognized you, but I wasn't sure."

"You know me?" the girl asked, eyes wide at Anthony's revelation.

"I get one guess, okay?" he asked.

"Guess?"

"Yeah. My guess is this... you're going to visit Denise."

"How... oh my God, who are you?"

"Holy shit," Anthony repeated, his eyes staring at the girl he now knew to be Denise Roberts' younger sister Claire.

"Holy shit," she agreed, and the two lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

"So you know my sister?" Claire finally asked.

"Yeah, we went to high school together. I don't know if you recognize me, but I used to come over to your house every once in a while to help out Denise with her physics homework."

"Anthony?" Claire asked cautiously.

"Guilty," he replied. "Wait, how do you know my name?"

"I remember you now, I wasn't that little."

"You must have been, I don't know... how old?"

"Denise is eight years older than I am, almost nine, so I was probably nine or ten when you were coming over."

"How bizarre is this?"

"Really bizarre."

The two sat in silence for a while as central and western Nebraska sped past through the windshield. Anthony glanced over at Claire out of the corner of his eye. She was curled up in the passenger's chair, her hair and arms streaked with grime and her clothes stained with food and who knows what else, the detritus of spending too many nights sleeping on a truck stop floor.

"You want a shower?" Anthony asked abruptly, startling the girl from her reverie.

"What?"

"I asked if you wanted a shower," Anthony repeated.

"Oh. Um... what would I have to do?" she asked cautiously.

Anthony just laughed. What kind of guy does she think I am? he wondered. I guess she's not too far off though. If she only knew what I've been doing the rest of the week!

"Nothing," he replied. "Nothing other than walk back there, take your clothes off once you're in the bathroom and get cleaned up. There's nothing perverted about this, you just look uncomfortable and I'm sure you'll feel a lot better once you've had a shower."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she replied quietly.

"That's okay," Anthony answered back quickly. "There are fresh towels in the little pantry beside the bathroom door. Feel free to go back any time. I'll keep driving."

"Does the shower work while we're moving?" Claire asked.

"Oh, you know what? I have no idea. Why don't you run back and check it out. If we need to I'll pull over at the next rest area and you can shower there."

Claire nodded and walked back to the shower, returning shortly with a quick shake of her head.

"Nothing," she said.

"Okay. Well, like I said before I'll pull over. We just passed a sign and the next rest area is coming up in thirty miles, so it won't be too long."

"Thanks, I appreciate this."

"No problem. So... if you don't mind me asking, why are you heading out to Denver in the first place? Sounds like you left in a rush and judging by your packing job, you took most of your clothes."

"I took everything," Claire answered. "Everything that I had left after..."

"After what? What happened?"

"I'd been living with this guy for about a year and it turns out he's not quite the nice guy I thought he was. He started hitting me so I left. I stayed with a friend for a couple weeks but I was in the way so I decided to take off."

"Couldn't Denise have helped out?" Anthony asked but Claire quickly shook her head.

"I couldn't ask her. She hated Randy from the start and..."

"Who's Randy?"

"The guy."

"Oh."

"Anyway, Denise doesn't know I'm coming."

"Oh! So this will be a fairly big shock then?"

"You could say that."

The two lapsed back into silence for the remaining miles. Anthony took the rest stop exit and pulled the Winnebago to the far end of the parking area, stopping in the last spot.

"What are you doing?" Claire asked curiously.

"Just trying to get us out of the way. Wouldn't want anyone to surprise us," he said. Anthony sighed with relief as he saw there were basic water hookups available. Thank goodness it's not one of those rustic rest areas, he thought as he quickly hooked the camper up and started feeding water into the vehicle while dumping the waste tanks.

"I really appreciate this," Claire said when he climbed back inside. "All of it." She had removed her clothing while Anthony had been outside and was now wrapped in one of the fluffy towels.

"Uh, sure," Anthony managed. "I'll... I'll just be back in the bedroom, reading or something. Take your time in the shower, just come and get me when you're done.

"Okay. Thanks again," Claire said.

Anthony watched as she walked into the bathroom, pushing the door closed behind her. Damn, who would have thought? he wondered as he heard the water turn on. Denise's little sister in my shower. I'd rather have Denise in there though, he thought. Too bad I was such a pussy back in high school.

Tired from his short night of sleep and the surprising events of the morning, Anthony slowly drifted off to sleep, his thoughts full of the girl he hadn't had the guts to ask out.

The gentle swaying of the moving vehicle slowly brought Anthony from his slumber. He sat up quickly, looking out his bedroom window to see that he wasn't mistaken, the Winnebago was definitely traveling down the road.

What the hell? he thought, hurrying up to the front.

"Oh good, you're awake," Claire said from the driver's seat. Anthony almost had her pull over, but she was doing well enough and he realized if they stopped he'd have to attempt to earn some contest points. And that's the last thing I want to do with a passenger along for the ride.

"So what's up?" he asked as he settled down into the passenger's chair.

