Trucker Mother

As soon as I'd said all that, I was pretty ashamed of myself. I shouldn't have unloaded on Sandy like that. It was just that when you supervise a construction site, you have to stay in control. If I'd told any of the guys what was happening, they'd have thought I was soft, and the next time I had to change how they were doing something, they'd either argue with me instead of working, or worse, just ignore me and keep doing what they were doing before.

With Sandy, well, I didn't have to tell her how to do anything and it was very easy to talk to her. When I told her as much, Sandy smiled and patted my arm.

"You don't have to apologize. I know how you feel because I had a job kind of like that once. That's why I drive a truck now. Thought anymore about giving this up and doing that?"

I had, ever since the phone call from my boss that morning. If he took my completion bonus, I'd end up working for less than what we were paying the tradesmen on the job. The money thing hurt, but wouldn't hurt me all that much. I was single with no real expenses except for clothes. Schuster paid for my meals and motel room while I was on site, and the truck I drove was a company truck. All I needed was enough to tide me over until I got another site to supervise. I'd get by and maybe make it up on the next job.

What did bother me was that Schuster, well, my boss anyway, seemed to think I wasn't worth what they were paying me. I'd always thought a supervisor should make at least as much the people he supervises. I hadn't stopped supervising during that week of rain. I'd been working my ass off with Nate trying to figure out how to recover at least some of the time. I didn't like Nate, but if anybody knew how to get that time back, it was him and we'd actually been able to make up one day. Now, it looked like my boss was holding me responsible for something I couldn't control.

I looked at Sandy.

"Yeah, I have, especially since this morning. I don't know if I'd like what you do or not though.

Sandy touched my arm again.

"You'll never know unless you try it out. Have you been talking to the other truckers about that?"

I said I hadn't had time. What she said then sort of floored me.

"You're talking to me about it right now."

Well, I didn't really know Sandy and I knew she didn't really know me. That's what I told her.

"Miss...sorry, but I don't know your name. Are you asking me if I'd like to ride with you?"

She grinned.

"I'm Sandy, Sandy Richards, and I wouldn't mind having somebody in my shotgun seat for a while. I like driving, but sometimes it gets lonely, so yeah, it'd be nice having someone to talk to for a change. You seem to be pretty sharp, and I think you'll probably behave yourself. Whatcha think about holding down my right seat for a week or so?"

My dad always told me to never quit a job until I had another one in the bag, but then, he was a commercial electrician who worked high-voltage lines so he never had to do either. There aren't a lot of those guys around because it's a very dangerous job. Over the years he was away from home a lot, but he never had to be concerned about finding a job. The jobs found him.

I looked back at the construction trailer. I was going to spend the next eight months or so in that little ten by twenty-four foot box, fielding complaints from my boss and the construction workers during the day and sitting in my motel room watching TV every night. When that job was over, I'd move to another site and do the same thing.

I turned back to Sandy.

"Where are you headed next?"

"Arizona. I'm picking up a load of hardwood lumber here in Memphis for a furniture factory in Phoenix. From there, I'm taking some aircraft parts from one of the defense plants there back to a Navy base in North Carolina. I don't have anything scheduled after that, but something'll come along. Why?"

"Were you serious about me riding with you, or were you just trying to make me feel better?"

She grinned.

"Probably both, but if you want to hitch a ride, I'll be happy to give you one."

It took me five minutes to tell everybody they had the rest of the day off and another five to call my boss and tell him I was resigning effective immediately. I picked up everything I had in the construction trailer, climbed into the cab of Cindy's truck, and she took me to my motel. Half an hour later, she was threading the rig through the traffic of Memphis to the sawmill where the lumber was made.

We didn't talk much until we got to the sawmill and Sandy had backed her trailer into the loading dock. It took almost an hour before they were ready for her to chain down the pallets of oak, walnut, and cherry. We talked a little during that time, but it was more about me than about her. Once she got the bill of lading, Sandy pulled out into the parking lot and we started securing the load.

