Chapter 105

It was several hours after dinner, when the bus arrived. I wasn't as tired as the night before. I was still tired, so I decided to hold off with my confrontation with Soda and his crew. When the bus arrived, Rodney and I did a quick check of the parking lot. It was late enough so that only a hand full of people were outside. Those were people coming or going. The had only a minor interest in the Moore Brother's Tour Bus, that pulled into the parking lot.

Rodney and I watched over the bus passengers drag ass off the bus. That's when I realized the true duties of Soda Pop's crew. They carried his suitcases into the rooms. I had also seen them give him drugs and more or less kiss his ass on demand. I almost laughed, when I realized they were porters with guns. Even so they were as dangerous as any other amateur with a gun.

"Well you look better than last time I saw you," Joan said.

"I wish I could say the same for you. You look tired and nervous," I said to her.

"I have been on a bus with that clown and his apprentice clowns for twelve hours without a break. It should be declared cruel and inhuman treatment," she said. "By the way I have been thinking about the sleeping arrangements. If you want you can share my room. I'm sure there is plenty of room in there." she said.

"No thanks, but Rodney might prefer your room to mine. He told me I'm not his type." I said with a smile.

"Don't let him kid you, every white woman is their type," She said dropping her guard. I put it down to her being tired.

"I'll keep that in mind," I said with a smile. "But he would have to be my type as well. I'm really not that easy to take advantage of."

"Oh I can believe that," she agreed.

She walked over to talk to Rodney. I assume she was making the same offer to him. Her age or body type probably didn't matter to him. I was curious to see how he would handle it, if she had not been correct in her generalization.

I went back to the room and changed for bed. Rodney never showed so I went to sleep. I was tired and it was going to be a long day coming up. I wasn't looking forward to the confrontation, even if I did live for the adrenaline rush.

I fell asleep dreading it, but a little excited at the prospect as well. I wasn't sure that I wanted to involve Rodney in the confrontation. The upside was, if he was there the possibility of a violent confrontation went down. The downside was, if he was there the possibility of a violent confrontation went down. I went to sleep with a smile on my face, because I recognized that I had a problem ... I even promised myself that I would deal with it, after the tour was over.

I woke up before daylight, as I had everyday since the tour began. I immediately began dressing for my run. I decided not to go to Joan's room for Rodney. He hadn't seemed too thrilled to run with me last time. Besides it would be good for me to be alone with my thoughts.

I began to run down the access road to the highways. There were several major interstate highways that ran nearby. I began to run when I got to the parking lot, and didn't stop for over an hour. The sky had lightened considerably before I returned to my room. Rodney was standing in the room. He wore only boxer shorts. Since his hair was wet, I assumed he had been in the shower.

"You should have come to get me. You knew where I was," he said.

"I thought you might be too tired to run," I said with a wicked smile.

"Nah, Joan and I just did it once and then went to sleep. I was exhausted. I haven't been getting as much sleep as I'm used to," he said. I noticed Rodney had an erection at least a partial one and it seemed to be larger than average, but not nearly the size of Jerome or the biker who, sort of, raped me.

"I'm going to take a shower so be dressed when I come out. We want to get on the road ahead of that bus. We should have time to check out the venue in Patterson," I said.

After my shower I felt much better. I came out of the bathroom in my Russian Commando knock of tee shirt and bikini panties. With my stick figure, I didn't expect Rodney to even look. I was surprised when he did. He watched me carefully as I put on the jeans I wore at least half the time.

"You know you should really wear a skirt," he said.

"Thanks for the fashion advice," I said. "My legs look like sticks."

"No they don't, the running gives them shape," he said.

"Meanwhile back on the the job, lets get a move on. We can be in Paterson by 2PM easy," I said. I knew because I checked on the computer for drive times. Most every motel was a hot spot by that time.

We took the SUV back to the highway with Rodney at the wheel. I listened to my MP3 player with the headphones. Rodney didn't like the same music over and over. I sometimes listened to the radio with him. Rodney kept the radio on an easy listening station. He was trying hard to be just a nice guy and to avoid all the racial stereotypes. I approved, but wasn't sure how it would effect him in the end. You can't hide from yourself forever, I thought.

We had biscuits for breakfast in the car, but a sit down lunch. The lunch was one of those places, one step up from a take out joint. Still the grilled cheese and fries was just fine. I mean what can you do to a grilled cheese. okay I guess if you really tried, but who would intentionally ruin a sandwich. If I was back in County Seat maybe it could happen. Nobody on the road outside Philadelphia knew me.

We drove another hour or so on the interstate and hit Paterson NJ. It was a real disappointment. After the Atlanta Raceway, I suppose anything would have been. At least anywhere that would book TJ Soda. The theater was a very large movie theater from the old days. I wondered if Joan had ever seen the place for real, or just some twenty year old photos of it. Nonetheless, security was the same all over.