Getting to NAU
Chapter One
By Wade Wright
"Hey Jim, ain't that the same cop we saw at the roadside rest area after we left Pueblo?"
"Yea, looks like it to me. Think it is?"
"God Jim, look at those pants he's got on. What did I say bout that cop we saw at the roadside rest? Remember I said then, I wondered how in the hell he could even sit down in em without ripping the ass out of `em?"
Jim and Bob were having dinner, along Interstate 25, somewhat south of Pueblo, Colorado, in what used to be one of the national chain of Bob's Restaurants. The building was the type of restaurant where a lot of the booths are right up against the front windows, and the cars drive right up to the sidewalk, right outside of the booths, the windows, the sidewalk and of course the customers sitting inside. Jim and Bob were waiting for their hamburgers and fries when the State Trooper just happened to pull up and park his Harley, State Patrol, motorbike right in front of the window where they were seated.
As the officer came into the restaurant, both Bob and Jim glanced over to rather check him out to try and see if it was, in-fact, the same officer.
Looking around the room as the officer headed for his seat at the counter, he did notice both of the college man looking over toward him, and he nodded. Jim was almost directly facing him, but it was rather very obvious that Bob was looking too, since he definitely needed to turn almost completely around, to look in that direction.
The officer took a seat at the counter that was rather evenly placed between Bob's line of view, and also Jim's. As he sat down, both young men watched, both remembering the comment earlier from Bob about wondering just how he could sit down without ripping the ass out of his uniform pants.
"Well he made it, they didn't rip!" Bob quietly stated to Jim, as the officer did sit down and the waitress gave him a cup of coffee and a thermal serving container.
Leaning over toward Bob so that he could speak very quietly, Jim stated, "My God man! The way those pants, and his ass, are getting you all concerned, would make a guy think you are gay or something. Yea, tight pants and a good looking cop, but for God sakes man, it's a guy!"
"Hey Jim, we're gonna be rooming together again for another year, so I think maybe we need to get something kind of straight here. Man, woman, tall, short, light, dark, whatever, if it's a hot built body, I'm gonna admire it and probably make comments about it. Just cause I can tell when somebody is really put together and they really do a good job of keeping themselves in good shape, that don't mean I'd go to bed with `em. Let's face it, I hope like hell in a bushel basket that when I'm that age, somebody will look at my ass and make good comments about it! He's what, probably 35 or so, and he looks like he oughta be in college someplace, himself! He's the kind of a guy I want to try and look like at that age. And seriously man, I won't care if it's guys or gals that make the comments about me when I'm that age, as long as they're good hot comments about my hot ass."
"Ok guy, sorry! Didn't mean anything by it, just thought I'd point that out."
"Hey, no offense man, no offense!" Then finishing his, "No offense" statement, Bob glanced over toward the officer and asked Jim, "Is he watching us through that mirror? No! No! No, don't look, but I think he's watching us through that mirror in front of him."
"Bob, I don't know if he is or not, but if he is, it's probably cause he heard you talking about his ass and not ripping out his pants."
Shortly, the waitress delivered the "Burger Baskets" that each of the guys had ordered, and after thanking the waitress, Bob once again, as he had been all along, glanced over toward the officer. This time, the officer and Bob's eyes met, as the officer did look back at the two, through the mirror. The officer nodded, smiled, and Bob returned the salute!"
Getting up from his spot at the counter, the officer approached the table and asked, "Hey guys, how you doing? I saw you guys up at the roadside rest checking a map a little while ago didn't I?"
"Huh-yea, yea you did!" Bob replied. I asked Jim if maybe you weren't the same officer we saw there. He thought maybe you were. I was pretty sure you were the same one. Hello, I'm Bob, this is Jim"
Each of the two travelers reached out and shook the officer's hand as he greeted each one and introduced himself as Officer Baker, "Actually Officer,---Stane Baker to you guys! When it's friends, it's Officer Stane Baker, when it's out along the side of the road, then it's just Officer Baker. Hey guys, do you mind if I join you two while I have my coffee? I spend the whole damn day out there all by myself and when I get a chance to actually sit and talk to someone, I kind of like it. Would you mind?"
"No, no we don't mind!" Jim quickly replied. "Yea please do!"
The officer quickly said "Thanks guys, let me get my helmet, and I'll be right back."
Bob looked over at Jim, and let out a very big grin. Jim grinned back, then rather shook his head at his buddy in wonderment about just what was making Bob act so "weird" all of a sudden.
Officer Baker returned to the counter, retrieved his helmet from the stool beside his own, told Sally, the waitress that he was joining the two guys in the booth, and asked her if she could move his coffee and the server to that table.
As Officer Baker returned to the table, Jim got quite a chuckle out of the fact that Bob, very quickly, slid to the side, so that it would be very obvious that he was making room for the officer to sit beside him.
