Chapter 12

I didn't really need to drive my truck up to the safe area to get there, Carl would have let me use his pickup I'm sure. In fact he offered it. I took my log truck because if they wanted to see a truck driver I might as well prove it by showing them the truck from the git go.

When I'd come as close as I could without bumping into the barrier I laid down on my train horn. I hadn't seen them when I drove up but they came running around from the back of their truck right away. It was an over the road truck, pulling a reefer with Prime Inc written in big black letters on the side of the trailer. Didn't that beat all; I'd worked for Prime for a couple of years once. They waved real big when they saw me and started toward my truck. I got out to wait for them at the barrier.

I could hardly believe how pretty they looked coming down the hill. They were about five six or so with wavy long black hair and as they got closer I could tell they had deep blue eyes. We won't mention the jiggling titties and swaying asses just yet. I'm not so crude as to examine a girl's assets before I'm invited to. Right.

"Are you Billy Joe Stephens?" one of them asked as soon as they were close.

"Ok, I'll admit it," I said, and they both burst out laughing.

It wasn't that odd and I'd been laughed at before but I was wondering what in the hell set them off. At least they had a good sense of humor to be laughing after the morning Carl and the others said they'd had.

"We're sorry for laughing, but we couldn't help it. We know a little bit about you. By the way, I'm Stacy and she's Sherry," Stacy said.

"Pleased to meet you ma'ams," I said, and tipped my hat to them, making them laugh again.

"We have to stop that but this is just great, and we're excited," Sherry said.

"The union men on the spaceship gave us the lowdown on how you ruined Bandor and got the rest of the higher up's panties in a bunch. They didn't have any idea we'd heard about you even before that," Stacy said.

"Not at Prime I hope," I said, and damned if they didn't burst out laughing again.

"Yes, at Prime. They point you out by name as a bad example in every orientation for new drivers. The ones just out of truck driving school are suitably impressed but drivers that have a few miles on them admire you tremendously and wish they could have come up with your way to fuck them blind like that," Sherry said.

"Well, they did a little fucking back as I remember. I doubt I cost them a penny," I said.

"That's what Kevin told us, and last time we were in Springfield he was still wishing you had come back and caught up your log books so he could still be your dispatcher. He said he'd never had a driver that made him so much money," Stacy said.

"If I was so good why didn't he just make up some logs and let me sign them?" I asked.

"He probably never thought of it or he would have. He claims he did laugh when you drew a couple of hundred bucks and headed home for Thanksgiving in your tractor and then parked it at the Freightliner place for them to pick up," Sherry said.

"They waited long enough to call and check on it. I hauled short-wood with it for four weeks before they even asked me where it was," I said.

"Damn, they don't know that yet?" Stacy said.

"I don't guess so since that was about eight years ago. By the way, how's Mrs Vera?" I asked.

"She died, Robert's the top dog now," Stacy said.

"Oh well, not everybody can get grabbed by the spacemen and made young again," I said.

"Oh, did they do that to you?" Sherry asked.

"Sure, you can't imagine how old and slouchy looking I was before they grabbed me," I said.

"Well, looks like they do good work. I figured they must when the union men told me what they had to start with when they made your Harley's," Sherry said.

"Damn, they made 'em? I never even got 'em. They didn't tell me they'd already made 'em, just that the white hats wouldn't let them do it. I didn't know they actually made 'em and just wouldn't let me have 'em."

"They didn't make 'em at first, but the union men wobbled the job and the white hats gave in. They sent the Harley's down with us," Stacy said.

"I'll be damned. Where are they?" I asked.

"On the other side of our truck," Stacy said.

"I guess the top dogs were really right all along though. I never did have the Harley's, just the wheels."

"Hell, they all knew that, even the union men. They said it didn't matter and that the rules were the rules. They even said after the way you turned Bandor every which way but loose that the bosses are afraid to call anybody's hand about who actually owns what they have with them. They barely even asked us about our truck, and you know it's just leased. Not to mention that's Prime's trailer and Excel's meat load, or loads," Sherry said.

"You mean they'll let you pull off that dodge again?"

"Sure, Prime just works it around so it comes down on the drivers if they get caught. Excel knows about it too and they weigh you out after you get the first load on and then let you drive right back around to get the second one. Naturally they don't weigh you out after that load," Sherry said.

"Damn, I might have caught up my logs if they'd been doing that while I was there. Mrs Vera thought she'd done a good thing by cutting it out," I said.

