She Never Came Home

Chapter 7

"What a way to make a living," Joshua Moore sighed aloud as he sped down I-15, hoping to get to his brother's house before his pre-Christmas bash was over. He glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard of his Hyundai Accent and saw that it was almost 11:00. "One more hour and it will be Christmas Eve," Josh thought to himself. He hoped that Jake's party would last until the wee hours as it had in the past few years. It wasn't the first time that Josh had had conflicting thoughts about his secondary job... There had been many guy gatherings and date nights he'd missed with his friends and his long-time girlfriend, Lexi, because he had to work in the evening and on weekends – as Prince Charming, or a fake Fabio, or any number of characters that required a chiseled male with shoulder-length hair.

There wasn't much traffic, so he hit the gas a bit and hovered just above the speed limit as he drove. He tossed his head a bit to get the fly-away tendrils of his hair off of his face. As a rule he usually tied it back in a pony tail when he was at his regular job or... pretty much any time he wasn't with Lexi. The only reason he'd let his hair grow so long was because Lexi had told him that she loved long hair on men, and she especially loved his wavy blond mane. It made him look like a lion, she'd told him several times when they were getting...frisky. And, as it turned out, making that personal style change just for his girlfriend was a sort of blessing in disguise. One day a customer at the fulfillment warehouse where he worked at the Shipping and Receiving dock slipped him her business card. "You have a great 'look'", she'd said. "You could earn a lot of extra cash working part-time as a Party Prince."

He'd been skeptical, but Lexi encouraged him to call the woman. "As long as it's not some sort of front for male strippers," she'd cautioned him. Josh was unaware that there were businesses that hired people to dress up as characters for children's parties and other events, and that he would get paid $200 or more for just two hours' work. That much-needed extra income was a definite incentive, which is why he'd spent the earlier part of this particular evening dressed as a "Sexy Santa Elf", handing out candy canes and posing for photos while Santa distributed "naughty or nice" presents to the bride-to-be at a bachelorette party. Josh was frankly surprised that people actually had Christmas weddings, but even though he was missing much of his brother's party, he couldn't complain too much...he'd received double his regular fee thanks to the company's "holiday rates".

Keeping his eyes on the road he pulled out his cell phone from his pants pocket. He diverted his eyes for a moment to touch his brother's phone number and then returned his concentration to the highway ahead of him while the phone rang. Suddenly Josh noticed a flashing red light in his rearview mirror. "Oh, for Christ's sake," he murmured, taking a quick glimpse at his speedometer. He hadn't been going that much over the speed limit... He started to pull over onto the shoulder when he hear a voice over the CHP car's loudspeaker: "Proceed slowly to the next exit and pull off." Josh sighed but did as directed and turned onto the Mercy Road exit. He came to a stop a few yards on the ramp, since there was no shoulder but there was also no traffic.

"Do you know why I pulled you over, Miss – er, Sir?" CHP Officer Peter Gregg abruptly stopped speaking and seemed visibly surprised when he approached Josh's driver side window.

Josh presumed he'd been stopped for speeding, but he'd actually taken the time to read the literature included with his auto insurance bill to know that it was best to profess ignorance when pulled over by a cop. "No, sir," Josh replied.

"License and registration, please," Gregg's voice had returned to its traditional commanding tone.

"I have to get my wallet out," Joshua told the officer, recalling some YouTube videos showing folks getting seriously injured, to say the least, by reaching into their pants pocket."...and my registration is in the – "

"Yeah, yeah," Officer Gregg sounded impatient. "Just show me your license, registration and proof of insurance, I don't have all night."

Josh scrambled to get his driver's license and insurance card out of his wallet. He handed them over to the officer before leaning over and digging through his glove box to find his car registration. But before he'd found that document Officer Gregg was already writing up a ticket of some sort and handing it to him. Josh sat up and took his license and insurance card back from the officer. He set them on the seat beside him and then took the citation that charged him with "distracted driving".

Peter Gregg handed Josh a pen and said in a rush, "I saw you talking on your cell phone while driving, that's a $150 fine, but no points on your license, just sign here..."

The cop seemed to suddenly be in a hurry, and in the little time Josh had to consider the situation he just simply signed the ticket and the CHP officer left quickly after handing Josh a carbon copy of the document.

As Josh made a U-turn on the deserted exit ramp and then waited to merge back into traffic he thought to himself, "How bored does a cop have to be to notice someone using their cell phone while driving?" Then, as he got back onto the I-15 and continued on to his brother's house, he rationalized the situation... "It's almost the end of the month; don't cops have a ticket quota to meet? Plus it's just a fine, no points on my license..."