Chapter 2

Jim reached over and rolled down the window on the passenger-side door as he made his way slowly through the cornfield. The ultra-high-tech 980-cc three-cylinder engine made almost no noise as he drove, and the sound of the buzzing insects in the cornfield was the only thing he could hear. He crept along for a couple of minutes at barely 10 mph, and then began to feel very foolish. "This has to be a joke. Why am I doing this?" He thought about backing up, but up ahead was a sign, and he decided to see if there was a cross-road that might be a little bit wider to get him out of the cornfield.

He got to the sign and paused. It was the same simple construction as before, with the words "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE HALF MILE" written in block letters. An arrow pointed straight ahead, as if it were necessary to show direction, but there was nowhere else to go. "Wait a minute!" he thought. "That's not true! I can just back out of here! Why the hell am I doing this?!"

Jim paused and stopped the car for a moment to consider. He was convinced the signs were some elaborate joke, but somehow that didn't square with his impressions of the old man. The man seemed both serious and caring, and Jim couldn't imagine the guy would be wasting his time sending him into an ordinary cornfield. Logic was telling him to back out, and curiosity was pulling him forward.

Eventually his curiosity and playful nature won out. Another half mile to see what the joke was wouldn't be a problem, especially when he had come this far. He had a full tank of gas and plenty of time before he was due at Cal Tech. Feeling a call for adventure, Jim decided to press on.

After another minute of driving, the next sign became visible up ahead on the road. Jim was not surprised at all to read, "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE QUARTER MILE". He squinted into the bright daylight and could just see another sign further along. In less than a minute, he was staring at "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE EIGHTH MILE", with the arrow still pointing straight up. "Damn! This joke had better be worth it," he thought. Jim continued to follow the road as it started to bend into a curve.

Jim had barely driven a hundred yards when he saw the next sign. "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE SIXTEENTH MILE" with the ubiquitous up-arrow. "Well," he thought, "I think they've got the distances measured correctly, I'll give them that. Ha! This corn is so unbelievably dense. I can't wait to see what's at the end of all this! Maybe a giant chicken or something..."

All thought of turning back dissolved when he read the next sign, "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE THIRTY-SECOND MILE". Laughing out load at how ridiculous this all was and thinking he only had another 165 feet left to go, he continued to follow the curve of the tiny grass road.

Four signs later, Jim stared thunderstruck at the road before him. The last sign was by the side of his car, "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE FIVE-HUNDRED-TWELFTH MILE". Jim turned off his car and walked in astonishment along the last ten feet of the grass path. There was a buzz of insects around him and the air smelled of rich earth, but it all went totally unnoticed. Just ahead of his car the grass road and the cornfield ended, and there before him was a pristine entrance ramp beyond Interstate size and quality.

The asphalt looked as smooth as glass, and it led down to a spacious freeway with absolutely no traffic on it. The freeway was at ground level, with two wide lanes and a breakdown lane in each direction. There was a grass median a hundred feet wide separating the eastbound and westbound lanes, and an additional buffer of grass and wildflowers separating the shoulders of the freeway from the sound barriers.

The sound barriers were remarkable. They looked like super-smooth concrete, just over twelve feet in height and the color of light sandstone. Jim thought the barriers didn't look high at all, but their cost must still have been monumental. Jim couldn't imagine why the State of Nebraska would go through all the trouble of shielding the corn from the road noise. But the road was there, and with its ridiculous barriers was pointing due west. Still shaking his head in disbelief, Jim got back in his car and entered the freeway. He glanced at his watch. The time was 10:20 AM.

One of the first things Jim noticed was how monotonous the road was, super high quality but straight as an arrow with absolutely no variation. Once he set the cruise control to 55 mph, there was very little to do except steer straight. Thinking that he'd have to be extra careful not to drift off to sleep, Jim yawned and tried turning on the radio but there nothing but a soft hiss. The car's ride was so incredibly quiet; the hiss was the loudest sound around.

After a few minutes of fiddling with the radio and enjoying the fragrances of the wildflowers through the open windows, he gave up and yawned again as he popped a CD into the car's player. Jim liked Jazz a lot and thought the lively music would keep him alert.

But he didn't count on the heat of the day. The hot air was making him feel drowsy, and the perfume of the wildflowers seemed to make his mind want to drift. Jim shook his head and tried to clear it. He tried to focus his thoughts on the amazing freeway he was on...

"Incredibly smooth ride, it's like riding on glass... The proportions are huge. And the flowers smell so nice. These lanes must be fifteen feet wide each! So oversized, so easy to stay in the lane. Let's see... Gee these flowers smell nice... Call it forty-five feet for the two lanes and the breakdown lane, another fifty-five feet to the sound barriers... Look at all the wildflowers... So pretty... Huh? What? The barriers are not really high at all, twelve feet maybe? Maybe a bit more? No, I guess about twelve feet... Gee, such nice flowers..."

