A Reluctant Virgin's Road Trip

"Lily Anne White," he smiled, "you're on your own from here."

"Ya could flip your grandpa's coin and, if it's heads, go west out I-40 to California or, if its tails, just call your 'rents and ask them to wire you money to catch a Greyhound home," he said with a smile. "That's up to you."

"Either way, Missy, let me buy you a nice meal, and we'll eat together; while you decide."

Lily Anne's heart seemed to beat faster. Albert was a hunk of a gentleman. If he were younger, ... she tried not to finish that thought as she went to the can.

Albert had ordered for her, but not another burger, something more suitable for a 'prom date,' he chuckled.

What happened near the end of dinner was a total surprise to Lily Anne.

Two officers from Memphis' CSI Division strolled up and flashed their credentials. Albert stood up and shook hands while Lily Anne's eyes grew into saucer size orbs. Retired officer Albert had called and asked them to join him while she was in the can. He introduced them to Lily Anne and gave them a three-by-five card with tag information on a brand new Legacy custom tractor-trailer rig. Lily Anne was wide-eyed and scared.

"Miss White," Albert turned to Lily Anne and spoke softly, "You can tell them what happened, and they will help track down Mandy and Roger. Or, say, let it go—and they'll leave. You're eighteen now, so you can be on your way. It's kind of like another toss of your grandfather's coin. Heads, you can help stop Mandy and Roger from doing this again, or tails, you ... well, that's totally up to you now. Just know these officers can call your folks and get you safely home."

Lily Anne became a wailing waif, crying with waterfall tears. Some tears of relief and some tears of fear. But she was feeling less like twenty-one and more like her eighteen years. She didn't need her grandfather's coin; she told Albert to decide as she stood on tiptoe and kissed his bearded cheek chastely.

"Goodbye, Prince Albert! Thanks for rescuing me."

Albert's response was typical of a faithful civil servant, "It's not so noble, Miss Lily Anne White, it's just what good folks ought to do — look out for one another; that's all." He replied, looking a bit embarrassed. Compliments of that kind were rare and few and far between in Albert's previous life as a retired Chicago police officer. He hugged her briefly. Then let her go, glancing down at his Timex watch, the one his comrades in arms gave him for his retirement.

Lily Anne wanted to hang onto Albert; she didn't want to let him go. He was a solid anchor in her, drifting among the tempests going westward. Yet, after all, 'time is money,' as Albert had said before, and on that note, she had to let him go. His ancient long-haul rig was waiting. Probably as was another waif, who needed rescuing as Prince Albert made his way to another Interstate long haul.

Lily Anne watched Prince Albert amble out of her life, returning to his ancient long-haul eighteen-wheeler. She stood peering through the glass doorway, expecting him to turn so she could wave goodbye. Albert had been such a prince. She felt she owed him a great deal of gratitude for having rescued her from Mandy and Roger. One last look and just a last wave of thanks were what she anticipated as she stared after his near-Santa Clause bearded, slowly-ambling body crossing the driveway. The roundish cop-turned-trucker didn't turn back to wave. The anticipated magical, joyous moment vanished as she lost sight of him amidst so many eighteen-wheelers.

Somewhat deflated, she returned to the detectives' table after seeing the former Chicago police officer out the door. Albert left Lily Anne alone to make another life-altering decision. Lily Anne faced the two Memphis CSI unit detectives, unsure what her fate would hold. Albert said she had two choices: help stop Mandy and Roger or let it go.

The Criminal Scene Investigators sat dispassionately waiting for her decision, with notebooks in hand and cups of TexRad's Brand black coffee on the cleared table. At the same time, Lily Anne had said goodbye to Albert. She slid into the wooden chair across from them and began her interview. Having decided she would do her best to help stop the bent mother truckers. Like Lily Anne told Albert, she didn't need to flip her Grandpa's coin for that decision!

While the trio sat and talked about Lily Anne's experiences with the mayhem aboard that luxury eighteen-wheeler, the rest of the world sat eating, drinking, and going on about its mundane traveling business. The surrounding crowd was oblivious to the frayed freckled-faced waif as she conveyed to the detectives her torment at the hands of Mandy and Roger, the two bent mother truckers running loose on the American highways.

It was a bit of bravado and a touch of decisiveness that had crept out to perch on Lily Anne's shoulders at that moment. The first such resolute showing since she'd declared 'Let Fate decide!' in the early morning hours, just today, although it seemed like days ago, she snuck out to leave home -- westward-ho.

