I let the cabover Mack tractor snake its way along the 2 lane highway, enroute to another delivery.
Another day another delivery followed by another pickup, same story different day; the only thing that changed were the cities involved.
Today I'd delivered in northern Kentucky, a load of glass bottles. My pickup was a load of food at a Cincinnati warehouse, bound for a distribution center in Charleston, WV. It was a useless little load, the goods involved were cheap and the miles were short, so it didn't pay well. It did accomplish another goal; it got me one step closer to being home for the weekend. It was Thursday, and Saturday was Christmas eve.
I could have crossed back into Kentucky, gone southeast along the AA highway, popped out at Grayson, Ky. and jumped on I-64 east straight into Charleston but I'd chosen to run US 52 down the north shore of the Ohio River. I hadn't been down that road and the fresh scenery was always a welcome diversion. My route wasn't for efficiency or speed, but for my own entertainment.
I knew there were several little towns along US 52 before I crossed over the Ohio River at Huntington, WV and picked up I-64 there. Then it was a straight shot to Charleston, just another hour to my destination.
As always, getting unloaded then deadheading to the pickup point and reloading had somehow sucked the hours out of the day. It was getting dark when I left Cincy, and it didn't take long for the last shreds of light to abandon the winter sky.
It was cold, the day had been gray and cheerless, no breeze to stir the weeds or the last leaves on the trees. A scattering of Christmas lights had made their appearance, strung along the eaves of houses or draped on fences and hedges along the way. An occasional small evergreen on a lawn would be wrapped in colored lights. I imagined children in the home peeking out and looking happily at the lights.
As I rode along doing barely the speed limit, I had on my CB radio. An occasional trucker coming west would give me a Smokey report, and the bears seemed to be in the den tonight. That figured as I had a boatload of hours to kill on my way to Charleytown and wasn't pushed to speed.
I was rolling along when I heard a soft voice come across my speaker. "Anybody out there?" That voice just about made my antenna blush it sounded so good.
"C'mon, darlin', I got a copy on your radidio."
"Hey there, you have Country Girl on this end."
"Country Girl, you sure are sounding some kind of fine on this cold old December night. They call me Jack-in-the-Box."
So we bantered back and forth a bit, teasing and seeing where this would lead. Finally she said "I know you guys live off of coffee. Would you like some?" Where I come from, that's what you call a leading question.
"Why, I surely would. I love good coffee and sexy women. It's a weakness, I know, but I just can't seem to help myself."
She gave me a giggle and said she knew how it was. She gave me directions to where she was parked in her car, said there was room to park my rig and she'd take us for coffee. She was as good as her word and as I brought my Mack to a halt on a side street of some nameless little village I could see her car in the dimness ahead of me. I also noted that the drivers side was sitting a little lower than the passenger side. The car was an old beater which looked like it had survived a lot of hard winters,the paint faded or totally missing in spots.
I set the brakes, shut my diesel down, and grabbed my coat. I locked up my rig and headed for her car,approaching the driver side door. She rolled the window down and I saw her in the dim light; and there was a lot to see. She was a fluffy gal, almost as big around as she was tall. Her hair cascaded from under a Santa hat down her back, dark and wavy.
She had on a Santa coat as well, the dark red trimmed in fake white fur. I took all this in and asked "Where's Rudolph?" She gave a giggle and said "He's at my place. That's where the coffee is too. Hop in and we'll go see what we can find. It's just a couple blocks away, not far at all."
I walked around and got in. The old heap lurched forward and brought us to an apartment building, a wood sided rectangle crouched along the street. We both got out and headed up an exterior stairway to her apartment. When we got inside she took my coat.
I was right, she was a big girl. The hem of her Santa coat was high, showing a lot of thigh, and I mean a LOT of thigh.
She got the coffee going and we sat on the couch, just making idle chit chat, no great shakes. She came close to me and put her hand on my thigh- very high on my thigh. Her face was actually quite pretty, eyes large and green under an unwrinkled forehead, thick eyebrows framing them. She had a small nose, tilted upward in a mischeivous way that was cute as well. Her mouth was wide with full lips, and she employed them when she leaned in and stole a kiss from me.
I closed my eyes and went with that kiss. Her tongue stole into my mouth, seeking out my own.