The_gladiator
Avatar of Fantasy
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
- Posts
- 24,522
Opposites attract
I glared at the windshield; if my eyes had been weapons the glass would have a million holes. My fists clenched and unclenched on the steering wheel. Why exactly had I subjected myself to that, again? The good lord only knew. I’d subjected myself to that charade for nothing. I had put on a suit and tie, ill-fitting, but it was clean, and it still hadn’t impressed the big city. “You’re a small town country singer Mr. Farmer. I’m sad to be the one to inform you, that’s all you will ever be.” The label executive’s words rang in his ears as the snooty man in his pinstriped suit had stared down his nose at me. So maybe I, Jay Farmer, wasn’t cut out for Nashville any other big city, but I didn’t deserve his scorn.
I was driving back home now, to the mountains, to my family, to my town. They knew and loved me here, I wasn’t a waste of space here, and if Pride was all I could cling to god dammit I was gonna cling to it for all I was worth. I longed, now that it was all over, to be back in my jeans and boots. This identity was clearly not who I was and maybe the producer had sensed that. I should have shown up in muddy boots and a button down shirt, what would he have said then. My luck he would have loved me. Oh well, it was over now. I would probably go back to doing odd jobs around the town, helping out on the family’s land, anything to keep me out of the mines, the coal dust would be hell on my singing voice. I would be relegated back to playing music on the weekends in the local bars, but was that really so bad?
My inner reverie was broken abruptly as headlights abruptly swept across my vision. I leaned hard on my horn as a small car suddenly tried to swerve out of my path, back onto her side of the road, not that this dirt road was really wide enough to be considered 2 lanes. One of us should have properly pulled over and let the other pass, but clearly this wasn’t a local. And the little car didn’t seem to handle the gravel or leaves well, and I watched the taillights go out of sight off the side of the road, which lead into a gully. Damned fool was lucky it hadn’t been a real drop off.
I slowed the truck, putting it in reverse. Backing down this road in the late afternoon light wasn’t a fun prospect, but neither was trying to turn around on this road. I couldn’t just drive away without seeing if the person was alright; my uncle the sheriff would kill me. I should probably radio it in also, but I would check it out before I bothered Uncle Titus, rumor had it he was working security for some kind of wedding happening in town. Why anyone would want to come here, on purpose to get married was beyond me, but that’s not really important to the story.
Having backed up to where the car went over, I got out and after eyeing my shot gun, decided that it had been long enough since anyone had seen a bear or cooper around here that I’d probably not need it. Just what the poor wreck victim would like to meet in the trees just before dark, a man wearing a suit packing a shot gun. Climbing down the embankment I saw that the car had fetched up against a tree, it fortunately hadn’t flipped, or caught fire. As I approached I called out, “You ok?” as I got closer I saw it was a young woman, in a dress. My mind flashed to that wedding my mama had talked about on the phone, I really hadn’t been listening; now I wished I had. Could this woman be associated with that? Who else wore a dress in the mountains like that?
I stepped to the car’s door and reached to pull the door open, offering the woman one of my large hands to help her out, blue eyes concerned as they swept over her. “You alright miss?” Stopping myself before I called her ma’am, remembering that some city women got offended if you called them ma’am, something about it making them feel old, or that’s what my cousin who’d gone away to college said.
I glared at the windshield; if my eyes had been weapons the glass would have a million holes. My fists clenched and unclenched on the steering wheel. Why exactly had I subjected myself to that, again? The good lord only knew. I’d subjected myself to that charade for nothing. I had put on a suit and tie, ill-fitting, but it was clean, and it still hadn’t impressed the big city. “You’re a small town country singer Mr. Farmer. I’m sad to be the one to inform you, that’s all you will ever be.” The label executive’s words rang in his ears as the snooty man in his pinstriped suit had stared down his nose at me. So maybe I, Jay Farmer, wasn’t cut out for Nashville any other big city, but I didn’t deserve his scorn.
I was driving back home now, to the mountains, to my family, to my town. They knew and loved me here, I wasn’t a waste of space here, and if Pride was all I could cling to god dammit I was gonna cling to it for all I was worth. I longed, now that it was all over, to be back in my jeans and boots. This identity was clearly not who I was and maybe the producer had sensed that. I should have shown up in muddy boots and a button down shirt, what would he have said then. My luck he would have loved me. Oh well, it was over now. I would probably go back to doing odd jobs around the town, helping out on the family’s land, anything to keep me out of the mines, the coal dust would be hell on my singing voice. I would be relegated back to playing music on the weekends in the local bars, but was that really so bad?
My inner reverie was broken abruptly as headlights abruptly swept across my vision. I leaned hard on my horn as a small car suddenly tried to swerve out of my path, back onto her side of the road, not that this dirt road was really wide enough to be considered 2 lanes. One of us should have properly pulled over and let the other pass, but clearly this wasn’t a local. And the little car didn’t seem to handle the gravel or leaves well, and I watched the taillights go out of sight off the side of the road, which lead into a gully. Damned fool was lucky it hadn’t been a real drop off.
I slowed the truck, putting it in reverse. Backing down this road in the late afternoon light wasn’t a fun prospect, but neither was trying to turn around on this road. I couldn’t just drive away without seeing if the person was alright; my uncle the sheriff would kill me. I should probably radio it in also, but I would check it out before I bothered Uncle Titus, rumor had it he was working security for some kind of wedding happening in town. Why anyone would want to come here, on purpose to get married was beyond me, but that’s not really important to the story.
Having backed up to where the car went over, I got out and after eyeing my shot gun, decided that it had been long enough since anyone had seen a bear or cooper around here that I’d probably not need it. Just what the poor wreck victim would like to meet in the trees just before dark, a man wearing a suit packing a shot gun. Climbing down the embankment I saw that the car had fetched up against a tree, it fortunately hadn’t flipped, or caught fire. As I approached I called out, “You ok?” as I got closer I saw it was a young woman, in a dress. My mind flashed to that wedding my mama had talked about on the phone, I really hadn’t been listening; now I wished I had. Could this woman be associated with that? Who else wore a dress in the mountains like that?
I stepped to the car’s door and reached to pull the door open, offering the woman one of my large hands to help her out, blue eyes concerned as they swept over her. “You alright miss?” Stopping myself before I called her ma’am, remembering that some city women got offended if you called them ma’am, something about it making them feel old, or that’s what my cousin who’d gone away to college said.
