Hello ALL! Thanks for dropping by.
I think I’ll tell you about the time I was trucking through Oklahoma when I had to answer the call of nature and wound up in a precarious situation.
One beautiful moonlit night, I was trucking through the grand state of Oklahoma on a nice, wide two lane highway. This was one nice chunk of road, except it didn’t have any rest areas.
I can’t remember what time it was. Probably after eleven pm. I do remember it was summer. I think it was in the month of July.
So there I am, driving my truck along this beautiful stretch of highway. It had been freshly asphalted, it was nice and smooth. The freshly laid lines on the road reflected the headlights of my truck well ahead of me.
Feeling the need to take care of a little business, I pulled the truck off to the side of the road, picked up my big flashlight and got out of the truck.
Alright, I’m standing there on the passenger side of my truck by the drive tires. Even though there wasn’t any traffic out there that night, I still wanted a little privacy. I’m not an exhibitionist or anything.
I start getting a funny feeling at the nape of my neck. I could feel my hairs starting to stand on end.
Turning around, I turned my flashlight on and aimed it at the tall grass beyond where the state mowers had done their job.
In the beam of my flashlight I see a good size chunk of the tall grass moving, then it stopped when my light swept across the part that had been getting rustled around.
Then I saw the eyes. The eyes of a wood-be killer if I didn’t act accordingly.
I didn’t have to make water anymore once I understood what I was looking at.
It was a big cat. I can’t tell you what breed, name, sub-class, whatever.
All I can remember is, that it was a tan/yellowish color.
But those eyes. They kept staring straight at me. It felt like I was being sized up.
In this technologically driven world here in America, it’s easy to forget that there are STILL dangers out there lurking about.
Like that cat. I reckon it was looking for a bite to eat. Sadly, all it had found thus far that night, was me.
Trying my darndest to keep from running, I slowly started backing away.
Living on the road, I ALWAYS kept my passenger door locked with the seatbelt run through the door handle then locked into it’s receiving device. Going through the passenger door was not an option. Believe me, I was kicking myself for being so safety conscious at that point.
My first thought was to cautiously walk backwards to the front of my truck then calmly walk around the front to my driver’s door. That meant I’d have to take my eyes off the cat. I didn’t like the thought of doing that. There’d be too much ground to cover without seeing what my hungry feline friend was up to. Therefore, going around the front of the truck wasn’t an option either.
Thankfully, I’d turned on the work light on the back of my truck so I had a little light on the landing in-between my sleeper and trailer.
Keeping my light shining on the area where I saw the eyes still glaring at me, I backed up to the landing.
Even wearing thick-soled work boots, I’d never be able to slam dunk a basket ball. I’m only 5’5” tall. The landing behind the trailer was maybe five or sixes inches taller than my posterior. I was going to have to hop to make it. Oh sure, I could have turned around and used my hands to help me crawl up on the landing. But that would have meant taking the light off that cat, along with my eyes. That wasn’t happening.
Trying to hop smoothly in reverse so my butt landed on the landing between my sleeper and trailer was a dicey situation. If I did it too quickly, the sudden movement might make the cat think I was running and it would come at me.
I feel I should tell you that I never was all that graceful when I walk. So hopping backwards to get my rear on the landing went nowhere near as smooth as what I’d prayed it would.
My clumsy jerky movement caused the cat to rush forward four to five feet. All I can tell you was, to me, that sucker looked as big as Jaws when he swam under Captain Quint’s boat. Then again, I was rather terrified.
What I can reasonably tell you about how big the cat was, is this: I don’t think shouting at it and whacking it with my flashlight or kicking at it, would have stopped the thing from dining on, “filet of Hamburger fry.”
So I sat there, legs still dangling. I dared not move for a full minute. When the cat settled back down to study me a little more, I slowly scooted backwards and stood up.
I couldn’t believe how fast the big cat had moved when I triggered it by hopping up on the landing. Now all I had to do to get away from the hungry feline was get on the ground on the driver’s side of my truck and casually stroll a mere five to six feet then calmly open the door, hop in my truck and drive away. Yeah right…
Keeping my light on the cat, I backed my way across the landing. When I was almost at the other side, my flashlight was barely on the cat’s face. It was beside my trailer near the nose about five feet off in the grass.
Deciding that it was now or never, I hopped off the landing and moved as fast as I could to the driver’s door of my truck. The hairs on the nape of my neck felt like spikes because they were standing up so high now.
All I could see in my mind was the cat running under the trailer or the truck and getting me before I made it into the safety of my home on wheels.
When I pulled the door shut behind me, I hit the button to start rolling up the window on the driver’s side. I’d left the one on the passenger side up.
Even though I had just escaped a terrible fate, I had to know if the cat had moved or if it was still there.
I cautiously rolled down the passenger side window just enough to stick my flashlight out and angle it down to where the cat was. It was gone…
Reader: Do you think it came after you when you hopped off the landing to get into your truck?
Me: I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. It’s hard to say really. That’s not the first time I’ve been in a bad situation, nor the only time I looked into the eyes of a wood-be killer. I made it out of those other scrapes without a scratch too.
In the end, I credit the lord for watching over me, and keeping a cool head when I really wanted to panic.
For everything I went through out there on the road, the good times and the bad, I wouldn’t trade a second of it for the world. Those moments helped shape who I am today and I’m thankful for them.
If you’ll excuse me, I feel nature calling me. I gotta take care of some business. I’ll be sure to turn the bathroom light on before I walk in. It wouldn’t do to step on a wolf spider or a brown recluse here in my basement bathroom. That would rather mess up my night. LOL!
Again, thanks for dropping by and seeing what I had to say.
Before I go:
Kindness costs nothing. Please be kind to the people you meet during your day/night. That very act of kindness might be the only thing that keeps someone from taking that final step to a long hard drop, so to speak.
Wherever you are, wherever you’re heading to, please stay safe out there. Stay safe for the ones you love and the ones that love YOU.
God bless you ALL!
Good day/night. J
-Hamburger Fry
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