Eyes of the Predator (7 page)

“Yes, sir, I will,” she said
softly, and smiled back at him. Her words sounded tired as if there wasn’t
anything this old farmer could tell her about men or trouble or how they could
combine together to create misery.

 “Thanks for the ride.”

She walked slowly away from the
truck into the I-95 Diner, located coincidentally, at the entrance ramp to
I-95. The old farmer watched her in the mirror. ‘Damn,’ he thought, reaching
the limits of his ability to articulate the concern he felt for the girl and
the guilt at leaving her at the diner in the middle of the night. Just damn. He
wished there was something to do for her. There wasn’t. He knew it and she knew
it. He had his own troubles.

Besides, who was he to tell her
to stop and go home? Or maybe get the sheriff involved who would just end up
making her go home. Anyway, she looked like she could be old enough to go off
on her own if she wanted. Maybe.

 He knew it could be a far
sight worse at home than it was on the road, and maybe she’d end up somewhere
happier. Maybe. That was as far as his thinking would take him. He was a simple
man with no solutions to complicated problems.

‘Goddammit,’ he thought a final
time. Then, shaking his head and not knowing what else to do, he moved slowly
out of the parking lot. The load of tomatoes in the truck bed had to be to
market in the morning. The truck engine was missing on two cylinders, and the
transmission missed a gear as he tried to accelerate onto the interstate. The
girl faded in the mirror as his mind moved back to his own problems, coaxing
the old truck down the highway.

Lyn turned towards the diner. The
ride from Judges Creek, Georgia, her home up to this night, had only taken a
couple of hours once she had found the ride with the old man. It seemed like
much longer, and her body was bone tired.

A large moth flopped loudly
against the lighted I-95 Diner window. It beat itself over and over against the
window causing a  shiver to crawl up her back. She wasn’t afraid of bugs,
and it wasn’t the insect that caused this reaction. The moth was helpless and
hopeless. It would never reach the light. It was the futility of its efforts
that made her shudder. Endlessly, flopping and beating its powdery wings
against the glass until it died.

Walking through the glass door,
she was assaulted by the odors of coffee and steak and eggs, thick in the close
air. For a moment, she touched the two hundred and fifty-two dollars in her
pocket. Her mother had shoved two hundred of it into her hand as she shoved Lyn
out of the door. It had taken Lyn six months to save the balance. She
considered spending some of it on a meal, but then thought better of it. Hungry
as she was, she had just left and the money had to get her a long way. She
would eat when she absolutely had to. She could go a long time without food.
Been doing it most of her life as her slight frame and somewhat hollow cheeks
bore testimony. She had always been thought of by the local boys as a pretty
girl, but they had nothing to compare her with except the other local girls,
all from families that struggled to get by. She had taken their advances as
nothing more than boys on the rut, aching to plant their thing somewhere. After
a few beers on a Friday night, they weren’t all that particular.

There were times when feeling the
heat herself, she would go with one of them. But she saved it mostly. Making
those few times as special as they could be in the bed of some beat up truck.
She didn’t blame the boys for being on the prowl for tail all the time.

What else was there to do? It did
pass the time, and for a few moments, it could even make you feel that there
was more. It could make you feel that you and this young, hard-bodied boy could
make a life far away from the pain.

But then she knew that it could
never be that way with any of the local boys. They were all like their daddies.
They had all been born in Pickham County, and they would all die in Pickham
County. They couldn’t see beyond it, or didn’t want to. Maybe they didn’t need
to. Maybe they were happy. She guessed they were. Why not? Poor as they were,
they did not live in homes with parents who hated them.

 Still she knew she was
pretty, and she knew how to be sweet. She was going to let that take her as far
as it could. She didn’t intend to let any man have his way with her, but she
would let it go to the point that he would be willing to get her down the road
a piece.

She thought of the running away
dream she and Sam had shared. He had made his escape only to return to the
sandy dirt in a churchyard in Judges Creek. Lyn pushed that thought away. She
was not coming back. The old house and its pain were behind her. She would have
to figure out what was ahead. She would get word to Mama and send for her when
she could.

