He saw her up ahead, standing on the side of the highway,

with her arm outstretched, and her thumb turned upward.

Her thumb was pointed in the direction that his car was

traveling, which was Texas. He looked at her, thought about

it for a second, do I really want company, I love listening to

my country music, and I don’t want to talk. He dismissed

the thought and stopped the car anyway, what the heck, he

said to himself. She was wearing a pair of tight fitting, faded

blue jeans, denim jacket and low cut red, tee shirt. She had

long, dark, brown hair, with a pair of sunglasses, hugging her

face, she was quite attractive. He stopped, pushing his thoughts

aside, “want a ride”?, she didn’t hesitate, she opened the door

quickly, threw her small bag into the back seat of the car and

jumped in. She adjusted her seat belt, to make it comfortable,

all the while glancing at him, he stared straight ahead, keeping

his eyes on the road ahead.

He was not going to let her know,

that he found her very enticing. He wanted her to think that he

was very much a gentleman, and would not leer at any woman.

As soon as she settled in, she did just what he thought she would

do, reached for the dial on the radio, and without even asking,

changed the station. He resisted the urge to switch the station

back to his country music. But he didn’t, he was going to

maintain his gentlemanly behavior, although he did not think

that she was a lady. Or maybe, she was spoiled, and very used

to having her own way. Whatever it was, he felt that his first

thought of leaving her there, by the highway was the right one.

But too late now, she was in his car and he would have to deal

with the circumstances, he ran this thought, through his mind, which

was about choices, sometimes we make good ones, sometimes bad.

He thought to himself, that he would just wait, and see, how

this would all work out.

So, he sort of resigned himself to

listening to her rock music, at least it would only be until

he dropped her off, wherever it was she was going. He tried

not to turn down the volume on the radio, but he could no

longer appreciate the loudness of music, which he did not even

want to hear. Like the gentleman that he was, he apologized,

and turned the volume down. She just looked at him and left

the volume where it was, she was just happy to have a ride and

to not be still standing on the side of the road hitchhiking.

He tried to think of something other than the horrible music on

radio, it came to him that they had not even introduced themselves,

he looked over at her and said “my name is Rob, what’s your name”?

“I’m Cyndi, pleased to meet you, thanks for picking me up, I was

getting very tired out there, so I appreciate your kindness.” Her

words made him feel very much better, he didn’t care anymore

that she liked rock music. She have stroked his ego, and he was

feeling better about things.

And so they began their journey, down the barren, lonely, long

roads of Texas. They were about one hundred miles from Houston,

which was his destination, he wanted to get there as soon as

possible.

The rodeo was calling, he had been off the circuit for

about a year, involved in a few other things which had finally

come to an end. He was headed back to his first love, riding

bucking horses and bulls, he was thrilled to be headed back to

to the place that he felt right at home, the rodeo. He couldn’t

wait to see some of his old friends, and the clowns who helped

them to get away from the snarling bulls, after they either fell

off , or jumped off the bulls, they were great at distracting

the animals.

“So where are you headed?” , he asked her. She turned ,

staring straight at him and said, “no place in particular”,

as if she wanted him, to invite her to go along with him,

wherever that was. “ I just wanted to get away from where

I was, hopefully I will find someplace interesting to put

down my stake.”

He picked up the hint, that she was throwing out at him,

but he was not ready to have any kind of relationship, at this

point in time.

His life was just getting uncomplicated, he

did not want to jump into anything that would take his mind

off of what he was headed to Houston to revive. He left her

hint right where it was, although he found her attractive and

loved the smell of the perfume, she was wearing. She looked

to be about twenty eight or twenty nine, he was thirty eight.

Little did he know, this gorgeous woman sitting next to him,

smelling delicious, and tapping her fingers on her knee, was

a serial killer, who had left six, viciously murdered people,

behind her.