Lebanon, Kansas –
Saturday Morning, March 18, 1989
The sun crested the plains that surrounded
Lebanon. The only activity at this Saturday hour was the newspaper boy who
pedaled his bike from house to house and tossed the morning edition. The RV
door opened, and Jessie stepped to the pavement. Stretching out, she was
dressed in hot-pink cut-off shorts, the frayed ends gracing her taut thighs. A
light blue denim shirt with pearl buttons was blowsy tucked in and open to her
sternum to show off but not reveal too much. A white belt with silver western
buckle accentuated her hips. Half a dozen brightly colored braided bracelets
adorned her wrists and rope sandals showed off her petite feet. Kendra and
Irene stirred inside the RV with finishing touches for the road trip about to
begin.
The rumble of an engine broke the early morning
silence. Metallic blue flashed into view at the intersection down the street.
The car rocketed into a screeching slide as it took the corner at a right angle
and stopped. Its jacked up rear nosed the broad white stripe of the hood as
rear tires smoked a noxious cloud of burning rubber as the driver gunned the
engine. The squeal laid dual black stripes as it accelerated down the lazy
lane. A final gun of the accelerator leveled the sports car as it glided to a
stop at the end of the driveway.
“Whoo-who!” Jessie tossed her long brown hair
across her shoulders as she walked up to the tinted glass that hid it’s
interior. The window rolled down and Bobby’s white-toothed smile gleamed at the
western beauty.
Kendra and Irene busted out of the RV amazed
about the noisy commotion. Jessie leaned through the window to plant a kiss.
“What’s this about?” Kendra said shaking her
head.
“Thought it a bit cramped in the RV, so I
brought my ride,” Jessie said over her shoulder, laughing then kissing Bobby
again. She turned to face the girls. “We’ll follow you down.”
“You mean, you invited your boyfriend and we’re
the third wheel?” Kendra said exasperated.
“Third and fourth wheel,” Irene said with a
sullen look.
“Cheer up girls, this trip will be full of
surprises.” Jessie looked at Bobby with a knowing grin.
The girls turned as they heard the front door of
the house open. Ken stepped out with Kendra’s mom, Alice, close behind.
“Sounded like the warm up for the Daytona,” Ken
said, perplexed that a stock car Camaro was idling with a low rumble at the end
of the drive.
“We’ll need some wheels once we get there,”
Jessie quickly chimed in to break the news. “Bobby and I will tag along behind.
You don’t mind do you?” Jessie had a way of making everything seem all right.
“Not at all,” Ken said. “I’ll have someone to
talk cars with.”
“Does your mom know about Bobby?” Alice said as
she took Jessie aside. What Mammie don’t
know won’t hurt me, Jessie thought. “Does it matter since we have a
chaperone? Just the boys along for the ride
. . . ” Jessie and Alice engaged in a private conversation while Ken and
Bobby circled his car. Bobby explained all he’d done to soup it up. Kendra and
Irene stood by the RV still miffed that Jessie had her boyfriend.
“If I would’ve known, I would’ve asked Tommy to
come,” Kendra said to Irene.
“My mom would kill me— ” Irene said.
“Hey, let’s hit the road,” Jessie chimed.
Alice shook her head, but was smiling. It hadn’t
been that long since she was a teenager.
v v v
The RV cruised down the two-lane highway leaving
the Lebanon crossroad behind. Open grassy plains for as far as the eye could
see were split in two by the gray asphalt bleached by the sun. Kendra and Irene
faced each other at the dinette table with Alice reclined on the adjacent
couch.
“It’s just not fair, mom.” Kendra slumped
against the window. The life of the party is making it with her boyfriend,
probably banging out the tunes.”
Ken flipped a switch and the clang of a guitar
announced a hit that ruled Billboards Top 100. The well-known beat of the drum
and cymbal perked the girls up. Irene looked out the window as she nodded to
the beat. “We’ll have our own party, we don’t need— What’s that cloud of dust
rising from the grass?” Kendra sat up and looked over her shoulder. “It’s
moving across the field . . .” They both watched as the RV approached the
lengthening train of billowing dust.
“It’s just a gravel road,” Kendra said as they
passed by it. She quickly did a double take. “Huh? What’s he doing out here?”
Kendra scrambled to the back and pulled back the shades of the rear window. A
white with black hood Mustang turned on the highway in their direction. Bobby’s
Camaro tagged close behind them as the Mustang accelerated to close the gap.
Irene plopped her knees on the cushion and peered with Kendra, smiles of
recognition beamed as they turned to each other.
“Donny!”
“Tommy!”
They hugged each other as Alice leaned against
the doorway shaking her head with a smile that showed she recalled her own wild
times in high school. “What have I gotten myself into?”
v v v
Copyright 2017 © Jeff Cambridge
Excerpt from
PURSUIT, a novel by Jeff Cambridge, a writer of transformational fiction with real
characters will real-life tell stories that change lives as they transform.
This is a
pre-published scene.
To read the
scenes sequentially, begin with
“PURSUIT: A
Novel – Prologue”
You will find
the previous episodes in the monthly archives. Click on them and enjoy.
Your comments
are welcomed and appreciated. Simply check one of the reaction boxes below,
write a comment, or email me at bycambridge@gmail.com.
This novel is a
work of fiction. Any references to real events, businesses, organizations, and
locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and
authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.
v v v
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