Drivers Wanted (a novel) Read online

  He took a long pull on a Marlboro Light. He planned to quit cold turkey before he reached Philly in a few days. He knew he had the power to do it. He took another long drag and looked at it. Cigarettes, the last crutch he had, might be the hardest one to give up.

  He turned off a Dodger game that was muted on his TV. Then, for about the thousandth time, he reminisced about how his relationship with Marie started out fun, and ended so seriously.

  Chapter 5

  It was a memorable time for both of them. David met Marie Robinson the summer of 1986 at Allenby’s. It was a popular nightspot in downtown Philly that had an interesting dynamic, providing live jazz upstairs and a dance club with a DJ on the ground floor.

  David was twenty-six and employed at a downtown record store. He had become Ivan’s latest temporary roommate, sleeping on a sofa-bed in the living room. Ivan had just broken up again with his long-time girlfriend, Regina, who had been living there. The two old friends had come to Allenby’s in separate cars that night, hoping to hook-up with some party girls.

  Their appearance often drew a second glance because of their long, thick dreads and goatees which were not too common during a time when large afros and long hair on black men had come and gone. They saw themselves as musicians, urban Rastafarians, though they hadn’t had a paying music gig in a long while.

  Marie was a twenty-year-old senior at Temple University. She was with her eighteen-year-old sister Nicole who was a sophomore also attending Temple. Marie’s twenty-two-year-old college roommate, Cassandra Lawson, joined them. They had ventured to Allenby’s, an ‘over 21’ club, to try out Nicole’s new fake ID.

  The two sisters, originally from the suburbs of Harrisburg, had chosen the college because their father had earned his degree there. They both liked the rootsy, urban vibe when they visited the campus. Harrisburg was a little over ninety minutes from their campus, not too far and not too close.

  David noticed Marie after he saw her do a double-take looking his way across the crowded dance club. He stared in her direction and made eye contact again. She wasn’t as tall as the women he normally preferred, but he liked her slender figure and long, wavy black hair that framed her attractive, oval face. A ‘stone fox’ as he and all his friends would say.

  When she ventured by herself to the DJ booth, David walked right up to her. With all the Rico Suave` his voice could muster after two stiff drinks, he said the first thing that came to his mind.

  “Hi, my name is David. I think we should get together.”

  Simple, sincere, and to the point—a great pickup line, he thought.

  “Oh yeah, what makes you think that?” she said.

  Good answer, he thought, ball back in his court.

  “Because…well…just because,” David said, realizing his comeback was not great, but not letting it ruin his dashing, debonair smile, he hoped.

  The R&B/House song, You Know What I Need, began playing with its hypnotic bass driven groove.

  “Baby, you know, you know, just what I need

  Oh honey, it feels so good

  I swear that you know what I need

  And I swear it feels good…”

  He couldn’t remember what he said next. She later said she thought everything he said was corny, but she liked his smile and initiative and that’s all that mattered at the time. She didn’t drink much, and her second margarita had helped her drop her guard a little. When she heard he was a musician, her eyes widened with excitement.

  “Hey, wanna listen to a song I wrote?” he said, “I’d love to get your opinion. I gotta tape of it in my car, right across the street.”

  “Sure.”

  They passed by Cassandra who was dancing with someone and went over to where Nicole was standing. Marie introduced David to her sister who stood a few inches taller and looked just as pretty as her older sister. Both coeds were dressed in stylish tops, tight jeans and high heels, two gorgeous ladies by any man’s standards.

  “David’s a musician,” Marie said, “I’m going across the street to his car to listen to his music. Wanna join us?”

  David thought he noticed some type of secret message pass between the two.

  “No, I’m gonna wait here for Cassandra, you guys go ahead.” Nicole said.

  “Be right back,” Marie said, winking at her sister.

  “It feels, it feels, you-you you-know, it feels good” was still thumping on the club’s sound system. They walked a short way outside the club to his car, a huge Buick with a big dent in the right front fender and holes in the seats. They listened to David’s new composition “You Rescue Me.” It was home recorded on a multi-track cassette machine and mixed to a standard cassette. Ivan had done the lead vocal.

  “You rescue me and you help me see

  There’s beauty in the world

  You take me away like a holiday

  That’s why I need you, girl

  Over and over and over

  You---rescue me”

  David watched her reaction as the song played. She bobbed her head, and closed her eyes. She looked over at him and smiled a few times as well. David never took his eyes off of her; he thought she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever been with.

  “That song is great, I love it. You really wrote that?” she asked, after the song ended on an unexpected E Minor chord.

  They talked a little more and David knew she wouldn’t want to stay too long in a car with a virtual stranger. So he told her how much he loved her eyes and that led to an initial kiss on the lips, and then much to her surprise (she said later), a pretty intense make-out session. It was a great start to the best romantic relationship David ever had, and he had had more than a few. Marie had had only one past boyfriend.

