Swap Gas, Cont'd.

The old Ford cut through the night like a sharp knife tearing it's way down a silk curtain. The old car rumbled, shook, and groaned as it bumped it's way across Indiana.

"Better slow it down", I said to TC. "We don't want the Highway Patrol stoppin' us and draggin' us home in handcuffs."

TC grinned that awful grin he had and said, almost inaudibly. "Yeah, OK. But I think we gotta get there before sun up.."

Grease dripped from the cheeseburger he held in his hand. My own hamburger was more like a water soaked sponge than a sandwich. I noticed the huge grease stain that had begun to spread across the front seat between TC and I, where a wrapper filled with French fries sat. In the backseat Tom and Turtle were arguing about one thing or another as they woofed down Hostess Twinkies, Cupcakes and Pepsi.

The acne thing is never going to get better I thought.

Suddenly, Turtle asked in a voice that was a near shout, "So, wht the hell do we do if find spacemen ?"

"Beat hell out of 'em" TC said before I could even think of an answer to Turtles query.

Tom asked if we should call home. Just to let our families know where we are. "I don't think so" I said.

Tom mumbled something and TC exploded, "What the hell ya wanna call for ? You're just gonna cause trouble ! They don't know and don't give a damn where we are ! Why stir things up ?"

A minute or two of silence. The air in the old car had begun to grow thick. Then I looked at TC and asked, " We catch a spaceman, that gonna get you somewhere with that girl in the History class ?"

Everyone burst into laughter. TC, a huge grin on his face nearly shouted, "Damn right ! Why else do you think I'd do someting like this !"

I thought of a girl I had begun to think of as someone I was in love with. Her eyes, I thought, the soft green that they were, had stolen my soul. I wondered if she would ever go out with me. As 8th graders we had dated. Dated ? What the hell does that mean? I walked her home from a few dances. I don't think I had ever even held her hand, much less kissed her.

Turtle wanted to know if there was a place we could stop. "I gotta pee", he said. "And I sure could go for a snack and another Pepsi."

Tom, who somehow looked frightened, added, "Yeah, and maybe we should call home in case anybody is lookin' for us."

Just then we began crossing the Indiana/Michigan border. TC had begun yelling at the top of his lungs. Calling Turtle and Tom whiners. I glanced out the car window into the blackness. Like being in a bottle of ink, I thought. Occasionally a the light of some farmhouse or barn, well off in the distance could be seen flickering far across the dark fields where cornstalks had once grown tall before being mowed down.

I was getting tired. Yet, I forced myself to stay awake, feeling an obligation to keep TC company as he drove through the night. I had begun to nod, pulling my head up up each time my chin dropped to my chest. I closed my eyes for what seemed to be only seconds when I heard TC in that Oh no, there's trouble voice. "Damn !"

Instinctively, I looked over my shoulder. Coming down on us was a bright red flashing light. The Police. We're cooked, I thought. May as well put a fork in us, we're done.

TC looked at me with that panicked expression of an animal that doesn't know if it should run or hold it's ground and fight. "Should I try to out run him ?"

"Don't be crazy !" I shouted. "Pull over and let's just take the heat if we have to."

The tired old vehicle slowed and then with a bump and roll pulled off of tghe road and on to the shoulder. The patrol car was behind us now Glancing over my shoulder I could see the Trooper approaching our car, flashlight in his hand, walking slowly, methodically toward us.

The Trooper came to the drivers side door and as he raised tghe flahlight, the interior of our old Ford was flooded with bright light. I had never before or since been under a light so bright.

The Trooper leaned his face into the interior of the car. I'm sure the others felt the same way I did. I believed that he was looking right into my eyes, with eyes of his own that pierced like no eyes I had ever seen. Tom started coughing his nervous cough and Turtle said, as he had so often whenever we got caught doing whatever, "I'm gettin' a bellyache."

TC, in the brash manner that was so much a part of him, smiled and said, "Mornin' Officer. What's goin' on ?"

The Troopers penetrating eyes drilled each one of us. I've dealt with the Police before, but as I looked at those dark, emotionless eyes, my skin crawled. Hair on the back of my neck had begun to stand up.

The Trooper, with a look on his face that appeared to be suppressing a grin, smiled a half smile and said, "I see you're not from Michigan. You boys come to lookf for spacemen ?"

How did he know ?