A plump woman in an apron behind
the counter smiled at her. Her long, graying hair was pulled up, and there were
little beads of sweat along her hairline attesting to the closeness of the
night, even inside the air-conditioned building.

“How ya doin’. Why don’t you set
right here at the counter.”

“Thanks,” Lyn sighed slightly as
she sat on the swivel stool dropping the small canvas bag she carried on the
floor.

“What can I get you?” The smiling
waitress looked closely at her, making Lyn uncomfortable.

“Just some water, ma’am, thanks.”

While the waitress moved off, she
looked around trying to be discreet, but wanting to see who there might be to
give her the next ride up the road. It was two in the morning, but a
twenty-four hour diner on the interstate like this would always have someone
moving in her general direction. North.

She avoided eye contact
with the few patrons. A couple of young men, rough looking, were huddled at a
table next to the window. They looked at her occasionally, and their glances
made her uncomfortable.

A lone man, probably a trucker,
sat at a booth under the window. He was large and heavy, wearing a tee shirt,
but his face didn’t look unkind. It was even a little grandfatherly. She had
never known either of her grandfathers, but this could have been one of them.
He had the look of a family man.

Loud talking at the other end of
the counter caught her attention. A middle-aged couple was arguing. It wasn’t
clear what about. It seemed plain that they were both drinking. Lyn gave them
another glance. If she got a ride with them, having another woman there could
be a help. The arguing got louder, and the man raised his fist as if to strike
the woman who raised her hand in threatened retaliation.

“Just do it, you piece of shit.
Just do it. I’ll have you in jail!” The drunk woman’s voice shrieked at the
man, who lowered his fist.

The waitress walked over to them,
two cups of coffee in her plump hands and a stern look on her face.

“That’ll be enough of that, or
you can get out. Y’all just sit here and drink your coffee and let things
settle. You hear?” Her voice was firm, and there was no doubt that she had run
more than a few drunks, male and female, out of the diner.

Lyn was startled at the touch of
a hairy arm brushing up against her bare arm.

The large truck driver man was
sitting on the stool beside her. He leaned over close and smiled.

“How ya doin’ tonight, sweet
thing?” The man’s voice was thick and deep, like the black oil that leaked up
through the ground under Daddy’s tractor in the shed. On a hot day, you could
smell the oil, pungent and thick, wafting out of the shed. This man’s voice
reminded her of the black oil and thick smell.

Her mouth opened but she couldn’t
think what to say. It was clear that he was not the grandfatherly type she had
thought him to be at first glance. Her confidence sagged, and she knew that she
must have looked like a scared little girl. The look in the man’s eye told her
that that was what he wanted, and it scared her even more.

“Hey, hon! Sorry I got distracted
by them two drunks; had to take care of business ya know.” The plump waitress
was back in front of her with a coffeepot and cup. “I sure am glad you stopped
by to see your ‘Auntie Kathy’.”

The waitress looked at the big
man and said curtly, “Henry, I’m gonna visit with my niece here so you go on
back over to your booth and eat your eggs and leave us be.” She just looked at
him with no expression on her face at all, and that said it all. The man stood
up, shrugged, and ambled over to the booth and sat down. He didn’t look in
their direction again.

When he was gone, the waitress
looked at her and said simply, “I’m Kathy. Guess you heard that. You need a
ride, right?”

Lyn just looked at her and nodded.
She was close to tears and trying hard not to show it. The journey, her escape,
had just started. She wasn’t even out of Pickham County. How could she be in
trouble already? It was too much. She felt her lip start to tremble and her
shoulders start to shake.

Kathy put her plump hand out and
settled it gently and solidly on her arm. It felt cool and reassuring.

“There now,” Kathy said softly.
“You’re alright now. You don’t want to let all them see you cry. You’ll be
needing them tears later maybe, but not now.

“Trust me, you don’t want no ride
with that Henry,” she continued. “He comes by here few times a month, and he
gives me the creeps. He’s not good.”

Lyn managed to squeak out through
her tight throat, “You didn’t seem too worried by him.”

