She was definitely not in the best of moods at the moment, that much was obvious. She was being tailed by some damned city kitty, and if that wasn't bad enough, she was trapped in one hell of a lot of traffic with no apparent end in sight.
Grabbing at her radio, she radioed the truck farther ahead of her, recognizing the custom green paintjob as one of her closer co-workers.
"Hey Greg, can you tell what the hell's holding up traffic back here?" she sighed.
"Looks like a rolling roadblock, Ricky. Maybe two kliks ahead."
"That just ruined my day, Greg."
"Sorry, Ricky."
The only positive thing that Ricky got out of that situation was the fact that she could expect honesty from pretty much anyone who knew of the volatile older woman. After all, she was a veteran of the trade, and most people had learned the hard way why it wasn't such a good idea to get in her way. Ricky tended to be a little overprotective of her truck, and made sure that everyone knew just how much she was by displaying her temper whenever someone dared comment about it.
Reclining in her seat, she frowned, fiddling around with the radio. Unfortunately, the best she could get in these situations was some kind of country crap that was full of static at best.
"Greg to Ricky. Looks like the road's clear."
Ricky couldn't help but sigh in relief. The last thing she wanted to deal with right now was being late to deliver the trailer that was currently hooked to the back of her semi and get shit for it. Some people just didn't understand that truckers did their damned best to get the goods to their customers on time. Some people, however, were just assholes. Truckers and customers alike. One of the younger truckers, some kid barely out of school by the name of James, was one such person. He had little respect for anyone else, and constantly tried to go after the women when they were conveniently stopped at the same lot.
Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, Ricky seemed to be present whenever the idiot was around, and was sorely tempted to give the guy one hell of a good reason to leave the women alone. They had work to do, and so did he, even though he acted like it was all a joke. People like James gave the truckers a pretty bad reputation, including Ricky.
"Thanks Greg. Let me know if you happen to see James' ugly hide rolling around."
"Will do, ma'am."
She felt her lips curl upwards, and she chuckled. "You sound so polite on the radio, Greg."
"With you behind me? Fuck yeah I am." Came the sarcastic reply. "I'm stupid, not suicidal."
"Well, at least you're learning." Ricky barked out a laugh before disconnecting from the line and pulling into another lane.
o-o-o-o
The hours flew by, and Ricky fell back into her comfortable silence. The radio was still fuzzing faintly in the background, but she had long gotten used to the sound. It was now something of a comfort to her, something that kept the silent cab from getting too monotonous. Though how that was to be accomplished considering that there was always going to be the deep rumbling bass of the engine sounding in her eardrums for as long as she owned the damned truck. Which, given her connection to it was going to be for a good many years yet.
Before she knew it, she'd finished her delivery, gotten paid, and was now happily sailing through Nevada's border when trouble hit in the form of an unlucky deer leaping out into the middle of the road.
Slamming her foot into the brakes, Ricky closed her eyes, realizing that there wasn't really anything else that she could do about what was about to happen.
There was the inevitable thunk of something slamming into the grill, and a momentary shriek that she swore would be haunting her nightmares for the next couple of months.
Signaling, she pulled over to the side of the road, wanting to assess the damage and pry off the road kill that would otherwise be baked to the grill at this rate, given the rather high temperatures lately.
Wincing as she took note of the deer, she hauled herself back up into the cab of the truck and rummaged around for her heavy duty gloves that she saved especially for unexpected events such as this one.
That done, she walked back around front, grabbed a hold of the front legs, and yanked it off the front of the truck. Things like this didn't particularly bother her anymore, considering she'd been in the road kill business almost as long as she'd been in the trucking business.
"Sorry, Bambi." She sighed, clapping her hands together as she took a look at the grill to make sure that no fur or guts had managed to worm their way into the more delicate workings of the semi. That would be just what she needed; a couple of hours from now, smelling deer guts cooking in the engine. Wouldn't that be delicious?
Ricky pulled off the gloves before she climbed back into the semi, not wishing to get any more grime on the truck than she absolutely had to. The thing was her baby.
o-o-o-o
It had to be at least several hours later that she saw the light flashing through the sky.
Slowing, her semi being the only vehicle on the lonely stretch of road, she watched as it came down a good handful of miles ahead, sending up one hell of a dust cloud that blew over her a couple of moments later.
In other words, something that perked up Ricky's attention. But that wasn't necessarily a good thing. She was known for sticking her nose into places that it didn't belong in. It wasn't really her fault; she just had an insatiable curiosity.
Picking up speed again, she zoomed on down the road, keeping a weather eye out for anything that looked as though it might have fallen from the sky.
