Off the Beaten Path (3 page)

She found the perfect angle to photograph the old barn. She took twenty or thirty shots of the barn at slightly different angles while she played with the exposure and the zoom. When she thought she had enough good shots she started walking back to her car, she suddenly realized how far she had walked from her car and how great it felt just walking down that gravel road. She remembered the old James Taylor song “Walking down a country road” and found herself singing it as she
headed back toward her car. When she reached where the car was parked she threw the camera into the back seat and stood there thinking about what she should do next.

Kristin starred off down the long straight dirt road in the direction the car was already pointed and wondered what was at the end of that road. Before she knew what she was doing she had jumped over the closed door and into the driver’s seat like she was propelled forward by an unknown force. She stomped down hard on the accelerator and the shiny red convertible threw gravel and fishtailed as it tried to find some kind of traction on the gravel surface. The cloud of dust that the car kicked up could have been the cloud that had been following her for the last the last year. She had no idea how fast she was going and did not care. It appeared to her that she would drive straight down the dirt road and into the mountains that lay in front of her, and no one would ever see Kristin Palmer again.

She did not even realize that she had picked up her wedding ring off the console and that it was clinched in her hand so tight that is was about to pierce her skin, again. She was on the verge of tears, partially from the pain of clutching the ring in her right hand and partially from the pain of the last few months. She did not realize how out of control she was until she heard the pop of the tire and felt the shudder of the car as it turned sideways in the road and headed broadsided for the grass covered ditch. As she watched the scene unfold in slow motion she closed her eyes and thought contritely, I've been heading into the ditch for years.

Kristin gasp and coughed through the cloud of dust that surrounded her. She was still behind the wheel but the car was stopped and she couldn't tell what direction she was pointing. Kristin opened the car door and stepped out onto the gravel road. She walked slowly around the car and discovered that her left rear tire was blown out. She stood looking down at the flat tire with just the slightest bit of amusement. She thought to herself that this was probably the first time the shiny red Mercedes had ever been off the smooth confines of a paved highway. Kristin lightly ran her fingers over the line of the body as she walked completely around the car to make sure nothing else had happened to the Bright Red SL600. Talking directly to her car she asked, “What’s the matter Red, mad at me for taking you off the Interstate?”

After she finished her walk around inspection of Red she took a couple moments to gaze at the valley surrounding her and the mountains rising in the distance. Although she was at least forty miles from civilization with a flat tire, sideways in the middle of a dirt road she was still amazed at how captivating the valley was. She didn’t even try her cell phone to call for help. She knew that she would not get a cell signal this far out in the country and besides who the hell was she going to call? And to be perfectly honest she was looking forward to changing the tire herself. A little elbow grease and dirt might just be what the doctor ordered. She looked down at the flat and said calmly.

“Well, that tire isn’t going to change itself, better get to it.”

Kristin pulled the jack, the lug wrench and the spare tire out of the trunk. She found a level piece of ground to place the jack on and gave the handle of the lug wrench a couple good pumps to make sure the car would be okay when she jacked it all of the way up to take the tire off. One problem, the lug nuts wouldn’t budge. She tried everything. She even stood on the jack handle but her one hundred and fifteen pound frame just wasn’t enough to break the lug nuts loose. Kristin thought to herself, they must have put these damn lug nuts on with the air wrench equivalent of a jack hammer.

She was just about to have another go at the lug nuts when her attention was caught by a cloud of dust off in the distance. The cloud was coming from the direction that she had been headed in before her little blowout. Apparently the contour of the road had changed quite a bit not far from where she was parked; it seemed to become hillier with dips and turn that hid the owner of the dust cloud. She couldn't quite make out the vehicle headed in her direction but she was pretty sure that it would probably turn out to be an old pickup.

