This begins chapter one of my book, “ Journey Without Regret” What I’ve done is completed chapter one which in itself is a short story. This chapter is entitled “Stranded.” The story line development goes like this:
Three guys in their early twenties travel across country heading to Boston from L.A. A whole bunch of exciting and sometimes even dangerous things happen to them.. From being stranded (this chapter) and attacked by a maverick pack of hungry coyotes in the Arizona desert, to finding themselves in the middle of the weekly Saturday night community fist fight in Amarillo, Texas(true); to having an encounter with a young prostitute at an Oklahoma truck stop(also true). Later, they get caught up in an armed robbery in progress near Cleveland, Ohio; and, on the last leg of the trip, end up saving a kidnapped group of kids seized in a child pornography ring just after arriving to the East coast.
“Stranded” – Chapter ONE
by F. Douglas Massey
He wasn’t gone five minutes when we heard what sounded like dogs barking & howling. Shouts of, ” Get out …get out of here ” pierced the midnight Arizona star-studded night.
Without delay, we sprinted to the top of the ridge to see what all the commotion was about. There was Larry, soon to be cornered by five or six snarling coyotes. Twenty-feet away.. he was slowly backing his way into what looked like a large, wide dip in the earth behind him..
It was around midnight. Some people say strange things or, at least, nothing GOOD happens after midnight. Growing up, I really didn’t buy into that. But later, as I settled down with a family and my teenagers started going “out on the town”, I had came to the realization, that, “.. you know what? .. nothing GOOD ever happens AFTER midnight, after all..” My mind was changed one summer when a couple of buddies and I took this road trip across the good ole USA.
Here we were, three of us in our early twenties on our way to Dallas, Texas in the first leg of a cross-country journey to Boston. I don’t think anyone who didn’t know me, Jim, a black Southern Baptist, Larry an Italian Catholic and Dave, an Orthodox Hebrew, could ever confuse us with the Three Wise Men.
A wise decision to make this journey? The jury’s out on that question. Tell you one thing, the way things started off, we certainly had our doubts..
Casual conversation between sips of cold drinks, gliding smoothly over the gentle, rolling highway under a blanket of crystal clear stars. It kind of made you feel lucky to be alive, and say to yourself, “Man, it just doesn’t get any better than this..”
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