Chapter One of Webber’s Upcoming Novel – the third in a series with trucker Tim Harrison

Chapter 1 – just east of Yuma Arizona

Dark skies and a light rain was falling but Tyler Martin was having a good time anyway. Driving a new Ford pickup truck heading home to San Diego California from the University of Arizona, he was in a hurry. It was the start of Christmas vacation, and he was anxious to get home for the holidays and get away from school and baseball. This rain wasn’t going to slow him down as he pushed on at 85 miles per hour, darting among cars.

Tyler’s dad, Dick Martin owned a large successful Ford dealership on the north side of San Diego, as well as other dealerships in southern California. Everybody knew about the Dick Martin Ford Group because of the non-stop goofy commercials he ran on television. The Martin’s lived in a big house in the most exclusive neighborhood in San Diego. Tyler wanted to get back and do some surfing in the Pacific Ocean with his brother. When he wasn’t playing baseball, he surfed.  

With him was his part-time girlfriend, Madison Breem, who at that very moment had much of her shirt unbuttoned and was leaning across the wide console, sticking her tongue in Tyler’s ear.

Madison was the child of a successful attorney at one of the best and largest law firms in all of San Diego. Darrell Breem was well known throughout the legal world. His firm was named Breem, Fry and Denton, BFD for short. Tyler had a good time with the initials, teasing Madison about BFD – Big Fucking Deal. Their specialty was accident claims. They too peppered television ads non-stop throughout southern California demonizing trucking companies and truck drivers. To listen to Breem, one would have thought truckers had a massive vendetta against the public, picking off automobile drivers indiscriminately. Darrell’s notoriety was probably why Tyler hadn’t made Madison his steady girlfriend, afraid what the old man might do to him if he slipped up.

In the back seat was Tyler’s best friend, Joshua Sykes, who played on the same Arizona Wildcat baseball team as Tyler. Both boys were there on baseball scholarships. Tyler played left field and Josh played center. They batted number 3 and 4 in the batting order, and major league scouts were following them.

Sitting next to Josh smoking a joint was his girlfriend Hailey Scott. She too was on a scholarship, hers for playing classical music on the piano. She was considered near a savant when it came to playing the instrument and had appeared in several performances.

Madison was the only one of the four not on some sort of scholarship with the university. She was somewhat of a free spirit, a wild child Tyler would call her. Grades and scholastic were not anywhere near as important as partying.  

Both young men had a can of Tecate beer between their legs. Tyler began giggling at the tongue darting in and out of his ear. He was on his third beer for the trip and was waiting for his turn with the joint. ‘Life is good,’ he thought.

Hailey passed the joint over to Josh and laid her head back against the soft leather of the pick-up. Tyler and Madison were so lucky she thought. The two came from rich families and life was always golden for those two – one big party. They had nice clothes, automobiles, and lots of friends. Everything came so easy for them while she had to work so damn hard at everything she did. Heck, they weren’t even serious in their relationship as they both slept with other students back at school.

Hailey, a shy, but pretty girl with long blonde hair, was an only child, and wasn’t as anxious to get home as the rest. She lived with her twice-divorced mother in a small apartment outside San Diego. Her mother worked two jobs to keep them afloat, so she rarely saw her. Hailey had no idea where her deadbeat dad was as she hadn’t heard from him in ten years. She had been the product of a one-night stand, a situation that made life just that more difficult. For Hailey, this meant spending a large part of her Christmas vacation alone or, she supposed, she could get a part-time job somewhere.  Starbucks down the street was hiring. When not out with Josh back in San Diego, she spent a considerable amount of time practicing her piano and trying to write classical music.

Hailley knew that Josh had it only slightly better, as his parents were still together, but struggling like everybody else in the southern California area. Oh well, live for today was her motto. She closed her eyes to enjoy the creeping buzz.

When Josh drank beer, he became a goof. When he smoked pot on top of the beer, he became even more goofy. He’ been trying to put the moves on Hailey since they left the college, but she steadfastly refused on the grounds there were people in the front seat.

Josh’s dad was a mechanic at the San Diego Freightliner truck dealership and his mother was a dental hygienist. The two made decent money but were struggling in the southern California economy under Governor Newsome. The couple had been talking seriously about moving to Arizona.

When Hailey rebuffed him again he decided to get higher and took another toke from the joint. Tyler watched him in the rear view mirror of the truck.

Tyler: “Hey, quit bogarting that joint.” 

Josh: “You sound just like a hippie from the 70’s, dude. Knock it off, you’re weirding me out, dude.”

Josh thought he was being funny and giggled uncontrollably, pointing at his buddy in the front seat and stealing glances inside Madison’s open shirt.

Tyler stuck his left hand behind his ear, snapping his fingers. He held on to the steering wheel with his right hand as he continued to dodge in between traffic. Madison licked his ear again.

Tyler: “Come on, Josh, I want a toke.”

Hailey: “Yeah, give him a toke and quick ruining my high.”

Madison took her tongue out of Tyler’s ear to look disgustedly back at Josh. She caught him staring inside her shirt.

Madison: “Give him the damn joint, Josh.”

Madison didn’t really like Josh all that much, but he was Tyler’s best friend, so she put up with his ways. Truth be known, she didn’t really know Hailey that much either. They came from different worlds, even if they did live in the same zip code. She seemed like a nice gal, probably too nice for the likes of the immature Josh. The thought occurred to her that perhaps she was to get closer to Hailley and introduce her to some of her male buddies, she would leave Josh. Then she wouldn’t have to put up with him anymore.

Although she didn’t smoke pot, Madison reached over to grab the joint. Josh was quicker and snatched it away. This made him giggle some more. Madison gave him a ‘whatever’ look and sat back in her seat, buttoning up her shirt.

Tyler, looking in his rear view mirror: “Dammit, Josh, if you’re not going to give me a pull of that joint then I’m pulling this truck over and you can walk your ass home from here with your bag of pot.”

It seemed to be raining harder, but that didn’t slow Josh at all. In addition to being nearly drunk, the rain, and the speed at which he was traveling, he still wanted to get higher.

Finally, Josh relented. He started to hand the joint to Tyler when another one of those goofy thoughts went through his head, causing him to giggle.  Josh was about to make the biggest mistake of his life.