"Yeh, but when she kicked the bucket and Robert got his hands on things that went right back into the program. Sherry and I had just loaded out in Plainview for a double shot to Hayward when the spacemen flew us away. At least we'll have plenty to eat for a long time, as long as we like beef or pork," Stacy said.

"Hell, you don't have to worry about food. Just drive on down to our place and we've got plenty to eat. It'll be a lot better for you anyway. There are plenty of assholes still running loose down here," I said.

"That's what Jane and the others told us this morning when they let their dogs get hold of the two we were messing with. We didn't have the heart to tell them that the real deal was we were both trying to pull that one guy inside. We were going to kick his ass good and proper since his buddy couldn't come through unless we had hold of him. The dogs did a good job though and they took both of them off chained up," Sherry said, and it was my turn to laugh.

"Where were your tire billys?" I asked.

"In our back pockets. Where else?" Stacy asked, and then they laughed.

"Why don't we go on and move your truck down to our place and get you set up there?" I asked.

"We may be easy but we ain't that easy. We're gonna go look at it first. Are you ready to take us down there?" Sherry asked.

"Sure, come on and get in the truck," I said, and we headed for it.

I whistled up Spot and let him in first and then Sherry and Stacy got in on the passenger side. Sherry went on in to sit on the bunk and Stacy sat in the other seat.

"Y'all try to look for any place you might need us to widen the road while we're going, and take a look at any limbs that might crap up your trailer," I said.

"Y'alls ass, Stacy can look, I'm off duty in the sleeper," Sherry said.

"You lazy bitch, you want to make me do it all," Stacy said, but I knew they were just fucking with each other, and me too probably.

I watched my side and Stacy looked at the other one. She found three places that would require a few limbs to come off and I found two. Neither of us saw any place they'd have trouble with tree trunks. We were back at camp in fifteen minutes.

After I stopped we went directly to Carl's camper and inside for coffee. I introduced them to Scotty and Casey since they knew everybody else in there. Carl couldn't wait.

"Did you show him his surprise?" he asked.

"No, but we told him about it. He seemed anxious to get us down here," Sherry said.

"No doubt he's even more anxious to get you over to our bus," Wanda said.

"That sounds like a hell of a deal to us," Stacy said, "But I thought he was already spoken for."

"He is, kinda, and we three are the ones," Karen said, and waved her hand at Katy and Wanda, "That don't mean he can't handle a few more and we've got a damned big bed."

"Well why don't we go over and show them the bedroom," Katy said, and I couldn't see a thing wrong with that idea.

"Naw, let's make him wait until after supper. We can get your truck on down here this afternoon and he'll be even harder if he has to wait a while," Wanda said, and of course everyone but me thought that was oh so funny, even Scotty laughed at me.

"As much as it galls me to agree with you Wanda, we do need to go ahead and get their stuff down here so we can be ready to fetch the double wide tomorrow. I'm sure Jim Bob, Hank, and their families will be glad to see it," I said.

"You're right about that. I told them about it and asked if they'd mind sharing. They said they'd prefer things that way," Jane said.

"What double-wide?" Sherry asked.

"It came with some folks that are no longer around. I think they were hauling it toward Mexico for some missionary work," I said.

"Have they got decent trucks rigged up to pull it?" Stacy asked.

"You won't believe it but they had a pair of Freightliners with condos," I said.

"Damn, to haul mobile homes? They must have had some big donations from somewhere," Sherry said.

"No doubt, but they don't need any of it now and we do," Carl said.

"I hope one of you won't mind driving one of the rigs here after we get them apart and hitched," I said.

"What's to mind? If they're condos they're probably a lot like our truck. We don't mind driving 'em. We'll probably need your truck to get them moving anyway," Stacy said.

"I expect you're right. Have you ever hauled anything like that?" I asked.

"Only for a couple of years. It's what we did before we went to Prime. It was a shitty job though and usually with shitty trucks. We won't know how to do it right with a truck that has all its brakes working," Stacy said.

"We can probably fake it sis," Sherry said.

"We might as well go gather up part of the chain gang then and get the trees trimmed. How bout the new guys Carl, are they too hurt to work?" I asked.

"Naw, they're just pissed off to be caught," he said.

"I'll bet I can get that out of them," I said.

"They're just pieces of shit, so if you can't, even I won't think twice about you shooting their asses," Carl said.

"You mean those asshole spacemen were telling the truth? There aren't any cops down here?" Stacy asked.

"Not a damned one that we can find, or we'd have already shot 'em. I'm getting pretty fond of running the show, and the guy we brought back with us from picking up Scotty's truck seems to think that there are more assholes in Coppertown than there were in Graveyard," I said.