Page 15 of Jack

“Three weeks? That’s a good deal faster than I thought.” He asked her if she was coming to town this week to sign off on paperwork for her new job. “I really thought it would be months yet. I guess you guys know how to get people fired up.”

“Yes, it seems that once the land was ready, the rest of it just fell into place. For now we’re only distributing the things for Carol’s Plaza but might branch out to other stores and shops as we get used to what we’re doing. Of course, it helps that we have good drivers like you and your mom on our team, too.” She thanked him, embarrassed that he’d say something like that. “If you don’t have a return trip, we can have dinner tomorrow night. I understand that you only have one more week to go with the company you—”

“I don’t work for a company, Mr. Tucker. I’m an independent driver. Working with you will be under contract, but I work because I want to, not because of someone ordering me to. I’m sorry if that makes a difference to you but that’s what I wanted when I filled out the application to deliver for you and your company.” He said that he’d known that but had forgotten. “Thank you. I don’t want any misunderstanding going on between us.”

“You’re right. And neither do we. Thank you very much for reminding me.” She told him that she was all right with it, and they moved on. She didn’t want to have to only work for one firm. Especially for one that was just starting out. It could mean that she’d not be able to find employment if the company fell through on their promises and she sort of like having three meals a day and her truck. “What do you think about having dinner with my family. I will warn you there are a lot of us, but I think you can hold your own.”

She wasn’t so sure about that. Emma and her mom had been traveling together for years and had been their only company. But she agreed to have dinner with the family on Friday night. That gave her three days to get something to wear and hang out at the rest stop for truckers. A long hot shower was going to be on her list of things to get done. What she wouldn’t give for a nice big bathtub rightnow, she thought with a smile.

After leaving the center, they headed to the store. They’d not stopped for supplies in a while so they were about out of everything. In the bed area, they had a microwave, a small oven as well as a good-sized refrigerator. All the comforts of home and none of the work that went along with it. Her mom was in charge of the area where she cooked, and the two of them had gotten used to sharing a bed when there was time for them to get a good night’s sleep. They got along well and had a wonderful time seeing the country. At least this end of the country.

“What do you think about going to see a movie tomorrow night?” Mom looked shocked that she’d ask such a question. “It’s all right if you don’t want to go, Mom. It was just something that I thought you’d enjoy that was about as normal as two people can get.”

“How about dinner, too? Oh, it would be nice to have time for both, don’t you think?” She told her that she owed her a meal anyway. “I would love to have a date tomorrow night. That’ll give us a little bit of time to catch up on things that have been going on. I know how much you dislike having the radio on, but there are newspapers that we can look at, too.”

Her mom was teasing her, but she’d been right in saying that she didn’t like the radio on. It wasn’t just the bad news that seemed to be on every station but she really did enjoy her quiet time. They would listen to a book if they’d find one that they both thought that they’d enjoy but other than that, the radio was never on.

Picking up some laundry detergent and some softener, she was going to spend tomorrow morning at the laundry mat to get some things cleaned up. They didn’t really wear all that much in clothing, the usual things really but since they rarely got out of the rig more than a couple of times a week, neither of them saw any reason to put on clean clothing daily.

While she was doing laundry the next morning, she took her mom’s advice and picked up the local and larger city newspaper. It had been a lot harder than she thought it should have been to pick up actual papers, but she managed to find a couple. Mostly, it was the local stuff that she read, but other things were going on around town, too, that she was interested in. Like talk of the charity Tucker Charities.

It went on to tell how the Tucker family, along with the Fosters, had set up the charity to help people get back up on their feet. Not just individuals but also companies that wanted to expand and or start-up. Like the distribution center that she was going to be working for.

It was going to hire as many as six hundred people. All the work on the building was done by locals when it could be done, and once it was up to full capacity, including truckers like herself, there would be over a thousand new jobs. She wholly believed in the trickle-down theory in that if there were that many jobs, people from all other walks of life would benefit from it as well, like restaurants and especially schools. Her mom came into the laundry mat just as she was putting the last load in the dryer and showed her the haircut she’d gotten.

“I nearly fell asleep while she was washing my hair. It’s nice to be pampered a bit, don’t you think?” She told her mom that she didn’t care for people touching her. “Yes, I remember that. You were always an odd man out. But I love you, and that’s all that matters.”

Her mom took the papers with her and said she’d be in the rig. As she was taking out her pants from the dryer, she noticed that there wasn’t much going on in the place. Not that she knew all that much about laundry mats, she just thought that there would be more people in the place on a Thursday morning.

