ANOTHER SHORT TALE: THE HITCHHIKER

It was at night, John was driving his car by the road, he was keeping his mind on the traffic, may be not too much, while irrelevant facts of the past days and future plans in the short term came to his head. Suddenly he spotted, through the headlights of his car and the full moon, a hitchhiker, in the right side of the road, making movements with the thumb forward, as indicating to drivers that they were in the right direction, and as a result, suggesting that they should move him in that same wonderful direction by one of those fast machines called cars.

Like a flash, a thought came to John´s mind and he could hear the same words that his father had told him once, years ago, when he warned him about the danger of picking up people on the roads, “It is clearly dangerous to collect someone without knowing anything about him”. Anyway John hadn´t kept in touch with his father for a long time and, may be for that, in a futile act of defiance, he decided to stop at the side of the road. He could see in the mirror how the hitchhiker was running toward the car with a satisfied smile.

 

- “We'll see if it confirms the theory of my father”, John. thought, “I hope not”, and smiled to himself.

The hitchhiker get in the car and, after giving thanks, he introduced himself with a strong handshake “My name is Jack”, he said. The man was quite tall, medium build, with black, straight long hair, bright eyes, and a beard of two or three days. He seemed to be a trusting and extrovert person. After sitting in the seat Jack informed John about the place where he wanted to go, a town about 200 kilometers from they were.

- “No problem”, said John, the place is in my way

They began to chat, basic information, like any other small talk. John asked questions and Jack answered them, without explaining too much; Afterwards, with more confidence by John, they were talking about more trivial things, like when you're talking to a person and know exactly what he is going to say because you have heard the same words from other people a million of times; in spite of that you pretend to be surprised or you agree with him though you are thinking exactly the opposite thing. Suddenly, due to an observation that John had made, Jack was thoughtful and, after few moments, he started to talk about the reasons of his trip and why he had decided to hitchhiking. Jack explained that he wanted to visit his mother, who he hadn’t seen for months, at the other coast of the country. However, he preferred to do it in a different way, without driving his own car. He explained that he had never done anything like that and, suddenly, he wanted to do it, without thinking too much, as an impulse. He had been hitchhiking for two weeks and, finally, that night would be the last part of his journey.

- “A mother deserves everything”, he said, “and this experience has been unforgettable. As the days went by I´m looking forward to seeing my mum but, at the same time I feel that every person I´ve met have given me something of themselves.”

That comment sounded to John a bit strange so he answered Jack if he would come back hitchhiking as well.

- “I´m not thinking in coming back”, Jack sighed

Some minutes later, John left Jack at his destination and both of them said goodbye each other, as they had welcomed, but this time the handshake was stronger.

- “Thank you so much”, said Jack while smiling to John.

- “You are a really lucky man, take an advantage of that”, he finally added.

- “What a strange guy!, John thought.

Nevertheless, a few weeks later John could see his passenger again. But he wasn´t the only person that could, there would be hundreds of thousands of people, all of them that had bought “The Daily News” that morning. It was a clear photograph.

- “He looks younger”, he thought while taking a sip of his coffee.

John went on reading the headline, he was petrified, with the cup on his left hand, the crumpled paper on the right one and an astonished expression on his face.

Angela Gonzalez Cubero