A special story

[kvnchrist]

You know, there seems to be a lot of headaches and heartaches coming from everyone, about politics and, personally, I’m fairly sick of all the laying in wait and the political posturing. I’m going to recount something that happened to me a few years ago, just to get everyone’s minds off the present dilemma, that no one here brought into being and no one knows the full story on.

 

This happened about 12 years ago, when I was living by myself on a farm just south of Kansas City. I had delivered a load of pharmaceuticals, in one of the cold storage caves in Independence, Mo. A place I hate to go into, because it was cut out of limestone, with 10’ wide pillars every 30’. These pillars are wider at their base and at its top, so if you don’t keep an eye out, you can easily rip the top corner of a trailer. My company loses all types of humor, when you damage their equipment.

 

All that week, it had been snowing, steadily, but nothing heavy. I came in from the East through Indiana and Illinois, and the roads were fairly clean. There was the occasional fender bender, which people get into, when they don’t pay attention to what they were doing, but I hadn’t heard of anything major. Further out West past Topeka, I heard that drizzling rain was following the snow, but I knew I’d be back out the house before that hit. I was delivering at noon and the way I saw it, I’d be getting out of there about 2 pm and I’d drop my trailer and be at the house by 5 pm at the most.

 

Well, they say, “the best laid plans of mice and men”, the place I was delivering to was behind several trucks and I ended up getting into a dock about 3 pm and left the place about 5 pm. By that time it was getting dark and the light snow, I’d seen when I arrived was coming down in big flakes. Thank God the sleet hadn’t hit yet, and I had a decision to make. Either I could set there and take the chance of getting snowed in till they got us out, which could be two or three day, or head for the house. I still had my trailer, which gave me traction. People don’t know, but a truck without a trailer, has very little traction, because all the weight is on the front or steer tires, because of the position of the engine. Driving without a trailer in climate weather, which is called bobtailing, is one of the most dangerous things a truck driver can do, since all the stopping power is in the steer tires. I’ve seen bobtails spin out and end up every which way, if they have to brake in an emergency. If you are around one in less than dry conditions, give them a wide birth, especially if they are behind you. You may just end up being a door mat.

 

Getting back to my story, I had been out for nearly a month, and I was sick and tired of sleeping in this darn truck. It makes me money, but living in a space the size of a closet, for an extended time has its drawbacks. I decided to take off and head for the house. Normally, I would drive down to the drop lot and drop the trailer, but I wasn’t going to take the time. I didn’t want to risk, getting into all that ice and ending up on my side. I hit the road and got into Kansas City, about 15 minutes later. The traffic was rather light and the salt trucks and the plows were out in droves.

 

It was pitch black and the snow was coming down even thicker that before, by the time I hit the outskirts of Kansas City, and I knew I still had 15 miles between me and my home. I began to have second thoughts about what I was doing, when the 4-lane turned to two lanes. I lived some 3 miles off the beaten track, on a twisting county road. I thought, “Well I’m here. I’ve gone this far, so I might as well keep on moving”. It was past 6pm and way out past the streetlights, all I could hear is the flap of the windshield wipers, keeping the snow from gathering, the sound of the engine and the blowing of the heater, keeping the chill off me. I creped off the paved road, onto the road leading in the direction of the farm and straightening out, I ran about 20 mph down that dirt road.

 

Man, you do a lot of soul searching, when you are alone in a truck. I’ve pondered my life on many an overnight run. The solitude and the mundane existence of a truck driver seems to bring that out, but never was it more evident than when you are out in a cold winter night, watching the world slowly pass you by, with huge flacks of snow appearing out of the darkness, being blown diagonally past the beams of your headlight. That was what I was doing that very minute as I was slowing to make a turn at a bend in the road, when out of the darkness to the left, I saw a figure come out of the darkness, moving quickly across the road and just as it was about to move out of the light, to the right, It looked like it stumbled and fell into the ditch, I knew was there. Well, as soon as I saw it I put on the breaks and felt the truck start to slide into the curb. Thank God I was going so slowly, or I’d have jackknifed.

 

I came to a stop, still where I could drive out of it and the shock of having someone run out in front of me subsided. I got a little pissed and then it donned on me. What the crap is someone doing out here, in the middle of the night. Heck, my thermometer said it was getting down in the teens. I put on my emergency flashers and grabbed my coat and flashlight off the bunk. Getting out, I yelled out for whoever it was. There is something about that brings up the most absurd thoughts when I’m out of the truck, alone at night. I started thinking of being attacked by a werewolf or something, so I grabbed a hammer and walked out around the truck, being hit by the icy cold flacks of snow.

