Picture this... It was Friday night, 2 white guys and 1 black, driving a large moving truck slowly down the alleys in a bad part of the city.
The truck was not equipped with the controls that I needed to drive with so, my 2 friends took turns in driving. I sat in the middle so I controlled the radio for the trip; a little rock, rap and country. I was also the guy that had to buy all the gas and rented the truck,( sucked on gas mileage). I maxed out my credit cards buying the gas and most of the food for the trip.
My two friends did not talk or hangout with each other because of skin color. So hearing their conversation, mixed with a little smoking, made for a very interesting time. We passed the time by flagging down the people driving next to us on the highway and then pointed to their back tire as if they had a flat. Childish?, probably, but it was fun knowing that they had pulled over for nothing. When we were going through Atlanta my best friend was driving and reminded me that I had signed a rental contract that would allow me to drive the vehicle about 20 miles and remain in the Dayton area. The truck would have no less than a thousand miles on the odometer upon return. It did not help matters that the company wanted the truck returned to their lot back in Ohio. But my friends were going to return the truck before they went home.
There were many pairs of visible eyes that were watching the truck as it slowly propelled down the dimly lit alley. I was sitting in the middle and my best friend was driving and my other friend was looking around for the signal. He had made a phone call and we were on the look out for a blinking back porch light.
We were looking for the house so that we could get a few things that would make the trip more interesting. My friend had called some people and had told them that we were coming but, he had forgotten to mention to them what kind of vehicle that we would be driving.
When we seen the blinking light and pulled into the yard a guy came from the side of the house and stood by the backdoor. We could clearly see that he had a pistol in his hand. He looked at us for a second and then bumped the butt of the pistol against the door a few times. My black friend slowly got out of the truck and went over to the guy on the back porch. We sat in nervous silence as we watched him enter the house while the guy with the gun continued to eyeball the truck. My friend came out of the house about 20 mins later and then we got on interstate 75 and began to heads towards Florida.
The truck was not equipped with the controls that I needed to drive with so, my 2 friends took turns in driving. I sat in the middle so I controlled the radio for the trip; a little rock, rap and country. I was also the guy that had to buy all the gas and rented the truck,( sucked on gas mileage). I maxed out my credit cards buying the gas and most of the food for the trip.
My two friends did not talk or hangout with each other because of skin color. So hearing their conversation, mixed with a little smoking, made for a very interesting time. We passed the time by flagging down the people driving next to us on the highway and then pointed to their back tire as if they had a flat. Childish?, probably, but it was fun knowing that they had pulled over for nothing. When we were going through Atlanta my best friend was driving and reminded me that I had signed a rental contract that would allow me to drive the vehicle about 20 miles and remain in the Dayton area. The truck would have no less than a thousand miles on the odometer upon return. It did not help matters that the company wanted the truck returned to their lot back in Ohio. But my friends were going to return the truck before they went home.
I was so excited and nervous at the same time and we arrived in Florida Saturday evening. I said my goodbyes to my two friends knowing that I would probably never see either of them again. We all stayed in contact by phone for awhile before we all lost contact. The truck rental company called me the next day and were upset because I had my friends lock the keys in the truck when they returned it and the renters had to hire a locksmith to get the truck unlocked. I could not believe that the company did not have an extra set of keys for the truck. I explained to the man what had happened and that it was not a planned trip. I had to pay the bill for the locksmith to open the door but to this day I have not been able to pay the bill for the penalty fee that they
charged me for each additional mile.
