Snippet

Of WIP
(rough and unedited)
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I still need a title

Perhaps 'Heaven's Gate?".

Naww..that's been took.

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Homer Grimes retired from the military, after 25 years service, at the age of forty. He was a big man and had been a big kid at the age of fifteen. The Marines had been looking for big, strong kids then so they pretended to believe him when he said he was eighteen.

He was VERY good at what he did. He moved into Special Ops pretty fast and after that he didn’t officially exist. What he was involved with never happened.

Twenty five years of that kinda stuff caused him to become bit jaded with life. So he retired, bought a truck and drove around the country, he considered himself a paid tourist, for another 25 years.

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One day He was sitting in his truck at a company terminal. The driver side window was down and engine wasn’t running. It was a nice day.

Chillin...just chillin. He was smoking a cigar and people watching. They didn’t notice him watching them because they were usually looking at their smartphone. It was amusing watching people bump into things, each other and fall down because they missed a step or a curb. No situational awareness what so ever. Hiliarious to watch.

Howard had been convinced that people were stupid for as long as he could remember. The more he watched people , the more he thought so.

Howard noticed a man come out of the office. He caught Howard’s attention because he was NOT looking at a phone.

“Must be a driver” Howard thought, “he’s actually paying attention to his surroundings.”

The man got closer and Howard could see that he was upset to put it mildly. He projected rage...and fear. He walked toward Howard’s truck...but entered the truck parked beside him .

Howard watched the driver remove all personal belonging’s from his truck, cursing all the while. This didn’t look good. If the driver was getting a new truck he would be happy. This guy was definitely not happy.

Finally Howard just HAD to ask.

“Hey buddy...you ok?” Howard asked him.

“Not really” The man replied. “ I just got fired.”

“Why?” Howard asked “If you don’t mind my asking that is.”

“I failed my physical.” the man said.

“High Blood Pressure?” Howard asked. “There’s pills for that isn’t there?”

“Nope” the man replied. “ It wasn’t that. It’s because I have a thick neck. I lift weights as a hobby and run. I don’t have an ounce of fat on me and all my vital signs are that of a man twenty years younger than me.”

“Why would having a thick neck cause you to fail your physical?” Howard asked. He had one too. He lifted weights alright but not as a Hobby. He drove heavy-haul and lifting heavy stuff went with the job. Howard was bigger than the man he was talking too and his neck was bigger also.

“Sleep Apnea” The man said “They said that a thick neck was an indicator. They said that I’d have to prove that I didn’t have Sleep Apnea by taking a sleep study.”

“Well why don’t you?” Howard asked.

“Because they cost almost ten thousand dollars” The man replied.

“WHAT?” Howard exclaimed.

“yup and the company medical insurance won’t pay because I’m physically fit. If I was fat it would be a different story.” the man replied.

They didn’t say much after that. As the driver was leaving with his packed duffle bag Howard said .

“How you doing for money?”

The driver was embarrassed. “I’m getting pretty short.”

Howard gave him five twenties.” Here..take this. I can make more”

“For now” he thought.

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Soon after Howard got a load. He fired up his truck and left. Howard’s physical wasn’t due for a couple of years, but what the man said concerned him. Howard DID have a very thick neck.

Howard decided to take a vacation. He was due. He hadn’t taken any time off in four or five years. Maybe it was time to go fishing. He sent a message to inform his dispatcher of his intent. It was time for him to go home.

That didn’t happen. For the next couple of months there just didn’t seem to be any loads going to Houston. The dispatcher told Howard that he couldn’t understand it.

Howard understood it just fine. His dispatcher didn’t want him to go home because Howard was one of his best drivers. If Howard wasn’t driving the dispatcher made a whole lot less money.

Howard finally had enough and didn’t call in for a load the next time his trailer was empty. He just pointed the nose of his truck south and headed that way. He was going to Texas.

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A few days later he got there. Once he pulled into the yard on the east side of Houston he unhitched his trailer and informed the mechanic that it was due for maintainence. His dispatcher had kept him away from terminals for way too long. He parked his truck near the door of the office and began to climb out when he saw a female that he knew...and he didn’t like her. He hung back hoping she wouldn’t see him.

It was THAT gal. He’d seen her in action other places.

She was strutting up the sidewalk to the door of the office like a broody hen. A man opened the door for her. She began to scream.

“I don’t need you to open a door for me!” She shouted “What are you? Some kind of sexist? You don’t think women are equal do you? “

The man was taken aback. He raised his arms above his shoulders and backed away..

“Whoa..whoa.” he said “I didn’t mean anything. I was just holding the door open for you.”

“Don’t you DARE raise your hands at me!” The harpy shouted. The she turned away and ran right into the door. Someone had opened it from the inside and was going out.

WHAM!

The harpy began to scream “RAPE! He assaulted me!”

The man she was screaming about hadn’t come within ten foot of her. The harpy went inside the office. The man made the mistake of standing around. Maybe he was waiting for a ride or something? He should have left right then but he didn’t.

Shortly the ‘suite’ in charge of human resources came storming outside. The HR guy told the driver to come inside.

Ten or twenty minutes later the Driver came outside again. When he walked near enough to Howard’s truck Howard called to him.

“Hey driver! What happened?”

“I was fired” the driver said

“What the hell for?” Howard asked.

“That woman accused me of rapeing her.” the driver replied. He seemed to have trouble accepting reality, as if, could this really be happening to him?

“The HR guy said that the seriousness of the accusation was such that no investigation was required. The company could not afford the appearance of impropriety.” The drive said. “So he fired me.”

Howard didn’t know what to say. He’d been halfway expecting trouble from that Harpy but this was a bridge too far.

Howard decided that it was time to retire. This was the final straw.

Howard walked into the HR office and told them that he was quitting. Right here, right now.

The HR guy was shocked. There weren’t many drivers in the company that could haul the kinda loads that Howard could. Howard was one of the few, the few, with that kind of rating. He tried to talk Howard out of it.

Howard was having none of it. He had been worried about his medical physical but what he had witnessed today had been the last straw.

He was out of there. Color him GONE!

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Howard had his military retirement and some money that he’d saved up while trucking. He owned his big truck free and clear, if he sold it he’d have a nice nest egg.

Howard had an old van that he parked at the Houston terminal when he was gone. A 1973 Dodge. He’d bought it new when he was just a kid, in the military and had kept it ever since. He’d put a bed in it and some other stuff. He lived in the van when he wasn’t living in his truck.

He had a ball hitch on his big truck and a towbar on his van. He hooked up and drove off.

A few hours later he left the used truck dealership in his van. He’d sold his big truck. They’d cheated him but that’s what salesman do. If you don’t want to be cheated don’t deal with used truck salesmen. Howard didn’t have the time or inclination to sell his big truck any other way. It might take months. He considered it the cost of doing business.

He drove to the beach, he didn’t have a home, found a spot and parked. He bought a sixpack of beer from a vendor , found a chair , sat and thought....and drank.

About a case and a half of beer later he was pretty drunk. He crawled into his van and went to sleep

When he woke up the next day, at the crack of noon, he had a hangover. While waiting for it to go away he decided that he’d had enough of the USA for a while. He didn’t recognize it anymore. He didn’t fit in. It wasn’t the country he was born into or fought in wars for..

He decided to take a cruise. He heard the Caribbean was nice this time of year.

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