Fiction — part one

The Shining Black Pearls: Road to Trouble (1)

My uncle took me on a road trip. “To make me a man,” he said. I suspected he really just needed a driver. Jim is a troublemaker.

Photo by Xan Griffin on Unsplash

A male voice shouted, “Wake up. You are late. We need to get moving. Do you need to use the bathroom? See you in the kitchen when you are ready. Hurry.”

I was confused and disoriented when I woke up to my mother shouting. What was happening? I heard a familiar voice.

“Why did you think of Filip?” my mother asked. I am Filip, by the way.

“He needs to get out more. I got this job and thought we might be better off being two in the car.”

That’s my uncle Jim. He is a fun guy, but unpopular with most of the family, including my mother.

I walked into the kitchen.

“Hey, man, about time. I have the best opportunity for you, a trip with me. Are you ready for it?” Jim stood up and gave me a hug and three hard pats on my back, which made me cough.

“I have it all planned out. We’ll be gone for at least two weeks.”

“You said max two weeks, Jim?” My mother was on alert.

“Yeah, but I don’t know for sure yet. I told you that,” he explained, while my mother was shaking her head, turning her back to him and started doing the dishes. My mother always does the dishes when she takes a timeout.

“You and I, dear nephew, are going on a trip. As soon as you have packed a bag, we’re out the door and on the road. A few weeks with endless roads and maybe a stop at a lake for a swim, or killing a bear if it chases us in the middle of the night. It will be fun.” That’s my uncle.

“Why do you think I want to go?” I asked.

“I know you do. It will be the experience of a lifetime. Don’t be such a wimp. Oh, and you will earn a stack of good old green notes on this.”

“How much?”

“See, I told you,” he said, looking at my mother. He looked at me. “I am not sure yet, but at least a few thousand, maybe even more if we play our cards right. Leave that to your uncle, and you will return with a nice stack.”

I wanted to know a lot more, but I couldn’t get anything out of him with my mother next to us, and I didn’t have anything else to do.

“Send me a text or give me a call every single day. Remember,” was my mother’s last words.

Uncle Jim drove fast, accelerated hard after every stop and smoked constantly.

I had my window open, and he told me to close it as it was cold. “Sure,” I said, “if you stop smoking in the car.”

He refused. I refused. We agreed on that.

Crossing a bridge, he turned into a parking lot and looked at me. “You drink coffee, or you are still a boy?” he asked before he went inside and bought us each a cup of coffee — mine with milk and sugar, his American black.

“Okay, boy, here’s the deal. We move a package from one place to another. If we’re lucky, we’ll get extra time at the destination,” he said while sipping his coffee.

“What’s in the package?” I asked.

“We don’t ask. We’re just drivers. But we’re awesome drivers, and they’ll pay us handsomely when we deliver it.” Jim waved his hand. That was all I needed to know.

“I’m the boss. We’ll have fun, but when it comes down to it, I make the decisions,” he made it clear this wasn’t up for debate.

The pick-up

He twisted the key, glanced at me, then hopped out. “You drive.”

Jim got in on the other side and pushed me behind the steering wheel. I love to drive, so I put the car in gear and stepped on the accelerator.

“We sleep when the other one drives. My turn now, but don’t get into any trouble while you drive. Don’t speed, don’t hit any cyclists, don’t provoke any Vics, nothing but drive nice and legal,” he said as he pushed the seat back and closed his eyes.

I focused on the road and the speed limit, took a sip of the coffee now and again and felt very grown-up. Jim woke up and looked at Google Maps on his phone.

“Time to change seats, kid.”

We drove into a city, and he stopped in front of an old pink house.

“Wait here. I’ll make sure,” and he closed the door and walked up to the house.

A hand reached out from the doorway to greet my uncle. He glanced back and motioned for me to come.

Dirt covered the floor, and the living room was one big mess. My mother would go bonkers if she saw this.

“My chauffeur, Roger,” my uncle pointed at me.

“He doesn’t look like a Roger. Roger is always older.” He looked at me. “Sit down, kid.”

“Here is the package. Take it to this address and no detours.” He held on to it a little longer to emphasise his words.

