Posted by AlOmega on May 05, 2002 at 23:11:25:
You’re probably aware that summer gas prices are climbing. However, gas prices can rise any time of the year . Take this scene……….
The legs of Sid Clark’s chair scraped on the rough planks floor as he got up, walked to the iron stove in the center of the room, and rammed another piece of wood into the blazing fire. It’s gonna be one cold, stormy night, he thought. Already he could hear the north wind sighing through the mountain aspen as wet, heavy snowflakes plastered themselves against the front window. It’d be a hellish night for anyone caught outside. In spite of the heat from the stove, he felt a shiver run along his spine as he returned to the perusal of the latest L. L. Bean catalogue by the light of the kerosene lamp.
He didn’t hear the first gentle tapping on the store’s front door. That was masked by the keening wind. The second time, the knocking was louder and more urgent. Sid looked up in surprise from a page on hiking boots. What kind of an idiot would be about in such a deserted part of the mountains on a night like this?
It took some time to undo the rusty latch of the front door, and meanwhile, the knocking grew to a loud pounding. Finally, he was able to swing the door open on protesting hinges, letting a figure rush inside in a flurry of snow.
The man wore a Western style hat but had a light raincoat covering a gray suit. His shoes, once fashionably stitched and highly polished, were now two lumps of mud and wet leather. He went to the glowing stove and began rubbing his hands, soaking up the heat gratefully.
City feller.
“It’s c-cold out there,” said the man through chattering teeth.
“Yeah,” answered Sid, and then was silent. No sense wasting words till he found out what the man wanted.
The man began peeling off his sodden coat. “My name’s John Da….” There was a long pause. “John Dace,” he said finally.
“Uh huh. I’m Sid Clark. Somethin’ I can do for you?” he asked.
“Gas. I need gas for my car. It ran dry about eight miles back.” Dace waved a hand to indicate the direction from which he’d come. “I had to walk.”
“I see. Lucky you came this way. The nearest place in the other direction is Cedar Village, and that’s twenty-five miles from here. You coulda froze to death before you got there.”
“I know,” said Dace. “We stopped in Cedar Village on the way. But about the gas….”
“What makes you think I’ve got any gas around here?”
“Why, I saw the pumps outside, and thought….”
“Too bad you couldn’t have seen ‘em in the daylight,” said Sid, shaking his head. “Rusted solid, both of ‘em. I haven’t pumped a gallon of gas in the last seven years. When the state put in that new Interstate, it about put me outta business. Sometimes two, three weeks go by without my even seeing a car on this road, especially in the winter. It’s all a body can do to earn enough money to stay alive.”
“But….” Dace’s face was a study in panic. “But I’ve got to get some gas!”
Sid scratched the stubble on his face and took a battered cigar from his shirt pocket. “That’s the trouble with you city fellers.” he said, scratching a wooden match on the table and lighting the cigar. “Always in a hurry. Now the highway boys’ll be around by this road in another week or so. They’ll give ya a tow.”
“No! You don’t understand. I’ve got to have the gas NOW. Tonight!!”
“I see,” Sid shrewdly looked at his visitor. “How come it’s so all-fired important for you to get your car movin’ tonight?”
“My wife - she’s waiting for me in the car. She could freeze to death before morning.”
“Um” Sid considered this for a few seconds. “That does put a new face on it, I suppose.”
“Look, old-timer,” snapped Dace. “If you’ve got gas here, I need just a couple of gallons. If not….” He reached for his coat.
“Won’t do you no good to leave here,” said Sid. “Especially with the snow pickin’ up the way it is. Like I told ya, Cedar Village is twenty-five miles back the way you came.”
“Then I’ll go on.”
“The nearest place on up the road belongs to Steve Jackson,” said Sid complacently. “He runs a small airport, so he’d probably have some gas you could buy.” He sucked slowly on the glowing cigar, “Course, it’s seventeen miles from here….”
Dace looked about him like a trapped animal. “I’ll - I’ll walk back and get Helen,” he said in a shaking voice, “and bring her here.”
