tomato juice and went over to toss the can in the trash basket, then went back to sit and wait some more.
Then here they came. He knew they were right the instant they walked out of the cafe. Midfifties, both overweight from sitting in the truck all the time, dressed alike in boots and jeans and windbreakers and black cowboy hats, they were obviously comfortable together, happy, telling each other stories. Parker rose and walked toward them, and they stopped, grinning at him, as though they’d expected him.
They had. ‘I knew it,’ the man said, and said to his wife, ‘Didn’t I tell you?’
‘Well, it was pretty obvious,’ she said. .
Parker said, ‘You know I want a lift.’
The man gestured at the building behind him. ‘We saw you sitting out here, speculated about you.’
The woman said, ‘We don’t have that much to distract us.’
‘You were here too long to be waiting for a partner,’ the man said. ‘Or a wife. So you want a lift. But you let half a dozen fellas go by. I said to Gail here, “He’s looking for a couple, cause he knows we won’t turn him down.”’
‘After I saw you throw the tomato can away,’ she said, ‘and not litter, I said, “All right. If he asks, we’ll say yes.”’
‘If you’re headed east,’ the man said.
‘I am,’ Parker said, and put his hand out. ‘My name’s John.’
‘I’m Marty’ the man said, ‘and this is Gail.’
They started walking, Parker beside them, and Marty said, ‘Where you headed?’
‘New Jersey.’
‘Well, we’ll get you to Baltimore, and you can work it out from there.’
‘I could walkit from Baltimore,’ Parker said.
16
Their truck was a blue Sterling Aero Bullet Plus, one of the biggest longhaul tractors on the road, with room enough to stand upright in the sleeper box behind the seat, and a separate door to that area on the right side, behind the regular passenger door. No one would be using the bunk right now; Gail would drive, with Marty in the middle on the wide bench seat, and Parker on the right.
‘We’re still on California time,’ Marty said, as Gail started them up, ‘which is why the late lunch. We probably won’t want dinner until late, either.’
‘That’s fine,’ Parker said.
The truck nosed out of its place, Gail turning the big wheel, and as they followed the truck lane around behind the station building, headed for the interstate on-ramp, Parker saw a state police car moving slowly along an aisle over in the other parking area, the one for cars. He didn’t turn his head to watch it, and neither Marty nor Gail seemed to notice it.
It was a different experience, being up here in this high cab, streaming straight eastward toward the night, the remnants of red sun low to the horizon behind streaks of cloud and pollution. You looked down on the tops of cars, across at other truckers, and it felt as though the load in the trailer was pushing the cab rather than the cab providing the power. Gail set the cruise control button on the steering wheel to 77,and they ran smoothly in the river of moderate traffic.
Once they were up to speed, part of the flow, Gail said, ‘There we are. Anybody want the radio?’
‘Not now, Gail,’ Marty said. ‘You get tired of local news.’ To Parker he said, ‘Don’t you?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Parker said.
Marty said, ‘You don’t mind my saying so, you don’t seem like a man spends much time in parking lots, looking for a ride home.’
‘I’m not,’ Parker said. He’d known he’d have to explain himself, and was ready. Everybody on the highway believes the country-and-western songs, so he’d sing them one. ‘I’m embarrassed to tell you,’ he began. ‘Usually excuse this, Gail usually I got good instincts when it comes to women.’
‘Ho ho,’ Marty said.
‘Well, there I was in Vegas’
‘Ha ha!’ Marty said.
Gail, looking at him past her husband, said, ‘I thought they cleaned Vegas up.’
‘Maybe so,’ Parker said. ‘But Vegas cleaned me out. I hope you don’t mind, I don’t want to go through the details’
‘Not at all,’ Gail said.
‘I learned my lesson, this time,’ Parker assured them. ‘Back in Jersey, I got a car, and a house, and a bank account, so I’ll be okay.’
‘Good,’ Gail said.
‘Just don’t introduce me to anybody between here and there,’ Parker said. ‘You know what I mean.’
‘Hah,’ Marty said.
Jouncing woke Parker out of therapeutic sleep, and when he lifted his head, oriented himself in the dashboard lights, they were leaving the highway, bouncing down a badly maintained off-ramp toward a small country road. Parker had been sleeping against the right door, and Marty was now at the wheel, Gail nowhere in sight, the curtain closed over the sleeper box. Parker swallowed. ‘What’s up?’
