The New Canterbury Tales: The Watcher's Tale
By Teresa C
A/N: This is the second story in a cycle. The first one is The New Canterbury Tales: The Warrior's Tale, story id 2355715. Let me apologize for my vague geography, but both Seacouver and New Canterbury are fictional cities, so rather than place them anywhere real, I thought I'd leave the route between them unspecific.
Disclaimers: The Highlander characters and situations belong to Davis Panzer Productions, so far as I know; not to me.
MacLeod turned off of the main highway, onto a smaller country road. The weather had grown worse, and traffic was very thin. The snow clouds hung lower and lower over the road, until the snow was coming from curtains of fog. MacLeod slowed as the SUV hit occasional patches of ice.
"Look!" said Richie, "is that a car?"
Through the mist patches of red came into view. A car lay tilted nose down in the ditch beside the road. MacLeod slowed further and stopped on what could be seen of a shoulder. "Is there anyone in it?" he asked.
Richie and Methos, both on the right side of the car, peered out. "I can't tell," said Richie. Methos shook his head.
Leaving the car engine running, MacLeod opened his door to the tune of the dinging key alarm and got out. Richie also got out. The two men met beside Richie's door and began a sliding progress down the slope of snow-coated mud and grass. The car before them had red trim in an unusual configuration. Something pointy and painted on the side they approached looked like red ears on a large white beast. As they got closer, they saw it was an older, vintage car, with red-painted tail fins. MacLeod clambered through knee deep weeds with a layer of snow on them to the driver's door. He knocked on the window and peered in.
"Anyone?" Richie asked, coming up behind him.
MacLeod tried the door but found it locked. "Try the other door," he said, raising his voice above the blustering wind. The snow was falling so thickly, at times they could barely see the shape of the SUV on the road behind them.
Richie worked around the car and tried the other door, but with no luck. The car, though a station wagon, had only two doors. "Looks like they're gone," Richie called.
As the two of them climbed back to the road, Richie asked, "What kind of car is that?"
"It's a Chevy Nomad," MacLeod answered. "'57 or '58 and in pretty good condition, too. Someone's had a bad morning. That's a real collectible car, now." They clumped back into the SUV, bringing snow and wet with them.
"No one in it?" Joe asked.
"No," MacLeod said, "but that car hasn't been in the ditch very long. There's snow underneath it." He put the car in gear and eased out onto the road.
"It's weird," Richie said. "Who would build a station wagon with only two doors? And that was a crazy detail job."
"We should stop somewhere, MacLeod, and see if this blows over," Methos said.
MacLeod nodded. "I had hoped to get farther by lunch, but we'll take the next town we come to."
Methos consulted a road map and made a noncommittal sound. "It'll have to be something too small to be on the map. I don't see much."
"So who's got the next story?" MacLeod asked, hearty.
"I think you should concentrate on driving, Mac," said Joe.
"I'm fine. Someone should entertain me. Richie? You ready to tell a story?"
"No way. I don't know any stories."
"Sure you do," said MacLeod. "Movies, TV, maybe even books. You can think of something."
"You've got to be kidding. I'm not going to know some story you guys don't already know. I mean, sure, I love Star Wars, but who hasn't seen that? And what's the point in telling it?"
"You can tell us a story we all know," Methos said. "That's how good stories last. Pick something you really like."
"No," Richie said. "I'm not playing. It's dumb."
"You can tell us a true story," Joe said. "Something that happened to you or to someone you know."
"You go, then," Richie said, his jaw set.
"Uh, okay," Joe said. "I think I've got one."
The Watcher's Tale
"Once upon a time, there was a guy named Dan. He graduated from High School in the Midwest in the middle of the Great Depression. Farm country was particularly hard hit. They used to say the farmers knew there was a depression ten years before everyone else knew. Dan was the oldest child of a big family, and he didn't have many prospects. He had always helped take care of his younger brothers and sisters, but now he was expected to make his own way in the world. He was a cheerful boy, so he tried not to worry too much. His uncle owned a traveling carnival, so Dan worked for him that summer.
"His uncle had this 'pony ride,' where ponies in a round pen walked around and around in a circle, giving rides to little kids. Now ponies may be small, but they can be nasty-tempered. Dan was good with them, and with kids, so his uncle gave him the job of lifting the little boys and girls on and off the ponies.
"But the carnival only operated in the summer, and when Fall came and the temperatures dropped, Dan couldn't help his parents keep food on the table anymore. Jobs were not only scarce, they were non-existent. Many good men just drifted from town to town, looking for work. They usually didn't find it."
Both Methos and MacLeod nodded. Richie fiddled with his Discman.
"Dan didn't want to go on the road; he loved his big family and had a lot of friends where he grew up. But it was beginning to look like he didn't have a choice.
"Then, one day, one of his friends stopped him in the street. 'Dan,' he said, 'get down to the John Deere factory. I just heard they're hiring.'
"Well, Dan was a little skeptical. Everyone knew that factory, and everyone knew they hadn't hired anyone new in years. This was the kind of news that would be all over town. All over the region, really. But his friend was positive, and swore the news was just so fresh, other men hadn't heard yet. Dan asked how many men they were hiring. 'Just one,' the guy said.
"So Dan hurried himself down to the factory, hoping not too many people had heard about this, yet. When he got there they crowded him into a big room full of at least a hundred other men all applying for that same job. Dan's heart sank, but he decided to stay and see what happened. He didn't have anywhere else to go.
"After a while, in came the foreman. He climbed up on this raised platform and just looked over the crowd. Everyone got real quiet. Then, the guy looked right at Dan, in the very back of the room. 'You there,' he said. 'With the yellow hair. Come up here.'
"Dan looked around. There weren't any other blonds anywhere near him. The foreman really did mean him. So, his heart pounding, he forced his way forward, through a bunch of glaring men. 'Follow me,' the man said, and he left the room. Dan followed, of course, in total shock. The foreman took him to a small office and asked him his name, where he lived, and what his prior work experience was. He gave Dan a paper to sign and told him to show up to work the next day at 7:00. So Dan sat there, trying not to let his mouth hang open, while the guy went back into the large room and told everyone the position was filled.
"You should have seen him trying to tell his friends and parents what had happened. He could hardly believe it himself. But he showed up at 7:00 and the foreman put him to work. At the end of the week he got an honest-to-Pete paycheck. And the next week he got another one."
"So why did the guy hire him?" Richie asked.
"I'm glad you asked that, Rich." Joe grinned. "It was a long time before Dan worked up the courage to ask. But the foreman seemed to be expecting it. He smiled when Dan asked. 'You worked at a carnival last summer,' he said. 'At the pony ride, right?'"
"'That's right,' said Dan, still baffled.
"'I remembered you,' the foreman said. 'My little girl wanted a pony ride. But when she got on, she was terrified. You held her on the pony and walked around and around with her, talking to her, until she started to like it. By the end of the ride, she was laughing. I thought to myself, I wish there was something I could do for that boy.'
"Dan worked for John Deere for forty years. He always said that he had comforted many frightened children that summer, but he didn't even remember the one that changed his life."
There was silence in the car.
"That's a great story, Joe," said MacLeod, finally. "Is it true?"
"Dan was my mother's cousin."
A/N: This will be followed by The New Canterbury Tales: The Student's Tale.