Page 9 of Longest Ride

“Let’s go inside and do the paperwork.”

Dad sped the paperwork along with some well-placed curses. When it was time to pay, he whipped out his debit card and we owned that orange Jeep.

Me and Virge were pretty happy as we drove off the car lot looking for the highway that would take us south to the Montana border.

“Can hardly believe Dad bought us this cool orange Jeep, Harlan. I fuckin love the hell out of it.”

“Yeah. I love it too. Wait until we get the equipment on it. Gonna be fuckin aces.”

Enderby Hospital.

Mama and Lucy sat in the waiting room while I went into the ICU to see Eldon. This time, his eyes were open, and he tried to smile at me. I leaned down and kissed him. “I love you.”

He smiled but didn’t speak.

“Is the pain bad?”

He shook his head. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. My mama and my sister are here. They’re staying with me at the cabin until you come home from the hospital.”

“Do they want to take you home?”

“Yes, but I’m not going. I already said so. Daddy was a bit pissed when I said that, but he had to go back to work. He took my brothers and went back to Montana.”

“Uh huh. You should go, Tammy. You’ll be safer with your family than with me.”

“No. I’m not leaving you.” I picked up Eldon’s hand and held it. “I love you too much to leave you.”

I-15 Southbound.

We headed south. Dad leading the way in his pickup and me driving the new Jeep. Beauty to drive and equipped with four-wheel drive if we ran into any drifts or unplowed sections of highway.

With the high wind blowing snow all over, visibility was a problem, and seemed to be getting worse the farther south we went. We weren’t leaving the storm behind like Dad thought we would. It seemed to be snowing harder every mile we pushed south.

We passed different spots on the road where there’d been a white-out and cars were in the ditch on both sides. A lot of fender benders, and tow trucks everywhere. People were walking along the side of the highway looking for rides. Most of them going north, not south.

Lethbridge. Alberta.

Travis pulled into a service center at one of the Lethbridge exits. We filled up the trucks with gas, then went inside to warm up with hot coffee and a sandwich. The heat inside the store felt good after standing out in the wind at the gas pumps.

The convenience store was huge, and they offered just about everything you could want. They had a big outfitter section at the back near the washrooms. A rack of parkas, bunkers of hats and gloves and hunting stuff, lots of camping equipment.

Didn’t see any guns. Not a gun store.

Dad pointed at the rack of parkas. “Try those coats on, boys.”

Virge didn’t like the thought of wearing a parka and he bucked. “We’re warm in the Jeep, Dad.”

Travis gave him a look. “I’m talking if y’all are not in the Jeep, Virge. Then what? You freeze your ass off?”

We had to try the parkas on while Dad picked out hats and gloves for us. He bought a warmer coat for himself and after hepaid for all the winter stuff, we put it on and shoved our other jackets into the plastic bag.

On the way out we stopped at the coffee station and got large coffees for the road. “Let’s see if we can make it to the border without sliding off the road,” said Travis.

“Did you call and tell Billy we were coming home?” I asked.

“Yep. Him and Ted are flooded with accident calls, and they need us bad.”

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