Sid rose from the chair and sauntered to the window. “That’s sixteen miles you’d be walkin’, sonny. You’d probably make it to the car all right. But comin’ back? I donno. Especially with a woman. Ever seen anyone that was froze to death, mister?”
“But I’ve got to do something!” moaned Dace.
“Yep, that’s true enough,” said Sid. “Well, maybe - just maybe - I got some gas in a drum out back. I might be willin’ to sell ya a little as my truck’s up on blocks for the winter with the tires off and the radiator drained.”
“You’ve got gas?” Dace breathed a long sigh as his tense body relaxed. “I’ll buy some. Two gallons ought to be enough.” He reached into a hip pocket and drew out a wallet.
“Just a minute, mister.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Have you given any thought to how you’re going to carry this gas? You can’t just pour it in your pocket, you kow.”
“Why, can’t I just borrow a jug or something?”
“I don’t set much store by havin’ my stuff borrowed,” said Sid. “But I might be willing to sell you a jug. This one right here, for instance.” He reached down and pulled a glass container from underneath the table.
Dace smiled wryly. “Okay, old-timer,” he said. “I suppose you’ve got to make a little on this, too. How much for the jug?”
“Five dollars.”
“Well, that’s kind of expensive, a gallon of gas for five dollars. Especially since I’ll be needing two of them. But I guess when you’re out here in the middle of nowhere, you have to fleece the tourists while the getting is good. Here you old robber.” Dace took a ten-dollar bill from his wallet and extended it toward Sid.
Sid ignored the money and looked Dace straight in the eye. “I don’t think you got the drift of what I told you,” he said flatly. “The five dollars - that’s for the jug. It don’t include the gas.”
“What! Five dollars for that thing - and no gas? Why, I could pick one up in any store in the world for a buck fifty.”
“That’s true. What store you planning’ on visitin’ tonight?”
Dace stared at the window, where a crust of snow had formed over the glass. He clenched his fists in impotent fury. “How - how much for the gas?” he asked finally.
Glancing at Dace’s wallet, Sid said, “Oh, seein’ as you’ve been so pleasant ‘bout the whole thing, and bein’ in distress and all…. Let’s say fifty dollars a gallon.”
“Fifty dollars!!! Hell, that’s highway robbery!”
“The price of gas is goin’ up,” Sid said calmly.
“That’s not funny,” replied Dace.
“Wasn’t meant to be. Just a statement of fact.”
Desperately, Dace flipped through the bills in his wallet. “Damn!” he muttered finally. “I’ve only got sixty dollars here.”
“Well that’ll get ya a gallon and - figurein’ the cost of the jug - you’ll have five dollars to keep,” smiled Sid. “I won’t charge you nuttin for warmin’ your butt at the stove.”
“That’s real decent of you, ”snarled Dace. “But I’ve got to have two gallons.”
“But it don’t look like you can pay for ’em,” said Sid. “Unless your wife’s got some money on her. Speakin’ of that, she must be getting’ mighty cold out in that car.”
“Look, two gallons. Please. I-I’ll give you my watch.” Dace began tearing at the strap on his wrist.
“Don’t need no watch. Time don’t mean much in these parts. But if I was you, I’d be a-getting’ back to the car with that gas. That snow seems to be getting’ worse. Then on your way back here, you decide whether you wanna buy more gas or stay on here until someone passes by. I can give you a good deal on a room with grub thrown in. Daily or weekly rates.”
Without waiting for a reply, Sid took the empty jug into the rear of the building and filled it from a large gasoline drum. When he returned, Dace had already put on his coat.
“Here’s your money,” Dace snarled, extending a fist-full of bills. “I hope you choke on it.”
“That aint no way to talk to a man who saved your life,” grinned Sid. He took the money and counted it carefully. “Fifty-five dollars. It’s been a pleasure doin’ business with you. I wish I could give you a lift, but like I said, my truck’s laid up for the winter. I suppose I can expect you back in about two, three hours. That right, Mr. Dace?”
With a shouted oath, Dace threw open the door and walked out into the howling storm.
