The Break Down

A work of fiction
By Nikki


The October night was inky black, made even more so by the solid curtain of clouds that covered the Oregon sky and the heavy rain that had been falling from them and beating against the windshield for hours now as I drove west down I 84. It wouldn’t be long now, only another 30 to 40 minutes and I would be driving into my garage at Errol Heights. My son had drifted off to sleep some time ago, safely strapped into his car seat surrounded with all his favorite toys so all I had to distract me was the FM radio that I had finally found a decent station on.

I was drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, listening to “dock of the bay” when the steering wheel almost pulled from my grasp and a huge Ka-bang resounded through the little mini-van. Weaving dangerously close to the guardrail, I finally got the little beast slowed down and under control just as the green sign announcing that the Troutdale exit was one mile ahead. From the racket coming from the right front of my little dodge, I knew that the damm tire had popped, and silently cussed myself for not having new tires put on before I took this trip.

I had been through this drill before and was not looking forward to changing a tire on the side of this busy freeway so I decided to limp it along until I got to the Troutdale off ramp, at least there maybe I wouldn’t get run over by some semi-truck thundering out of the darkness. The ramp finally appeared and I pulled from the freeway and stopped about halfway up the ramp. I went through my mental checklist and set the brake, shut the van off, and flipped the flashers on before steeling myself and stepping out into the wind driven rain.

I had just popped the back hatch open when I saw the reflections of multicolored lights and turned around to see a state patrol car pulling in behind me. The door opened and a large shadow appeared as the patrolman stepped out into the weather and closed his door. All I could see as he approached me was his outline because his 6 kgillion candlepower flashlight was continuously sweeping over me and the rest of my van. As he finally stepped before me and lowered his flashlight I found myself looking into the dark eyes of one of the most handsome black men that I had ever seen. Even through the floppy rain suit draped over him I could see that his shoulders were massive and I wondered to myself if that big chest was covered in hair or not. My daydream was cut short when his strong voice asked what my problem was and I told him that my front tire had gone flat. He slipped down the right side, flicking his light through my van as he went with me in tow. When his light locked on my sons sleeping brown face I could clearly see his little eyes clinch tight before the beam of light moved on. The cop turned and asked simply “yours?” and I said yes, causing his eyebrows to curl a bit and his eyes to quickly sweep my body. His entire demeanor instantly changed towards me now that he knew that I had enjoyed a black mans company at least once. As he surveyed the destroyed tire and mangled rim. He asked if I had triple A or some other club that he could call for me and when I told him that I had planned on doing it myself, his face cracked a beautiful smile and told me that he could take some time and help me if I wanted.

Deciding in microseconds to give him my best blonde act I told him that I had never changed a tire before but had read the owners manual and thought that I could handle it if he needed to leave. My line had hooked him, and he smiled again at me, cocked his head and spoke into a little microphone under his rain jacket. As I listened to him tell his dispatcher that he was taking his dinner break at Troutdale, I took the time to step back a bit and give him a good looking over. He was a striking man of about 6’2″, lean but completely buff in every place that I could glimpse. By the time he signed off with his dispatcher, I had decided that I had stumbled across a black version of Adonis.

He followed me back to the rear hatch and I showed him where the tire things were stowed in their little compartment and he quickly went to work.