  They had their first date the next evening at Winston’s Restaurant, a classy but affordable place for David’s small budget. The lights were low and the atmosphere quaint and cozy. He drove her back to her place and it ended with a romantic kiss.

  The second date occurred the following Sunday afternoon at The Philadelphia Zoo. They walked around the park holding hands, laughing and sometimes mocking the antics of the entertaining animals.

  Later, knowing Ivan would be away, they came back to David’s place. There, they made love and both sensed a committed relationship had materialized rather fast.

  When they weren’t together they talked for hours on the phone, never missing a day. Their connection was blissful and sexually charged and continued that way for two and a half months until they decided to find a place to share.

  Marie was impressed with his good looks, physique and height. She loved tall men. David was 6’2”. She felt he respected her and treated her like a lady and could easily make her laugh and look at life in a less serious, more carefree way.

  David thought she was gorgeous, classy and mature. She was obviously smart, starting college at sixteen before transferring to Temple on a full academic scholarship. And she liked his music.

  She had an acne problem which flared out of control at times, though she could hide it well with makeup. David thought it was an issue that made her seem more down to earth. He convinced her, to some extent, that he liked her better without makeup.

  He said things like, “When God passed out beauty, you received way too much. That’s why He gave you some blemishes.”

  David honestly felt that way, and that made her feel comfortable and desirable.

  It was a great start for two people wildly attracted to each other. However, they had a lot to learn about the challenges of a ‘live in’ relationship. They shacked up for only five months.

  The big breakup shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Marie was a serious straight ‘A’ student, planning to enroll in law school. She had objectives and goals that clashed with David’s ‘live for today’ slacker lifestyle.

  She grew to despise his cigarette and marijuana habits. Even though he didn’t smoke around her or in the place they shared, she still complained that his clothes, hair an
d breath reeked of the awful smell. It led to where she would always ask him to shower and brush his teeth before they made love.

  She also felt his love for smoking weed hurt his ambition. And his association with Ivan wasn’t leading to anything productive. Making it big in music was always talked about, but they never did anything to help make it happen. Overall, she felt David wasn’t measuring up to the standards she desired in social friends, let alone a “boyfriend.”

  David resented being shot down in the bedroom and the nit-picking complaints. They bickered to the point of not speaking and avoiding each other for days at a time.

  But the main catalyst for the breakup was Marie’s former dorm roommate and best-friend Cassandra Lawson. Cassandra was from Washington DC, not the exotic looker Marie was, but in her own right an attractive, talented, and bright young college girl. She always drew attention especially from men for her curvaceous body. She minored in music education and had a great singing voice.

  At first, Marie had encouraged Cassandra and David to get together for song collaboration. Later, it made her furious that Cassandra was getting along better with David than she was. David and Cassandra had written one song together, then began a new song at the time David and Marie were butting heads.

  Cassandra really liked David who she considered tall and handsome. She saw what she thought was an opportunity to make a stronger connection. One thing led to another, and Marie discovered they had had sex in the apartment.

  She didn’t catch them red-handed but knew it had happened after she came home from the library one Sunday afternoon. They were supposed to be collaborating on a song, but were working out a different tune she soon found out from looking at their guilty faces. David didn’t deny it and kept repeating he was sorry.

  “Get out! Both of you! I don’t want to see either one of you ever again as long as I live!” Marie had become hyper-hysterical. She was cursing, screaming and crying, as David scrambled to grab a few things while leaving, “Get the hell out, now! Now! NOW!”

  David knew he blew it big time. He felt he was still in love with Marie, but he knew with her, it was going to be the unpardonable sin.

  Cassandra tried to console David who was clearly more devastated by Marie‘s fury and anger. He quickly dismissed her many suggestions for meeting up again that night or anytime later.

  He had unfulfilled dreams of establishing a career in music, so he decided to move to Los Angeles and chase after success with a couple of songs he had written. Marie always said he didn’t have any ambition, so to show he did, three days after the big split, he drove to LaLa Land, The City of Angels.

  It was late February ’87 the air was crisp and cold, and his drive to L.A. was like therapy for his tattered emotions. The open road gave him time to think about his objectives and future like nothing had in the past.

  While driving in West Texas, the sky grew bigger and the vistas grander. This wasn’t the cramped concrete jungle Philly was. It lifted his mood to a serene level. When he drove into New Mexico and viewed the beautiful, enormous, red-colored mountains, he felt as if he had drifted to another planet.

  He exited the interstate and drove around a small town called Grants, which was an hour west of Albuquerque. The town looked like it was depressed economically. Storefronts looked to be long past any successful period, or closed for good. On its main street, cars drove slowly; no one appeared to have any sense of urgency, so different from the mad dash streets of Philly. To David, it had a desolate beauty of being a survivor. This town spoke to his emotions at the time. He felt even though he had been unsuccessful with love, he could survive and the sun would still shine on him.

  Instead of sleeping in his car another night, he decided to splurge on a cheap motel and take a long hot shower. It had been two and a half days since he left Philly, four days since his break-up with Marie.