 

“Hello,” I yelled out as I walked through the headlight beams and pointed the flashlight beam to the edge of the road, where I last saw the figure. I hesitated, there as the vision of me reaching the edge of the road, just to have a saber-toothed land whale, whatever that would be suddenly popping up out of the ditch and gobbling me up. I could just see them finding my truck and my boots in a few days from now. I told you I have a vivid imagination. Well, I dismissed that vision and stepped on the brim of the snow bank and peered over the edge. It took me a few seconds, but I saw the figure of someone, looking like they were wrapped up in a blanket lying at the bottom. I tell you, there is nothing that can prepare you with the feeling of seeing someone in that condition. I don’t even remember jumping into that ditch. I do remember lifting up the head and seeing the blanket fall away from the face. It was a woman. I remember yelling out, “Hey, are you alright?” I guess it was the only thing I could think of, since thinking about it, even now, It was just about the stupidest thing, I could ask. You could see she was just about the farthest thing from being that.

[kvnchrist]

She stirred a little and opened her eyes, but only for the briefest of seconds. She let out a moan like if she was sleeping and that went through me like a bolt of lightning. I had seen dead bodies before. I had given another truck driver mouth to mouth, surrounded by a group of other drivers, yelling out things they heard from others about saving lives. Even almost got into it with some idiot, trying to tell me I was doing it wrong, after I’ve received lifesaving training in the military. I wasn’t able to help him and I didn’t want to go through that again. Driving around with the thought of all the things you could have done differently, that day to bring me upon the guy sooner, tore me up for several months. I remember lifting her as much as I could. She was still acting like she was asleep. She’d say something, I could understand and move around, but nothing that could help me, help her.

 

Being 135 lbs, I wasn’t exactly a weight lifter and I had to cradle her under her arms and crawl backwards to get her out of that ditch. I got her upright, as much as possible and drug her over to the side of the truck. I remember the hardest part was manhandling her up into the passenger side of the truck. It was like pushing and pulling a 150 lb blob of jello up onto a 5’ wall. It wasn’t the most dignified, I’ve ever treated a lady, but I got her up across the passenger seat and drug her back to the bunk, before I thought I’d have a heart attack, myself.

 

There is nothing more energy draining than doing anything out in the cold, and what I just did topped anything I’ve ever did before and after. I remember, I was on my knees, by that time, and the melted snow was seeping through my jeans. My face felt like it was made of wax and I couldn’t feel my fingers. I had just enough energy to lean over the seat, grab the door and close it. I started pulling off her boots, because I was going to put her in my Arctic sleeping bag. I figured it was the most thermal thing I had there. I didn’t want the snow on the boots to dampen the inside. I had spent 8.5 years in the military and knew a lot about keeping the body warm.

 

She was still incoherent, when her boots finally hit the floor and I’d pushed her into the bag and closed it up around her. I remember, still on my knees, leaning against the bunk and putting my head down, thinking “I need to get in better shape,” When the thought, that she might not be alone, struck me. “Oh s***!” I said and stood up; I collapsed into the driver’s seat and rolled down the windows to yell out, but decided to pull the air horn instead. I think that would get out farther than me voice. I then turned on the C.B. And called out, over the airwaves that I had an emergency, but all I got back was static. I then turn the frequency to channel 9, which was the emergency channel that the highway patrol used and still came up with nothing. This was the time that beepers were all the rage, but cell phones had not yet hit the market, so I was pretty much at the mercy of anyone listening to the C.B. I called out several times on each channel and got nothing.

 

Then I heard her cough a couple of times and I looked back to see her turn on her side, facing away from me, and I remember calling out to her, but didn’t get any response, and I remembered something about using body heat and messaging the extremities. I couldn’t remember where from. Possibly some stupid movie, I’d seen, but I went back in the bunk, removing the snow covered coat and letting it drop into the passenger seat, I turned her towards me, and setting down beside her, I pulled her upper torso out of the bag, leaving her waist down still inside. I embraced her and rubbed her back like I’d seen before, in the movies. I did that for a while and then took her arms and hands and messaged them from her shoulders, down to her fingertips and I remember her body started to shack. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but I took it as a good sign and started on her legs and feet. I remember feeling how ice cold her toes were and thought she might lose them, if she survived.

