the wind and the rain - 1. nowhere

by nick nelson

part 1 of ?

to begin at the beginning, click here

the driver shook joe awake. this is it, my friend. this is where you wanted to get out. joe straightened up and looked out the window of the pickup truck. it was dark. he could not see any signs indicating where they were. he could not see anything. joe would have liked to go back to sleep and continue on, because he was not really going anywhere in particular, but he did not want to change the story he had told the driver, so he grabbed his bag off the floor of the truck, thanked the driver, who did not respond, and got out. the truck drove off, and was out of sight in an instant, as it did not have any lights on. it was one of the peculiarities of the time and place that the humblest and most anonymous citizens could command motored vehicles - very small vehicles, but vehicles - that could put distance between themselves and others in a very short time. the driver, whose name joe had never discovered, was over a hundred kilometers away in less than an hour. joe looked around. heavy clouds - indicating rain? - covered the night sky, and there was no sign of a moon, let alone stars. as he got a little wider awake, he could make out the edges of the road, but nothing else. he still did not know why the driver had left him in this spot, or where the spot was. in his bag he had one change of clothes, a razor, two stale sandwiches, and a canteen holding a pint of warm water. it was cold, not freezing cold, but cold. a slight wind picked up, in his face. would he starve or freeze to death? in his dreams and daydreams there was always a little diner and vehicle fueling or recharging station “just up ahead”… --== and there was always a woman, reasonably young and goodlooking, either sitting in the diner or behind the counter or running the fueling station... and there was usually a grumpy older man too, named “pop” or “jake”… it was another peculiarity of the time and place, but would not be for much longer, that joe was completely unaccounted for. nobody knew where he was, or that he existed. next