Walking A Tightrope Over The Ohio River(pg. 3)

    After a dull Sunday afternoon of nothing, my ride finally showed up, Stingray had the coolest van in Kentucky, it had one marvelous customized paint job on the side panels with psychedelic purple that blended in with teal and blue, and his slogan that read over the teardrop-window: Cents and $$'s(Sense & Dollars). I jumped in the van and somebody had already taken the passenger's seat, so I flopped in the bucket seat in the back which was literally like sitting in a lazy boy recliner, and I heard immediately Journey's new album playing in Stingray's brand new Pioneer cassette stereo. Stingray turned the van around like Richard Petty and he was a great driver and he was one of the very few people for whom I could truly trust with my life enough that I could fall off to sleep and never worry about a thing. 
     " Hey Little Joe, this is Seager and Spencer," Stingray said introducing me to these complete strangers. 
     "Hey, what's up?" I said real quick like some idiot who was fishing for words without a fishing pole.
     Seager and Spencer were from Raywick and they both went to school with Stingray, and they all grew up together and knew each other's weird little idiosyncrasies. They all were unique and would expose all their peculiarities in due time, especially when you're all living together in a hotel room in some drifter's town outside the comfort of your own town. 
     "Hey, Spencer how long you been working on this bridge?" I studdered out trying to make a connection and a new friend.
     "Oh, 'bout 6 months," Spencer said with a deep country twangy voice.
     "Cool, so you're still a little green too?" I replied back.
     "I know how to keep away from the big shots and always act busy," he said laughing that even drew a chuckle from me.
     I then withdrew the conversation and sat back in the bucket seat and watched city after city's bucolic setting pass by like a passenger on a train. I always loved the small towns outside the big cities because they offered a more realistic chance for a small town boy like myself to become that dreamy somebody other than a yokel I projected. 

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