Answering the lady detective's questions as best she could, Lily Anne White told them how she was coerced into sex with Mandy and related how Roger had also forced her into oral sex. Carefully taking notes, the detectives wrote it all down. Emotionless, they sat through it all. They'd heard worse, seen worse, and been on scenes where young women such as Lily Anne White lay savaged in a ditch. Many of them had been covered by a white sheet alongside a back road and could not make a statement or point the detectives in a perpetrator's direction.

After Lily Anne concluded her story Detective Moran began, "Miss White, I know what the retired police officer told you. But there is only so much we can do."

"Why?" she asked, leaning forward, her frown carrying a puzzled look at her comment. "Detective Morgan, you've got their truck stuff from Albert, and I told you what happened! Why can't you arrest them and lock them up for that kind of ... stuff?" Lily Anne's voice faltered toward the end. She couldn't bring herself to call it what it was — rape.

Detective Moran's face showed signs of compassion for Lily Anne. She reached out her hand and touched Lily's arm, trying to convey that sense of compassion to her. She knew what she would say next wouldn't be any sign of that feeling in helping her to find relief.

"It's like this, Miss White," she started to explain, "We're in Tennessee. What you have alleged took place in your home state of South Carolina and possibly in Georgia, too. We don't have jurisdiction there. You'd have to file your case in your home state and Georgia. We can get in touch with the Feds. Possibly they could look into Interstate Sex Trafficking. But from your description, those two didn't try and sell you to Albert. And ... you admitted to participating willingly, and you're not a minor, so ...

"It wasn't willingly!" Lily Anne declared emphatically. "I did it because ... Roger said he was going to have to teach me himself, fuck ... me if I didn't take Mandy up on her demands first!" Her declaration caught some attention from nearby tables, but that soon died away as Lily Anne reigned in her anger somewhat.

"Sugar, the courts are gonna call that 'willingly.' You didn't try to fight him off. Did he ... have vaginal intercourse with you?" Detective Morgan inquired. That question cleared the need for an escort to a medical facility for rape kit testing.

"No," Lily Anne moaned, " 'cause I got him off using ... my mouth."

"Willingly," the second detective chimed in at Lily Anne's jarring announcement.

"Not the second time!" she nearly screamed the words across the table with some animosity. Maybe, there was some truth to the first time she performed fellatio on him. That was because Mandy said she needed to be quick, to have the best mouth in the south to keep a mother trucker from dicking her pussy! But the second time wasn't willingly! The vivid image of Roger's hands threaded through her hair, holding her face so she couldn't move, and then driving his cock down her throat raced back through her mind as though it was happening right now. She almost gagged again as his abuse raced back into her mind.

Morgan's partner was jaded; he was utterly exhausted and worn out. He was fried after six years in the sexual victim's unit. The detective's taciturn face showed he was used to the anger from victims; those that didn't ask for it and those that seemingly did. Detective Morgan was more attuned to Lily Anne's rage. She was a woman -- had she seen this many more years than her partner. Detective Morgan handled the situation much better than he did.

His reply to Lily Anne was caustic, "Miss White, it's going to be your word against theirs. They'd say it was just consensual rough sex. And as for the four hundred dollars, you can't show proof that you had the cash with you."

"So, they can just get away with this ... keep doing it over and over?" Lily Anne huffed. She felt like crying all over again. But the tears had already been shed; the river was dry for now. Still, it infuriated her; she was pissed off at his attitude.

"We didn't say that, sugar!" Detective Morgan shot back, attempting to placate Lily Anne's frustration.

"Honey, it's complicated. We will file reports with the Feds and send copies to Georgia and South Carolina for follow-up. The Feds have a whole team that runs after Truckers in Sex Trafficking across the country. It's headed up by some ex-military guy -- names Jack something ... Jack Wilson. Something might be done if Mandy and Roger show up in their database. This will be on record. If they show up again, at least the courts can see it isn't just a one-time and done deal."

Morgan's younger sidekick chimed in again, "Miss White, to get this off and running. You must get back to South Carolina and file a police report there. Otherwise, this might just be stamped in and shoved to the back of the file drawer."

Lily Anne pondered that last comment for a moment. "I'll think about it. And get back to you!" she sighed, sucking her lower lip.

