Crimson Highway by David Wickenhauser (brene brown rising strong TXT) 📗

had called his company, and they had sent someone out to repair his airlines and deliver his load. Then, they had stored his truck in the company’s Portland yard.

“What about your uncle? How did you get away from him?” Hugh asked. The last he remembered, her uncle was just about to wield the killing blow against him.

“He won’t bother us … ever again,” Jenny said. “I took care of it. I’ll tell you about it later.”

“And, you’re OK?” Hugh asked her again.

“I’m fine. Just some bruises, mostly from taking that tumble off of the trailer roof. But, you caught me.”

“I remember that,” Hugh said. “What on earth were you doing up there anyway?”

“Once I figured that you’d had your chance to try to stop the truck, but it hadn’t happened, I decided to climb up to see if I could help.”

“That was crazy of you,” Hugh said, and added, “but, thanks, you saved my life. Again.”

“So, how do you feel?” Jenny asked.

“It’s hard to tell,” Hugh said. “I just feel like one big throbbing pain right now.”

“Everywhere?” Jenny asked, coyly.

“There might be a couple of places that don’t hurt,” Hugh said.

Jenny bent down, and kissed him gently on the lips. “How about there?” she asked.

“Needs just a tad more medicine,” he replied.

Jenny kissed him again, longer and harder.

“It’s feeling much, much better now,” Hugh said, but barely finished that last as he drifted off to much-needed, healing sleep.

Throughout the week of his bed-ridden recuperation, Hugh had a constant flow of visitors—much of the time it was Jenny, who came by often to check up on him.

One day, with Jenny sitting on the bed beside him, Hugh broached the issue that had been revealed to him during his horseback outing.

“Jenny?” he asked, “have you ever thought about God?”

Jenny pondered that for a moment. Then, she said, “Actually, I have been thinking about Him a lot lately.”

“How so?” Hugh asked.

“Well, I’ve gone to church with your family a couple of times, and I felt … different there, and afterwards. Don’t ask me to explain, because I don’t think I can.

“Also, being here with your family, and seeing how they live their lives, has made me think there must be something different about them. Different than how I was raised. Some reason. You know what I mean?”

“Yes, I think I understand what you are saying,” Hugh replied.

“So, yes, I’ve been thinking about God, and my relationship with Him. Why do you ask?” she asked him.

Hugh told her about what he believed God had revealed to him while he was up in the hills, and asked her if she’d like to know more about getting to know God.

 “I’ll think about it Hugh. Give me a little time, OK?”

“Sure, sweetie, just think about it. Or, you can talk to my mom about it, too.”

An extremely pleasant surprise greeted Hugh one afternoon as he awoke from having dozed off.

He first saw Jenny, who told him that he had a visitor. Then he saw someone move into his field of vision. It took his mind a moment to focus, and to put the person in context, and then recognition came to him.

“Hey, old man. How’s it going?” Hugh exclaimed, pleased beyond words to see his old friend James standing there.

“I think I’m doing better than you are, kid. I hear that somebody finally took the martial arts guy down,” James said.

“Cold-cocked me from behind,” Hugh said. “It took Jenny here to save my life.”

“Yeah, she’s been telling me all about it. Surely she can’t be the same one you were complaining about the first time you told me about your hitchhiker. This one is quite a gal. You never told me just how beautiful she was,” James remarked.

“Hey, James, don’t you be making a play for her. She’s mine,” Hugh admonished James, only half joking.

“Don’t worry,” James said. “But, if I was twenty years younger I might be wanting to fight you for her.”

“You keep talking like that and I might just have to come up off my deathbed and whack you up alongside your head with my bed pan,” Hugh replied.

“Hey, guys. I’m right here, you know. You can stop talking about me like I’m some kind of trade item,” Jenny remarked. And then she added, “And, besides. I wouldn’t mind being fought over between you and James. You didn’t tell me what a cutie he is.”

“I don’t normally think of my guy friends as being cute,” Hugh replied.

“Well, he is. He’s like a big teddy bear that you just want to hug,” she said pinching James on the cheek.

“That’s it!” James exclaimed. “It’s time somebody slipped some poison into your coffee, buddy.”

They all got a good laugh at that.

“By the way,” James said, “after Jenny called me to tell me what had happened, I got a load to Portland. I located your truck, got the window repaired, and even the bumper, and drove it over here for you. All of your stuff inside is still there, and OK.”

“Hey thanks, pal. That takes a load off. I really appreciate it,” Hugh said.

“No problem, kid. That’s what friends are for,” James replied.

Then Jenny said she had another big surprise for Hugh.

“You’re famous,” she said. “That hijacking has been all over the news. They’re making a big sensation out of it—climbing out of the back doors of a moving trailer, crawling along on the trailer roof, stopping the speeding truck by yanking and cutting the airlines.

“Then, once they learned about all of the other hijackings, and how you single-handedly fought off a whole hijacking ring, you are suddenly the most famous truck driver in America right now.”

“Yeah, that and a dollar will buy me a cup of coffee,” Hugh remarked.