5. Gemini Black
Gemini Black
It was a little after six in the evening, and we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
We made it to Georgia early this morning.
I was up by six. To tell you the truth, I really don’t know if Amina went to sleep because when I got up, her ass was up too.
I took her through the same steps as last night, where we had to go back inside the truck stop, so that we could shower, and handle our business in there.
Just like the other times, she didn’t want anything to eat, but I still wasted money and got something for her anyways.
She did grab a coffee though. She also went over to one of the bookstores that was at the main building, and picked up a couple of books, and magazines.
After spending a few hours in Valdosta, I made my way to Tifton. I didn’t spend too much time in Tifton though. Just under two hours. I only had two drop offs in that part of Georgia. I took a break there and grabbed something to eat.
We left Tifton and headed into Cordele. Shit was a little different in Cordele.
You really didn’t see luxury car dealerships how I would see them back in Miami, or Orlando.
Whenever I came out here, which was rare, I was often delivering to a customer.
This afternoon, I delivered to a single woman, that had a massive home, sitting on big acres of land.
Amina didn’t get out of the truck when I delivered, so she didn’t hear the crazy, off the wall shit that the woman was saying to me, trying to get me to come in the house with her for a meal.
I’m telling you, being on this road, I’ve ran into some crazy ass women that were willing to sell their souls for a piece of this dick.
A goofy nigga would have fallen for the bait though at that delivery in Cordele.
You could tell from the brand-new Bentley that I delivered to her, plus her home, that she had money.
I didn’t fall for it though. I delivered her car, did the inspection, finished the paperwork, logged it, and made my money.
Left Cordele, and here I was in Macon. I had two deliveries that I already finished up here, and now I was en route to another truck stop location, where the plan was to call it a night there.
After today, tomorrow belonged to me. No pickups, or deliveries.
I try to set my schedule up, where I have two days on, and then I’ll take a day off.
On that day off, that’s typically when I would get a workout in outside of the truck, and really just chill out.
I liked to get on the grill and cook dinner that’ll last me for the next two days that I went on.
I even had a portable Blackstone griddle, that I liked to pull out as well.
So far, Amina’s only saw when I would get food at restaurants, or at the truck stop, but I promise I didn’t do that shit every day.
Nah, it was just convenient, but it wasn’t what I always preferred.
I grew up on home cooked meals. If my mama wasn’t cooking, then my stepdad would handle dinner.
I’ll get a feel tomorrow of what Amina likes to eat, so that I can cook something for the both of us that’ll last the next two days.
Sitting in this bumper-to-bumper traffic, I ended up turning my head to look at Amina.
She was reading another book. She finished the one from yesterday already.
She was chilling today. We weren’t in this bitch arguing like a married couple today.
I think she was a little embarrassed about the crash out that she had yesterday because she really didn’t say much today.
She didn’t even bitch about my choice in music.
Then again, I went out of my way today to avoid another argument with her about my choice in music, so the music that I played today wasn’t as vulgar as it was yesterday.
Amina looked up from her book and turned to look out of the window.
I followed where her gaze went. From where we were on the highway, you could see that there was a carnival taking place.
The Ferris wheel stood out. All the colorful lights that were flashing from the rides made me think of home.
Born and raised in Miami, you’ll know that the Dade County Youth Fair was a big thing.
As kids, my mom and step- dad would take me, and Gianna all the time.
Once I was old enough, my mom would drop me off, so that I could be out there with my home boys.
Just all the memories that I had being out there to the fair caused a quick smile to appear on my face.
“Wow. I haven’t seen a carnival in forever,” Amina spoke for the first time in the truck after a couple of hours of not saying anything.
“For real? London don’t have big carnivals going on out there?” I wanted to know.
“They do. It’s just not so common like this. Like, you won’t be on the highway, and just randomly see a carnival. At least, not in the area where I lived. I haven’t been to a carnival in years. Probably since a kid,” she shared with me.
Hearing her say that, it made me think about what I should do next in this moment.
Technically, my workday was complete. The only thing that I really had planned for the rest of the day was getting to this truck stop, showering, eating dinner, watching some TV on the truck, and then calling it a night.
With the day that Amina had yesterday, and all the other emotions that she was battling, I figured that it would be the right thing to do to get her off the truck and let her have a good time at the carnival.
Even if she didn’t have the kind of good time where she got on all the rides, ate a bunch of food, shit at least it would give her a change of scenery, and a chance to get off the truck.
Once traffic started opening a little bit, I turned on my turn signal, so that I could get off the exit.
I was going to head to the carnival. You could tell that Amina didn’t expect that because she put her head back into her book, so that she could finish reading.
It was as if she just knew that nothing would go past the conversation that we just finished having.
She didn’t expect me to take the exit, and route us over to the carnival.
I never told her that that’s what I was doing, either.
I was casual, taking the exit, and because she was deeply engrossed in her book, she didn’t see when I followed the signs that were directing me to the carnival.
She didn’t really look up until she saw that I’d stopped driving for a second to join the line of cars that were trying to get into the carnival as well.
“Wait. What are you doing? We’re going to the carnival?” she asked me. For the first time, I heard some kind of excitement in her voice.
“Yeah. We going to the carnival,” I was nonchalant in my response, as I rolled the window down, seeing that we were almost to the front of the line. There were workers that were standing out front, collecting payment because it was a fee to get inside the carnival. It wasn’t free to park your car.
“Gemini, what? How the hell are you going to park this big ass truck in the lot?” she wanted to know, looking at me like I was crazy. She didn’t have any understanding on how I was going to make this work.
“This is a big ass lot. Trust me, they have space for me to park the truck,” I let her know, as I wheeled over to the front of the line.
A younger guy walked over to me. He probably was anywhere between nineteen and twenty. White boy with red hair. He came over smiling, admiring the 18-wheeler- truck that I was pushing.
“Man, this truck so hard bruh. This shit nice as hell,” he came over, standing on the side of the truck with nothing but admiration in his eyes. His accent was thick. He was a country boy for sure. He had that same gleam in his eyes that I would have whenever I saw a nice truck.
His reaction caused me to chuckle.
“I appreciate that bruh. What’s up?” I asked him, carrying on as if the two of us went way back.
“Shit. What brand truck is this?” he wanted to know.
“It’s Kenworth. You don’t know shit about that,” I talked shit with him, and he laughed while shaking his head.
“I do. I know that Kenworth is premium. Top of the line man. I never saw a truck look this nice, and flashy. You a truck driver?” he wanted to know.
“Yeah man,” I said, and he smiled again, and looked me in the eyes.
“What you hauling on this?” he continued with his questions.
I didn’t mind the questions. I had young guys come up to me all the time.
It was a humbling feeling. Mainly because this wasn’t the kind of career where a lot of people understood it, let alone respected it, so those moments when people wanted to talk to me a little bit about what I did for a living, and get put on to what I was doing, it made me feel good.
“I transport luxury cars. I’m all around the world with this shit,” I told him, and like he was proud of me, he nodded his head, while rubbing his hands together.
“That’s tough. I like that. I’m only so passionate about it because my granddad used to drive trucks for a living.
That’s all I saw growing up. I want to follow in his footsteps with that.
I’m almost at the final stretch with getting my CDL’s.
When I start making some real money, man I want a truck like this.
I’m so inspired that I’m not going to even charge you to park.
Ya’ll good. Just pull around to the overflow lot behind the baseball field,” he said to me, giving out free shit like he ran this carnival.
Lil dude had a dope personality though. I knew he was going to make it far with that.