Page 76 - Newcom

76 FICTION
By Edo Van Belkom
The sheriff finds his wallet and opens it up
in search of Vic’s identification. “It’s true!” the officer who did the search says. “He’s a truck driver and that’s his truck. He even has tickets to some kind of show called Truck World.”
“Where is the regular driver, George Whitehead?” someone in the crowd asks. “I don’t know who that is,” Vic replies.
“He’s the regular driver on this run,” someone else says. “George always said it was impossible to get here on time with this load. Why are you here so early?”
“It’s hard,” Vic says, “But not impossible. I figured out a way to get here on time, even a little early.”
For a few moments everyone stands around in silence, perhaps realizing that Vic had been given a hard time just be- cause he wasn’t George Whitehead and looked like he was from somewhere else. Finally, someone in the crowd steps for- ward and says, “Sorry Buddy. We thought you were trying to steal this truck. You understand.”
“No I don’t understand,” Vic says, shaking his head. “I was just delivering my load to your truck yard... just doing my job. Why would you think I was anything but a truck driver?”
“Our bad,” a man from the truck yard office says. “We’ve had a lot of thefts from our yard in the last few months and we get a little suspicious when we see people who aren’t from around here checking out trucks in our yard.”
“I am Canadian.”
“An honest mistake is all it is,” the man says. Vic is unconvinced. “I guess.”
“Say, where you from anyway?”
“I’m from Toronto.”
“Yeah, but what nationality are you?”
Vic is delivering a load of electronics to a yard in the Southern United
States. He arrived early and with extra time on his hands, decides to do a circle-check. Someone called the police and Vic was tackled by two Sheriff’s officers and placed in handcuffs.
“My name is Vic,” he says. “I was just checking my truck after a long drive.
“I have identification in my jacket pocket.”
Illustration by Glenn McEvoy
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