Grazed and Confused

Jeffrey stared out the grime stained windows of the bus at cow grazing off the side of the road. He daydreamed about what it would be like to not have a care in the world but to roam and eat grass. He would happily live in ignorance of the imminent danger he would always be in even as he was taken in on occasion to be milked. He would still roam carefree attributing the milking in his cow brain to that of necessary doctor visits or a car tune up. Yes, even as a cow, Jeffrey feels he would understand the internal combustion engine and the need for preventative maintenance. On the day he would be taken in for the slaughter, he would no doubt daydream about this patchy bearded man on a bus broken down on the side of the road and think how wonderful life must be not to be a cow.

"What the fook is taking so long!" Timothy paced the aisle impatiently waiting for the repair truck that was called an hour prior to arrive. Jeffrey had agreed to take the bus because Timothy was terrified of flying in a plane and thought a bus trip might do him good. Jeffrey figured they would both have time to figure out what to say when they saw her in Dallas. Jeffrey knew she was waiting for Timothy after running away to her parents' home outside of Dallas four months ago. She had told Timothy not to come down there, but after months of unreturned phone calls, she answered two days ago. Timothy begged her to let him explain what had happened, but she didn't want to hear it. He begged her to allow him to apologize in person at least. Jeffrey thought it odd that she had agreed, but he was anxious to see her again too. He had a confession of his own.

"Are they flying a special mechanic in from fookin' Germany?" Jeffrey could always tell when Timothy was frustrated because he always spoke in his modified swearing like a man with an accent he's worked years to lose, but always returns to in fits of anger. Timothy was born and raised in Iowa, but had grown up with his mother trying not swear in front of her child. The twisted vulgarity would stick with him through high school and get him mocked when he tried to go on a tirade against the running back of the football team for bumping him in the cafeteria.

"Watch where the fook you're going, cook stalker! I'd rip your brain out of your axe if I could find it, dip head." Brant Fising had stared at him unsure if he should be angry before patting Timothy on the shoulder and saying, "sorry about that, foreign dude" and walking away. Jeffrey had been friends with Timothy ever since that day.

"She'll be waiting for us at the bus station and my phone is dead thanks to the reception out the middle of fookin' nowhere Kansas!" Timothy pivoted like point guard to reverse his pacing and stopped to apologize to a woman and her 5 year old son for his vulgar tone. She told him it was fine. As he walked away, Jeffrey could hear the five year old call Timothy an asshole as he walked away. There wasn't much chance Timothy was going to affect the mannerisms of a young child who had probably spent more time in bus stations with odd ways about them than in this delayed trip south with Timothy.

"I could give her a call. I have reception and my phone is charged." Jeffrey reached into his pocket for the phone, but Timothy grew panicked and waved Jeffrey away from his pocket.

"Yeah. We'll call her on your phone and then she'll know I was too afraid to come see her alone. I'm sure that would begin our reconciliation just great." Timothy made another point guard pivot and began his pacing again. Jeffrey was going stir crazy in the back of the bus watching his friend nervously pace in the aisle.

"I'm going to hop out and see if I can figure anything out. My sister is a mechanic after all." Timothy stopped and gestured toward the back door like a man without much faith in his friend's ability, but wanted to humor him anyways. Jeffrey didn't care. He wasn't going out to look at the engine. He wanted to call Denise regardless of what Timothy wanted.

Jeffrey pressed his way through the rear doors of the bus and the driver came at him with both palms out waving frantically for Jeffrey not to leave the bus. Jeffrey pulled out his cell phone and shook it gently in the air. "I need to call and make sure the person I'm meeting knows we are going to be delayed and my friend will drive me insane if I call in there. I'll stay within 10 feet of the bus, alright?"

Begrudgingly, the driver dropped his hand and went back to staring at the steaming pile of engine in the rear panel of the bus. Jeffrey flipped open his phone and hit 7 on speed dial. He rarely met new people and had had no reason to reassign the speed dial since Denise had left. He listened to the static and ringing as the traded off at the speaker at his ear. After four rings and expecting to get an answering machine or voice mail, Denise picked up sounding like she had been sleeping.

"Uhh, good morning?" Jeffrey slapped his forehead forgetting that they had left on a 4am bus and had only been traveling for a couple of hours. It was still early morning on a Saturday. He listened to the rustling on the other end of the phone as Denise sounded as if she were turning on her pillow to see the clock. He heard her mumble something about six in the morning at a distance and he figured she was taking another look at caller ID.

"Jeffrey? What do you want? Is something wrong? Are you drunk? Still awake from last nights?" The concern in her voice for him was appreciated but unnecessary in his mind. If I get a 6am phone call from an old friend, I just assume they are drunk still, Jeffrey thought.

"Nothing is wrong. I just wanted to call and see what you are doing today? Any big plans for this, a random Saturday in September?" He had decided to play it vague in the hope that she wouldn't pick up that he was with Timothy on the trip to see her.

"Really? You decide to call me at 6am to chat about my day? What is wrong with you? Let me sleep, for the love of god. I'm on a trip to Phoenix for work and have to spend the weekend here. I was really hoping to sleep in before I have to get up and start working again, but I guess you've killed that. Thanks, friend." Jeffrey flipped his phone closed quickly like it mike explode if he didn't end the call. He had hoped she might slip back to sleep and forget he had called. Unfortunately, he would not be able to lose the fact that she was in Phoenix and would have had plenty of time to let Timothy know before the trip that she would not be in Dallas this weekend. Unless Timothy had another reason for bringing him down there. Jeffrey found he had now joined Timothy in nervous pacing as an over sized tow truck arrived on the scene.