Welcome to Gaia! ::

continued from here: the jackal in the golf car

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"Hitchhiking? But so many people get killed---"

Olga's eyes widened so much Jack thought that somebody really ******** up could probably pluck them out with a ladel. He became aware of a dull ache in his cheeks, but could not help smiling anyway.

The vehicle had not picked up any speed, but it was closer. Jack could make out the profile of a truck in the night, beyond the glare of the headlights. He beamed into them.

"You know what I like to do, Sol?" Jack said, sticking out his thumb in a bid for a ride, "I like to smile. It is good for the heart."

The truck eased to a stop on the road next to them. The window on the passenger side rolled down. Jack looked from the window, to Olga, and then back to the window. He squeezed her hand again.

"Come on," he said, stepping towards the truck, "we can sleep when we're dead."

He halloo-ed the driver, who was an older lady in a plaid jacket. The inside of the truck smelled like cedar and tobacco and something just a little bit stale. Jack pretended not to notice, and compimented her taste in cigarettes. There was a half-empty pack open on the passenger seat chair.

"You kids must be lost," she drawled, craning her neck to get a better look at Olga. She glanced back at Jack. "That your girlfriend?"

"Sometimes," he said, "when Sol wants to use me for my body."

The woman stared hard, and then chuckled.

"Need a ride somewhere?"

"Please," said Jack, reaching for the door handle, "you're a life saver. My calves are just burning."

It was hard to say who was more surprised by Olga’s outburst - Proustite and the woman in the pickup truck stared at her. Hard. Proustite noticed a little tick in the truck’s engine that would have concerned him if it were his own vehicle.

“Sol,” he murmured finally, “if you keep shouting like that this sweet woman’s going to think I forced you out here with me against your will.”

He chuckled like they were old friends enjoying a joke over Thanksgiving dinner.

The woman leaned over in her cab and opened the passenger door from the inside.

“Come on. When I was a girl it was one thing to be alone on these roads at night.” She had a smoker’s cough and a bark when she coughed that reminded Jack of his mother. “DC is a different city now. The name’s Shirley.”

Proustite swung the door open the rest of the way, and then bowed for Olga to get in first.

“After you.”