Do over part 2

Do Over -part 2

fiction
edward w pritchard

There's more to truck driving than driving from here to there and back. You have to keep the log and handwriting is important. The PUCO reviews the log and there are fines and the owner of the trucking company doesn't like that. I got to write the logs on the run to Montana because I have a lot better handwriting than Jake. Jake is my Grandfather, the truck driver. I am Ciana and I have been sick and can't go to school for 10 days. I am just getting over a contagious disease and can't be left home alone, at 11 years old. I am going on the truck with Jake, that's what I have to call him when we are on a run, this time to Montana. He always calls me Chene [ long e, long e] even at home.

Time is critical on the run. You log it and you don't burn it or waste it. Even though we can't burn time Jake wanted me to see the woodchuck's and it was interesting. They live in groups like humans and the place we went in Montana has about 400 of them in one large community. Jake says you can learn a lot about human behavior by watching them. He stops by to see the woodchucks now and then when he's out this way. He has been driving a truck for 48 years so I guess he has stopped here a lot.

Meals are the best time. Everyone knows Jake at the restaurants and truck stops and the drivers and even the waitress call me pretty girl, in a nice way. If anyone gets too personal Jake stops them. Jake is nice to me but he gets mad easy sometimes if he is threaten. He says he has to be that way when he is alone on the truck, which is most of the time. I always can order any thing I want and as much as I want. You have to be careful, not ordering too much because the waitresses make sure the drivers get a lot of food because they tip well. If you are an 11 year old girl you are special on the trips and you get even more food. Jake gives me money each day for my pay for keeping the log but I am expected to pay my own tips.

We sleep in the truck. It has plenty of room for two behind where we drive in a little box like enclosure. I call it a cave and Jake doesn't like that but he doesn't get mad and sometimes he calls himself a cave dweller after I slip and call the sleeping area a cave. Jake misses Grandma Denise. She used to travel with him a lot before she got cancer and died in just three months. Jake still drives but Mom says it's not the same for him.

I get to sleep in the back of the sleeping area up by the skylight. I open the skylight and watch the stars and moon. I can hear the animals all night and the birds wake me about by 4AM. I am never tired even though I am supposed to be sick and run down. Being on the truck with Jake is revitalizing for me.

Jake always walks completely around the truck before he gets into bed. He doesn't sleep well when I am with him. I know he worries about me when we are far out away from a truck stop and the other trucks when we sleep. Jake keeps a gun under his pillow and in two years when I am thirteen and a teenager he is going to teach me how to use it. Jake says you have to know how to use it for safety when you are out on the road alone.
end