God, there are so many things rushing through your mind at a time like these, I just hoped what I was doing was doing some good here. I’d go from her upper to lower torso and message the arms, hands, legs and feet, then I would pull the air horn and do my emergency calls, but I got nothing from the outside world. I lost track of how many times I did that, but everything started to pay off as she began to respond more coherently. I could pick out words and names, she would blurt out and I encouraged her, saying, that’s it and come on, you can do it”

 

I don’t know how long it had been, but finally, I was there embracing her upper torso and rubbing the heck out of her back when she finally came back fully into the world of the living. All of a sudden I heard her speak, “What?” and I felt her push against me, saying “get off me!’ It was muffled but it was the best sound I’d heard all day. I had her head buried into my chest, when she jerked away, nearly taking my jaw with her. I looked down at her trying to focus in on me and then her eyes went wide and she pushed harder and tried to crawl backwards towards the back of the bunk.

“Easy, I said,” trying to calm her. “I found you out into the cold and drug you in here.”

She looked, wild-eyed at me and then around at the bunk.

“Hey, you’re ok!” I added and she responded, “Where am I? How’d I get here?”

“I don’t know” were you in a car? Were there others out there?”

She looked at me as if she was searching through her memory.

“Where is here? She finally asked.

 

“You’re in my truck!” I responded. “I found you walking out in the cold. All you had was a blanket wrapped around you and I came along right before you passed out. You must have been out there for awhile. Where did you come from?”

She again, looked at me strangely and then replied, “I don’t know. It’s all a fog.” She added and it looked like she was going to pass out again.

 

I realized I wasn’t going to get anything out of her. I hadn’t passed anyone since I hit the dirt road, so if there was anyone out there, they had to be in front of me. I knew there was virtually no one living within miles of here and I had to get this person somewhere, where I could raise her body temperature. So I told her to rest and I jumped behind the wheel. I gave the horn one last push and looked around in the mirrors. The sky was still filled with huge snowflakes flirting around everywhere and I felt the cold emanating through the driver’s door. If anything, it was getting colder.

 

I pulled out slowly and looked around as I went further down the road. Hopefully if the was a car off in the ditch, I would see it. I knew I would feel terrible, if I missed someone and they died because of it. I made another couple of miles on down the road and saw nothing. I even honked my horn so often, but nothing, not even a deer. Finally I saw the familiar entrance to the road leading to my house. It was fairly wide, but I still had issues with making that turn, in climate weather. Our ditches were 3-4’ deep out there and this time it was filled with snow. I could easily flip this thing on its side, if I swung too far. To those who don’t know it. The trailer of a semi doesn’t follow the track of the truck. It’s like dragging a towel around a corner in your home. It always cuts the corner deeper, so drivers have to swing wide, in order for the end of the trailer to clear the same corner.

 

I creped around the corner and straightened out on the way down to me housie. It was a slight incline and the house sat to the left of where the road was. It made a ½ circle around the place and emptied out beside some old barn and old dilapidated animal buildings, none of which were being used. I wasn’t a farmer, so I used the barn to put my rig in. It kept it, out of the weather and I had Electricity out there, so I could plug the core heater in, when it was cold. I made it back there, no problem. I had to get out a remove some of the snow from the barn doors, so I could open them. Then I pulled inside all the way to accomidate the truck and trailer.

I looked behind me at the women and she was fully covered in the sleeping bag. All I could see of her was her head, but I could still see she was shivering like a leaf.

 

“I’m going to get out, close the doors to my barn and then I’ll get you into my house.” I told her and I saw her shake her head in acknowledgement. I jumped out and turned the light on, so I could see, then closed the big barn doors and plugged the extension cord into the core heated. I’d hate to have to pay someone to come out, all this way to jump start a truck. I was looking at $200.00 at the very least to do that.

[kvnchrist]

It was a lot easier to get her out of the truck, than it was getting her in. I had to put her boots back on. She was so cold her hands would not work right. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but it was disconcerting. I had to help her down and then support her as we left the barn and made to trek across the snow covered ground. I had to fumble for the key so I let her set on the top step of my porch. Thank God, I remembered to turn the outside light on, when I left before or that would have taken quite a long time.