"You fell asleep while I was in the shower and I didn't want to wake you. Is this okay?" she asked nervously. "We can pull over and you can drive if you want."

"No, no. It's fine. I was a little surprised is all."

"Good. I haven't driven anything for weeks now, and I was getting antsy always sitting in the passenger's seat. You're sure this is okay?"

"Perfectly fine. I needed the sleep anyway."

"Cool."

"So," Anthony said after a bit. "How's your sister?"

"Denise?"

"Mmm hmm."

Claire grinned at him before answering. "She's fine. I was wondering when you were going to ask about her."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Oh come on. I already said I wasn't that young when you used to come over. It was so obvious how you felt about her."

"What?" Suddenly Anthony's palms were sweaty. Shit, what must Denise have thought about me? If her little sister could tell I was in puppy-love, Denise certainly must have known.

"Yeah," Claire giggled. "But don't worry, I don't think she knew."

"Oh Christ," Anthony moaned. "How could she not know? You knew?"

"Yeah, but Denise was always really shy around you."

"So?"

"Well... we never talked about it, but I think she had a little bit of a crush on you and didn't want you to find out."

"What?"

"Oh yeah. I caught her one time doodling in her notebook. She tried to pull away, but I could see what she'd been writing, over and over and over."

"What?"

"Mrs. Denise Martin."

"You're shitting me!"

"Nope."

"Wow."

"So, how come you never asked her out?" Claire asked, glancing over to a stunned Anthony.

"I... I don't know. She was always so popular and I wasn't part of that crowd, and I was always a bit intimidated by her."

"Ha! That's funny," laughed Claire. "You intimidated her, you know?"

"Me? Why?"

"Because you were so smart and on top of things. She didn't have any idea what she wanted to be when she grew up and you always seemed to have a handle on things like that. When you decided to head out East we were all sure we'd hear your name someday on television. What are you doing now anyway? Working for some political party or a politician?"

"I'm... well..."

"Come on, what?"

"I'm working at a video store."

"You're what?"

"I got sick of politics. I've been thinking of moving back home for quite a while. I may do it after this week. It's just been... too much."

"What's happening this week?" Claire asked in confusion.

"Nothing, nothing. Just been a bad week." Watch it, Anthony cautioned himself. Don't blow this, you tell her about the contest and it's all over. No winning, no million bucks, nothing.

Anthony groaned as his cell phone started ringing. He reached for it and was about to flip it on when he froze.

"What the hell?" He looked at Claire in confusion. "Is this yours?"

"No, it's yours," she said, glancing at the phone which continued to ring.

"I... I thought I'd lost it," Anthony lied, remembering the dozens of tiny pieces he'd spent a solid hour trying to clean up.

"Some guy knocked on the door to the camper after I got out of the shower. He said he thought you'd dropped this."

"Oh." What the fuck! he wanted to shout. Is this guy everywhere? Anthony answered the phone knowing as soon as he said "hello" he would recognize the voice at the other end.

"Hello Anthony," said the raspy voice of the old man.

"What do you want?" Anthony replied sullenly.

"Tsk tsk," the man replied. "Don't be angry. I noticed you had a little mishap with your other phone and sent this one to you. I see it arrived safely."

"What do you want?" Anthony asked again.

"What do I want? I want you to pick up the pace a bit. You're really lagging behind, you know. That little stunt back in Iowa was clever though. I'll have to do some thinking though. That was not a good event, you meeting Doris at the fair."

"Doris? She said her name was..."

"It's Doris."

"Whatever."

"Come on, man! Cheer up! This is the greatest week of your life. Try to act like it," the man chided and Anthony found himself sickened by the thought of what he'd been doing.

"What was that?" he asked. "I couldn't hear."

"I said cheer up, this is..."

"Louder," Anthony yelled into the phone. "You're breaking up!"

"I can hear you fine," the man said in confusion. "Are you sure..."

"I can't hear you!" Anthony said. "You're breaking up."

"But everything seems to..."

"You're breaking up!" Anthony repeated. "I'm getting bad..." and with that he clicked off the connection. Claire gasped as he calmly unrolled the window and tossed the phone into the ditch beside the road.

"What are you doing?" she asked in amazement.

Anthony just shrugged as he curled up in the chair. He was sleepy and confused and didn't want to talk about anything. I don't want to think about the contest anymore, he thought.

"Wrong number," he answered, smiling as Claire shook her head in disbelief.

"Anthony, wake up," Claire whispered, shaking his shoulder. Anthony opened his eyes and looked around.

"What happened?" he asked, hoping everything was okay.

"We're here," she said.

"Where?"

"Denver. You were sleeping again so I kept driving. I just wanted to thank you for the ride."

"We're at your sister's place?" Anthony asked.

"Yeah, but she's not home from work yet."

God, it would be good to see Denise again, Anthony thought wistfully. He felt like sticking around until she got back, but didn't want to intrude.

"I suppose I should be hitting the road," he said with one last glance at the house, but Claire apparently had other ideas.

"Hey, you should come in and say hello to her. She'd get a big kick out of that, I think."