Chapter 2

There was a long silence in the cab when I finished my story about Katia and me, I guess my story brought us both down a little, I didn't mean it to, but there it was. Soon enough, though, Virginia and I began chatting again, about a ton of different things. I found myself liking the brown-haired, brown-eyed young girl. I had been put off by her earlier comment about trading sex for her room back in Bullhead City, but when I asked her about that, it seemed that it was more of a boyfriend/girlfriend thing, not the outright sex for money thing I'd first thought.

I know a girl with her looks would have to have a fair amount of experience with sex, at least in my experience. Her eyes were deep and dark, the kind of eyes that people get lost in. Her complexion was tan, and under the quick fix up of the bruise her boyfriend had laid on her, and her smeared tears, she had fine features. Her voice was melodic and pleasing, and she seemed very bright, and sharp, asking a lot of questions.

She was shorter than me, about 5' 3 and around 130 pounds, and shapely, with full breasts and a generous ass. Out of my league, that was for sure, but a girl can look, and dream, right?

"I thought I loved him," Virginia said, talking about her boyfriend, AKA 'Mike the Ass Hole.'

"At first he was sweet to me ... the sex, well, I didn't really care about that so much." She hesitated. "Then he got into that whole crystal meth thing. I could see things going downhill rapidly. And now, now I've got to be more responsible. There's more than just me to think about." She was referring to her pregnancy, which had apparently brought about the abrupt breakup with 'Mike.'

As we pulled into a truck stop just on the far side of Albuquerque, I told Virginia that I had to take a ten hour break so that I didn't go over my hours of service "I'm not about to lie on my log book," I told her. "Trucking's my life, I don't want to lose my CDL.'

"Well, thanks for the lift all this way - I don't know what I would have done without you," she said. Her smile looked kind of too bright to me, y'know? Kind of a 'stiff upper lip' look?

"Umm, you still don't really have any prospects, do you?" I asked her. She looked apologetic.

"No, but I've imposed way too much," she said.

"Look, I don't want you to think I'm coming on to you, though you ARE really cute, but how about we finish this trip together? I can drop you off at your parents, I've got a pretty big cushion of time going this way, and I'd welcome the company..."

"Seriously?" she asked, her brown eyes on mine. "You REALLY wouldn't mind? Oh, but I'm costing you money..."

"Well, you can pay me back when you get to your parents. It's only meals and stuff anyway," I said. "You can sleep here in the back tonight, it's a little cozy for two, but I promise, I'll behave." I smiled, and she smiled back.

"I'd like that," she said.

"Oh, and my house is in Fort Smith - you know, in Arkansas - so we can overnight there tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure," she said.

"Okay, since that's settled, let's go get sump'n to eat, and then a shower, okay?"

"Wow, a shower would be GREAT" Virginia said. "I feel as grubby as hell."

We hoofed it over to the restaurant, which was fortunately set up as a diner rather than the usual brand name fast food place. It would be nice to have something closer to real food for a change. We both showered first, and when Virginia came out of her shower cubicle, I whistled.

"You sure clean up good," I said.

Virginia blushed. "Hey, speaking of looks, you said something earlier today ... is it okay if I mention it?"

"Umm, sure," I said, not knowing what she was talking about.

"Umm, you said that you had a face like shoe leather. You're a good looking woman, Linda, you shouldn't put yourself down like that. I'll admit you've got a pretty good tan, though..." she looked apologetic.

I remembered the brief frown that had passed over her face when I said that, in telling Katia's story.

"Well, I appreciate it, but this mug has been through a lot. It's okay that I'm a little weathered, I don't mind." I did mind, though, everyone wants to look good, and accepting age is kind of tough, at least for me. I'd gone through my life, and what did I have to show for it? 38 years old can be ancient, depending on where you've spent those years.

Virginia looked dubious. "If you don't mind, I could show you a few things you can do, I had a job at a spa for a year. How about when we get to your house, okay?" I shrugged. I'd never really gotten into lotions and such since entering the military. Travel light, or don't travel at all.

We finished up in the female trucker's locker room - and thank god for those, I remember the old days - and I put my arm around Virginia's back, she put her arm around my back and we stood looking at the mirror. "Looks like we BOTH clean up pretty good, huh?" She squeezed my hand.

"We sure do," she said. We headed down to the restaurant. It was a pleasure to tuck into their meatloaf. Virginia had the pan-fried chicken. We each had two beers, well, I had two Buds and she had two O'Doul's. As I said before, I don't drink much, and never before driving, but I had a mandated 10 hour break, so I didn't see much problem with it this time.

