A Dream ~The Hitchhiker

Hi dear friends and followers. I will not have part 3 of Pandoras Curse done on time.
I do have a story here I think is good for a review. Was this a dream or reality? you decide. Have a great read and comments are welcomed, thank you.

My roommate, Paula, and I were driving down the highway one night when we saw a lone hitchhiker standing on the shoulder of the road ahead of us with his right arm and thumb out.  He held some kind of hand set in his left hand. As we were about to go past him he dropped his right arm to his side and brought the hand set up towards his mouth.

I didn’t give it a second thought as we went past except that it was just another of many hitchhikers that one encounters alongside the highway at night.  I heard a light, almost inaudible voice on the radio and I knew it didn’t come from the radio station itself.  I put my hand on Paula’s arm to get her attention and asked her to turn the volume up on the radio. As soon as she did I heard the voice come from the speakers loud and clearly.

“cynthiagrlx, is that your?”  “cynthiagrlx” is my user name for all of my online  transactions.  I thought to myself, “This person must be familiar with my user name from the internet.”  I had to know how he knew I was in this particular car on a lonely country road in the middle of the night.

I told the radio (and hopefully the hitchhiker) that we were turning back.  I shouted to Paula to “…stop and turn around, please!”  Whoever it was, they had to know me not just from on line, but they also knew the car. I had to know who this person was.

Paula made one of the fastest U-turns I had ever seen and we made our way back to where we had last seen the hitchhiker. It was a hot July night and we were driving with the windows rolled down. I could hear the myriad of crickets and an owl hooted somewhere among the trees as we slowed down when we saw the lone figure standing at the side of the road arms folded patiently waiting for us.  

The oddest thing I ever saw is this tall slim figure with long legs stepping through the back window of the car and into the back seat, just like something out of a Dukes of Hazard scene.  He was quite handsome and soft spoken but with a little of the wild side look to him. As he extended his hand to me his soft voice gently said , “Nice to meet you, Miss Cynthiagrlx.”  I extended my hand out to his and as soon as our hands touched  I liked what I felt and replied, “Just Cindy will be fine.”

The hitchhiker gave us directions to his mom’s place where he said we would be welcome to stay the night.  He told me about the relationship between his mom and himself which was shaky at best as she had never approved of his way of life as a wanderer and adventurist.  He was a free soul he was that would never be tamed or would never be bent by any other.  That I could feel in him. He reminded me very much of Mowgli, the boy in the “Jungle Book” story.  

We pulled into a dirt road leading to a one-level prefab house which was in need of painting.  Paula rolled the car into a lane beside the house and we got out as our host led us to the front door.  The door was open and the hitchhiker knocked lightly at screen door and spoke calmly, “Mom! It’s me, Jamie.” We heard a woman’s voice from somewhere within the house respond. “Who did you bring home with you?”  Jamie responded, “Remember that girl I told you I met on some website on the internet, Cynthia?”

“Yes, I remember quite well” she responded kind of grumpily.

“May we come in?” Jamie asked.

“Well I can’t see having your friends sit out on the porch all night,” she responded.

Jamie opened the screen door and waved for us to enter then followed behind us and led us to the kitchen. There sat an aging lady with a lap top before her with a cigarette in one hand.  A coffee cup sat beside the lap top.  She looked up from her lap top momentarily and invited us to find a chair and sit down.  “If you would like some coffee the pot is on the kitchen counter, just help yourself.”

She got up and excused herself as she hobbled away with a walking stick to another part of the house and said she would be back  momentarily, and to make ourselves at home. Jamie followed her into the next room where almost immediately we could hear her loud voice nearly shouting at Jamie in disparagement, and Jamie’s soft voice making reply.

Thinking that we may have intruded on something that we had no business in we were about to get up to leave when Jamie came back into the kitchen and took the chair his mom had been sitting in and turned around and sat and folded his arms over the back of the chair and resumed talking with us in his soft voice.

“Mom is good people,” he said, “she’s just had a hard life and she worries about my following the same path she did.”  By this time Paula was tired from the long trip and was beginning to nod off in the chair where she sat.   Jamie got up and led her to the living room to lie down on an old couch that had seen better days. Almost as soon as she laid down she was already asleep.

Jamie came back to the kitchen and asked if I would like to go sit out on the porch in the cool night air.

