A Broken Promise - Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Instead of arresting him, the officer gave him a ride to the patrol quarters in Bend, Oregon. The ride consisted mostly of the officer telling his life story on how he was "cool kid" back in the day. How one day he woke and he realized it was time to start thinking about the future. So he gave up his dream of being a musician and settled down and got a paying job. Our hitchhiker kept his contempt for the trooper inside his brain and only nodded in mock obilgatory fashion.

As soon as they arrived in Bend, the hitchhiker jumped out of the patrol car as fast as he could. With a quick glance back, he shot a "thanks for the ride" nod to the trooper.

"Hope you find what it is you're looking for out here." the officer said with a sincerity that guilted the man back to thinking of all his shortcomings in the social coterie category. He looked back again. This time taking a mental snapshot of the state trooper. He stored it away in his intangible photo album, in the deep recesses of his brain. The part where he was good person.

It was dawn when he found himself out the bus station in Bend. The residents were just waking to a new day. Readying themselves for what lay ahead them. Brewing their coffee. Putting on their makeup. Newspapers delivered to their front porch. A new day.

The station manager was just unlocking the glass doors as the man walked up. Like something out of the "Leave it Beaver" era, the manager opened the door, out of courtesy.

"Getting an early start, aren't you?" the manager asked the man.

"Yep."

"Where you heading to?" That question again. Even exhausted from staying up through the night, that question revived something in his heart. The unknowing of it was kindling on an flame that was almost extinguished. He was the salmon again. Swimming to a destination that he hadn't been in eons. A place where he had no conscious memory of. This wanderlust was a primordial bead of water, embedded in his brain.

"What's the first bus that leaves?" he asked the station manager.

"That would be the 9:20 to Albuquerque, New Mexico"

"One ticket to Albuquerque."