"Oh, this is GOOD" she said, wolfing the meal down.

"Don't eat the bones, now," I kidded her. She pretended to throw the naked leg bone at me. It was nice to have somebody to kid with on the road ... I rarely ever have passengers. We finished up with 'pie alamo'.

"'Alamo?'" she asked.

"Just something from when I was a kid," I said. "I used to call pie with ice cream, 'pie alamo, ' cuz I didn't know any better, and my parents thought it was cute."

"Tell me about your family," Virginia asked.

"Not much to tell, really," I said. "I grew up in Arkansas, my parents' house is about ten miles from mine."

"So, you see them all the time?" she asked.

"Well ... no," I said. I felt a little pang at the memory of the last time I'd seen them.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Well, when my parents found out I liked girls, my father threw me out ... I guess it was time I was goin' anyway, so I joined the Air Force."

"Why would your father throw you out?" she asked.

"It might have been the shock of it, more than anything else. Plus, he was a fundamentalist Baptist minister."

"Ouch," Virginia said. "So, how did it happen?"

So, I began my story.

"I was on the girls' track team, Northside Senior High in Fort Smith, the Lady Grizzlies - y' see, the Grizzly Bear's our mascot. Anyway, I ran the 400 meters and the 4x400, you know, the relay with the baton and all?" Virginia nodded.

"Well, unbeknownst to me, Celia Watkins, one of the cheerleaders had taken a shine to me. She was an 11^th grader, and I was a senior, and I really hadn't noticed her, other than her humongous tits. She'd been held back at least once, I think she was older than me, and I was eighteen. Now, I was scared shitless that people would find out I even liked girls, much less that I LIKED GIRLS, y'know? So, it wasn't like every girl who had an urge that way knew they could look me up for some good times." I chuckled.

"She started coming up to me around the start of track season, spring of my senior year, and asking about stuff, totally random, and we'd have conversations, nothing special. I didn't think anything of it, other than that she was cute. She was a Catholic, anyway, so we didn't exactly run in the same social circles. I didn't really think anything of it, because to be honest, I was mooning over my English teacher, Miss Smith, who was about the prettiest woman I had EVER seen up until I left Arkansas.

"So, one day in April, we'd just half finished a joint boy-girl track meet at Southside - we won, by the way - and I was sitting in the girls' locker room. I'd pulled up after completing my part of the 4 x 400, with a cramp in my calf, so I left the meet early to get dressed. I was alone, not really thinking about anything, when Celia strolls in, dressed in her cheerleader outfit. The cheerleading squad would come to the close by events, mainly to cheer for the boys.

"Sounds like the beginning of a porno movie," Virginia said, grinning.

"Yeah, but I don't know about 'happy endings, exactly, '" I said, ruefully. "Anyway, what happened was a complete surprise to ME."

"You haven't seen them since?" Virginia asked.

"Nope," I said.

"Well, I'm sorry for that ... but that's a helluva hot story."

I smiled. "Yeah, I really wish I coulda got together with Celia one more time, she was a pistol."

"Do you at least hear from HER?" Virginia asked.

"Yeah, she's a fat mom of seven, and has two grandkids." I laughed. "I wonder if she'd ever do THAT again?"

"Well, maybe not, with seven kids hangin' around," Virginia said.

"You'd be surprised," I said. "Lotsa women seem to figure out things a lot later in life."

"I suppose," she said. "Hey, I'm done," she said, looking at her plate, and thus reminding me that we had to figure out accommodations for the night. As we got up from the booth, the young mother in the next booth looked up at me curiously. I guess I'd been overheard - I probably was a little louder than I should have been. She smiled nervously, and I nodded at her. I suppose I'd given her something to think about. I paid our check at the cashier, putting the tip on the ticket. Virginia wrote the total down.

"I AM going to pay you back," she said. I nodded, and we walked out across the lot to the tractor trailer way in the back, behind a couple dozen others parked for the night. We saw a slim shape step down from one cab and walk over to the one next to it.

"Is that, um, a hooker?" Virginia asked.

"You mean a lot lizard? Yeah," I responded.

"Lot lizard? That's what hookers are called?" Virginia asked.

"At truck stops, yeah," I said. "It's pretty rough - for them."

"Have you ever..."

"God, no" I said. "I'd sooner go through life alone than touch one o' them. Those poor skanks, nobody benefits from what they do except some truck driver's dick."

Virginia slipped stepping up on the climb to the passenger side. I caught her as she nearly fell, her body warm in my hands. She giggled.

"Oops, my bad," she said.