It was late, a little past twelve, with still more than an hour to go before I'd get home. I was tired. It'd been a long day to start with and then adding several hours of driving and the hockey game had really pushed my limits. The interstate was practically deserted. A few trucks and an occasional car. It's amazing how deserted a normally busy interstate could be once it pushed out into the rural areas.
I saw the headlights of a car coming up quickly behind me, move over and slide by at least ten miles an hour faster than I was going. I could see in the dash lights of the car two female heads in the front seat, both actively bobbing and bouncing to some beat playing on their stereo. Even at seventy miles an hour I could make out the deep bass beat as they passed me. They slid back into the right lane ahead of me and in my headlights I could tell that there were actually three heads in the car, two in the front and another in the back, tilted back and resting or sleeping. Their tail lights pulled away ahead of me, stretching the few car lengths to easily a quarter mile over the next few minutes.
I smelled the odor and immediately checked my gauges. It was coolant. I knew that smell from many years of driving less than reliable cars. Now at fifty I could afford to drive new cars, and rarely owned one any more past about seventy thousand miles, a far cry from what I used to consider "acceptable". My gauges looked fine so I assumed that the smell was coming from outside and would soon pass. The first mile ticked away and I could still smell it, then the second, and finally a third. I was starting to think that maybe I needed to pull over and check when I saw brake lights ahead of me. I slowed down, unsure of what was happening ahead and saw the lights pull over to the side of the road.
I continued to slow and as I approached I could see a column of smoke or steam rising in the headlights of the car on the side. "Geez," I muttered, realizing it was the car with the young women in it. I sighed and pressed the brake harder, sliding onto the shoulder and rolling up behind the now stopped car. I saw the driver, a young woman in a very short and very fancy dress and high heels get out and walk around to the front of the car and lift the hood. A mushroom cloud of steam poured out from under, making her jump aside in the headlights.
If it was one of my daughters stranded late at night I'd want some nice gentleman to stop and help. Not some creepaziod stalker or serial killer, but someone safe and respectable. So if I kept going there was no telling what the next car that stopped would bring. Surely not the highway patrol at this hour. I got out, wondering how I was going to convince these young women that I wasn't going to be their problem.
"Hey. Looks like trouble," I said long before I got to the front of their car. The driver looked back at me warily as I approached. I looked at the engine compartment, and leaned in as she stepped back. It was obvious that the lower radiator hose had split and the coolant was leaking out onto the pavement below. "This isn't going anywhere. You have triple A or something?"
"I have towing on my insurance," she said quietly, still eyeing me warily.
"Well. Better call a towing service then. If you want we can call the highway patrol or I can wait with you. Kinda lonely out here for young women alone."
"We can defend ourselves," she said defiantly.
I chuckled. "I'll give you marks for bravery. But the reality is that there isn't any place in that very good looking dress to hide anything more substantial than a peashooter. So, if you don't want me stay, that's fine. If you do, that's fine too."
"I'm sorry. It's just that you never know what kind of crazy might stop on the highway like this. Especially this late at night."
"I agree. Which is why I always carry. There's a nine mil in the glovebox of my car if you wanna be sure I don't try to take advantage."
"You'd give me your gun?"
"Give you? No. But tell you where it is so if I try something you have a reasonable chance to get to it and stop me. Yeah. I'd do that."
"Kinda trusting, isn't it?" she said looking a little sideways at me.
"Not really. Just evens the odds. I still have one of my own," I chuckled. "Now if you wanna call a tow truck, I'll be in my car," I said as I walked away, leaving her standing in front of her car, her friend in the front seat looking out the windows at me.
I leaned my seat back a bit and settled in, expecting it to be at least an hour before a tow truck got here. I closed my eyes, leaving the engine running to keep the dropping temperatures at bay.
I heard the passenger side car door open and opened my eyes to look over at the young woman leaning down and looking in at me. "Um. I called a tow truck, but it'll be a while. It's getting kinda chilly. Do you mind if we sit in your car and stay warm?"
"Sure. Help yourself," I answered.
"He said okay!" she called back to her car, two more equally young women, similarly dressed, climbed from their car and walked quickly back to mine. They opened the passenger side doors and quickly slid into my SUV, two climbing into the back bucket seats and the driver of the car into the front passenger side. Now in the light I could tell that she was maybe thirty at most, easily twenty years my junior, slender, well built, and dressed for a party in a very tight fitting sequined dress.
"So. My name is Mary, this is Tabitha and Simone," she said motioning to a similarly built brunette wearing a silver form fitting dress, and a young woman of color wearing a cream-colored dress that contrasted with her coffee brown skin.
"Hi. My name is James. So what are you three doing out here so late dressed to the nine's?"
"Coming back from a friend's bachelorette party. You?"
"Hockey game. Got to watch the Blues wipe the ice with the Canadiens."
"Sports. Not my favorite thing."
"Yeah. Well. This was my first hockey game. Never been to one before."
"Well, then I guess we're lucky you did."
"I guess so. Bachelorette party? Do they really have strippers and such at those?"
"Some. Not this one. Just a lot of sexy toys for gag gifts and a lot of drinking and dancing."
"Sounds like an interesting time," I said as I settled back into my seat again. "How long did that tow truck say?"
"He didn't. Just that he'd be here as fast as he could."
"Alright then. I guess we wait."
"What then?"
"Well. The tow truck driver can probably take you back into town," I suggested.
"In town? I don't have anywhere to go in St. Louis. I live the other way!"
"He can probably take you, if it's not too far. They charge by the mile for towing."
"You're going the right way. Could you drop us off at my house?"
"Seriously?"