The source of all the dust cloud was not moving exceptionally fast but it would slide in and out of her sight hidden by the small hills and ravines. Kristin grabbed her camera and focused the zoom lens in the direction of the cloud. Yep, she was spot on. An old pickup, probably an early 80's Chevy. She watched the old truck for a little while then grabbed her water bottle off the backseat and pulled up a seat on the hood of her Mercedes to wait for the calvary to show up, at least she hoped it was the calvary.

Kristin was still sitting on the hood of her car when the old blue Chevy pickup rolled to a stop about thirty feet in front of her. She could see a man behind the wheel and gold colored dog in the back of the pickup. She slid down off the hood as the truck came to a stop; the dog immediately leaped out of the back of the truck and headed straight in her direction. The dog came to an abrupt stop when the man in the truck whistled and yelled out loud,

“Sam, don’t you dare jump up on that nice lady.”

The Yellow Lab pulled up just shy of where Kristin was leaning against the fender and promptly sat down, tail wagging and obediently waited for some attention. Kristin obliged, she squatted down and started scratching Sam behind the ears. She started talking to Sam.

“You’re a good boy, aren’t you Sam?”

“Girl,” said the man emerging from the pickup.

Kristin looked up at the man leaning against the old truck with a one word question,

“Sam?”

“Short for Samantha, my wife’s idea.”

The man leaning against the hood of the pickup in faded jeans, cowboy boots, and an old blue work shirt was wearing a Rockies baseball cap and a warm smile that immediately put her at ease. He was in his early forties and about and a half a head taller than her. He had a farmer’s tan and a rugged face that looked like it belonged in one of those old Camel cigarette commercials. She could see a hint of gray dusting the sides of his temples and peeking out from underneath his baseball cap. When he took off his sunglasses and
threw them back through the open window of the pickup she noticed that his eyes were the same deep blue as the sky above her. 

“Lug nuts giving you a problem?” He asked with genuine concern.

Kristin smiled and said,

“Yes, as a matter of fact they are, I think those guys in the tire shop see just how tight they can make them before they break off.”

“Let me see if I can loosen them up for you.”

When he got to where Kristin was kneeling down and petting Sam he stuck out his hand and introduced himself, “Jack’s Evan’s.”

Kristin stood up reached out and shook his hand, “Kristin,” was all she offered. Jack heard the hesitation in her voice at not wanting to volunteer her last name. He noticed that she didn’t have a wedding band on despite the fact that there was a wear line on her finger where a ring had been not so long ago.

Kristin was impressed when Jack shook her hand. It was a real handshake, like he was shaking hands with another man. Not like one of those wimpy, week handshakes she got from some of the men she did business with in L.A. or Seattle.

She had always wondered why some men think that you are supposed to shake a woman’s hand like it might break, didn’t they understand that women deserved a respectable handshake as well. Jack's hand was tough but not hard with a warm familiar embrace to it, like they were old friends.

“Nice to meet you Kristin; let’s see if we can break those lug nuts loose.”

He took the lug wrench from her and knelt down in the dirt next to the flat tire. She noticed that his hands looked like they could have loosened the nuts without using a wrench at all. His hands were strong and steady but they were not callused or hard. She could tell that he was busting the lug nuts loose without any effort, although he tried to make out like it was more difficult than it really was.

Kristin laughed. “I loosed them up for you.”

Jack looked up and smiled a tepid smile; he knew that he had been caught.

They both smiled a knowing smile.

Kristin reached into the backseat of her car and grabbed her camera. She squatted down in the dirt and took a couple close-up shots of Jack’s face as he changed the tire. Jack blushed a little and told her that there were a lot more interesting and beautiful subjects around to photograph.

“Don’t sell yourself short Jack; there are people in the big city that spend thousands of dollars to look the way you look at this very moment.” he blushed again.

“Long way from home?” Jack asked, trying to change the subject.

“The closer I get the longer it seems,” Kristin replied, as she stood up and looked out over the valley and took a long drink from her water bottle.