Officer Baker reached over and placed his helmet on the seat beside Jim, then did take the `obviously available' space directly beside Bob.
Sitting down, and also allowing Sally to place his coffee and the server on the table in front of him, Officer Baker then asked. "So guys, what you two up to? Saw you're carrying Nebraska tags on your truck, so coming from Nebraska, I assume? Right?"
"Yea, headed for NAU." Jim responded. "Heading back for year number two."
Looking at both of the two college men, Officer Baker asked, "You two twins?"
Both laughing, Bob and Jim each replied, "No!" Then Jim added, "Just looks like it. Actually back home we were called, "the twins," but we're not even related. I'm a Smith, and Bob's a Renn. We grew up together, so we've kind of always been together, and I guess we've looked like each other ever since we were little."
Laughing and grinning a little, Bob added, "Yea, there's always been a lot of back room chitter chatter about just who's really related to who. I was born in South Carolina, and Jim was born in Nebraska, so we and our folks just always let it go with a grin. My family moved to Nebraska when I was about five, so we never let the gossip shit bother us any."
"Well, I will agree with anybody that thinks you two ought to be at least brothers. You two the same age?"
"Yea, almost. I'll be 20 in November, and Jim was 20 last August."
"I'm sorry guys, but this is weird! Same age, ---within only months of each other, same color of hair, same type of skin, same face shape, and when I saw you at the roadside stop, standing there beside the truck, you looked like you're the same size, height and all. You guys even have the same body build! Seriously guy, I sure can understand why people think you are twins. Hell, I sure did! So you said you're headed back to NAU, right? Obviously you guys are athletes?"
"Well, that was the plan, but didn't quite work out that way!" Bob explained.
"Wait a minute. That was the plan, but didn't work out that way? What you mean?"
"Hey, when you come from some little berg town, and you are the football jocks of the school, you end up thinking you're pretty damn good shit! Well Jim and I were, or course, the sports jocks of the school. We were pretty damn good,-well so we thought! We knew we weren't good enough to play football at Nebraska, I mean, after all nobody from that University ever came to see us play, so we decided to go to a school and just go as "walk ons". Hell, we knew we wouldn't have any problems. I mean after all, we were top shit at home. We found out that NAU has a good hospitality program, and since Jim and I both want to be in resort management, ---so we can play golf all the time, we knew NAU had a football program, so we decided to just go there, and get on the team as walk ons."
"And soooo?" Officer Baker asked, with a quizzed expression on his face.
"Well let me put it this way," Jim replied. "The coach rather told us after our attempts to show what we got, that maybe "Walk away" was a better term for us than, "walk on." Our days on the team were rather limited. Big shit in a little town, sure don't mean a big shit at some university where they got some real talent available. So, anyway, now we're there to study! But hey, it's all called a learning experience! We tried, we failed, so it's time to move on!"
"So I assume you two live in a dorm together?"
"No, not this year. Did last year, but we found a small apartment that we can afford, so we're gonna live off campus this year."
"What'd you find? A small two bedroom apartment close to campus someplace?"
"Well," replied Jim, "Yea, it's a small apartment, close to campus, but we couldn't afford the two bedroom, so we decided we'd make do in a one bedroom apartment rather than have to go back to the dorm. We've spent so many nights sleeping in the same room anyway, ever since we've been little, staying at each other's house, we decided that we could do that so we could live off campus. We're just not spreading that info around back home. We decided those folks just don't need to know. They don't need more to talk about anyway!"
"So guys, this one bedroom apartment. It have two beds in the bedroom, or one?" Officer Baker asked as he lightly let his right hand slide over toward Bob's leg and allowed it to touch.
Bob did not move. He did not say anything. He seriously wondered if that had happened on purpose, or was he imagining things.
Jim answered. "Well it's only got one, but it's a queen size bed, and we've spent so many night sleeping in the same bed over the years, we decided we could do it some more just to be able to live off campus, right Bob?"
Rather snapping out of his slight state of confusion, concerning the officer's hand and his leg, Bob replied. "Uh, yea! Yea. We decided that we didn't need to tell anybody else about it, and hey, we worked out a system so that if one of us needs the apartment all to ourselves for a little while, the other guy'll know. Well, anyway, that's what we're gonna do just so we can live off campus. Unfortunately, neither one of us comes from money, so gotta do whatever we can do, cash wise."
