The continuing saga of a man’s truck driving job that has been plagued with bad omens from the start.
After his medical appointment in Ann Arbor and being given the “cancer free” news, Tristan focused his attention on where he was going to go now for a job.
He certainly wasn’t going back out with Bill…
He still had the name and phone number of the owner-operator that he and Bill had gotten the load from in the Chicago area a couple of weeks earlier. His name was Mike and he’d been looking for a good co-driver. He’d asked Tristan if he knew of anyone but Tristan didn’t. Good drivers, professional drivers were hard to find.
I wonder if he’s still looking for a co-driver…he seemed like a nice guy. I didn’t pick up any bad vibes from him…
Most truck drivers went by their gut feelings. Tristan was no exception to this rule.
There’d been too many times during his career that it had literally saved his life.
His truck was clean, he was in uniform and looked professional…all very good signs!
I guess it wouldn’t hurt for me to call him and ask if he’s still looking for a co-driver…
Mike was indeed still looking and told Tristan that he’d wanted him for a co-driver right after they’d met.
“I had a really good feeling about you, Tristan! You were in uniform, you looked clean and neat, your attitude was professional and you knew what you were doing…”
“Well, thanks, Mike! I felt the same way about you!”
“So, what was going on with the other guy? …your co-driver…he seemed like a real winner!” Mike teased.
“Oh God! Don’t even get me started on him!” Tristan pleaded.
“No, really, Tristan…I mean I noticed that he wasn’t at all interested in helping either of us secure the load in your truck and I got the feeling that he thought he was better than we were…what’s up with that?”
So, Tristan explained. Mike was not impressed.
The two men rambled on for quite awhile, each trying to get a feel for what the other one was like. There was nothing worse than being thrown into the small confines of a truck only to find out that you can’t stand the other driver.
Tristan wasn’t in a real big hurry to jump aboard another man’s truck until he had a better feel about this guy, so, the talks continued for the next week.
Finally, Mike asked him if he was interested in the job and told Tristan what he’d pay him.
Thank you Darlene… I still shiver when I think about it.
I’m hoping with every fiber of my being that I never run into him again! His other thing is that he wants his co-driver to do all of the driving while he sleeps! Jan said it sounded as though he was falling for me…that really makes me twitch!!
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