#1 Late Night Barnstorming
This is a multi-edition short story series about a teenage boy who works for a food truck that traverses New Jersey summer after summer. Ryan is a 17 year old who works for Food Wagon LLC, a traveling food truck run by Eli, a 40 year old entrepreneur.
It is 5:30, late August. Ryan is waiting for Eli to pick him up for a run to drop off a trailer for an event happening the next day. Eli is on time and pulls up in his GMC with the Food Wagon Trailer behind him. The two exchange greetings and head off.
“We have to stop at Costco to get a few things, Jenna (his wife) and my mom are shopping there right now.” Eli lets Ryan know.
“Ok, cool” Ryan says.
They drive up the GSP to the exit in Brick, entering Costco’s always chaotic parking lot. Eli is on the phone with his mom who is asking if he has any other requests.
“Do you want a churro?” Jenna asks in the background.
Now, the Food Wagon crew is infamous for their indulgences in Costco’s cheap delicacies. Hot Dogs, pizza slices, smoothies, all for like a buck!!!!
“Umm, yeah. Ryan, you want one?” Eli says.
“Sure” Ryan tells Eli.
They find the two have exited the store and are dealing with their load of food by their car. Eli has nowhere to park, so he decides to stop in the aisle and park his 30 foot load. Ryan and Eli hop out and greet the women. Churros are passed, Vern (Eli’s mom) says she got shrimp cocktails. Eli, excitedly pops a few in his mouth, offers them to Ryan, and he politely rejects them.
“Take this, not this, take that, not that” Eli tells Ryan.
Cheeses, breads, vegetables are being passed around like hot potatoes.
“We got to go” Eli tells everyone.
“Wait, are we forgetting anything?” Vern says.
People are walking back to their cars and seeing that they are blocked in by the Food Wagon set-up. Eli asks for a few more minutes. Minutes are passing and Ryan is staring at the others eating shrimp and arguing over the purpose of a certain ingredient. People are staring at the parked cars and warning the group that they are leaving.
“Ok, let’s go” Eli jumps into the driver’s seat, Ryan is eating his churro.
It took three “let’s go”’s for them to actually go.
Leaving the parking lot, the trapped motorists pull out in unison and start their own mess.
Parkway North. The two are not quiet on these rides. They talk about politics, life experiences, school, family, a bunch of things.
Eli is visibly tired from days of prep and stress. Ryan is excited to head into Northwest NJ to find this drop-off point. They hook onto I-195, heading west.
Past Trenton, past New Hope and Lambertville. The road turns into a one-lane country drive with thin shoulders and hills and canals on either side. The sun is all but down, it is almost 8:30. They are using a Google Maps app to find this place. The street lighting was inadequate, the GMC’s headlights are huge in size, but throw off little light. The side streets they are guided onto are even darker, thinner, trees line the road and their grainy branches create a canopy. This part of NJ is spread out in hills, many wealthy landowners have huge set back properties, leaving little on the roadside to use as a guide. The app tells them they are nearly there. Although, the road is buttressed by roadside ditches and makes a pitched climb upward. Ryan is silently laughing about how ridiculous the situation is. They reach the technical address, but the driveway apron is all that is visible. The two sit for a while, Eli makes faces at his Samsung.
“What?” Eli says to himself. “If we can turn and back the trailer in first, that would be nice.”
Eli wiggles his SUV very little considering the time spent moving back and forth.
“There is a ditch right here, you don’t want to fall in it, or we will have a bigger problem.” Ryans says.
“I guess we will have to go in head first” Eli says.
They make their way down the driveway, Eli still looking at the map as if it will help him figure out this property. The traction on the ground shifts, the windows are open. Ryan sees that the driveway is gone and they are on grass. A massive tent appears, bathrooms, trucks, smaller tents.
“They are having this wedding on their front lawn, they have a little farmhouse.” Eli reveals.
“This is insane.” Ryan is in disbelief.
“I know, look at these tents, are we supposed to be on the grass?” Eli questions.
“Are we supposed to be on the grass?” Ryan laughs and repeats.
The farm house appears, it is pitch black, the two pull out their phone flashlights and look out the windows. Eli stops moving and parks the car. They are 100 feet off the house.
“Do you have a baseball bat?” Ryan asks Eli.
Laughing - “You are right, there might be some Sasquatch out here.” Eli says.
They get out, armed with flashlights. Walking like perps casing a house, they wonder if anyone is at the place. All the equipment and decorations are set up so neatly, it is soooooo quiet.