I still thought she probably wasn't strong enough to do all that by herself, but it turned out that was wrong. Sandy didn't manhandle the chains and load binders like Nate had. I could tell it was a struggle to lift a pile of chain to the top of a pallet of lumber, but once she had it there, she'd just pull one end down and hook the hook to the rail on her trailer, then walk around that pallet and pull the chain tight and hook the free end in the rail on that side. Of course, there was some slack, and it was in that slack she put the load binder.

A load binder is a sort of toggle thing with a hook on each end. Sandy would hook the top hook in the chain over the load and the bottom hook in the free end that was hooked onto the trailer rail. She'd pull on the load binder handle to take up the slack, and if she could pull it until it went over center, she'd open it again and hook the top to the next highest chain link. I was wondering how she was going to pull the handle then, because I'd done that with one chain and it was a struggle for me. Sandy laughed when I pulled on the handle and grunted until it closed.

"You're working way to hard there, Rick. Let me show you how it's done."

She went back to the back of her cab, opened a door on the side and pulled out a pipe about five feet long. The inside of that pipe was a snug fit on the handle of the load binder, and the added leverage made pulling it over center look easy. She did the first one and then looked at me and grinned.

"That's how I do it when some guy like Nate isn't around. Try it and you'll see."

Well, it was night and day. I'd had to pull with everything I had on the one I'd done by hand. I think I could have used just one hand with the pipe and it would have worked without me having to strain much at all.

We got everything tied down and after Sandy tried all the chains, she said, "Let's go."

We were across the river and heading away from West Memphis before Sandy told me much about herself. At that time of day on Friday, the traffic was a mess so she had to concentrate on driving. After we passed the last off ramp into the suburbs, Sandy set the cruise control and then grinned at me.

"Well, that's over for now. Didn't wet your pants or anything like that did you?"

I chuckled.

"No, but being so high, I saw some things that did scare me a little. I guess I never saw that in my pickup. Is it always this crazy?"

"At this time of day, pretty much. Everybody's in a hurry to get home as fast as they can. It used to scare me, but I've mostly gotten used to it now."

I asked her how she started driving a truck, and she was telling me when we started coming up on a pickup piled high with furniture. That furniture didn't look to me like it was tied down very well, and Sandy didn't think so either. She looked in both side mirrors, then signaled to pass the pickup. It was when we pulled back in she told me the story about her husband that I related before.

}{

We sat there with the woman from the van for another fifteen minutes before an Arkansas State Trooper pulled onto the left shoulder and turned on his light bar. He talked to the woman a little and then to Sandy and me.

Sandy told him what had happened, and said her dash cam would have recorded the truck hitting the van, and might even have the license number of the truck. She took him to her truck and about five minutes later they came back. The cop put the memory card from her dash cam into the computer on his center console and copied it, then handed it back to her. After getting our names and cell phone numbers, he said he'd call us if he needed anything more and that we could leave.

It was almost seven by then. I was getting hungry but didn't know if I should ask Sandy to stop. She did stop half an hour later at a Love's truck stop. Once she'd shut off the engine, I started to get out, but she stopped me.

"We'll go use the restrooms, but don't buy anything to eat. That stuff'll make you fat and it always gives me gas. We'll eat here in my truck."

I hadn't looked behind the seats because Sandy had sort of a curtain there. When we got back, she opened the curtain and grinned.

"Welcome to Sandy's Bar and Grill. I have soda's and sweet tea, and I have frozen dinners. What would you say to meatloaf with potatoes and gravy? That's what I'm having."

In less than ten minutes, the microwave above Sandy's little refrigerator/freezer produced a meatloaf dinner for both of us. It wasn't a very big meal, but it was OK. She said we'd stop at a Walmart tomorrow and get what she called some "man-sized" dinners for me.

I figured we'd start driving again as soon as we ate, but Sandy set me straight about that.

"The rules let me do my trucking thing for fourteen hours, and I can drive for eleven hours out of that fourteen. After that, I have to have ten hours of rest. I started for Memphis at five this morning. I did have some down time waiting to get unloaded, but as of now, I've been driving ten and a half hours. We can't make another truck stop or rest area in a half hour, so we'll spend the night here."

We'd been sitting on the bed in Sandy's sleeper, but it was only one bed and it was about the size of a twin. I was pretty sure she didn't intend to give it to me and sleep in the driver's seat, so I said if she'd take me to a motel, I'd spend the night there.

