Photo by Naomi August on Unsplash

The day was going to be long like it always was when I made the weekly run to the big city for supplies. The list was given, and I had to drive about 70 miles. Now on any given day that would take about 3 hours, however I knew today wasn’t going to be easy as the old lady pulled in front of me. If only I would have been quicker or wouldn’t have got caught up in the conversation in the kitchen, I would have been ahead of her.

Slow must have been her middle name, because the speed limit on the very windy road was 30 mph, and her top speed was 15 mph. I tried passing, but there was always a vehicle coming or a sharp corner. I thought maybe she would pull over, but NOOOOOO. I putted behind her growing madder and madder by the second. I had places to go, people to see, and things to load. “Get the fuck out of my way,” I yelled as I hit the steering wheel.

Still, she putted along. I realized that I was so mad that I was having a hard time focusing on the road. I thought I better pull over and take a break. No harm could come because I would catch back up to her in about 1 mile. It had been about 45 minutes of following her, and I should have been so much farther along.

As I sat in my truck yelling at the top of my lungs, here comes this little blue 4 door sedan. The car was just barely able to stay on the road before jerking to a stop in the turn off area. Out comes this guy probably about 30 years old, and man was he a tall drink of water. I watched him walk to the front passenger side of his car. He was dressed sharp in black pants and a white shirt with a nice purple tie. His shoes were so shiny that the morning sun glistened off them. I could tell he looked devastated as he took off his black framed glasses and rubbed his eyes. So I got out of my truck and walked on over.

“Having problems?” I asked.

“Yes, I have a flat and I’m not sure what to do.”

“Yep, that is a flat,” I say as I looked at the tire. “Where is your spare?”

“I’m not certain as I’ve never had to change it before,” he said.

“Well pop the trunk and I will see if it is back there,” I said. As I gathered the stuff we got to talking.

He said he was just headed to town to look things over as he was thinking about moving out to the country and our small town was on his list.

I told him there is fishing, hiking, horseback riding, floating, hunting and trails for riding everywhere. So, if he liked the great outdoors he would never be bored.

He stated he loved the outdoors and just needed a change of scenery since his partner had passed away about a year ago. He just needed to start over someplace new.

I said “I was sorry for his loss. What was her name?”

He looked at me with uncertainty, trying to decide what he should say. When he finally spoke, he said, “Tim, his name was Tim.”

I stood up and had to look upward to see his eyes, he had a very uneasy look on his face. I looked at him for a few seconds then said, “I went on a date with a Tim once.”

He looked so relieved that his whole face lit up in a smile and what a great smile it was.

“My name is Charlie? What is yours?” I asked.

“Frank.”

I loaded the flat tire and the tools into his trunk and told him once he got to town to get it looked at.

“I’m glad you were here to help me,” said Frank.

“Me too,” I said. We ended up talking some more, and as I stood there enjoying our conversation I thought I sure am glad I decided to take a break.

— Nicole Barden 1/19/2021