Friends in tow places
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
“Could I offer you 50 bucks to drive us to Yreka?” he asked. “Ap-parently they don’t stock Prius tires at the garages around here.”
“How many of you are there?” Mom asked.
“Me, my husband, and his mother,” the man said, pointing his big sunglasses at a man escorting an old lady across the car kennel.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could help,” Mom said. “I don’t actually have seats in my van. I don’t think it would be a pleasant ride for your mother-in-law.”
“Can you believe that they don’t have Uber in this town?” he said, like it was a crime no one would get away with if he were in charge. “They don’t even have any hotels. There’s a motel but…” he shuddered like he was imagining a long fall off an icy ridge. “I don’t know how people live like this!”
Mom breathed a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t see the inside of the Wagon after all. Guessing he might be less upset if she changed the subject to something familiar, she asked, “Where are you from?”
“The Bay Area.”
“You don’t say…” Mom caught herself right before the bite made it into her voice. This man wasn’t bad, just very lost.
“We’re supposed to be visiting friends in Portland this weekend, but we’ll never make it now.” He seemed to see Mom for the first time behind all the screens and wires. “How about you, where are you from?”
“I’m from the Bay Area, too.” What she really meant was, You seem like you need an interpreter. “Have you thought about calling an old-fashioned taxi company?”
“I looked on Yelp, but I couldn’t find one. They’re all in Yreka.”
“You could check the phone book. They might have one inside…” She trailed off when she saw the look on his muzzle. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Where are you headed?” the man asked. A map of all the places on the far side of Yreka formed in his thought bubble.
“The southern Cascades to van-camp and hike for a week.”
The wayfarer’s thought bubble flashed like he’d just won the jackpot.
Maybe to show that she wasn’t a hobo, and maybe just to let him know that we’d be here a while, she added, “I’m just here charging my electronics. You never know when you’re going to find an outdoor outlet.”
He tilted his head as if it’d never occurred to him that trees didn’t have charging stations. He looked at Mom suspiciously, like maybe she was really there to break the window of his Prius and steal the coins in his cup holder. His fingers found the loose loop on his muzzle and lifted it toward his ear.
