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“My name is Karma.” She informed him as she moved around to get up into the passenger seat.
He climbed up into the driver seat, starting the big rumbly engine. It reminded her of her neighbor’s truck. Maybe it was something about these trucks with their big powerful engines. But her neighbor didn’t look like the man sitting next to her. His strong hands were lightly gripping the wheel of the truck. Now she was pretty sure that her neighbor had been overcompensating for something when he purchased his truck. Buck looked at home in the front seat of his.
“Karma is a very unusual name. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody with a name like that?” he glanced at her, putting the truck into gear.
She shrugged with a silly grin as she thought of her parents. “I have unusual parents.”
“Oh, okay. I understand about parents and naming their children.”
Silence fell between them as they traveled forward instead back along Highway Twenty-Two towards One-stop as Karma expected. If she had realized that there was another turn to One-stop just a few miles down the road, she would have attempted to walk to the town instead of trying to hole up in her car for the night.
Before she knew it, they reached the exit for One-stop. The lights of Buck’s truck flashed off a reflective sign set back from the road that labeled the easily missed turn as private. A large metal gate covered the road as they turned in a tall passageway with rock covering both sides. Buck pressed something on his dash and the gate blocking the roadway slowly opened. He drove the truck forward as Karma’s car gently bounced when they crossed over the bottom grating that the gate had rested on.
They were traveling in a long tunnel with lights set in the roof of it every few feet. Buck’s headlights caught on reflectors on the side of the road as it twisted and turned along the two-lane passageway. Suddenly they came out of the tunnel to see the stars reflecting in the night sky. The road to One-stop was perched on the side of the mountain looking out over the valley.
Karma swore that they were traveling on the other side of Highway Twenty-Two with the mountain in between them. Her heart was in her throat as she looked out the passenger window down the side of the road into the valley that was the home of One-stop. Deep, mysterious shadows reached out towards the truck. The truck’s headlights reflected off eyes of the night animals that lived in the gaps between the trees. They traveled along the road into a wide curved turn sloping down into the valley.
Karma was glad that Buck was driving because if she had taken this road, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to make it. The steep angle sloped with the mountain on one side and a sloping forest of trees on the other. There was no guard rail to prevent a person from driving over the side. Just a dirt cover shoulder about half the width of the lane and then trees.
A few lights were showing in the valley. It didn’t appear to be a very large town, but it was difficult to tell in the darkness.
“You still didn’t tell me how you knew that I was stopped on the side of the road there.” She hoped that talking to Buck would take her mind off the fact that she was basically on a dirt trail on the side of a mountain with somebody else at the wheel of the vehicle that she had only known for few minutes.
For all, she knew he could lose his mind and decide to drive off the side of the road. She made sure her seatbelt was on nice and tight.
“My brother has a set up that monitors both ends of the dead zone. He was reviewing the video from earlier this evening. He saw your car enter the zone, but he didn’t see it come back out within the usual amount of time it takes to travel through that passageway. When he didn’t see you, he called me, I got in my truck and came looking for you.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Often enough.” He grunted sliding her a sideways look.
It was still too dark for her to clearly see the color of his eyes or to definitively tell the color of his hair. All she could tell was that he was a very large, very muscular, a man that inspired some very naughty thoughts in her.
With a few sharp turns, they were pulling up in front of a large garage. In the lights of the headlights, she could see Buck written on the side. Buck brought his truck to a stop in front of the garage. He exited the truck and Karma slid out the passenger side.
“I am going to go ahead and lower your car.” He pointed up the street to a building that still had lights on. “That right there is the One-stop motel. I notified Patricia, the owner, that I was going to pick somebody up and that she will most likely get a customer. She will be up and waiting for you.” He lowered his arm and looked down at her.
Karma blinked up at him, eyes wide. This was a unique experience for her. It was usually the other way around where she was looking down at the people around her.
“Is there anything you need me to carry for you over to the motel?”
“No. I will grab my pack and head over there.” Karma headed to her car, stopping when she realized that it was still up on the bed of Buck’s truck.
“Give me a second to lower it down to the ground.” Once again, he was manning the levers and switches, lowering it down.
Karma reached into her car and grabbed the backpack that she kept her essentials in, along with the change of clothing in case of emergencies. Never leave home without it.
She also reached into the front seat and grabbed her purse off the floor. She straightened up and turn to head in the direction of the One-stop Motel when she felt her bag lifted off her shoulder. She jumped glancing back. She found Buck standing next to her, calmly holding her bag.
“It’s too dark out here for you to walk by yourself over to the motel,” he explained gesturing as he took a step.
He lifted her bag onto his shoulder. She quickly caught up to him as he took off in the direction of the motel. They walked in companionable silence. It didn’t take them long to reach the motel where Buck opened the door and waited for her to pass through.
Karma entered the brightly lit lobby giving it a once over. She found an older gray-haired lady leaning against the counter flipping through a magazine. She looked up. A smile of relief crossed her face when she saw both of them.
“Well, Buck I guess you are right.” She said as she looked at Karma in curiosity. “Welcome to the One-stop Motel; my name is Patricia. I am the owner and manager here. I hope you enjoy your stay.”
“I am sure it will be just lovely,” Karma responded as she filled out the registration card that Patricia handed her. She watched as Patricia scanned the board of room keys behind the desk. This was an older hotel that still used keys to enter the room instead of the key cards of most modern hotels.
