WYOMING TRUCKS, TRUE LOVE AND THE WEATHER CHANNEL
David warned me about the truck when
he called for our first date seven years ago.
AI=ll
have to pick you up in the race-beast, you know,@
and he hesitated. I wondered what response he
expected from me as I sifted through his deep, slow
telephone voice for clues. Unaccustomed to being
phoned up and asked to the movies in the first
place, I felt on very uncertain ground reassuring
him that the (Arace-beast@
did he say?) would be fine. The implication seemed
clear that I knew about his car well enough to make
an informed decision about riding in it and that any
refined female might have reservations on the
subject. The previous summer David had played on our
co-ed softball team,
AThe
Science Nerds,@
and so I supposed that I had seen him come and go on
wheels, but I hadn=t
tucked away the sort of mental image he seemed to
expect. I did suspect him of womanizing ways, a new
divorcé out preying on tender young grad students,
and so in my mind the race-beast took the shape of a
sleek and sexy sports car, screaming seduction in
every line and curve. Well, he had warned me and I
would be ready.
Maybe not entirely ready for a brown
>79
Ford pickup. Opening the front door to David, freshly
shaven and handsome in his button-fly Levi=s
and leather bomber jacket, I smiled, said hello and
craned to look over his shoulder for the sports car I
was to be wooed in. In the chill post-Super-Bowl party
evening, the truck idled with the quiet and grace of an
irritated water buffalo--ah, now I understood the
Abeast@
part. David must have seen me eyeing the putative racing
vehicle as he escorted me out to my sporadically choking
and roaring chariot. Or he anticipated my reaction.
AI
did warn you,@
he grinned down at me.
That grin proved to be my eventual
undoing. My friends refer to David as
Athat
man with the intense blue eyes and gorgeous smile.@
Behind my back, I believe they discuss him as the reason
I=ve
never left Wyoming. He=s
certainly the reason I now find myself occasionally
navigating the race-beast around town. |
