His eyes gave out in Pensacola, an old Navy town just before the Alabama line. He found a hotel in Seville and sat on his tenth floor balcony, watching fighter jets race across a sky drifting to slumber. Music and shouting floated down from the bars on fermented waves. A slow ripple of boat lights came from the bay, the water beneath a warped mirror to them. The houses along Gulf Breeze highway were all but hidden, their glows flickering through humid atmosphere, sliced and bisected by oscillating masts.
Carter withdrew a laminated map from his duffel bag and let his eyes wander it. Louisiana to North Carolina to the Keys. Mountains, rivers, marshland, and all the indifferent asphalt between them. Once and again they settled on southern Louisiana. He knew nothing of the state beyond whatever half-baked trope he might have seen on tv. But it seemed to him a place where a man could get thoroughly lost if he wanted to, live a hundred different lifetimes if he wanted to. What it might hold seemed like a mystery to him, and he left it as such. Carter returned the map to his bag and fell asleep with the balcony door still open, the wind carrying whiskey music.
He was up with the sun, but his truck was resistant. After getting the engine to turn over, he found the closest used car lot. The lot was large enough to have every manner of car, but a single one caught his attention.
“Yeah, she’s a looker, ain’t she?” A salesman appeared from nowhere, with poorly fitting slacks and a comb-over from the 1970s. “1993. Last year they made this body style. Less than a thousand on the odometer, if you can believe it. Single-owner. Damn thing looks like it never been outside, neither. Bone stock. I do believe it was a trade-in on a GT350. Real quick becoming one for the collectors. Timeless, you ask me.” Carter opened the hood, looked at the five liter engine, and closed it again.
“You wanna crank her, maybe take her for a spin?”
“I think I do.”
“Sure thing. Be right back with those keys, sir.”
Carter sat in the driver’s seat and tested the clutch, putting the shifter through all five gears. Easy, smooth. The salesman turned and handed the keys to him.
“You can open her up, but let’s not get too crazy, alright?”
Carter inserted the key and turned, the engine coming to life with ease. He ensured it was in neutral and tapped the gas. The exhaust was modest, but made itself known. Carter killed the engine and put it back in first.
“Do you know when it had an oil change last, or when these tires were put on?”
“I don’t, but I might could find out.”
“Tell you what. I’ll take the car. Change the oil, put some new tires on, and I’ll pay cash today.”
The salesman looked confused and pulled at the collar of his shirt. “Sir?”
“I’m serious.”
“But…but I ain’t even told you how much this vehicle costs, sir.”
“I know that.”
“And you willing to pay it, today? In cash?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, alright, then. Let me get the paperwork started.” The salesman got out of the car and began walking away, shaking his head.
“And one other thing.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“Can you make sure the new tires are good, high mileage ones? I’m liable to add a zero to that odometer.”
“Oh. uh, you got it, sir. And did you want to trade in what you drove here?”
“I guess so, but I’m not sure it’s worth more than scrap.”
The salesman nodded and continued walking.
Some hours went by before Carter was merging onto I-10 westbound. He dumped the clutch and let it redline before going to second, and again to third. The speedometer was nearing 110 before fourth gear. He eased back and settled into the right lane.
The sun was nearing the day’s expiration as Carter pulled into a rest stop just east of Baton Rouge. After relieving himself, he sat in the car and listened to the engine cool, its metal having found previously unknown dimensions. He was falling asleep as someone tapped on the passenger window. Carter leaned forward and saw that it was a young woman. He turned the key one click forward and rolled the window down. She bent over and leaned severely against the door, her thin top revealing most of what she had.
“You lookin’ awful lonely, out here by yourself.”
“I don’t think I am.”
“Suit yourself.” She turned away, attempting her best runway strut in department store heels. Trying to shake an ass she didn’t have.
“Wait, wait.” She turned back and he motioned for her to get in the car.
“What you thinkin’, big man?”
“I was thinking we’d just talk.”
“Talk first, huh? You need to be comfortable first, ease into it?”
“Not first. Just talk.”
“My rates is the same either way.”
Carter pulled two hundred dollar bills from a pocket and handed them to her. She took the bills and made this vanish in her shirt.
“So wha’chu wanna talk about?”
“I don’t know.” Carter looked at her, toes to forehead. She was beautiful in the same way wildflowers in the highway median were beautiful. She watched him, let his gaze wander unimpeded. “What are you doing out here?”
She laughed. “What kinda stupid question is that?”
“You’re right. That was stupid. Sorry I asked.”
“I get it. Men like you don’t know what to say or how to act around girls like me.”
“I guess that’s true.” He ran his hands across the steering wheel and watched as the streetlights began to come on.
“I like your Rolex.”
“It’s not a Rolex.”
“Oh.”
“It’s a Longines. Longines has been making watches since 1832. Rolex only since 1905. This is a quartz. Mostly ignored by the snobs who desire a little mechanical heartbeat. But this is some of the highest accuracy you can buy. Good to five seconds a year. After a hundred years, it’ll barely drift eight minutes. I’m not sure even God needs that kind of accuracy. For what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe God needs one hisself. Ain’t nothin’ ever happened for me on time, if at all.”
“Yeah. Time doesn’t seem to be handed out evenly, does it?”
“I wouldn’t say so.” She hiked her skirt up just enough to show her bright red panties. “You really don’t want none of what you paid for?” She slid a slow finger up one leg and let it come to a stop between the two.
“I really don’t. You are beautiful, believe me. But no.”
“If you say so.” She pulled her skirt back down and looked around the car. “Nice car, nothing in it. Where you runnin’ to? Or runnin’ from?”
“That is a good question, and I don’t know that I have an answer. Maybe I’ll have one when I get there, wherever that is.”
“I don’t reckon you gonna find much, one rest stop to the next. ‘Less you lookin’ for the wisest working girl to ask your weird questions to.”
Reads well, sounds good... keep going, lol!