Sandy just laughed, "Nah, that'll take too long and it'll cost you", then stood up and pulled a loop near the ceiling. Another bed came down about three feet above the one where I was sitting.

"You can have the top bunk, Rick, and I'll take the bottom one. Let me put clean sheets and a blanket up there and then we'll watch a movie before we turn in."

I only half watched the movie. I kept wondering about how we were going to "turn in" as Sandy said. I didn't feel comfortable undressing in front of her and I was damned sure she wouldn't feel comfortable about undressing in front of me.

When the movie ended, Sandy shut off the DVD player and TV, then grinned.

"If you're gonna travel with me, you have to lose some modesty 'cause I don't have a dressing room. You just turn around and face the TV and I'll turn around and face my little closet. When you have your jammies on stay that way and don't peek until I get into mine. Then we'll go to bed."

Well, that would have worked just fine if I'd had any pajamas, but I always sleep in my underwear.

"Uh...Sandy...I, uh, I never wear pajamas."

She giggled.

"This is gonna be a more interesting trip than I thought."

"Sorry, but that's how it is. I don't even own a pair of pajamas."

"No need to say you're sorry. Jerry never slept in pajamas either. Here's what we'll do. When I get my jammies on, I'll tell you. I'll stay turned away while you climb up and once you're there, you face the back of the sleeper and tell me you're in. Then I'll get in bed. In the morning, we'll do the same thing in reverse."

I stood there in my underwear for a few minutes before Sandy said, "OK, up you go." I tried not to look when I climbed up into the top bunk, but it was unavoidable. It was also pretty nice.

Sandy had on what looked to me like boxer shorts and a sports bra. The shorts had sort of slipped down onto the flare of her hips, and the legs that came out of those shorts were slender and looked really smooth. Those curves were a whole lot more inviting than they were in jeans. After one look, I pulled myself up in the top bunk and rolled to my side.

"OK, Sandy, I'm in."

The lights in the sleeper went out then and I heard the rustle of the sheet and blanket on Sandy's bed. The sleeper rocked a little when she got in and then said, "nighty night, Rick".

It took me a while to fall asleep because I kept remembering how Sandy's ass looked. I suppose it was as much that I knew she was naked under those shorts as what I saw, but I realized that night that Sandy was a very desirable woman. Yeah, I hadn't seen any more of her, but that feeling was just there, you know.

There was no way I was going to turn into Nate just because of that. I was Sandy's guest and that wouldn't have been right, and besides, she was six years older than I. That didn't really make a difference to me, but it probably would to her.

My watch said it was five AM when Sandy's alarm beeped. She bumped the bottom of my bunk then.

"Time to roll over, Rick. I'll tell you when I'm dressed and then I'll go sit in the front until you are. I usually take a sponge bath with some baby wipes, and I'll leave the package on top of the microwave if you want to do that too. After that, we'll have breakfast."

No, I didn't sneak a look while Sandy took her sponge bath. I do have some ethics. I kept my face turned toward the back of the sleeper until Sandy said, "I'll be in front waiting".

When I slipped down to the floor I sniffed my pits and decided Sandy's sponge bath would be a good idea. While I was at it, I did my chest and face. About five minutes later, I poked my head through the opening in the curtain.

"I'm dressed."

Breakfast was fresh coffee Sandy brewed in her electric pot and egg and cheese biscuits warmed up in her microwave. When we finished, she dumped the coffee grounds and biscuit wrappers in a trash bag inside a bucket, then carried the trash bag to a dumpster in the lot. When she came back, she started the engine and then checked all the gauges on the dash. After that, she got out and did a walk-around of both the truck and trailer. I followed along to see what she did.

All the chains were still tight and she didn't have any low tires. She made sure the fifth-wheel lock was in place and wouldn't move and that the glad hands on the brake lines were on and locked. I stood behind the trailer while she tried the turn signals, brake lights, and parking lights, and then in front to check the headlights, signals, and running lights. They all checked out, so we climbed back in the cab and fastened our seat belts.