“The first payment is in the envelope. The rest when you hand over the box. If we see you have done anything to it, then…, am I clear?”

We sat in the car, and I was holding the box while looking at it, “What’s this? What’s inside? You know?”

My uncle shook his head, “We’re like UPS — we just move it. But if you must know, it’s pearls. Black pearls. Beautiful pearls any girl would kill for.”

“Pearls are supposed to be white. Everybody knows that. No such thing as a black pearl,” I replied.

“You are so wrong. In Polynesia, they have black pearls, and they dive into the water from their boats and find the mussels that have those. It is only in Polynesia,” he returned.

“Polynesia — sure, and that’s, of course, a country… made up by Walt Disney. Must be so far on the other side it’s off the map,” I laughed. He was joking.

“Oh, it’s true. You don’t see this Polynesia on many maps. It’s so small that on normal maps, you can hardly see it, and on many, it has been cut off. You know, in the old days, they say they even ate people there,” My uncle sounded serious.

Chasing

“Watch out!” I yelled as a big white truck was pulling out on the road in front of us.

My uncle slammed the brakes, and I was thrown against the windshield. That hurt. The truck was in no hurry, so we were slowly cruising behind it.

Jim wanted to overtake the truck, but there was too much oncoming traffic. He turned the wheel and passed the vehicle on the inside, turning sharply out on the road again.

The truck driver used his horn to let us know that he was angry. Jim slowed down some, and now the driver was stuck behind us.

I turned in my seat and looked at the scene behind us. I saw a huge guy behind the steering wheel. A giant.

The guy saw me looking and reached behind his seat and pulled out a baseball bat.

I looked at my uncle, “I think he could cause trouble, Jim?”

“I’m not stopping. He’s a maniac. Scary type that shouldn’t be on the road,” my uncle said as the truck driver moved so close that all we could see was the front grille of the truck.

My uncle pushed the accelerator down.

“I thought you said we could never speed?”

“You son of a smart ass. No speeding unless it’s to save our lives,” he answered. “We save lives now.”

Ahead of us, we could see a dirt road on the left side and without any warning, Jim pulled the wheel and crossed the road, entering this.

I looked back and saw that the truck was braking and turned around to follow us down this one.

My uncle forced the car into circles, building a cloud of dust that hid us. We could hardly see anything, but I knew the truck was getting closer.

Jim pushed the accelerator down and turned the car towards the main road again — directly towards the truck that we could not see.

The massive grille of the vehicle was suddenly in front of us. My uncle accelerated even more. Steering directly at the truck.

At the absolute last second, the truck driver pulled to the side, and we rushed past him.

Soon after, we were on the road again, and as I looked behind us, I could see the truck driver was standing next to his car, looking towards us.

“And that’s how you defeat those big dumb ones,” my uncle proudly yelled. “Where’s the box? You have it?”

I had forgotten all about it, but found it between my feet. It looked unharmed.

Hours later, my uncle turned left at a sign saying “Lake view”, and after a short drive down yet another dirt road, we came to a campsite.

“Our stop for the night,” he proclaimed.

He got out of the car, went behind a tree, then came back and started eating crackers. I guessed that was our dinner.

It wasn’t that late, but we fell asleep quickly. I don’t think it was much later than half past ten. Because of this, we woke up at 6 — or my uncle did. He woke me up when he turned the car around, and we went back to the road.

“I need a toilet. I need food. I need a lot of food. I am almost dead,” and I was not exaggerating at all.

The big sign said it was 2 miles to the next exit.

I went directly to the restrooms. My uncle said he would order us something good.

It was a breakfast for a king with pancakes, bacon, fruit, and syrup. I was so full by the time I finished that my stomach hurt.

“We need to get a move on. Grab the boxes and make yourself a lunch from the buffet — next stop is late afternoon — I have the perfect spot for fishing. Maybe we can catch our dinner tonight,” he said as he looked over his shoulder. “Don’t be alarmed, but the truck driver from yesterday is here somewhere.”

Walking back to the car, he tossed the key over to me, “You drive.”

Hours went by. The highway never stopped.

