Trucked

Chapter 9: Thanks again

I looked at him, quite a bit surprised for a few moments... Had I not been paying attention to anything that I had been doing last night? My mind must have been so wrapped up in the fact that I was thinking those kids had messed with my engine, that I did not put diesel in my truck.
He looked away for a few moments, and then turned his back towards me, stroking his chin at me. I looked at him for a few more moments, and then I looked down at the ground. Cursing myself for being so dumb in the first place. This was going to cost the company a lot and my manager would not be happy about it.
But maybe that was a good thing, the truck was not in very good shape in the first place. Not to mention, if this was in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, they probably would not specify what it was that I had problems with in the truck. So my manager would probably think that it was my truck that was having problems... I just had to hope.
"Alright... I must have not been paying attention to the gas that I was putting in, there were kids messing with my truck engine last night, my mind was wrapped up on that." I said to him. He looked like he did not care about a single word that I was saying. Which to be fair I did not blame him about, he was just trying to do his job.
He looked at the fuel line for a few moments, and then he tapped against it with his fist a couple of times just to make sure that it was okay. Then he walked back over to me and then he nodded to me before he began speaking back to me.
"Well... It's probably going to cost you about 1000$ to fix that out of your system. You should be okay after that, don't do something stupid like that again. Other places will make you pay even more." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments and then I nodded to him.
Other places would pay more he said, I had done the exact same thing when I first had started driving my truck, and they only made me pay 500$ but I was lucky that I was not going to be the one that was paying for all of it. I shook my head to myself, and then I nodded to the guy. Then I began speaking to him.
"So... How long do you think it will take you for you to fix it up?" I asked the guy. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he nodded to me. He looked at the gas line for a few moments longer before he turned his head back to me and nodded to me once again.
I looked at him a bit confused, I just wanted to get back on the road to get to Oregon as soon as possible. This was really making me waste a lot of time, I had already wasted plenty of time already.
But I suppose at the same time, I was lucky that it was not problems with my engine, such as I had thought in the first place. That would have taken me a lot longer than this was going to take. Last time it had happened it took me less than an hour, but this place was not as high quality as the place in Florida.
I turned my head back over to the guy as he began speaking to me once again. Paying full attention to what the guy was saying, even if I was hating on him, he for sure knew more about vehicles than I did, and that was a fact, I hardly knew anything about parts of trucks and cars.
"I already finished it up while you were put putting over there, you are good to go, I've got a fuel can that you can go take to that gas station, just make sure to take in back to the shop before you leave." The guy said to me, pointing over to a gas can that was sitting on the ground on the far side of the truck.
Maybe I should be a bit more grateful for what the guy had done for me so far, I was lucky the guy even knew what he was doing in the first place. He was not as big of an ass, as he had seemed like when I had first begun talking to him.
"Thanks, I will bring it back." I said to the guy, and then I walked up to the passenger side of the truck and the I opened it. I then began to walk into the truck, but the guy stopped me before I closed the door on him, he looked at me a bit confused and a bit surprised at the same time.
I was confused as to why he had stopped me in the first place. He looked a fair bit upset at me at the same time, I wondered what I had done that had been so wrong. I got out of the truck, looking at the guy a slight bit confused at the look of anger on his face.
He looked at me, and then he spit on the ground quite a bit angry, I looked at him a bit surprised, and a bit confused as to why he was so mad at me. He then began talking to me.
"What the hell are you doing? You do know that you got to pay first?" He said to me, almost at a yelling tone of voice. I then understood why he was so upset at me, I had completely forgotten about that, my mind was just so lost in thought, I needed to pay him, I could understand why he was so mad.
I looked at him, a bit surprised, as he then began pulling me back to the store, I began to follow the guy. Thinking in my head at the same time, what if this place was just like the gas station that I had been at yesterday, what if their card machine did not work?
I shook my head, I should not be thinking negative like that, there was no way that they did not have a card machine inside, this place would run out of business in a hurry. No one would just have 1000$ in cash on them at all times.
