The sun shining on E.D. put him fast asleep, just like it did every other time he had stopped here. A few beer and a nap never accomplished much, but it was exactly what he enjoyed on these trips. Normally, he would have cast a line into the water and placed his rod between his legs in the chance a fish actually swam by. This time it was different, he didn't even think of fishing, he was mesmerized by Sam and that overly revealing outfit.
His thoughts of her swayed into his dreams and within minutes, the two were dancing along the water's edge, laughing and giggling. Intertwined, the two fell into the shoreline and shared a close encounter and although E.D. wouldn't kiss her, he passed his breath past her neck enough times, he knew he could have hearing her reaction as she sighed every time. His fingers made her tingle as he slowly ran them from her neck down her arms, but the reaction wasn't as expected.
"Why are you so sweaty" Sam asked pushing away and looking down at her hands.
E.D. looked down at himself in disbelief and noticed he was soaking wet with sweat. Panic swallowed his tongue and he pulled away looking around for an answer, only to notice that Sam was now wearing a sweater. 'What the hell?' he thought, 'where did that come from?'
His eyes surveyed the landscape and he turned watching as it changed. There were no trees swinging to the rhythm of the breeze, only dark dead shrubs and sand as far as he could see. He panicked further and turned back to Sam, but she was no where to be seen, neither was the river. It had been replaced by a small ravine of dead leaves and twigs that must have come from the shrubs. E.D. started calling for Sam, but his voice only squeaked. Running around the desolate sandy dunes, he looked and looked for Sam, but only found more sand until eventually he fell to his knees. Thunder clapped loudly and E.D looked up only to find a clear blue sky. He was beyond confused, how was that even possible he thought. The wind howled loudly and the sound of rain was deafening, he even felt the raindrops, but when he looked around, again everything was clear and bright, but he could even feel the wet on his skin now.
"Hey. E.D. HEY!" he felt his arm being pulled.
"Come on, what are you doing?" Sam's voice echoed in his mind as he opened his eyes. The sun had been replaced by dark, ferocious storm clouds and as he sat up, he realized he was soaking wet. Water ran down his face as he rose up out of the truck box furiously, as if the storm clouds had attacked him.
"Come on, get in" Sam yelled as she jumped into the truck and slammed the door, rolling the window up immediately.
E.D. shook the rain from his face and rounded the truck corner managing to get himself inside as well. The seat was puddled and E.D. knew why, he had left the windows down in an attempt to air out the cigar smoke. Sadly, now most of the interior was drenched as well, he noticed as he hurriedly rolled up his own window. Sam had grabbed her bag on her way into the truck and was now wiping herself down with a towel. E.D. watched her wipe off her arms and neck, but when she had finished wiping off her face, he knew he had been caught staring as their eyes met. Sam didn't seem to mind, but stopped briefly. "Did you bring a towel for yourself?" she asked as she tucked her chin down and placed the towel over her shorter blond hair. E.D. felt stupid now, he knew he'd get caught and now he was afraid of what Sam might be thinking about him now that he had been.
"Uh, yeah. I think it's right back here,"he replied as he turned behind his seat uprooting the bags. He dug around for a minute until finally revealing his towel and he turned back to the wheel wiping the remaining rain from his face as well. The windows fogged as they finished drying off, so when he was finished E.D. started the truck.
"So what do we do now?" Sam asked.
"Well, maybe we should carry on down the road further until this rain stops." he replied, looking out at the dismal sky through the side window after wiping it with his towel.
"I think that might be best" Sam replied wiping off hers as well.
The heater in the truck made short work of the moisture on the windshield and E.D. throttled his way back out the trail toward the main road. He didn't offer any conversation and pretended to be overly involved in driving for the first few minutes, but finally his thoughts and nerves had the best of him.
"I didn't see the sun disappear" he said bravely looking over at Sam
Sam shook her head, "Me either. I was poking around the shoreline looking at all the lovely colored stones when it hit." Sam giggled as their eyes caught again. "Did you fall asleep back there?"
E.D. didn't want to admit he had, but didn't know how else to explain things, "Yeah, just briefly. I guess I was just too relaxed back there."
"Oh that's ok," she replied "we're probably going to have a long night, so it's probably best you did."
The storm settled down into only a steady rain as they drove on, the wind seemed to follow suit and soon it was just foggy as the moisture burnt off the road into the sky. E.D. had to slow his driving as the visibility lessened until finally he had to stop as it worsened.
"Wow," he said "I've never seen fog develop like this before."
"No, me either" Sam shook her head in agreement. "Do you know where we are?"
"Um, yeah. We should be real close to that little road side cafe, but I don't know if I should be driving in this." He pointed out the windshield motioning to the fog.
"Maybe you should just pull off the road for a while and let this fog lift." Sam offered.
E.D. pulled slowly up the shoulder of the main road until he found a side road. It didn't look very well traveled, in fact he wondered why he didn't remember it. Most side roads out here had some sort of sign at the main road indicating what they were for, even if they were just from logging. The two crept along excruciatingly slow until they found a clearing.
"Let's just park here for a bit" Sam pointed at the clearing.
E.D. nodded and pulled into the spot, centering the truck between two massive white pines.