Hitchhikers

Halloween brings out the ghost stories, but it can also bring out the escaped murderer stories too. The man with the hook scraping the car roof or bumming a ride on the side of the road is a beloved trope, which Daddy once nearly fell victim to sometime in the 1980’s.

He was driving into town one night years ago in the pouring rain when he saw a lady walking down the road. He pulled over and asked if she needed a ride, and within a second he was taking her into town with him.

As they got to the outskirts of town, Daddy asked her where she needed to go.

She was evasive at first but eventually Daddy had to press her for an answer.

“Where do you need to go,” he asked.

“Just keep driving.” As soon as he finished saying, “No, I’m not going to drive all over town,” she stuck her hand in her pocket and said, “You better keep driving.” Daddy wasn’t sure if she was armed but figured it was better safe to assume she was, so he kept driving. The benefit of this endless drive was that it gave him time to strategize. This was long before cell phones or anything, so alerting someone of what was happening was going to take some creativity.

After a while he had his solution.

Patting his shirt pocket he said, “I’ll be dog, I’m out of cigarettes. You need anything?” As he pulled into a gas station she refused any snacks, so he went in to buy the cigarettes he didn’t smoke. Once he got inside, he simply asked the attendant for the phone and called the police.

It wasn’t long before she was sitting in the truck locking the door, thinking this had stalled her apprehension, until Daddy pulled the keys out of his pocket and headed them to the police officer.

Daddy never did find out if she was armed or what her intentions were that night, but he did learn that sometimes it’s best to let a weary traveler get rained on.