Sandy pressed down the clutch, moved the shifter to the first gear position, and then applied the accelerator at the same time she eased out the clutch. The cab rocked to the right when the clutch caught, and we started moving out of the lot. She shifted twice more while driving down the road to the on-ramp, and once we made turn on the ramp, she started up-shifting to get up speed. She was doing about fifty when we merged onto I-40 West, and kept accelerating and shifting until she was doing sixty-five.

It was great to ride so high off the road. The company pickup was a four-wheel drive truck so it sat higher than most cars, but this was fantastic. I watched Arkansas roll by and I could see everything. After about twenty miles, I looked over at Sandy and said, "Wow. This is great."

She just chuckled.

"My truck or the scenery?"

"Well, both, I guess. I've been through Arkansas before, but I never saw all of this. Your truck is great too."

I didn't tell her the scenery in the driver's seat was pretty great as well. She'd changed her T-shirt from the day before to a snug tank top. Her cleavage made it really hard to look anything else.

We drove for about another two hours before Sandy took an off-ramp that didn't look like it went anywhere. Once she'd parked the rig on the shoulder of the ramp, she smiled.

"I can drive for eight hours at a stretch, but there are some things that won't wait eight hours. You stay up here and I'll be right back. Then it'll be your turn."

I wasn't sure what Sandy was talking about until I heard a zipper and then a quiet hiss. I heard the zipper again, and then Sandy came out from behind the curtain with a big laundry detergent bottle with a very wide mouth in one hand.

"This is the potty for "number one" unless we're at a rest stop or a truck stop. You go back and take care of things while I get us back on the road."

She grinned then.

"Just be sure to put the cap back on and stick it in the space between the fridge and the cabinet, OK."

I went behind the curtain while Sandy drove on up the ramp, across the county road and then down the on ramp on the other side. I learned pretty fast that you had be careful using the bottle. Sandy hit a bump before I was ready to let go, and if I had, I'd have hosed down the sleeper. I waited until she was down the ramp and back on I-40 just to be safe. When I got done, I put the cap back on and stuck it between the refrigerator and cabinet.

When I got back in my seat and buckled up, Sandy looked over and grinned.

"Betcha never did that before."

I had to chuckle.

"No, that was a first, but I have a feeling I'm gonna have a lot of firsts before this trip is over."

"Yep, but that's what this is all about, isn't it? You're learning what a trucker's life is like to see if you like it or not."

Well, that first day I did like it. We made Oklahoma City within Sandy's eleven hours of wheel time and spent the night in a truck stop. The second day, we drove across the Texas panhandle and I liked it more. At the end of the third day, we rolled into a Love's on the east side of Albuquerque for fuel. I knew Sandy had been behind the wheel for almost eleven hours by then, so I figured we'd stop for the night and make Phoenix the next day.

It was after we'd had dinner that Sandy asked me what I wanted to do for the next day and a half. I told her I thought we'd keep on driving but she shook her head.

"Like I said before, I can be in my truck and taking care of business for fourteen hours a day. That means my eleven hours driving and also things like loading and unloading, fueling and anything else related to my business. Once I hit sixty hours in a seven day period, I have to take thirty-four hours off. I hit my sixty hours when we pulled into this Love's, so it's here we stay until Wednesday morning."

I asked Sandy what she usually did when she had to stop that long. She chuckled.

"Usually, I just do my laundry and take a shower. Sponge baths keep me feeling mostly clean, but it's nice to stand under a hot shower for a while. I wash my hair then too. That's about it."

I hadn't shaved in three days and I had some underwear I hadn't gotten washed back at the motel in Memphis.

"That sounds good to me. Maybe after we do that, I can buy you dinner tomorrow night. I see a restaurant within walking distance. The frozen dinners are good and I'm not complaining, but it would be nice to sit at a table and have someone else do the cooking."

Sandy smiled a funny smile.

"You know, that's what Jerry always wanted to do, get our laundry done, take a shower, and then take me out for dinner. Sometimes it was just hamburgers, but I always liked it. Dinner it is then."

The next morning, we took our dirty laundry to the Love's and used the washing machines and dryers. Well, actually, we only used one. Neither Sandy or I had enough to fill a machine, so she said we might as well just pay for one and dump everything in together. Since I didn't have any detergent, I saved the four bucks for the washer and dryer and another two for detergent.