Opening the door, I got her up and into the house. We had to go through a foyer and through my small kitchen to get to through living room, but we made it as quickly as possible. She wasn’t the steadiest of people and we hit about every wall and piece of furniture, but I finally got here to the couch. It laid her out and the turned the thermostat up as far as I could turn it, and went to close the back door.

 

I then reached for the phone to call for help, but I found it, as usual in iclimate weather, Inoperable. With these old lines, every time a deer farted the thing would go dead. I had contemplated getting a ham radio, but was too lazy to go get the license. It would sure have helped out, right then, but that was wishing for air. I then hit up the frig, trying to see what liquids I had, that I could heat up and get inside her, but being a bachelor, all I had were the residue of past paltry meals.

 

I remember saying to myself, “I got to get a girlfriend!” When I closed to door. I had nothing but a ½ can of Pepsi; I couldn’t remember putting in there, so I went on back into the living room.

 

“How are you doing?” I asked her, as I knelt before her and she mumbled something.

“Look’ I’ve got to get your warmed up inside. I don’t have anything for you to drink, but I can draw some bath water and let you soak in there. “I told her and she shook her head yes. So I ran back to the bathroom, which was just off the hallway to the bedrooms. I could hear the gas burners roaring to life and I hoped the pilot light was still on under the water heater. I loved baths and I had the biggest water heater there was. I could fill the bathtub up, twice over, with hot water, if I wanted to, but I thought it would be better for her, if I would fill it with Luke warm water and then warm it up slowly, over a period of time.

I turned the water on and tested it, then went back and got her. I donned on me that I might have to take her clothes off, when I got her back there, but I resolved to get her down to her underwear and then put her in. She could do the rest later. I didn’t want her to think I was trying something. So when we got back there I sat her down on the toilet and asked her if she could take off her clothes. She looked up at me in shock and I said, “Do you want to go in clothed? We have to get you warmed up. I don’t know everything, but I do know that.”

 

She looked down and then at me, as if to say. “Are you going to leave or what?”

I told her, I’d leave if she could do it alone, but we need to hurry.

She feebly tried to take off her boots but her hands were still too cold. So I knelt down and started removing the.

“No’: she tried to protest and I responded. “Look. I’ll get your boots off and then we can work on your pants. I know this is a bit degrading, but we half to do this. If your hands and feet don’t get circulation, then they might have to get cut off. Please let me help you. “

 

She looked down a little embaraced but she let me take off the boots. And remove her pants, which were hard as ice. But when I started unbuttoning her blouse she resisted.

 

“I’m only taking this off. Nothing below” I said sternly and she gave me a look as if to ask, If she could trust me.

 

“You can trust me on this!” I reassured her.

She looked down demurely, as I did one button at a time and removed her blouse. I felt more like a big brother to her than anything that night. I know I’d have had fantasies about doing this with a woman, but this night I felt like protecting her from everyone, including myself. I would not touch this woman. Ever. I would get her back to heath, but from this day forward, I was her brother and she was my sister.

 

I got her up on her feet and then sat her on the side of the tub.

 

“We’ll take this one step at a time, alright, “I assured her and she lifted up one leg and tried putting it in the warm water and cried out at if she got shot.

She yelled. “It hurts!” and I said, that’s good, you have feeling down there. And she looked at me like she was going to hit me.

 

“We got to do this lady!” I told her. “We can take it slowly, but we got to do this. “

Closing her eyes, she swiveled, as I held her and she placed one foot in and then the other. I could fell her tense up and her face contorted with pain. I could see tears welling up in her eyes and I too started tearing up. We took it slowly, as she went down. First her legs and then her butt and I tell you, the pain I could see in her tore through me, like a slow motion lightning bolt. I felt like, just hugging her, when we got her fully into the water, which was getting up to the top of the tub. She was holding me like a vice all the time and I could see her slowly getting over the pain.

 

“You, alright?” I asked as she lessoned the death grip, she had on me.

She shook her head yes, but I could see she was still struggling with her composure.

I reached down and rubbed each foot a little and asked,”Can you feel that?”

 

“That’s wonderful; can you feel your hands?” I asked as I touched each one of those and she told me, she could.

 

“Hey look, I’m going to go in and see what I have to eat, and you set here and soak up this hot water. There’s more of that, so don’t be afraid to add some more hot water, if it gets cold.” I said and got up to leave.

