Page 35 of Starved Until Sunset

“Think you could stop the truck for a minute?” Cody said.

“Oh, sure.” Spiffy brought the truck to a stop with a squeal of brakes.

“What the fuck?” Cody whispered, glancing back at Demetrius.

“That was pretty weird.”

Spiffy leaned out of the window and smiled down at them. “Hey, guys.”

“Yeah, you said that,” Cody said. “John the…” He stopped himself just in time, and Demetrius grinned. Cody cleared his throat and tried again. “John radioed and told us to come out here and help you guys finish pothole patching, no matter how long it took.”

“Yeah? Good. You can take over,” Shrieky Pete said from his slouched position. “Fucking asphalt burns and stinks like brimstone.”

“So, I don’t think we’re supposed to, you know, take over,” Demetrius said. “We’re supposed to work as a team to get it done.”

“Oh, cool. Yeah, that would be cool. Do you wanna drive or something?” Spiffy said.

Cody stared up at Spiffy in silence, then said in a very blunt, direct tone, “Are you guys stoned?”

“What?” Spiffy pulled his head back, and in the sunlight hitting his face, Demetrius could see his pupils were much wider than they should have been.

Good God.

“No, we’re not stoned,” Shrieky Pete shouted from the other side of the truck. “We’re worn down from working these shit ass jobs for so long.”

“Okay, great. Tell you what we’re going to do.” Cody stepped closer to the truck and Spiffy smiled down at him. “Demmy and I will shovel half of the asphalt from your truck into ours. After that, we’ll drive ahead to the end of the county line and turn around and head back in this direction. You guys continue the direction you’re already heading, and we’ll meet in the middle. It shouldn’t take us very long, it’s only about five miles.”

Five miles sounded pretty long to Demetrius, but he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Yeah, okay. Sure. What should I do?” Spiffy said.

“Just sit tight and let me turn our truck around and back it up. Okay?”

“Yeah, sounds good. Okay.”

Cody started back toward their truck and Demetrius followed.

“That was a very diplomatic solution,” Demetrius said.

“Fucking stoners. I knew they were out here getting high all the time,” Cody said with a snarl. “I should report them.”

“But then who would slowly drive city trucks all around town?”

Cody snorted. “Right.”

It didn’t take as long as Demetrius had anticipated for them to get their truck backed up close to the other one. Spiffy and Pete actually stepped out and helped shovel a good portion of the asphalt between the trucks. Pete had been right about the heat and smell of the stuff. Demetrius had a feeling it would take a couple of showers to get the smell out of his hair and off his skin. He might have to just burn his outfit and start from scratch.

When they’d finished, Cody turned the truck around again and Spiffy shook Demetrius’s hand.

“Thanks a lot for the help, Demetrius.”

“You’re welcome. We’re glad to help. You guys keep working in the direction you’re heading and we’ll meet you in the middle.”

Or right back there at the same spot, because they wouldn’t do another lick of work.

Cody bitched about them and their shitty jobs as he drove along the heavily pitted and potholed road. At the county line sign, he managed a three point turn and headed back in the other direction.

“You’re getting good at turning this truck around.”