Precious Cargo

Phillipe and his cousin, Ramon, conferred for several minutes in Spanish.
Eric understood the conversation, but didn't let on. Just stood there looking clueless.
"OK, homeboy, here's the deal. We need to work fast to get you rolling. Ramon said you can leave your trailer here at the dock.
He will meet you back here tonight with your bills when we are finished.
Your last request might be tricky, but he thinks he can do it. Get unhooked and follow me."
Phillipes paint and body shop was indeed close by, just like Ramon said it was.
An old sheet metal building in an ageing industrial park with a few old cars and pickup trucks scattered about in various stages of repair.
Phillipe raised the big bay door and motioned Eric inside.
"I only have one color on hand amigo. I hope you are not too picky." Phillipe said showing Eric a piece of trim from a previous job.
It was a very pale tan, not very attractive. It took Eric a moment to realize it was the exact color of a J.B.Hunt truck.
"Perfect." he told Phillipe.
Eric jumped in and helped with the prep, which was minimal. There would be no sanding, no primer and no second coat.
Just mask off the lights, glass and trim. Spray and go.
Eric was impressed with the lettering job. No decals. Phillipe did it old school, with a paint brush.
CHRISTIAN OUTREACH MINISTRY, Ringold Georgia
NOT FOR HIRE
And in smaller font on the bottom of the door, ERIC GORDMAN, PASTOR.
The finishing touch was the Cross of Calvary on the back of the sleeper.
The whole thing was done in just over four hours. Eric was impressed.
With Eric being low on cash, and with no more Comchecks in his foreseeable future, Phillippe agreed to accept merchandise in exchange for his labor.
Ramon would make sure to load a chest freezer, and a rangetop oven on the rear of the trailer for Ramon.
Feeling generous, Eric threw in a microwave and a side by side refridgerator/freezer.
He also paid Ramon in the appliances of his choice for setting up the deal.
Arriving back at the warehouse, Eric was pleased to discover Ramon had fulfilled his request, which were some official looking dummy bills.
They declared the freight to be a charitable donation to the Outreach Ministry from the manufacturer.
Eric hoped nobody ever stopped him, much less asked for his paperwork. It was strictly a last resort and he hoped to never find out if they would fool anybody or not.

 

I am in the one that pays me LOL
Working on something else that I will try to get published when finished, if I can build up the nerve to submit it.

 

Eric had never felt as apprehensive about anything he had ever done when he took off across I-8 and over El Cajon summit.
By the time he got to Yuma he was already conjuring up images of a jail cell, feeling the cuffs on his wrists as he exited into the Arizona Port of Entry.
Rolling onto the platform, the light remained green and the voice over the speaker said "keep rolling driver".
Eric finally released the breath he had been holding as he accelerated the old 359 Pete out onto the interstate.
A rancher in Benson AZ filled up his fuel tanks in exchange for a nice fridge with an icemaker.
The port outside of Lordsburg, New Mexico weighed heavily on his mind. On his last trip through, he had underwent a vehicle inspection and was worried about being recognized.
The light turned red as he rolled up to the window. The officer slid open the glass and looked over the rig, his expression unreadable.
After what seemed like an hour to Eric, the man said "May God bless you senor, for the work that you do"
Eric was almost too relieved to speak, finally answering with "Thank you, sir. Just doing my small part"
Once again overwhelmed with relief, Eric was starting to believe he just might pull off his outrageous caper.
Smooth sailing for a while, providing he wasn't pulled over, for it was nearly a thousand miles before the next set of scales, in Greenwood, Louisiana.
Planning his next fuel stop, he figured the waitress in Merkel, Texas, that was sweet on him, would be able to help him out with another appliance trade.
And so it went, all the way back to Georgia. Deciding not to push his luck at the Georgia scales, where he was most likely to be recognized(FLP trucks were regular customers), he turned north on SR100 up through Cedartown and Rome, turning east on SR140, which led him to Pattys Truck Stop in Adairsville.
That is where he parked the truck, leaving it unlocked, with the keys in the switch.
He destroyed the dummy bills, not wanting to implicate Ramon in any wrongdoing.
After his friend and neighbor arrived to take him home, he made an anonymous 911 call from a payphone, reporting the whereabouts of the truck.
Around nine AM the following morning, as Eric was sipping a cup of coffee, and searching the want ads for a job, two cars pulled up to his residence in Hilltop Moblie Home Park, out side of Cartersville, Georgia.
The first car was from the Bartow County Sheriffs Department, the county of his residence and of Pattys Truck Stop, where he left the rig.
The second car was from the ATF, and one of the agents was a young Joseph Stallings who later moved on to the CIA.
More recently, Joe moved into the more lucrative private sector, accepting a job offer from Hornsby Locators.
During a lengthy interview, Eric was honest with activities of the last week, starting with his encounter with Ray Johnson in Otay Mesa and his telephone conversation with his mother in Kennesaw.
He did leave out the disposal of the freight, which he felt guilty about, but considered it a matter of survival.
After all, that was the ultimate responsibility of his former boss, Frank Penergrast, whom nobody was feeling sorry for at the moment.
If the law enforcement officers wondered how he bought enough fuel to get all the way back from California, they never mentioned it, and Eric knew when to keep his mouth shut.
It was agreed upon by the cops that they could think of no law against getting a truck painted without permission, and having Frank in custody on enough to put him away forever, they saw no reason to make life any more miserable for Eric, who was already out of a job and about three weeks pay.
The deputy, Sergeant Hollis, who had known Eric all his life, insured the ATF agents that Eric was not a flight risk and he was advised to stick close for a while.
__________________________________________________
Upon reviewing Eric's job application at Hornsby, Joe recognized the name and pulled up his personal copy of the case record from sixteen years ago.
He brought this to Clyde's attention, who was duly impressed with the young man's ingenuity.
He liked a man who could improvise and think fast on his feet.

 

Yeah, I've done a few of these on here. Like a hobby.
I hope you enjoy it.