Willie Nelson

edit: Apparently I had the wrong dude listed as the reference here. Whoops!

I got a ride from an old follower, which helped ease my travel time. I'll refrain from identifying him, but I'll give my thanks nevertheless. It was both heartwarming and humiliating to be picked up on the edge of the road, in desperate need of a shower, broke, and out of juice.

The vehicle pulled up on a stretch of road that had absolutely no other reasons to stop around. I got a text that simply said 'Here'.  I saw him from the treeline, and gave him a call-and-response. Bemused, perhaps, he agreed.

As I approached, the window rolled down. I tried to maintain a friendly disposition, and my driver grinned, "Call for an Uber?" I eyed him skeptically, "What?  I think I've got the wrong car."  He grinned harder and waved me over, "Nah, just messing with you, man, hop in, we'll get you on the move." Physically, he was just some random guy, reminded me of that Tom guy who always had to be your friend on MySpace...not that many people remember him now.

I got in the car, and gave a look around, your standard coupe. I mean, I don't know cars, but it, you know, was nice I guess. "Just so you know," I started, "I'm pretty much expecting you to try to kill me at any moment."  My contact, I'll call him Mike, after my recently passed and beloved Uncle, he reminded me just enough of him.

Mike laughed at me, and got us back on the road, that grin everpresent.  "Why would I do that?" I shrugged, eased into my seat and kept myself turned a bit towards him. I spoke quietly, enough that he had to turn down his music. "You know why." Again, I shrugged, "I don't want to sound like a broken records, but yeah..."  He laughed and kept his eyes forward, "Yeah well, we've all done some shit, I guess.  You need to charge your phone?" I nodded, he offered me a plugin, and followed up. "Man, I can't believe it. Meeting Zero Sage, You hungry?" Without a word, he patted a cooler behind him, "Dig in to something. Take what you want." I did. I was quiet as I ate, and he respected that. Finally, after I finished the Sprite in the cooler, I asked him, "So...why did you make the offer?"

Again, Mike let out a little laugh, "Come on, why wouldn't I? Read all your blogs, man, all that creepy pasta goodness. Used to be all afeared of the Sl..."  I cut him off, "We call it the Hollow Man now.  You probably know why."  His smile dropped a bit, and nodded, "Hollow Man, yeah, as good a thing as any. Man, I cannot tell you how many times those stories would scare me, Like, I thought he'd be in the bedroom with me. Like...I was twenty-four, and I was thinking about monsters again."

I nodded, then realized he couldn't see my reaction, "Well.." I hedged my words, "It was no picnic to write about."  He laughed again, "Hah, yeah,  'Dat Ass'"   I managed a weak smile, and felt the need to clear the air. "Rika...she wasn't really this figure I made her out to be. I should've tried to humanize her more when I talked about her. I was being an idiot, and trying to...I don't know, have power over her by sexualizing her. No wonder eRika was so vehement against me, I kinda deserved it."

He sort of shoulder bumped towards me, though the seat belt kept him from making contact, "did you ever meet the other writers? Like, did you plan things out together? Those stories were a lot of fun, I bet you had a ton of fun writing."

I paused, did he believe it was just stories? That we were just writing for fun? I remember a time way back when, when I was accused of just that. The event coloquially known as the 'Shitstorm'. I still feel bad about my part in that, lashing out at Frap of all people.

Good Times.

He suddenly started tapping on the steering wheel, and laughed again. "Had ya going there."  I nodded somberly, "Well, I wasn't going to correct you. I'd rather everyone think they were just stories."  Mike drove in silence for a bit, and the radio played. Four hours later, he dropped me off at a spot in which I could still be vague about my destination, and I thanked him. He offered me some money. I refused, and he offered again, then dropped a handful of twenties and drove away without giving me a chance to refuse.

I took the money. Phone was charged, belly was full, and a few bucks to my name. I was replenished.
Now on to the task at hand.