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

Chapter 1 – just east of Yuma Arizona

Where you’ve been, what you’ve felt,

No regrets, no quarter dealt.

You’ll never again beat that drum,

But you’ll endure Comfortably Numb.

CHAPTER ONE –

A light rain fell through dark skies, but Tyler Martin was having a good time anyway. Driving a new Ford pickup and heading home to San Diego from the University of Arizona, he was in a hurry. It was the start of Christmas vacation, and he was anxious to get away from school and baseball. Rain wouldn’t slow him down as he pushed on at eighty-five miles per hour, darting among cars and trucks.

Tyler’s dad, Dick owned large and successful Ford dealerships throughout southern California. Everyone knew about the Dick Martin Ford Group because of the non-stop goofy commercials running on television. The Martin’s lived in a large house in the most exclusive neighborhood overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Tyler wanted to do some surfing with his little brother, Danny. When he wasn’t playing baseball, he surfed.

With him was his smokin’-hot part-time girlfriend, Madison Bream. With her long dark hair and olive skin on a small frame, she was a knockout, and she knew it. She had done a few modeling stints in the past and was looking to expand on that career after school. Her daddy had recently hired an agent, whom she would meet over the Christmas holiday. At that very moment though, she had much of her shirt unbuttoned and was leaning across the wide console of the pickup on her elbows, sticking her tongue in Tyler’s ear, teasing his perfect hair.

Madison was the only child of a successful attorney at one of the largest law firms in California. Darrell Bream was a no-nonsense attorney, well known throughout the legal world. His face seemed to be frozen in a perpetual scowl, as if he had just sucked on the business end of a lemon. His firm was named Bream, Frye & Denton, BFD for short. Tyler teased Madison it meant Big Fucking Deal.

BFD’s specialty was personal injury. The partners regularly peppered television ads throughout the Southwest, demonizing trucking companies and truck drivers. To listen to Bream’s commercials, one would have thought the transportation industry were waging a massive vendetta against the general public, picking off automobile drivers indiscriminately. BFD had just won a major case of negligence against a large Oregon trucking company who had been involved in an accident that killed an elderly couple. The verdict was going to put the carrier and its twenty-five hundred employees out of business. BFD actually bragged about it in their latest commercial.

Tyler’s best friend, Joshua Sykes, who played on the same Arizona college baseball team as Tyler, sat in the back seat. Both had been awarded baseball scholarships that might place them in the Major Leagues. Their fielding ability in the respective positions was flawless. They might as well be majoring their studies in tiddlywinks however, as neither young man attended classes much. Mr. Bream was working on fat NIL contracts for them both, which they were expected to sign after the New Year. Tyler played left field and Josh played center. They batted number three and four in the lineup, and pro scouts were following them closely. Tyler had led the Big 12 Conference in batting average, and Josh nearly broke Pete Incaviglia’s record of forty-eight home runs in a season, hitting forty-six the year before. 

Josh, a tall thin kid with overly long hair and a large nose was smoking a fat joint he had just rolled. Next to him was his girlfriend, Hailey Scott. She too was on a scholarship, hers for playing classical piano. She was considered a savant when it came to the instrument and had appeared in a few public performances.

Madison was the only one of the four who were not on a scholarship. She was the ultimate free spirit; a wild child Tyler would call her. Grades and scholastic’s were not anywhere near as important as partying and looking good. She majored in business, a field she had no intention of ever getting into, but it made her dad happy. Fortunately, she was smart enough that she didn’t have to study hard to keep passing grades. 

Both young men had a can of Tecate between their legs. Tyler was 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, smiling to himself as he stuck his hand inside Madison’s open shirt.

Josh held out the joint to Hailey, but she waved it off, laying her head back against the soft leather of the pick-up. ‘Tyler and Madison are 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. Heck, those two weren’t even serious in their relationship, as it was no secret that they slept with others.

Hailey, a little on the heavy side, was a shy, pretty girl with blonde hair, and was also an only child. She wasn’t as anxious to get home as the rest. She lived with her divorced mother in a small apartment outside San Diego. Her mother worked two jobs to keep them afloat, so she rarely saw her. When they did see each other, her mother had to tell her, again, “about “how tired she was for working so hard to keep the apartment and to keep Haily’s ass in that fancy school”. 

Hailey had no idea where her deadbeat dad was. She hadn’t heard from him in ten years. She had been the product of a one-nightstand, a situation that made life just that much more difficult. For Hailey, this meant spending a large part of her Christmas vacation alone. 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.

Hailey knew that Josh had it only slightly better than her, as his parents were still together but struggling like everybody else in southern California. She turned her music on, plugged her headphones into her ears, and closed her eyes. She preferred the music of Engelbert Humperdinck, the German composer, not the British pop singer. The great composer Humperdinck was known for his opera’s, particularly Hansel and Gretal, her all-time favorite. She loved the fact that the opera tied in with fairy tales and was working on a piece of her own for children that would be an offshoot from the original. She tried to explain it to Josh once, but his eyes glazed over with boredom.

When Josh drank beer, he became a goof. When he smoked pot with beer, he became even more goofy, almost childish. He’d been trying to put the moves on Hailley since they left school, but she steadfastly refused because there were people in the front seat.

Josh’s dad was a mechanic at a truck dealership and his mother was a dental hygienist. The two made decent money but were talking seriously about moving to Arizona to get away from California’s high taxes. Josh’s dad wanted to watch more of his son’s games as well.

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

Tyler: “Hey, quit bogarting that joint.” 

Josh: “You sound just like a hippie, dude. Knock it off, you’re weirding me out.” Josh thought he was being funny, giggling uncontrollably, pointing at his buddy in the front seat and stealing glances inside Madison’s open shirt. Truth be known, he envied Tyler for his relationship with Madison. She was so hot. He loved how she always wore silver hoop earrings which sparkled out from her dark hair.

Tyler stuck his left hand behind his ear, snapping his fingers. His other hand was still lodged inside Madison’s shirt. He held onto the steering wheel with his legs as he continued to careen down the highway. Madison blew in his ear and tousled his hair some more.

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

Hailey hissed: “Yeah, give him a toke, you’re ruining my mellow.”

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. Don’t be such a dick.”

Madison didn’t really like Josh, but he was Tyler’s friend, so she put up with his ways. She didn’t really know Hailey that well either. They came from such different worlds. She seemed like a nice girl, too nice for the likes of the immature Josh. The thought occurred to her that perhaps she might get closer to Hailey to introduce her to some of her better looking male buddies. Surely she would leave Josh then and wouldn’t have to put up with his stupid shit anymore.

Although she didn’t smoke pot, Madison reached out quickly 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 toke of that joint then I’m pulling this truck over and you can walk your ass home from here with your big bag of pot.”

It was raining harder. But, in addition to being nearly drunk, the rain, and the speed at which he was traveling, Tyler still wanted a toke off that joint.  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.