It Was A Dark And Stormy Night.
When I worked as Assistant Manager at the convenience store off the interstate I had a joke that I knew it was spring when the crazy people began to walk off the interstate. One time a man walked off the interstate. passed the gas Station to his left and made a beeline straight for mine. He walked in and went straight for my counter. He stood there a moment staring at me intently and said, "My dog doesn't like you."
He had no dog.
Another time a man walked off and began to use the car wash to take a shower.
Nude.
A third wanted to know if it was ok if he started a fire in the parking lot.
After a while my greatest fear there was that on a hot summer night someone was going to walk off that interstate and think God wanted him to kill me, and to use my skull as an ash tray. Of course I never said that. When people asked me what I feared most about working there I would joke, "My biggest fear is that one night a circus truck will tip over and some animals will escape. Then while I'm walking to my car at the end of the night a circus bear on a tricycle will kill me. The last thing I'll hear is the little horn on the bike." They would laugh and that would be the end of that.
It was in the winter of 96 that a horrible cold spell struck here in Illinois. Of course it had to happen on the nights I was working. One night the low was 15 below zero. The next night it was 20 below zero. The third night it was 30 below zero. These were bone chilling nights.
The first of those nights a car pulled in to get gas. A young woman got out and started pumping gas. Normally I would make people turn off the engine but it was so cold that night I wasn't going to make her. For some reason I felt sorry for her. She only had a thin jacket on and some gloves to protect her from the cold. Her license plates were from Iowa. When she came in to pay for the gas I let her have some free hot cocoa. She told me her name was Becky.
She stayed in the store for a while warming up. It was a very slow night. She asked me if it was always this slow. I said no but the weather was so bad no one in his right mind would be out on a night like this if they didn't have to be. She laughed. I asked her where she was going and she said she was visiting her fiance in Indiana. She also told me she was 4 months pregnant and hadn't seen him in a couple of weeks.
She looked very sad.
She looked even sadder when a few moments later her car stopped running. She ran out to the parking lot and tried to start it again. Nothing. Not even a click. I tried to call a few local people to come and check it out but the best I could do was get someone to say they'd look at it tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile she was stranded. I called the local Police Chief, a nice guy named Carl. I asked if he could take her to the nearest Motel eight miles away in a town called Geneseo. Carl said yeah but it would be an hour or so. There was a wreck on the other side of town.
I tried to make Becky feel more comfortable and started chatting with her. Eventually she asked me I wasn't nervous working in a place like this. I gave her my standard Bear killing me joke. She just stared at me and whispered, "Really?" She was so earnest I felt bad for joking. So I told her the truth.
"I'm worried that on some hot summer night some escaped lunatic is going to walk off that interstate and think God wants me dead."
She stared at me a bit more and said, "That would be scary. Why don't you quit?"
I thought about it a moment and said, "You know as funny as this may sound but I really like the people I meet here and I like the local people in this town. In fact the only person I don't like is my Manager Jason."
Soon Carl came and took her to the motel. I closed early that night and went home.
The next day I came back to work to find Becky in the store. I asked Jason why she was still there. He said her car was still being worked on. Jason looked mad.
"What's wrong now?"
Jason looked as if he was about to cry. " Becky told me you said some bad things about me. Is that true?"
I looked Jason in the face and said as nicely as I could," Jason I didn't say anything to her that I haven't said to you." I smiled. Not sure of what to think Jason changed the subject.
" I think she really likes you She's been asking about you all day."
"Really?" I looked over at her. She was acting different today. She had a camera and was taking pictures of everyone that came into the store. She saw me looking at her and gave me a big smile. She told me to smile and raised her camera up and snapped off a couple of shots.
Then she took a picture of my car.
A little while later the mechanics came over and told her that her car was fixed. Everyone felt sorry for her that she was all alone and pregnant and they gave her a really good price for the repairs. Also the mechanic and Jason were hitting on her. They thought if they were nice they could score.
"Jason that's not right man. She's pregnant. Man that's just wrong."
Becky seemed very nervous and wrote a check and left. Before she did she gave me a big hug. After she drove off Jason and the mechanic were making fun of me because she liked me.
"Maybe we'll call your wife and let her know", Jason joked.
I ignored them.
An hour or so lately Carl stopped in with a State Trooper. They wanted to know if Becky was still there. I told Carl she had left just a little while ago.
The State Trooper told me that Becky wasn't her real name and that she had escaped from a Mental Institution in Indiana and stole a car. The check she wrote out was from a stolen checkbook. Everything she had told us was a lie. Her age, her name, the fact that she was pregnant. All lies.
Oh . And she was also very violent without her medication.
I felt very cold and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was already 15 below zero outside.
I pride myself on being able to tell when someone is lying to me. And this girl told me nothing but lies and I didn't notice anything. I was really freaked out.
I remember thinking it was lucky it wasn't a hot summer night.
Jason of course wouldn't drop it. He kept calling me up and saying that only crazy people liked me. He had some girl call and pretend to be "Becky". It was so cold out that I had less customers then the night before. And Jason's antics were making it seem a very long night.
I don't remember what he did last. But something he said right before I closed really ticked me off. I'm pretty sure it was a comment about my,"wife being insane to like me." Whatever it was my first thought was to drive the few blocks over to his house and beat him until he cried.
No I thought. I'm a civilized guy. I'm above all that. I will not act childish and petty.
So when I closed the store I filled a bottle up with water. I locked the door and slowly spread the water around the lock and the door frame. Within seconds it had froze rock hard. Satisfied I got into my car and drove the 15 miles to home.
At 5 in the morning Jason came to open the store. He found his key would not work. It took him 2 hours and a torch to open his door.
I of course was shocked to hear that someone would do that. What sort of fiendish mind would come up with that?
Must have been some crazy person.