“Me?” Kathy smiled. “I ain’t
never met the man yet that I’m gonna let have the satisfaction of knowin’ he
scared me. Just look ‘em in the eye, and they usually back down. Them big tubs
like Henry don’t know what to do when you stand up to them. They ain’t used to it.”

She chuckled in a superior way at
her own knowledge about men and their ways.

“Of course, the good ones ain’t
trying to scare you. Most of them are just tryin’ to get over bein’ scared
before they talk to you. Just have to learn the difference.” Kathy chuckled
again.

She continued, “Now, you’re gonna
set here a bit, and I’m gonna get you a ride. Which way you headed?”

“North, Savannah I guess. Then
further. Canada if I can get there,” she replied a little embarrassed at how
silly it must have sounded.

“Canada, huh? Long ways from
here.” Kathy shook her head and put her hand on Lyn’s.

“I know,” Lyn looked her steadily
in the eye. “That’s why I’m going.”

“Okay. Good. You see them two
boys over there?” Kathy nodded towards the two rough looking young men seated
at the window table. They saw her nod in their direction and stared down at
their plates, shoveling food into their mouths as fast as they could. Clearly,
they were as intimidated by the plump waitress as was Henry.

“Those boys are headed to just outside
of Savannah,” she continued. “They can get you that far. Then you can take I-16
over to Atlanta and go north from there, or head north up the coast on I-95.
Me, I’d take the Atlanta road. Goin’ up 95 takes you through all them big
cities. Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Boston. Different people up there.
I’d stick to the smaller places. Go up through Tennessee and Kentucky,
that-a-way. ”

“But,” Lyn started “they kind of
scare me, they looked at me…”

Kathy laughed outright this time,
“Them boys? That’s Cy and Clay Purcell. They work construction in Savannah and
come home for the weekends. They’re headed back to the city this morning, back
to work.

“If they looked at you it was
‘cause they ain’t seen a girl pretty as you. Trust me, they come from Pritchard,
down on the Florida line. Prettiest girl there gets milked every morning before
sunup.” Kathy paused to give a deep-throated laugh at her own coarse joke. “No,
they’re good boys. They’ll get you that far safe and sound.”

Before Lyn could say anything
else, Kathy called out, “Cy! Clay! Come over here for a minute.”

The two stood up and walked over
to the counter. They were clearly flustered to be summoned by Kathy in the
presence of a girl. Lyn didn’t know why she had felt threatened by them a few
minutes ago. Maybe she wasn’t so smart and in control as she thought. Her
understanding of people, at least men, seemed to be lacking.

“Yes, ma’am,” one of the young
men said as they walked up.

Lyn could see that they were both
dressed in jeans, blue work shirts, and brown work boots. Though they were a
little threadbare and ragged, and their hair was a bit long and shaggy, they
were clean.

Kathy took immediate control,
“Boys, this is…” She looked at Lyn.

“I’m…uh, my name is Lyn”. She
thought of telling them she was from Judges Creek, but then thought better of
it. No need to let out too much. Never knew what Daddy would do when he found
her gone, and there was no sense in leaving a trail if she could avoid it.

Kathy continued, “This is Lyn.
She needs a ride up I-95 to Savannah, and I want you to take her. When you get
her there, you take her to the big truck stop on the west side of the city, and
you help her find another good, safe ride in the direction of wherever she’s
going. North she says. Okay?”

The ‘okay’ wasn’t really a
question about whether they were going to take her. It was more a confirmation
that they understood her instructions and would follow them to the letter.

The two young men muttered
simultaneously, “Yes, ma’am.” They were waiting, somewhat anxiously, to be
dismissed back to their table.

“Thanks, boys. Say hey to your
uncle for me when you see him,” she said smiling flirtatiously and touching her
pulled up hair a bit. “Now go back to your table and finish your coffee. Me and
Lyn are gonna talk for a spell and then you go. Right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They turned away, bumping into
each other as they tried to escape as quickly as possible to their table. The
younger one caught Lyn’s eye and smiled. She couldn’t help a small smile back,
but took it off her face as soon as she realized she had smiled.