 

“My name is Marcy,” She said as I was entering the hallway.

 

“I’m Kevin,” I said, and she replied, “Thank you!”

[kvnchrist]

I felt like a million dollars as I left that room. First time in a long time and I loved it. I headed back into the kitchen and went through the drawers and found several packets of popcorn, a few toaster pastries and snake food, but nothing to really satisfy. Great, I told myself. First time in a decade I have a woman over and I’m stocked like a Roman gladiator’s cell. I ended up popping some microwave popcorn and while that was going on, I went back to check on Marcy.

She was leaning back in the tub, when I got there and I told her I was going to wash and dry her clothes, while she soaked. She told me to go ahead and went back to her soaking.

 

I went back several times, checking up on her and I turned on the TV, to see if there was anything worth listening to and I looked up to see her standing there, in the hallway, Wrapped in a towel. Her hair was still damp and she had a demure smile on her face.

“Hey, you ok,” I asked and she said, she was feeling better and would I turn down the lights. I guess that the cold made her sensitive to light, but what did I know. So I turned off the overhead light and used one of the table lamps.

After that she came over and slowly set down on the opposite side of the couch.

 

We watched a three stooge’s movie and ate popcorn, while her clothes finished drying. I asked her about herself, but she really wasn’t open too much of that. I started thinking she might be running from something, but I put that down as more of my imagination. All I got from her, was she put her car in the ditch and must have walked right past my lane to have me find her where I did. I told her, I’d try to get her out tomorrow and we left it at that.

Anyway, I had had a long day and told her I was getting tired. I showed her the spare bedroom and went to bed, myself.

 

The next day I was awoken by the Sun pouring in through my window. I laid there for a few minutes deciding wither I wanted to get up or not, and then I remembered my guest.

 

“s***” I said as I got up and got dressed. Went out to the living room to find it empty. The bag of popcorn was still on the table, but the bowl Marcy used was not there. I went back in the kitchen and found the bowl where it belonged, in the pantry, but it was clean and the sink still had dirty dishes in it. I thought that was odd, so I walked back to the spare bedroom and found the door open. The room was empty and the bed wasn’t touched.

 

That’s when I started panicking. I looked in my wallet and all the money and cards were still there. I looked around the house and nothing was taken. As I entered the living room I noticed the TV was still on and the morning news was on, but the volume was turned down.

I found a piece of paper, with writing on it, but the writing was so thin I had to walk over to the window to get enough light to read it. As I did so, I glanced at the TV and found myself looking at the very face of the woman I had here, last night.

 

Oh, s***, I thought as I grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

The person talking was one of the local announcers and he said

“Well it’s the one year anniversary of the finding of the body of this Jane Dole and the authorities have not found out her true name. She was found frozen to death on Hawthorn lane today, one year ago by deputy Caruthers on petrol and we’d like to make sure that relatives check up on the elderly this time of year……

The report went on, but my head started reeling.

 

what the f***? I looked down at the paper I was holding and read. “Thank you very much for your kindness. I’d forgotten just how wonderful it was to be with someone. It’s so cold here. I ho9pe that I can return again next year’” and my jaw dropped and a cold shutter ran through my spine.

 

I looked out at the barn my truck was at and saw the tracks, the single track I had left in the snow, when I walked up here. No second track, just mine.

 

Then I looked back down at the spidery letters on the paper and saw them in the warm light of the Sun, slowly…….. Fade……..away……..

 

 

 

Happy Halloween, my friends.

[kvnchrist]

edit

[Marxist ßastard]

deputy Caruthers on petrol

Yeah, you've gotta be careful huffing petrol. It makes you see some crazy stuff.

[kvnchrist]

deputy Caruthers on petrol

Yeah, you've gotta be careful huffing petrol. It makes you see some crazy stuff.

 

You've also have to be careful showing your ass. But I guess you've never made a spelling error. This is a Halloween story dick!

[Marxist ßastard]

This is a Halloween story dick!

You sure? Reads like amateur erotica.

[xxXEvandarXxx]

Awesome story, dude. :thumbsup: Don't mind Marxist Mustard, he's just mad his parents don't let him go trick or treating WHADDUP

[BlackRampage]

Wow. Great story with a great ending! It was a long read but well worth it.

 

 

PS: Post # 4 is a double post.

 

 

@Marxist Bastard: Are you for real? Don't like it? Move on.