Jim shook his head again, trying to clear it. He still felt lightheaded. "What?! What did the old man say about the barriers? I can't remember... It's hard to remember... Why is it hard to remember? These flowers... Sweet and tart, like a rose... They remind me... remind me of what? Flowers... They remind me of a woman's perfume. They remind me of Susan I guess... This road is so amazing... Susan was so amazing. I still miss her. Such amazing flowers... They remind me how Susan used to smell... stepping out of a shower..."

Jim's eyes glazed over, and his face began to have a dazed expression on it. The car continued traveling down the road. The Jazz music playing went totally unnoticed. "Susan... so beautiful... getting dressed... how I'd love to watch her dress... Sweet as the flowers, they smell so nice... in the morning... her playful smiles... catching a glimpse of a bare leg, in the slit of her skirt..."

Jim sighed deeply, his heart slowing down way below its usual beat rate. "How sweet her skin used to smell, like the flowers... how beautiful her breasts looked from the side... how beautiful... our first date... holding hands... the flowers smell so nice... how shy I was... when she kissed me... how beautiful... Susan... the flowers... such a cute face... the way she would smile at me... smile with her eyes... such pretty eyes... so alive with her laughter... her eyes... her eyes..."

The car continued down the road, mile after mile. A small spark of Jim's consciousness was quietly keeping the cruise-controlled car aligned with the super straight lane, but otherwise his mind was deep into a different reality, immersed in the one brief love affair of his life.

"So nice to help her... to care for her... Carrying groceries, fixing her apartment... lying down with her... The memories are so sweet, like the flowers... She smells so nice... Her skin is so soft. Such wonderful breasts... so soft... How she would smile when I would pet her, in the beginning... Susan... How beautiful you are... Such soft breasts... So mysterious... So different... Such a wonderful smell. The smell of her breasts. The smell of the flowers. The smell of her nipples..."

Totally unnoticed to Jim, his penis began to get erect, "Susan... How beautiful you are... So soft. Stroking her flat stomach. So soft. Her fur beneath... So soft, so silky, so mysterious... It smells so nice... The smell of sweetness and goodness... Like a flower... Sweet and tart... Susan... So beautiful... Like a rose... Like the flowers, the wildflowers... She smells so nice..."

The sun made its great slow arc across the sky as the car continued down the road. The CD had finished playing, and the soft rush of the wind was the only sound of the car's passing. "Susan... Drifting apart... not liking my attitudes... not liking my study time... not liking me anymore... not liking me... She thinks I'm dull! She wants someone else! She has someone else! Susan! How beautiful! Soft and warm and how beautiful! She has someone else! Susan! Susan! Susan..."

Unnoticed to his mind, Jim's penis was throbbing in an erection, pushing up stiffly against his pants. His hips were rocking back and forth as his thoughts exploded in overwhelming desires to mount and thrust. The primal urge to orgasm was building in his body...

Through tear-filled eyes, Jim's mind noticed a change in the extremely monotonous landscape. Up ahead across the median on the eastbound side of the road there was a movement of red and white color, moving up and down and then in circles. His brain started engaging with the new perceptions, and the activity snapped Jim out of his daze.

Jim was totally shocked as he suddenly realized how deeply he had been drifting, and he braked the car to a halt, amazed that he hadn't driven off the road. He felt he had just woken up from a very long and sexy dream, and he felt emotionally drained. He was shaking and stunned to realize he had been crying and that his penis was fully aroused and his groin was pleading with him for some stimulation to push it into orgasm.

He shook his head in bewilderment and looked across the road. All thoughts of releasing himself sexually or trying to figure out what had just happened to him were put aside. Across the median in the opposite breakdown lane was another car, and a person was feebly waving red and white clothes at him. Jim shut off his car and began to jog over.

The heat of the day was oppressive, intense sun and very dry. Jim thought it must be close to 100F. As he approached the other car, he realized that the driver was a young woman, about his age he thought. She was alone, Oriental, perhaps Chinese, and she looked to be in a great deal of distress. Jim closed the gap and in a few seconds was standing right beside her.

"... Water..." she croaked in a super dry voice.

Jim's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh! Yes! I have it! I'll be right back!" In less than a minute, Jim was back with three liter-bottles of water. He unscrewed the cap of one and handed it to her. She grabbed it out of his hands and began to gulp it down. While she was drinking, Jim opened a second bottle and began to drink himself. He was surprised to find he was also very thirsty, almost dehydrated. He looked at his watch and was shocked to see why. It was 2:30 PM. He had been driving for four hours.

The woman made a whimpering sound and beckoned for the remaining water bottle. Jim handed it to her but said, "You might want to wait a few minutes, if you can. I have lots more, that's not a problem. But you might want to give your body a few minutes to adjust..."