stealing truck

Ramon wouldn’t mind if I borrowed his truck.  I was practically family, right?  And he just left the keys out in the open where anyone could get them.  

That’s how I ended up in the pickup, camera in tow, driving towards Monte Seco.  Past La Patria, where the pavement ended, I hadn’t expected the amount of mud… I mean… it was raining… but not that hard, right?  

I should’ve immediately turned around, but the road wouldn’t be thaaaaaat bad.  And Monte Seco isn’t thaaaaat far away.  And honestly, right now, I just didn’t fucking care.

The mud was slippery.  The truck was out of control, sliding all over the road.  A tiny part of me was regretting this.  But mostly it felt like an adventure.  Plowing through to the park.  

At some point, there was a downpour.  The rain coming down in sheets.  Wind threatening to topple me over.  I could barely see in front of me.  That voice in my head asked again, what the fuck am I doing?  But I continued on.  

Straight into a mini-lake aka gigantic water puddle, that the wheel did not want to come out of.  The front one did, but then suddenly, I just stopped.  

“Grrrrrrrr!” I growled aloud, slamming a fist into the steering wheel.  “Come on you stupid thing!”  And then I pressed on the gas, digging the hole deeper, getting myself even more stuck.  I shifted to reverse and then slammed on the gas again, not moving an inch. 

Fuck.

I repeated this process about ten thousand times until the rain stopped, then finally decided to jump out and survey the damage.  I landed in about a foot of mud (I’ve been around Noelia too long… I’m starting to be dramatic like her!) and trekked to the back of the truck.  No idea what to do, I just dug around, getting so fucking muddy, which was both more fun and messier than I’d expected.  Then, I wiped my muddy hands all over my jean shorts, and tried again to get the truck unstuck.

It did not work.

Activate slight-panic mode.  

I was literally in the middle of nowhere.  It would be night soon.  No one knew where I was.  No one even knew I had Ramon’s truck.  

No signal on my phone, of course.  That was the reason I was out here anyway… to just get away from everyone.  

My tummy growled, reminding me that I’d skipped lunch.

Someone would come around.  They had to.  Right?

They did.  A couple of nearby ranchers with a pickup of their own.  They tried to help me out.  Chained up their truck to mine.  Tugged.  Ended up getting themselves stuck.

So now we were both fucked.

They had cell service though.  Called another nearby rancher who has a tractor.  Our only hope.

Another long, painful wait.  The cloudy sky was starting to darken, the nocturnal animals beginning to wake.  Would I be able to still make it to Monte Seco?  It was only a few more kilometers away…

In the distance, I saw the tractor’s headlight.  Then I turned around and saw another pair of headlights, and the sinking feeling in my tummy told me exactly who it was.  I didn’t know for sure until Beto’s truck pulled up beside me and Ramon got out, right as the tractor pulled out the other truck.