  The night of the breakup, he put up no resistance to leaving. When Marie ordered him out, he agreed he’d pickup his stuff the next day. He stayed with his mother that night.

  When he went back to retrieve his belongings the next day, Marie left a note asking him to leave the key on the kitchen table. He did, along with a note saying, “I’m truly sorry for what I did. I still love you.”

  It remained the way David felt. He was ashamed of his actions, but in a twisted way was glad for the separation. It had been the hardest thing to look at Marie’s face and see the tears fall from her reddened eyes after the truth came out.

  What the hell was he thinking, giving into Cassandra’s advances? It happened so fast and so unexpectedly. Like any man, he appreciated an attractive woman ‘coming on’ to him. But in all his relationships in the past, he had never cheated. And he truly loved Marie.

  He always prided himself as someone who lived by the golden rule. ‘Treat others as you would like to be treated.’ He knew all too well he would’ve been devastated if Marie had cheated on him. She had every right in the world to be done with him for good.

  Cassandra had brought out the worst in him, but in all honesty, it was also the stupid games he’d been playing. Flirting with Cassandra whenever Marie was around to try and make her jealous. Excessive laughter and light touches on Cassandra’s arm for Marie to see and hear at the right moments. Silly childish games that backfired and helped destroy the one true love of his life.

  He didn’t seem to realize Cassandra liked him enough to sabotage her relationship with Marie. The two girls were supposed to be best friends. He never thought he could be so weak and stupid. His inability to say ‘no’ had reared its ugly head once again.

  At checkout time the next morning David left Grants, New Mexico feeling clean but not spotless, resigned to meet an unknown future in Los Angeles.

  What he found was his past had been waiting for him to address unresolved issues he needed time to correct. Once corrected, he would return and pursue a clear purpose for his life. David would find it would take five years and a child for this revelation to unfold.

  Chapter 6

  July 1993 ─ the Return

  On David’s cross-country return to Philly, he noticed more tractor-trailers on the interstates than when he had driven the opposite direction six years prior. Every other vehicle seemed to be a big rig. He had often thought he would like to drive tractor-trailers for a living, but weren't they hard to learn?

  He had never given it much serious thought until, while resting in his car at an Oklahoma truckstop, he saw an eighteen-wheeler pull up to a fuel island. A small woman no taller than 5' 4” climbed out and fueled up her truck. He thought, if a small little lady like her can operate a big rig, why can’t I? That woman truck driver would in effect change his future.

  He checked into a Motel 6 in Arkansas on his second day of traveling back to Philly. He carried in a few things from his car, one being the framed picture of his daughter, which he placed on the desk by the TV. He hadn’t had a cigarette since he left Los Angeles, and was feeling anxious.

  He turned on the TV and his thoughts turned negative. He had apprehensive feelings about what life would be like in Philly, and fear of not being accepted by Marie and his daughter. He decided to get a beer.

  “What’s a dry county?” he asked, when told he’d have to drive fifteen miles to another county to buy alcohol.

  God was making it difficult for him to backslide. He drove to the next county, found a liquor store, bought a quart of cheap beer and some cheap generic brand cigarettes (not his regular brand) and drove back to his motel room. He relaxed on the bed, turned on HBO, drank the beer and chained smoked the awful tasting cigarettes, chasing away the imagined demons that had followed him to Arkansas.

  He looked at the framed picture of his daughter and brought it back to his bed. He imagined what their conversations would be like in a few days. He thought about how his breath would smell if he was to have a conversation with her that moment and it ended the cravings for anymore beer or cigarettes for the rest of the night.

  In
the morning he left half the beer on the nightstand and crushed the remaining cigarettes into the toilet, one by one. He studied himself in the mirror and came to the conclusion that he had lost the second quarter, but not the game. He could make a comeback in the second half and vowed he would.

  ***

  He arrived at his mom’s home Sunday afternoon and Dorinda Hogan made her only child feel like the King of Philadelphia. She made him his favorite dinner: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese with four types of cheese, collard greens, cornbread, iced tea, and her exquisite lemon-meringue pie.

  His Aunt Wanda and teenage cousin Jasmine were there and he took that as an omen, because he could ask his aunt about Robert, his other cousin now living in North Carolina, who David knew was a truck driver.

  “Honey, call him right now. I talked to him earlier this morning. He should be at home,” Aunt Wanda said.

  After the call to Robert, he searched through the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Classified section. There, as Robert suggested, were jobs for truckers, specifically a company Robert recommended. They had the largest want ad.

  JT Grant

  Drivers Wanted

  Trucking Careers

  No Experience Necessary

  He called the 800 number for JT Grant home offices in Lakeland, Florida. He listened to a recording saying job recruiters worked Monday through Friday 8AM to 8PM Eastern Time. David planned to call the first thing Monday morning.

  Later that evening, after the fabulous welcome home dinner, he practiced and rehearsed what he wanted to say to Marie. He wanted her to know he had stopped smoking and had a suggestion on where they could meet.