She had been told about Hugh’s intentions and, seeing the new ring on Jenny’s finger as soon as she had alighted from her horse, she ran up to Jenny and gave her a big hug. “Hello, Sister Jenny, I am so happy for you I could cry.”
“I’ve done enough of that for both of us,” Jenny replied, and hugged her sister Mary back.
Then the rest of the family came out of the house, and congratulated Hugh and Jenny, and everybody hugged each other, even including Jimmy.
“I guess you won’t be having to take me over your knee after all, Dad,” Hugh said.
Jenny looked questioningly between Hugh and his dad for an explanation, but none was forthcoming.
“Speaking of secrets, you never did tell me the true story about Old Grouch,” Jenny reminded Hugh.
“I’ll tell you later,” Hugh whispered to her. “It’s a story you’ll have the rest of your life to hear.”
Neither one of them could have guessed the extraordinarily strange turn that their lives would take in the very near future—a turn that would threaten their future marriage, and even their very lives.
Author’s Notes
In my career as a big-rig truck driver I had personally experienced or witnessed many of the events that have appeared in this story. Some of the events are adapted from true stories told by truck drivers over coffee in drivers’ lounges, or they were taken from actual news events. I’ll leave it to the reader to determine which were which.
One article I read reported that there are several hundred hijackings or attempted hijackings of big-rig trucks every year. So, it’s not all that uncommon. All of the attempted hijackings in this story were based loosely on the events surrounding actual hijackings. Even as I was telling a Sheriff’s sergeant friend of mine about my story, he related to me that he had a good friend who was found dead in his truck by the side of the road on California Highway 58 near Tehachapi. His head had been bashed in, and he had been robbed.
The James character in my story is a real person. He actually was my trainer, and then my mentor once I began driving solo. And, he remains to this day my good friend. This novel is dedicated to James. You’ll notice that James doesn’t have a last name. He wanted it to be that way. It’s one of those things where if I told too much about his exploits, both in the SEALS and while driving truck, he’d have to kill me. I believe him.
Some of my readers have asked me how I came up with the Jenny character. Honestly, the story just needed a beautiful, blonde, spunky gal, so I just let my subconscious create her. It wasn’t until after the story was finished, and I was musing absently in my office one day, that I happened to glance at my wife’s picture on the wall, and I realized that all along I had been describing my beautiful, blonde wife from when we first began dating 34 years ago from at the time this story was written. Yes, I’m that lucky.
And, no, I am not Hugh. I wish. But I’m way, way past being 36 years old. I’ve never been in the Marines. I’m not a martial arts guy. I’m not 6’2”. I’m not 220 pounds of lean, hard muscle. But, who’d care to read a story about a 60-ish, 5’9”, 180-pound, former-newspaper-publisher-turned-truck-driver? So, we have Hugh. Much more interesting, don’t you think?
Throughout the story, I have tried to remain faithful and accurate in my descriptions of locations, highways, travel centers, and shippers’ and receivers’ facilities, as well as conditions and travel times while driving a big-rig truck. Obviously, I’ve had to use a little bit of literary license in some cases in order to make the story flow right.
While this story was never meant to be a travelogue, one could follow the routes taken by James and Hugh and see the same sights, and stop at the same locations as they did. Truck drivers who have driven the seven Western states should recognize much of what I’ve described in this story.
Where are Hugh and Jenny headed from here? The last paragraph of the story obviously hints that further adventures are in store for the pair. I don’t want to give the future stories away, but suffice it to say that up until now they have just been getting warmed up in their adventures.
Hugh wants nothing more than to just continue to peaceably drive the Western highways with Jenny as his wife and companion. But, because of the nationwide notoriety that he had gained from his breaking the hijacking ring, he and Jenny find themselves thrust into a life-threatening, and murderous, situation that separates them for a time, but that also has far-reaching, national implications and consequences.
Thank you for reading Crimson Highway.
David Wickenhauser,
News writer at TruckingTruth.com