Jim suddenly grabbed the steering wheel, pulling it to the right. I thought we would crash, but as the car pulled off the road, I could see the dirt track and gained control over the car again.

“What are you doing, man?” I shouted as he looked back.

“Making sure nobody is following us. Keep going, faster, you really need to relax a bit.” He kept looking back, but after a while, he turned around. “I’ll take a rest now, you just keep out of trouble.”

He leaned back and closed his eyes while I turned the car around and sped up, looking for the deepest potholes to drive through.

The rest of the afternoon went by with no major incidents. It was getting late in the afternoon when we decided to stop for something to eat.

As we entered the restaurant, we saw our bad dream of a truck driver. Slowly, we turned around, and as we opened the door, we heard the yell through the restaurant. “Hey, you two. Stop. I need a word with you.”

He was pushing through the group of people that was in the way. We ran down the stairs and over to our car. My uncle took the wheel and spun the car around as we exited the car park.

Jim pushed the car to maximum speed. I kept looking back, waiting for the truck to follow. It never did.

“We drive on. Dinner can wait a bit. We will find something before we rest.”

I made sure our small box was on the floor before my feet. It was so tiny and still made so much trouble.

Hours later, after a gas stop where my uncle bought different things to eat. “The famous gourmet dinner for drivers, kid.”

After we started looking for a place for the night.

“Let’s find a motel tonight. It’ll give us some well-deserved rest. There’s one there, it looks decent — almost.” Jim looked at me, “Nothing like a cheap motel when someone might be trying to kill you.”

As we turned into the motel parking lot, I glanced in the side mirror. For a moment, I thought I saw a large white truck far back on the road.

We got a bed and a shower, then we talked.

Just as we turned off the light, we heard a hard knock on the door.

I got up, opened the door just a little, and looked into the chest of a titan. Blue shirt with a round print saying “Your Last Day is Today”.

I didn’t even look up to see the face, but slammed the door so fast that the titan didn’t have time to respond.

“The titan is outside,” I screamed and ran to my bed to pick up my things.

“Slow down, kid. There’s no other way out. We’re doomed.”

I thought it was an incredibly bad time to give up. Adrenalin was pumping, and I wanted to make a great escape.

“You give up now? Remember, you promised Mom to get me back safe! What now?” I shouted and looked at him.

“Guess we have to outsmart him. I open the door, get him inside, and you run for cover. Deal?” He looked at me. I nodded.

He walked to the door in his underwear and an open shirt. Unlocked the door and pulled it up fast, trying to surprise the titan.

A set of large hands grabbed my uncle’s throat and pushed him inside our room. One step inside the giant pushed the door closed and looked at me, “Sit down on the bed, son,” and looked at my uncle, “We need to talk.”

An Unexpected Deal

The titan had a name: Hans.

Hans wanted our pearls, as those who had hired us to deliver them had cheated him in another deal. All he wanted was fairness.

Hans became a friend during our talk.

I woke up to sunshine lighting up our room, even with the curtains closed. I found a note next to the old phone.

“Sleepy, we’re in the restaurant. Get ready to leave.”

I packed our things and threw them into the car on my way to the restaurant. “Buffet”, said the sign, but it was only bread and coffee.

My uncle and Hans were talking with each other. No other people were around. I walked up to them and said good morning.

“There you are. Grab something to eat. We’ll drive off as soon as you’re done.”

Hans left for the restroom, and I looked at my uncle, “You trust him?”

“Now we split the sheep from the goats. We either run now or forever be controlled by Hans. I say we should go for it. What do you say?”

“Who wants to be a sheep?” I replied.

We both got up and left quickly. Jim took the wheel, and we drove as fast as possible out on the road.

“He had put a tracking device on my car the first time. That’s how he found us every time. It’s removed.” Jim turned down the next road and again tried to confuse Hans — and he did succeed in confusing me. I had no idea where we were.

What happens when you befriend a titan? Part 2 is on the way with deliveries, deceptions, and a twist you won’t see coming.

Let me know what you think about this first part in a comment.

[embed]Jens Peter Olesen - Medium Read writing from Jens Peter Olesen on Medium. I write mostly fiction, often humorous, but also travel stories and…medium.com

Don’t be a sheep.