“I have this picture, they want us to park the trailer at the end of the driveway, see these rocks. There is a blue tent, do you see a blue tent? Are we in the wrong place? Where is the driveway? We are on the grass.” Eli is firing off questions.
Looking at the tread marks left in the nice lawn; “Ummm, yeah, so. I don’t see any of these things.”
“Let’s walk around a bit, look at this brick walkway. There is a plug in the photo, let’s try to find that”
The nearby woods look ominous, every now and then leaves rustle. They walk 5 feet off the house, no one there. The huge tent is being rounded by the two and on the other side lies more equipment, a creepy greenhouse shed, garden, and a dim light on the ground. Glowing worms? Slithering shiny beasts?
“This is the plug!” Eli says excitedly.
Laughing - “Great!”
“Let’s follow it, it should go to the driveway”
They follow the light, they see pavement, driveway, rocks, whalla! The parking spot. Ryan realises they just did a total off-road on this couple’s lawn.
“So we will have to figure out where the driveway ended and we went on the grass. Then we can park this trailer.”
They walk back to the GMC, hop in and go back across the grass. Trying his best not to burst out laughing Ryan is biting his lip. They stop and see the driveway, it took a sharp right and they did not even notice. Ryan will die of laughter very soon. Eli keeps “what”ing under his breath. They take the path.
“How did we miss that?” Eli says
“I don’t know” Ryan squeezes out of his lips.
They round the other side of the tent, past the creepy greenhouse with a white-blue light on. The rocks and end of the driveway is right there. Ryan hops out.
“Alright, just guide me back and forth, back and forth, till we are parallel with the pavement, that way the people can stand on the driveway and order”
“Ok, how far off, 6 inches?” asks Ryan.
“Yes, sure” Eli says.
Shifting gears, Eli hits the lawn again, 10 feet off the big tent, his headlights revealing the full dining room inside with live plants and a cityscape on the ceiling.
“You are like this.” Ryan gives useless hand representations of the trailer’s position to Eli.
“Ok” moving the gear shifter they went on the better part of 30 MINUTES going back and forth, back and forth. Neurotic about the parallelism of the trailer, Eli wants to keep trying. Ryan with a big smile on his face and a chuckle under his breath watches the rig end up in the same position every time, every time. The GMC is leaving monster tread marks in the lawn, Eli nearly hits the tiki torches encircling the tent. Ryan picks up the most endangered one and walks around with it like an Olympian. Then, he turns it sideways and spills the fluid on the inside all over his hand, which now smells like citronella. Paranoid about his health, Ryan ponders the consequences of the tiki juice soaking into his hand.
“Ok, I am going to back up and then pull up and then back up and I think we got it.” Eli says.
“Ok, try it.” Ryan agrees.
Eli lands about 4 inches off, Ryan convinces him this try was good enough, Eli agrees. They unhitch the trailer, set it down. The woods make noises, Eli and Ryan laugh. They take the plug and get it connected to the trailer. The fridge and freezer do not turn on. Ryan freaks out inside, what could have happened, “I am not going to look for the outlet on that sketchy house”.
“You are going to have to look for where it was unplugged” Eli says
Picturing woods demons taking him into their caverns, Ryan gulps.
“Uhhhh, ok, so, uhhh, I will go look. If I disappear, remember me.” Ryan says
“If you get taken I am high tailing my rear end out of here, but yeah I will remember you.” Eli says
Ryan walks into the dark, the drive is almost over and then it is time to check that house where the woods demons will undoubtedly take you to their woods caverns with their stick hands and shrively voices and their...oh there is the plug, he only went 20 feet, sweet, not dead.
The trailer is alive, Ryan rushes back. Eli and him organize the inside, put stuff in place. Ryan washes the tiki juice off with some paper towels and hand sanitizer.
“We can get out of here now” Eli says.
It is 10, they spent so much time on the property and now they got in the GMC and followed the driveway to the thin, dark road. Eli has his Google Maps on again, they are recapping the events at the farm. Trying to remember turns and spots on the way to watch out for, Eli receives phone calls from Jenna and his sister who have been and are still cooking short rib for an event the next day. Over the phone, Eli tries to describe what they should see and expect of the cooked meat. Jenna tries to describe what she is seeing. Eli recommends to keep it going, it is 10:30. Once the phone is hung up, he gets another call from the crew at his house working on food prep too. Questions are passed, Eli is tired, the other guys are walking around his house putting things together for tomorrow. Eli gets off the phone, Ryan is staring out the open window thinking about the night, laughing into the wind. They make it back down to 195, the Parkway, by 12:30 the two are at home, ready for the big day tomorrow.
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