* * * * *
A little bizarre slice of life
“Could I ask a favor,” asked Spring [1]. “I need you to pick me up.” She had
called earlier, saying her van was overheating and that she would be a bit
late in getting home. Apparently her quest in getting coolant ended in
failure. “I'm at a gas station on Atlantic just west of I-95.”
“Okay, I'll be there in a bit.”
Half an hour later, I arrive at the gas station to find Spring sitting next
to a young man. “This is Josh,” said Spring, “and since we're doing all this
driving anyway, could we drop him off at the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail station
[2]?”
“Sure,” I said. “I don't mind.” Josh and Spring got into the car and we drove
off.
During the drive up to the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail station Josh was very
quiet, only answering direct questions and not offering much else in the way
of conversation. After dropping him off I asked Spring what exactly his story
was, since he didn't really volunteer anything on the drive up, and she said
he had walked from Key West to that gas station [3] over the past three
weeks, and that he was getting a bus ticket (courtesy of a friend) at the
West Palm Beach Tri-Rail station for a cross-country trip to Sacramento,
California [4] for his mother's funeral.
Oh.
Okay then.
And that's all the details we have. No indication of how he ended up in Key
West (apparently he's from Sacramento). Nor how he ended up sans
transportation other than his two feet and other than that … not much else to
say.
[1]
http://www.springdew.com/
[2]
http://www.tri-rail.com/destinations/wpb_county.htm#city_place
[3]
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Key+West,+FL&daddr=1909+W+Atlantic+Ave,+Delray+Beach,+Florida&f=l&hl=en&sll=24.555278,-81.782778&sspn=0.118976,0.179729&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=8&om=1
[4]
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/
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