Tender Road: A Novel of Travel, Sex and Life in the South. by Paul Woodfin

Author:Paul Woodfin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Women, Contemporary, Romance, Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Women's Fiction
Publisher: Lights Go Books
Published: 2015-11-05T05:00:00+00:00

Allison, 35

Standing at the edge of the river, I looked at the fog and the sun coming up. I was chilled by the cool air so I turned back to the city and walked into downtown. Not much was open yet except the coffee shops and diners. The memory of coffee put me off the idea after this night. I wandered around and must have looked like a bum shuffling around in my flip flops. I had no ID, no other cloths, no phone and just the money that Jimmy the driver had given me. I wandered around for a couple of hours trying to figure out what I was going to do. I thought maybe I should go back to Wilmington, or take a bus to Memphis, or just get a new bike and carry on. Confused, I looked in shop windows, feeling my poverty and hunger. I felt like I was nobody, with no money and no ID.

I thought about Leslie and wondered if there was a way she could help. Would I want her help, I wondered. The old man and grandpa didn't need any help getting down the river and I ought to be able to figure this out myself, I said to Billy the Blue Scorpion on my shirt. I wandered around downtown and wondered how I had gotten here. It was a mistake to take on that jackass with the tequila. It was an even bigger mistake to go plowing up his wife's ass. I felt like I was out of control with bad luck, bad choices and bad intentions. I had gotten a break, I thought, with the trucker bringing me this far. Would I have really wanted to face that couple in the morning? My gloom was unaffected by the clear, bright morning, the first I'd seen for a few days. I wished that Catherine would come with her airplane and little wings pin and sweep me back to North Carolina. It was really sinking in that I had gotten myself into and, fortunately, out of a real jam with the copper. But it also sunk in that I was broke, homeless and had no way out.

When I found the big public library my heart soared. I made my way in, found the computer section and settled in. With a few keystrokes I found the picture of my drivers license that I keep in the cloud. I printed that and one of my credit cards. Then I logged into my favorite hotel website and found that there was a DoubleTree right around the corner from the library. I booked a couple of nights. Next I logged into my phone account and froze the number and locked the phone. With these chores out of the way I headed to the hotel. They checked me in when I told them that my wallet was stolen and I showed them the picture of my license and the credit card. I went up to the room, took a hot shower and went to sleep with the curtains shut fast.

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