She took Detective Morgan's card with her phone number and case number written on it as they stood up to leave. It seemed pretty clear to Lily Anne what was going to happen about fucking Mandy and face-fucking Roger -- not a damned thing!

Unzipping the inner liner of her A-frame backpack, she reached inside to put the card away. Her heart skipped a beat. She spied the gift cards tucked safely away! In her fury over Roger taking her four hundred dollars in cash, she'd forgotten the cards totaling three hundred more were in another zipper pocket.

She was at a crossroads in Fate's hand -- the one that a flip of a coin had dealt her. Was it to be homeward bound or westward-ho still?

The answer was easy to decide; she'd been down that decision-making road shortly after midnight this morning. Reaching into her coin pocket on those now stained short-shorts, she fished out Grandpa's lucky 1865 George Washington silver dollar.

'Heads, I'll be going west and tails, obviously east, homeward bound,' she whispered to no one in particular. The coin went high into the air, heads over tails. Lily Anne waited for it to drop back down. She gasped, in surprise, when a hand reached over her head and snatched it out of the air!

"Always make your decisions on the toss of a coin, young lady?" the 'hand' asked. He had heard her discussion from a table away. Quietly, the confidently-sounding stranger laid the coin down on the table in front of Lily Anne. It was heads -- westward-ho, still. She retrieved her coin and quickly slipped it back into the coin pocket of her stained, white short shorts. She thought her grandpa's 1865 lucky silver dollar had vanished into thin air for a moment.

Lily Anne craned her neck to take in a stocky young man dressed in black with a young lady about Lily Anne's age at his side. His long locks were nearly shoulder length. And ... damned if he didn't look like a shining picture of the Lord with a shepherd's staff! What quickly caught her eye was the white clergy collar around his neck and a bible in his right hand. His shadow was a pretty, young waif wearing a full-length dress. She looked like a bun-haired girl from an old western cowboy movie — not a bare piece of skin shown below her neck.

"Reverend David, Miss," he announced proudly, "and my bride, Samantha Jane." "Say 'hello,' Samantha," he added, with a slight nod. A nod that seemed to grant permission to speak.

Samantha's face lit up with a shy smile, "Hello," she dutifully managed to get the greeting out.

Samantha Jane's smile hung around on her cute face, although she didn't say anymore. It was as though she awaited Reverend David's permission or directions on what to say next or to clutch his arm and obediently stand by his side.

"I'm Lily Anne," Lily replied, stating her name in turn.

Her thoughts have been interrupted by the sudden change in how she expected things to go. It was supposed to be a simple coin toss. What landed by her side instead were two strangers as the white-collared reverend pulled out a chair and sat down. Although Lily Anne hadn't invited him, the power of the white clerical collar made her refrain from objecting to his taking a seat.

'At least,' Lily Anne figured, 'It wasn't a Mandy and Roger pair!'

"The Lord moved me to speak to you, Lily Anne," his voice declared, ever-so-slightly

supercilious. It had a touch of disdain and arrogance about it. "We couldn't help but see those two were armed. Are you in trouble, my dear?" he inquired.

Lily Anne's face nearly turned into a grin; she almost laughed aloud at his inquiry. He sounded like an old movie script character, trying to sound so staid ... so severe.

'Really, Reverend! Did you think you could do something about it?' she let that preposterous thought float up and then slip out of her mind, gone in an instant.

"Nope, not anymore," she answered, not wanting to elaborate on what that was all about. She just wanted the thoughts of the morning debacle to fade, sort of like how to solve a high school senseless quadratic equation that was now long gone from her mind.

"Then our prayers were answered, Samantha Jane! See, God's hands are watching over us and this young lady, Samantha. I told you the Lord moves in mysterious ways!"

"Yes, Reverend," Samantha Jane quickly agreed without reservations. It was a fait accompli, a foregone decision that the reverend was undoubtedly correct. One might call it blind faith or ... just servility in her agreeing words. It didn't matter what the Reverend David might declare; Samantha Jane would constantly affirm his words. It sounded like modern-day politics, with the masses blindly following their orange-haired shepherd.

"Pray with us for His grace and the overshadowing protection He gave you, Lily Anne!" A religious 'fever' seemed to have struck the Reverend David as he sat and pulled Samantha Jane next to him. Without a word, he seized her hand and one of Lily Anne's hands. Samantha Jane linked her other hand to Lily's, and in an instant, they formed a circle joined around the table. The reverend prayed.

