Parable Road #8 (Those People)

The chatter of a truck stop restaurant surrounds us.

Harvey, the husky, unshaven man who serves as my driving partner sits across from me. He looks like he’s a refugee from a lumberjack camp.

He sure looks like he needs some sleep.

Good thing it’s my turn to drive next.

Faint smells of grease and fresh coffee tickle my nostrils.

This room is small and clean but it looks vaguely old-fashioned. What else could I expect, it’s a typical small-town truck stop. But the truth is, I don’t care. I’m hungry and this is the kind of place where I can find food.

I’ll need some sustenance if I want the strength to make it through my upcoming shift.

The horizon I see through the dirty window beside me is tinged with the gentle light of early morning.

“Coffee?”

“No thanks.”

A plump, homely-looking, waitress with a head of curly black hair looks down at me. “Are you sure?” She says, surprise filling her voice.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Ben isn’t a drinker,” Harvey mutters with a smirk as he pushes his cup to the table’s edge. “I’ll take some.”

“Alright,” the waitress says as she fulfills this request.

As she is pouring the liquid, I can’t help but notice a tear running down her lined face. As the cup is filled she sets down her coffee pot and readies an order pad.“Now, what would you two like for breakfast?”

“Your special looks good to me, thanks,” I say.

“I’ll just take some eggs and a double order of bacon,” Harvey offers. “I like my eggs over easy.”

“Alright. Sounds good.” The waitress scribbles on her pad for a moment. “I’ll be right back with your food.” The waitress takes a breath, wipes away another tear, and then heads toward the kitchen.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” Harvey mutters as he heads off.

“Go ahead, I’ll be here.”

Chatter continues around me. Typical truck stop gossip about weigh scales and confrontations with the cops. I’ve heard it all before.

As I wait I ponder the road of mountains ahead of me. I’m sure thankful I have this shift. It is a hard road and I don’t trust Harvey to navigate it without an accident.

I just don’t know what to do with him. He doesn’t have much experience. But, he won’t listen to anything I have to say either.

He’s a crash scene waiting to happen.

I breathe out a silent prayer for the grace I need to put up with him.

“Here you go,” the waitress says as she slips a plate of food onto the table before me.

“Already. That was fast.”

“Thank you,” the waitress replies as she turns to leave.

“Just a minute, I have a question for you.”

“What is it?”

“How’s your day going?”

“Well,” the waitress blinks rapidly, struggling to hold back tears. “To be honest, it could be better.”

“Oh. What’s the problem?”

“It’s my boyfriend, he left me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“We were together for ten years. Last night he told me that I wasn’t worth being with. That I should just go ahead and kill myself.”

“You know what? The ugly things that people say can’t change the fact that you are beautiful in the sight of God.”

“God? What does he have to do with anything? If he does exist. He doesn’t care about someone like me.”

Harvey slides into his seat across from me. I hope he doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t. He just dives into his plate of food. Still, I can see that he’s listening carefully to what I’m saying.

“God was willing to send His one and only son to die for you. Does that sound like something God would do if He didn’t care about you?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all that before. The way you Church people behave sure makes it hard to believe anything you say.”

“I know I’m not perfect. Who is?”

“God knows,” the waitress laughs again, and this time Harvey joins her.

I pause, trying to think of something to say to her. I take a breath and then carry on. “You know, we’ve all fallen on our faces. We’ve all made mistakes.”

Bitterness tinges the harsh laughter of the waitress. “I can agree with that much at least.”

“You know, the good news is, even if we’ve made mistakes, we don’t have to stay in the mess of consequences. We can have a new life.”

“That sounds good. But you don’t know what I’ve done! There’s no hope for me! Maybe my boyfriend was right, I’m worthless. I should just…”

“No, you shouldn’t!”

“Why not? What do I have to live for?”

“You’re looking at what you lost. But sometimes we have to let go of the little things we’ve been clinging to, so our hands are free to grasp something bigger and better.”

“Margie!”

The waitress looks up startled at the sound of her name. “Yes?”

“We’ve got orders piling up here.”

“I’ll be right there,” the waitress says. “Sorry, I have to go back to work.” With that, she leaves our table.

“I don’t know why you waste your time talking to these people,” Harvey mutters.

“Everybody has value in the sight of God, why shouldn’t I talk to them?”

“Yeah. Yeah. What does all that talking help? She’s never going to change. By this time next week, she’ll be on to another guy and another mess.”

I tackle my plate full of breakfast.”Maybe what I said won’t change anything but if we do nothing at all, we can be sure that nothing will happen. At least I tried.”

“It’s just a waste of time, look out for yourself, that’s all you can do,” Harvey says as he empties his plate.

“How can I say I love God if I ignore the people that God loves?”

“Whatever. Are you gonna sit there all day? We’ve got a long way to go yet.”

I polish off the last of my breakfast and stand to my feet. “Alright, let’s go.”

Harvey looks at the pile of change I place in the center of the table. “Wow! The food didn’t taste good enough for a tip like that.”

“Someday you’ll get it,” I say as I walk to the cash register at the entrance. “Don’t worry, I’ll cover your breakfast.”

The waitress sees us waiting at the cash register and then hurries over. After a moment, she punches some buttons on the cash register. “That’ll be 27.95.”

“Here you go,” I say as I hand over a few bills totaling thirty dollars.

“Thank you.” The waitress pauses for a moment. “And, thank you for what you said, I needed to hear that.”

“If you have any questions, we can talk again next time we’re through.”

“Alright.” The waitress stares at me for a moment and then sighs. “I really should get to back work. But, I’m going to make some changes after today, you can be sure of that.”

Harvey and I move toward the glass doors leading outside. “See that Harvey? What I said did make a difference.”

Harvey laughs. “I told you before, don’t start that religious talk with me.”

“One of these days you’ll get it.”

“I doubt that.”

The smell of the great outdoors tinged with the smell of diesel smoke greets us.

Our big rig is still standing where we left it in the small parking lot.

“Harvey!”

“Yeah.”

“We do need to talk about your driving.”

“What is there to discuss? My driving is just fine!”

I sigh. I can feel an argument coming on. But I restrain myself. Even if I can’t stand the way Harvey behaves sometimes, he does have value as a human being. I have to remember that, as hard as it is.

I breathe out another silent prayer for the grace I need to deal with him.

A range of mountains lines the early morning horizon.

The last time I went through there I blew a brake line. Who knows what will happen this time? There always seems to be something.

My hand reaches for the door of the truck and pulls it open. I climb up and seat myself in the driver’s seat. Meanwhile, Harvey moves through the curtain in the truck cab into the bunk area.

I hope we stay safe through the rest of the trip.

To be continued…