It was nearly midnight, and the wind and snow had stopped when Sid heard the crunching of automobile tires outside the building. He opened the door and watched Dace get out of the car and approach, followed by a slender woman dressed in tight clothing which was almost no protection against the frosty air. As they entered the building and huddled near the stove, Sid could see that their lips were blue with cold.
“This is Helen - my wife,” said Dace by way of introduction. “I told her about the gas you were - er - kind enough to sell me.”
“Always glad to be of service,” Sid said with a smile. “You two decide whether you wanna buy another gallon?”
“I’ve got some money,” said Helen in a soft voice. “We’ll take the gas.”
“Good, good. Only thing is, the price went up again. A gallon costs sixty-five dollars now. Course, you can use the jug you already bought, so that’s saving right there.”
Helen opened her purse. “This ought to pay for the gas,” she said, tossing a small bundle toward Sid. It fell to the floor with a faint thump.
Sid bent to examine the packet, and Dace heard him gasp with surprise. “Why, all the money in here!”
“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” asked Helen.
“Yeah, but….. Hey, wait a minute. On this paper strap it says….”
“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” asked Helen.
“Yeah, but… Wait a minute. On this paper strap it says….”
“Sid looked up in surprise and straight into the muzzle of the revolver which Dace had pointed at him.
“It says ’Bank of Cedar Village,’ doesn’t it, old-timer?” said Dace. “And we’ve got a lot more bundles like that out in the trunk of the car. I told you we’d been in Cedar Village, but I didn’t tell you why.”
“You-you robbed the bank up there?” Sid gasped in sudden realization. “But you said you didn’t have no more money when you was here before,” he accused them.
“You didn’t think I’d be stupid enough to carry it on me while I was walking, did you?” grinned Dace. “No telling what kind of characters I’d meet on these back roads.”
“Look, Mr. Dace,” Sid said, looking wide-eyed at the gun. “There don’t nobody have to know you was here. I-I can keep ;my mouth shut for-for….”
“For how much, old-timer? I’m sorry, but your prices are kind of high. I’ve got a better way of handling you. Helen, get some of that wire that’s hanging on the wall there and tie him up.”
“Should I gag him?”
Dace shook his head. “No. Let him shout. From what he’s told me, there won’t be anybody along this way for at least a couple of days. We’ll have plenty of time to get away from here.”
In moments, Sid was trussed securely to the chair. He could feel the copper wire biting into his wrists, and he knew it would be impossible to free himself without assistance. His feet were wired off the floor to the rungs of the chair, effectively preventing him from shifting his position.
“We’ll take the gas now,” said Dace, looking down at him. “After all, it was all we needed.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Sid.
“Oh, we knew all about that airport you mentioned when we planned this job,” explained Dace. “Just seventeen miles up the road from here. We figured to take the back road while the police were looking for us on the Interstate. A pilot who’s a friend of mine was going to land a small plane at the airport and we’d be out of these hills before anyone could come near us.”
“But you had to forget to gas up the car before the heist,” taunted Helen.
“That’s right. So we ran out of gas. If you’d sold me only two gallons, old-timer, we could have made it to the airport without stopping here again. But you got greedy, so we had to bring the car back here or risk running dry farther up the road. And in the meantime, how were we to know you hadn’t heard about the robbery on the radio or something?”
“But I swear I didn’t hear anything,” gasped Sid. “I don’t even own a radio, that’s the truth.”
“Sorry, old-timer, but we had no way of knowing that and it’s a little late now for it to make any difference.”
The car was quickly filled with gas, and Helen went outside. Dace took an extra moment to examine the wires that bound his captive.
“Mr. Dace?” said Sid in a hoarse whisper.
“Yeah?”
“It usually gets awful cold after a snowstorm in these hills.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“Sometimes it goes below zero. And the fire in that stove is good for only a few more hours.”
“You’re probably right about that.”
“I’ll freeze to death, Mr. Dace.”
“You didn’t seem too worried when it was my wife out in the cold.”
“Dying is a pretty high price to pay just for gypping you out of an extra gallon of gasoline.”
“Well, it’s like you said, old-timer.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The price of gas is going up.”
And we complain about prices…..
AlOmega