"Lord! We give thanks for your outstretched hands of protection for our dear Sister Lily Anne!"

Lily Anne's first instinct was to jerk free of the reverend's grasp. She didn't know him. Didn't understand him. But like Roger, he was strong and held her fast until she gave in. After all, it was just a prayer, unlike Roger's paws all over her. In part, it was her upbringing to be kind and respectful, although she had faltered at times. Like this morning, she wasn't nice to the old cooter at the Greyhound Bus Station's ticket window as he asked for identification, but she vowed to do better as part of her life lesson on the westward-ho road trip. Perhaps she could atone for that and make up for it here.

As the reverend ended his mighty prayer for shielding Lily Anne from evil, she opened her eyes. The faces of those seated at the nearby tables looked like Blythe's big-eyed dolls sitting in their chairs. If their smiles weren't painted on, they would have been looks of alarm. Some held their children, others avoided eye contact, and a few scurried away from their tables and headed for the checkout register. Lily Anne surmised that not many travelers were accustomed to hearing the booming voice of the Lord being praised in a roadside diner.

'Did they know something I don't,' Lily Anne wondered silently. She felt Samantha Jane's hand let go. She had to tug her other one free from the reverend; he was still caught up in the fever. It seemed so, anyway. His eyes were closed. Still, his head tilted upward, and his mouth was agape; he shook like a leaf clinging onto a tree, hit by a strong summer's breeze.

"Is he going to be all right?" Lily Anne whispered to Samantha Jane.

"Yes ... the Lord ... the Lord talks to him when he is like that," Samantha whispered back. It was very evident, by how she fixated her gaze on the reverend, that she was in awe of the power of the Lord to control her Reverend David. Very few men in the world could speak directly to the Lord like the Lord's shining image caught up in the 'fever.'

"West! Samantha Jane!" Reverend David boomed out. "The Lord says we are to take our quest westward-ho. Lilith Anne White is to lead us there, Samantha Jane," the reverend announced with conviction. "It was in my vision!"

Perhaps so. It could also have been Reverend David having heard Lily Anne's 'Heads, it's westward-ho.' declaration she had made just before he caught that coin tossed so high into the air. In any case, Lily Anne had already decided to head in that direction; the coin said so as the reverend's hand placed it, heads up, on the table. The offer of a ride with the newlyweds to seek out his new congregation — somewhere out west as Lily Anne guided them was undoubtedly a step in that direction. Better a ride with the reverend and his new bride than in the cab of some unknown mother trucker. She thought so anyway!

Standing gawk-eyed in the tractor-trailer parking lot, Lily Anne saw an old eighteen-wheeler like Albert's ancient vessel. Hand-painted upon it was a giant image of the Reverend David preaching to a crowd of believers in a tent beside a flowing river with bathing angels — some quite ... voluptuous ... and naked.

Lily Anne had learned a bit since her last encounter. She first helped Samantha Jane into the bench seat, then scampered up behind her. The look on Reverend David's face seemed a bit drawn at that arrangement, but there wasn't much he could say about it as his bride of three days sat right next to him, beaming a loving smile at her newlywed husband. He nodded and checked his mirrors; first right, then left, then he put the tractor-trailer in gear. The big rig was loaded with a large tent, numerous folding chairs, and crates of Bibles and hymnals. The trio headed west around Memphis' beltway I-295 to Interstate 40W. They traveled westward and drove to sunset, finally stopping in Forrest City, Arkansas, at a traveler's rest area. Along the way, Lily Anne learned a few things about Reverend David, but not much was said about Miss Samantha Jane.

"My daddy was a preacher, Lily Anne. He raised me to be just like him, but I was weak. Yet, the call came to me. Yes, I came to the Lord one night in a calling to come to Jesus! Before that night, I confess I had doubts about Jesus as my Savior! The Devil's work, it was Lily Anne!"

He told his story as though he was before a crowd of a hundred -- testifying for all to hear. The reverend's energetically-spoken words filled the cab, but the tires' drone and the lack of sleep for two days held more significant sway over Lily Anne's teenage body. She leaned against the door frame and found herself adrift, catching some of his words as the Devil tried to take her off to sleep. Still, she caught intermittent bits and the most salient parts of his sermon.