I shook my head, there still was a chance that something like that could happen, so I should not he counting my chickens before they hatch. He walked into the store, not even bothering to hold the door for me, I could tell that the guy was fairly angry at me still.
"Sorry man... My mind has just been so lost in thought, I did not even thinking to pay." I said to the guy. He did not even respond to me, he just walked up to the front, which the guy that I had met in the first place was still standing at, seeing the look on the owners face, he felt bad for me I could tell.
The owner then went up to the front register, stepping in front of the guy that was there. The guy looked at him a bit surprised, but he did not say anything to him. The owner then stuck his hand out for some reason, which I was a bit confused about. He could tell that I was confused as well, and he looked at me as if I was stupid, and he got even more upset.
"Give me the damn card kid! Jesus, you are like the rest of the people that come here, trying to steal our money huh?" He said to me. I looked at him a bit surprised, did he think that I was going to do something with the card that would not give his store the money?
I did not say anything however, the guy was a lot bigger than me, and I suppose that I was in the wrong. Though I was not purposely trying to be. I pulled out my wallet, thankfully actually having it on me, I did not want to go back to that truck with that guy.
I was already testing his patience, this was my fault. The guy that was next to him did not say a single thing, which I did not blame him for. He would get in trouble if he did, plus he did not have any clue what was going on in the first place.
I pulled the company card out of my wallet, and then handed it over to the guy. I expected him to check the card and get mad at me because I was using the company card to pay for it, but he did not seem to care in the first place, as he put the card in the machine a bit angrily.
I thought that that he was going to snap the card in half with how hard he shoved the card in there, but after a few moments of it working out on the machine, and it making lots of weird noises, he then tapped on the little screen that was there.
Then he plugged the card out of the machine, and he tossed it over to me. Now I was the one that was getting a bit angry, that was insanely rude at what he had just done. I did not say anything about it to the guy, as I then picked the card from up off of the floor.
This guy had some next level anger issues, and I did not want to test my luck on him. The owner then quicky ran over to the back of the store and he slammed the door very loudly just to make sure that I knew that he was mad at me. I shook my head and then I put the card into my wallet.
I began to turn around, but I heard the guy at the front that had been talking to me early say something to me, I quickly turned my head around to hear what it was that he had to say about what had just gone down in front of him.
"I am sorry, my dad can be a dick at times, I hate working with him. Good luck on your travels though man." He said to me. I looked at him, a bit surprised that the guy was his father, they looked nothing alike in the first place, but I shook my head and then began to walk out of the store.
As I opened the door to leave the store, I looked back at the guy one last time to nod to him, and thank him, but he was nowhere to be seen at all so I shook my head to myself, and then I began walking back to my truck.
As I got closer, I picked up the gas can, and it felt a bit heavy, there was something in there already. I poured open the lid to see what it was, a nasty smell came from the gas can. I felt like I was about to vomit the moment that I smelt it.
I wondered if the guy had just been a dick and he had done that to me. I looked into the gas can, holding my nose to make sure that I did not smell any of it and then I realized that the guy had not done anything to the gas can.
It had a bunch of rain water and other materials inside of it, it must have just been sitting out in the back of the store and it had not been used in quite some time. I held my nose for a few moments longer as I carried the gas can away from my truck.
Once it was a fair distance away, I poured the water from out of the gas can onto the pavement. I realized as soon as I did it that it was a mistake, the pavement was going at at up hill slope, so all of the water that I had just poured out then walked back down to me.
I hopped out of the way of it, but there was still a lot of it that got on my shoes. I cursed myself, but I did not get too upset about it, even though I knew that it was going to stink up my truck for quite some time.
I then smelt the gas can one more time, it still smelt like hell, but luckily as far as I could tell, there was no more water left in the can. I then looked around one last time, just to make sure there were no cars coming down the road, which of course there were none.
I then began to head over to the gas station, which was thankfully closer by than the mini golf course was. Once I was over onto the other side of the road, I walked in towards the gas station, putting my gas can at the front, knowing there was no way in hell they would let me in with that ratchet smell coming from it.