We sat on an old swing seat looking up at the stars and sharing stories about our different adventures and experiences.  I looked at the eastern sky where the faint light of dawn showed on the horizon and the neighbors houses all around.  I asked Jamie if there were any woods about the neighborhood where we could go for a walk. He nodded and pointed towards the early dawn light. “That was, but we will need to cross a few neighbours fences and yards to get there.  I know a way where no one will see us crossing their yards. There is a ravine down in a hollow where there is a creek that runs through it.” I smiled and said, “Let’s go!”

Jamie shot to his feet and smiled then said. “I’ll race you there.” Off we went running across his mom’s small back lot, jumping the fence in one stride.

We ran across a grassy field and came out to where encountered another residential area where I screamed as loud as I could.  “I don’t want to see any more houses.”  Jamie responded just as loudly, surprising me as this was the first time I had heard him speak above a soft tone of voice since we first met.  We then both screamed in chorus and enjoyed hearing our echoes in the distance.

We resumed running towards an old board fence which we climbed over and ran across someone’s back yard and over the wooden fence on the other side.  There was a slight hill on the other side we stumbled upon then just rolled down the rest of the way landing on our feet at the bottom.

At the bottom of the hill there stood a grove of tall trees. I stopped momentarily to admire the big old oaks and maple trees dotted here and there with tall, stately pines.  I could smell the fragrance of the pine needles as I took a deep breath, reveling in the essence of the forest. We entered the forest and climbed down a short distance to the bottom of a shallow ravine. At the bottom of the ravine there ran a creek just as Jamie had told me. This was his play ground as a child growing-up in this community, his own private little Garden of Eden.  For a time we ran around chasing each other, then ended rolling around in the dirt and grass along the creek. Totally exhausted, we just lay on the grass and dirt embankment catching our breath.

By now it was fully daylight and the sun had begun to filter through the branches of the tall oaks, maples, and pine trees.  Jamie sat up suddenly said, “Wanna go swimming?”  I was up on my feet racing him to the creek. The water was only waist deep but clear and refreshing. We splashed each other like a couple of little children then ducked ourselves under the water breathing out air bubbles at each other. This whole experience had been so exhilarating, it had been a very long time since I had enjoyed myself with another as this. But the memories only felt like they had been yesterday merging into one wonderful day with such a wonderful and exciting friend.

All too soon it was time to head back to his mom’s house. On our way back, where the field was, he asked me if I was hungry. I nodded back that I was. He asked me to wait for him there, that he would be back shortly. I sat in the tall grass feeling the hot sun on my back. About five minutes later I heard some bushes rustling and looked in that direction to see who or what had made the sound, ready jump and make a dash for if it if it was anyone other than Jamie.

It was Jamie!  He held something in both hands and presented me with a hot dog that he told me he had confiscated from someone’s barbecue at a local picnic.  As I sat on the ground laughing till I had tears running down my cheeks, he looked at me, puzzled.

“I love you, you know that don’t you? I love your free spirit. I’m going to miss you so much my dear friend.”  

He looked at me for a moment then smiled and said, “Why don’t you come with me?”  

“Where are you going?” I asked.  

He hesitated for another moment as he scratched his chin, then said. “Anywhere, whereever my feet take me,” he smiled broadly showing the white of his teeth mischievously.  

I jumped to my feet and said, “I will go with you to the ends of the earth!”, as I hugged him.   And off we went towards his mom’s house.  As we approached the house I noticed Paula’s car still parked beside the house where she had left it the night before.  

 As I stopped dead in my tracks, Jamie stopped as well and looked at me. 

“What’s the matter Cindy? You look like you just saw a ghost.”  

“Yeah, kind of forgot a small detail.” 

“And what might that be, my sweetest?”, he asked inquisitively.  

I shuffled my feet while looking at the ground then looked up at him in tears.  

“My dearest, there is nothing more I would love to do then to go on an adventure with you, but I can’t leave Paula. Not after the many good years she has given me.”  

I cried, wiping at the tears with the back of my right hand.  We embraced one another like what seemed like an eternity then walked into his mom’s house.

Jamie declared to his mom that he loved her and thanked her for all she had done for him but that he was leaving and would not be coming back.

His mom appeared not to be surprised. She pushed a small paper bag across the table for him.  Jamie took the bag and inside was a sandwich she had packed for him and a note.   Jamie opened the note and read it.  It was a very short note that read: 

“To my dearest son, follow your heart, and don’t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do.

Love,

Mom”  

We drove Jamie to the main highway and there we parted company.  I watched him standing on the side of the road for as long as I could still see him. 

Composed by Cynthia