"Office Baker looked at the two, laid his hand on top of Bob's leg even more pronounced and firmly, and then said. "Hey guys, I admire both of you for doing whatever is necessary to get the college education. I didn't figure either one of you came from a lot of money, or you'd be driving something other than that truck you guys are in, so I've got a deal that will save you just a little more. Not a lot, but hey, when money is tight, it's tight, and I've been there enough to know any little bit helps. This county and this town are anxious to make things grow, and so they've come up with this program called, Growth Outreach. What it is, it's a financial program that whenever one of the public people, people like me as an example, see a chance to do something for somebody traveling through, we can use some of our credit points to do something for that person. It's not a hand out program, it's more of a, `we like you and we want you to like us', program. They know that if you do something good for somebody, they'll have good things to say about this area. And good words spread fast. So what I'd like to do is use some of my credits on you two, and put you up for the night over at the Highway Hotel. In other words, ---I like you and I'd like for you to like me! It's a nice motel down the road only about a mile south, and the charge is on us. It will be given to you from the Growth Outreach program. OK? It's another day's drive on into Flagstaff, and you guys need to crash someplace, anyway, right?"
"Well yea, yea, but we were planning on just sleeping in the back of the truck someplace." Jim responded. "Bob, ---what do you think?"
"Uhh, yea, uhhhh yea I guess! I mean yea, if they wanna do that!" Bob uttered in a very confused manner as he realized that the touching of the leg, and the hand now on his leg definitely was not something, happening by mistake! He felt Officer Baker actually squeeze his leg as he uttered the, "Uhh, yea, uhhhh yea I guess!"
"Ok guys then it's settled. Let me go out to my bike and get a piece of paper to give you to take with you and I'll be right back.
As Officer Baker stood to go out to his bike, Sally came past the table and Officer Baker suddenly said, "Hey wait! I don't need to go out there. Sally, I want to put their meals on a Growth Outreach ticket, and give me another empty form that I can fill out to give them to take to the hotel. OK?"
"What, ---you're gonna put our supper on there too?" Jim asked.
"Yea, sure! Why not?" Officer Baker replied. I haven't used up many of my credits yet this year anyway, so this'll let the campaign committee know I'm supporting what they're doing."
Officer Baker sat back down and sipped on his coffee, as he once again allowed his leg to slightly slide over toward Bob, so that their legs would be touching again. Bob did not move, nor did he say anything! He was stunned, rather shocked and confused, but none the less, totally silent!
As Officer Baker sat there and allowed his leg to move so slightly so that it was rubbing up against Bob's leg, he filled out the forms that Sally had handed him, and then handed one across the table to Jim. "Hey, here's the form for the room. All you have to do is take it into the front desk, ask for the manager, that'll be Bill. Just so you'll know if you're already talking to him, he's about 37 or 38, six foot tall, looks like a former football guy, so you guys just might hit it off, and he's got a light brown flat top, and always has a good looking T shirt on that says, Highway Hotel on it. Don't think he really cares about the saying on the front, but he likes to show off his muscles, and wearing that shirt, he can get away with it. Anyway, if he's not there at the desk, ask if he's available, and then tell him Officer Baker gave you guys this to use. You'll be treated like royalty, I assure you! These are good papers to be carrying in someplace. It means you're special! So don't be ashamed to use it!"
"Oh, well what if that Bill isn't there? Then what do we do?" Jim asked.
"Oh! Oh if he's not there, anybody can take care of you, but I just like to have Bill take care of my people whenever I send somebody in, if at all possible! He makes sure they are treated real right!'
As he stated the, `real right', he laid his hand of Bob's thigh and squeezed. He looked at Bob and smiled, then he looked at Jim and smiled, again. Then, getting up from the table, Officer Baker said, "Hey guys! This has been fun. I'll be off duty in just about two hours, so I'll stop in over there and make sure Bill is taking care of everything, OK? Just give him that paper guys, and everything will be all taken care of for you, for the night. Make sure Bill shows you the workout room, the steam room and the Jacuzzi. OK? I'll see you later. Bye!"
As Officer Baker turned toward the cash register to go pay his bill, Jim and Bob each said, "OK Bye!" Bob added, "See you later."
Bob and Jim sat there finishing their dinners as Officer Baker, turned, waved and headed out the door. Watching from inside of the restaurant, Bob and Jim each waved as they watched Officer Stane Baker, grab his patrol bike, stand it up straight and then throw his right leg up and over the seat to get on board.
Jim laughed and said, "Well! Got his leg up and over that bike and didn't rip `em out this time either! Did he? Hey, what a deal! A free supper, and a free hotel room, too! We're doing pretty damn good aren't we? What a deal!"
Bob sat silently, and rather looked at Jim. Slowly he said, "Yea, yea he didn't rip `em, did he? Yea, ---aaaaaa-- free hotel room! Uhh Jim, ---Jim, I've got something to tell you!"
(Readers: To find additional stories from your favorite authors, on the opening pages, click on AUTHORS, and when the list comes up, you can select stories from your favorite authors. Please note that I recently had an E-mail address change, and if you do happen to read one of my stories posted earlier, DO NOT use the AT&T address. That is old. If you do wish to contact me, do please use the wadewright@cox.net address. Thanks, hope you enjoy the reading!)