Jack had the tire changed and was putting everything back in the trunk in less time than it took Kristin to get a Latte at her local Starbucks. As he closed the trunk lid he patted her car lightly on the trunk and said, “There you go Red, good as new.”

Kristin caught her breath when Jack called her car by the same name as she did. She knew that offering Jack money for helping her would be an insult to his good nature. She reached into the back seat grabbed another bottle of water and handed to him.

“For your trouble” she said

“No trouble.” He replied, and took the water.

He looked down at her license plates and asked, Washington huh?

“Yep,” was all she said.

Jack asked “coming from or going back to?”

“From L.A.” She said.

“L.A. to Seattle through Montana, that's the long way home.”

Kristin nodded and leaned against the fender of her car. She took a long drink of her water without saying a word.

"Where were you headed up here?" He asked. 

"Nowhere," was all she said.

"Congratulations, you've arrived. You are smack dab in the middle of nowhere." He said with a sideways smile.

"I don't know, this looks like the most amazing nowhere I have ever seen." She said.

It was Jack's turn to say nothing, he just smiled and looked around the valley as if he was taking in every spectacular inch of the view around them. After a moment or two he said more as a suggestion than a demand, "You might want to get that tire fixed as soon as possible." 

Then he added, "The closest tire shop is back in Missoula."

"I should be able to make it back there without any trouble." She said.

“Well, it’s about forty miles back to town. It’s too late tonight to find a tire shop open but tomorrow is Saturday and there should be a tire shop open for at least half a day that can fix your tire. If you like I can follow you back down the canyon. It’s starting to get late and I would hate for you to drive back down the canyon without a spare, no telling what might happen. You might have picked up another nail in one of these other tires.”

That’s a lot of trouble; I think I will be okay. She said. She could see the look of concern on his face, then she asked,

“Is there a restaurant close by where I could buy you a cup of coffee that bottle of water just doesn’t seem like enough thanks for changing my tire?

“Hell, you did most of the work, but a cup of coffee would taste pretty good right about now.”

“There is a little roadside cafe not too far from where you turned off the main road.”

Kristin asked suspiciously, almost as an afterthought,

“Your wife won’t mind, will she?”

Jack dropped his head just the slightest bit but kept his eyes fixed on her, in an almost inaudible voice. 

“My wife passed away three years ago”

Kristin put her hand to her chest and gasped, “Oh God, I’m so sorry”

There was an uncomfortable silence that hung between them.

Kristin started to ask, “Do you mind telling me…

Jack interrupted like he knew the question was coming and simply said, “Cancer.”

After a long moment Jack pushed the ball cap up on his head and smiled,

“Now, how about that cup of coffee?” he said.

Kristin could see the pain behind his blue eyes, “sounds good.” was all she said.

Kristin turned and opened her car door as Sam immediately jumped in crossed over the console and made herself to home in the passenger seat of the car.

Jack snapped, “Sam, get out of there you know better than that.”

Sam barked at Jack. It sounded a lot like, not a chance buddy, I’m staying right here.

Kristin laughed, “Its okay we will follow you.”

“No you better go first you don’t want to be eating my dust all the way back to the main road.” He continued, 

“When you get back to the main road turn right and go about half a mile, it will be on the right hand side of the road you can’t miss it, Ruby's.”

As she climbed back into her car she noticed her wedding ring had fallen onto the floorboard during her almost catastrophe, she picked it up and dropped it in the bottom of her purse.

When the three of them walked into the Ruby’s cafe there were a handful of people at the tables and a couple of men sitting at the counter. Jack knew everyone in the place and they all knew him. Most of the patrons were older and they took turns saying hello and making Kristin feel as welcome as an old friend. The women had a quiet reassuring look about them and all of the men had the same genuine feel that you saw in people that weren't always trying to impress somebody. The ladies patted her hand when they shook it with both of their hands and refereed to her as, Sweetie, and Honey. The men all stood and shook her hand warmly and tried their best to embarrass Jack. A couple of them succeeded.