I opened the door, and looked at the front register, it was an older guy, that had his back turned away from the front door, he did not seem to notice that I had come into the store at all. I did not care at all anyways, as I walked over. Noticing there was a stove thing with meat in it.
5$ for 2 slices of pizza, that was a steal for me, and I was so hungry right now anyways, I knew I would have to pay for it, my manager would get a bit upset if he saw so many transactions on the same account all at one time.
I then walked over to over to the far back side, and saw there were a few sodas, but unluckily for me, I did not see any Dr. Pepper. I looked down at the ground a bit sadly for a few moments, but then I shook my head at the exact same time.
I should be grateful that I did not have anything worse happen to me today. It most certainly could have worked out that way, I could be stuck here for a lot longer than I was right now. I noticed that there was a Mr. Pibb, which was nothing compared to Dr. Pepper, but I suppose that it would work.
I grabbed that and then I walked over to the front register, which the old man was now looking at me from, noticing that there was someone in the store with him finally. I looked at the older guy, he had hair growing all inside his ears which was a bit disgusting to me, but I did my best not to show it.
I handed to guy over the pizza and the drink, and he then began to scan the thing, very slowly, clearly having no idea where the bar code was at. After a little while longer, he finally got it to work and then he nodded as the machine then began to calibrate it.
After I heard a loud beep from the machine, he looked at it for quite a few moments longer than he needed to, and then he looked back over to me and then nodded to me, as he began to speak to me.
"That is going to be 7.38$." He said to me. As he spoke I saw that the guy also did not have any teeth, which also grossed me out once again. I shook my head though, and then I pulled out wallet, and grabbed my last 10$ bill that I had left on me.
He then opened the register, and handed me 2 dollars, 1 quarter, and 2 nickles, which was not even near the amount that I had deserved to get in return, I felt bad for the guy, he seemed to have no idea what he was doing. I shook my head at the guy.
"You keep the change, just give me the dollars." I said to the guy. He smiled to himself, and then he put the coins into his dusty pocket and he nodded to me thanking me. I nodded back at the guy, and then I realized that I had forgotten to pay for gas.
I looked at the pumps to see if there was a card machine, and luckily I saw one, this gas station was a lot nicer than the one that I had been to last night, but it still was not a good gas station. I walked out of the front door, and then I grabbed the gas can and walked over to the gas pumps.
I looked at the machine, and then pulled out my wallet once again, I put my actual card in this time, not trying to have my manager get too upset at me still. Then I put in the price of 3.00$ just enough to bring my truck into the actual gas station, and pay for the gas once again.
I then pulled at the gas pump and began putting the diesel fuel into the gas can. It did not take long for it to be out, as I put the gas pump back into the machine. I began to carry the gallon of diesel fuel back with me to the truck.
I looked across the road, just in case once again, and then I began to head back over to the truck. I then opened the gas cartage, and began to pour the diesel into the fuel line. Hoping that the guy had actually cleaned out all of the normal gas from the fuel line.
Once it was all out of the gas can, I then put the gas can down onto the ground, and then closed the small little hatch to the gas cartage. I then turned my head around after a few moments, and then closed my eyes, just thinking of how lucky I was that it was not a problem with my engine.
I then opened my eyes back up, and picked up the gas can, walking back over to the store to drop it back off to the owner. Hopefully he was not as mad as he was before. He did realize I could not even walk off with the truck with to fuel in it right?
I shook my head as I then walked into the store, the bell rang just like last time, and I looked around to see if there was anyone at the front desk. I did not see anyone there, so I walked over to it, and then put down the gas can and began to walk back out of the store. I heard someone begin to walk over to the front register however.
It was the same younger guy that I had seen earlier, he looked at me and nodded, noticing that it was just me coming back into the store with the gas can. I felt like I should say one more thing to the guy, before I headed off to never see the guy again.
"Hey man... Thanks again..."