Chapter Twelve

“Ya wanna ride?”.

The words were like music to my ears. I’d been trudging through the litter-strewn mud on Route 16 for over an hour with my arm outstretched, giving a stiff thumbs-up in the hopes someone would take a chance on me.

There were three men in the car and I judged them all be young, mid-to-late twenties or thirty at the very most. The one who called out to me from the passenger front seat had kind blue eyes, lightly crinkled at the sides from a well-worn smile with white even teeth and a straight nose that was softly rounded at the tip. He wore a thick winter jacket which he had paired with an old weathered baseball cap, and I noted he had no wedding band on the left hand that was currently leaning out the window.

“Can y’ hear me? You ok?!”, he yelled over the traffic, his face growing more concerned by the minute.

I looked past him and assessed his companions. The driver was wearing the obligatory t-shirt and check flannel that so dominated The South in winter, with je