It took her two trips to get her things out to the rig and by the time they’d gotten things put away and the things hung up that didn’t go in the dryer, they were ready for some dinner. Ordering a pizza sounded good to her but her mom wanted to sit someplace that was larger than a table. In the shopping center where they were, two shops served pizza, and they decided on which one to go to after flipping a coin. If only life were that easy, as just a flip of a quarter could make the decision for life’s little things.

“I’m stuffed.” Emma looked around the room and noticed a man at the counter talking to the cashier. She wondered if he had wanted something to eat and didn’t have the money when he turnedsuddenly and looked at her. She didn’t move, there was something so very strange about the look he was giving her. “Mom, it’s time we get back.”

They were gathering up their things when the man came to their table. He didn’t say anything but continued to stare at her. Finally having enough, she shoved him hard enough for him to hit the floor and stepped around him. Just as she was taking a step toward the door, he grabbed her leg and had her falling on her ass.

Turning around, she grabbed him by the arm and twisted. The sound of something snapping in his arm didn’t make her feel any better, but she was free of him and stood up. Whatever was wrong with the man, she wanted nothing to do with him. As she was getting up, he came at her again, this time with a knife in his hand that had been on their table.

“Back off.” She didn’t want to have to pull out her gun, but her mom had no such trouble. Putting it to the back of his head, telling him to drop the knife, she was able to limp her way away from him.

Whatever was going on in the man’s head, she didn’t want to hang around and find out. As is was now, she was beginning to feel the pain of being tossed around and didn’t much care for it.

Mom had the man on the floor with his hands behind his head when the police arrived. While she didn’t know what his problem had been with her, he was pissed off enough for the police to take him away almost as soon as they arrived. Sitting down hard on the chair that had been right behind her, she felt something warm and wet running down the back of her head. Turning to look at her mom, she yelled at the girl behind the counter to call an ambulance. That was the last thing she remembered as the floor simply came up from beneath her feet and slapped her out. Christ, all she’d wanted was a few slices of hot pizza, and now she was going to have to explain why she wasn’t going to be able to have dinner with her new bosses.

~*~

“They didn’t say what the man was going to do to her. Please don’t ask me that again, Denver. I might have to wrestle with you a bit before we get to the hospital.” He laughed, and Bailee glared at him. “I’m serious. Her mother said that the man just came at them—well, Emma, at least and knocked her around. If not for her being armed, there is no telling what might have happened to her. Did you know that Emma’s mom was a former cop? That’s good to know.”

“I didn’t know, no. But I’m glad for it.” They were pulling into the emergency department parking lot an hour after hearing from Charlotte Holden. “I’m so glad that she called us. It’s a shame that this happened, but I’m sure that we can get to the bottom of this soon.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. He seemed sort of deranged, according to Charlotte. I’m betting that he saw her as a target or something and was going to simply rob her.” Denver asked why he’d pick her. “I don’t know. Perhaps because she’s beautiful. Also, being a redhead makes me think that he believes all those stories about redheads being magical or something. I’ve even heard that some people think that they’re evil and in league with the devil himself.”

“I’d heard that too.” They were shown to the room where Emma was but the room was empty of a bed when they arrived. Ms. Holden was there, sitting on one of the chairs, crying. It was her that got the woman to stop crying and to tell her what was going on.

“The man had a picture on him that showed a red-headed woman that sort of looked like Emma. She had fuller lips than my daughter and seemed to be a bit heavier. But he thought that she was the woman at the welfare office who had taken his kids away from him. He was set to kill her so that he’d not have to face her in court. If he acts like that around his children, I’m glad they were taken from him. The man was set to kill my little girl.” Bailee was sorry that it had come to this but she told the other woman that she was glad that she remembered to call them. “That was Emma. She woke up a couple of times and told me to call you guys to explain why we might not make it to your house tomorrow night. We were having such a good day too when the man attacked us. The man that runs the shop we were in seemed to not understand me telling him to get the police until I had to smack him a good one. I hated to do it, but he was just standing there while Emma was bleeding on the floor.”

“I would have been terrified if that had happened to me. Especially with it being my child.” Denver asked where Emma was. “Oh yes, I should have asked that first thing. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. She was taken for a CAT scan of her head and neck. They haven’t put any stitches in her yet. I think they were waiting for the tests to come back. I’m going to have to call someone to get the rig taken care of. The shopping center has a strict rule about leaving rigs on their lot overnight.”

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