My room-mate dropped me off in Walton on his way home to Downsville. We were freshman at Canton Agricultural and Technical College in uppermost reaches of upstate New York. He went home every weekend to see his girl and Walton was right along his way. My high school friend was bumming a ride from Utica and she was supposed to be there when I arrived. She wasn't.
When she arrived, she said "Howdee" like she always did and we hugged. As much as liked her, she always seemed to be beyond my reach inasfar as becoming anything more than friend to me. Thats the way it was with all women back then. I was pushing nineteen and still a virgin.
Where I lacked in experience with women, I was gaining lots of it in other areas (like killing brain cells) during my first fall away from home. We were both ready to kill a few million more that weekend and we wasted no time in getting started. As young and stupid as we were, we knew better with some things
It only took two or three cars to pass before one pulled over. He was a corrections officer (C.O.), still in uniform, on his way home from work. He had already cracked into the twelve pack of Genny on his front seat. He drove a big boat. I think it was Chevy Caprice.
We went to move to move the beer off of the seat and he offered us one. We accepted.
"Where ya headed" he asked
In the moment that hung after he asked us, she looked to me as if to say 'I got this.'
"Delhi." She replied.
It was the first time I had ever hitchhiked and she knew it. She was good about reading me and she could tell if I didn't know what to do. She always knew what to do and how to act. Since I met her, she had kinda become my behavioral mentor. She taught me how to be cool. She Hung out older brother's friends and, in my eyes, she was very well versed in dealing with people.
"I'm goin as far as Hamden fore I turn off this road. Its a about half way to where your headed." said the C.O.
"Sure" she said.
We drove a little while sucked down our beers. They tasted good. He had country music playing and was singing along. We didn't talk much.
By the time he let us out in Hamden, we were past the altered state line. It was quiet and there weren't any cars. We stood at the far end of that little town and laughed. After a while, we tried to count the street lights. She counted twelve and I counted thirteen. The furthest two kept blurring together. We argued about it for a while and then we laughed some more while we waited for a ride.
Two cars went by in the first fifteen minutes. They were both headed in the wrong direction. Another half hour passed when we spotted an old pick up truck making its way towards us. The truck stopped every few feet, the couple inside got out with a baby. They went to the front door of each house in the little town. We tried to figure out what they were doing and then it dawned on us; it was halloween.
We could hear their feet shuffling through the leaves and then "trick or treat." The people who answered the doors fussed over their baby and then their voices grew muffled. It was like we weren't supposed to hear what they were saying.
The air was cool and crisp cool and it felt like our bodies were steaming.
They loaded the baby at the last house and drove past us slowly in the direction of Walton. A little ways down, we saw the brake lights.
The truck made a U turn and came back towards us. When they pulled up, the woman had the window rolled down.
"Where you guys headed." she asked us.
"Delhi" answered my partner.
"We can take you up there." the woman said.
"Are you sure?" asked my partner.
"Sure. Its gettin cold and you guys might not get a ride. Why don't you climb in. It'll be tight but, we'll make room for ya." She was our age and she had a kind voice.
It was a bench seat. She scooted over as far as she could next to the car seat where the baby was sleeping. It was dressed in a pumpkin costume. I climbed in and my hitch partner sat on my lap. The mom smiled at us.
The inside of the truck was warm and it was strong with the odor of fresh cow manure. It smelled good to me and it reminded me of the farm at the end of my street at home. He was farm hand and looked older than her. My spine was tingling.
"Its his first halloween. Aint too many places round here to trick or treat so we came here." she said in an aplogetic tone.
"He's looks adorable." remarked my partner.
We drove the dark road for about twenty minutes before we saw the glow of halogen from the campus up ahead. It just kinda came out of nowhere. They dropped us at the entrance at the bottom of a hill. We thanked them and made our way up to the dorms. SUNY DELHI, Halloween, 1981.
Epilogue - About three years ago (2004), I was talking to one of the computer techs at work. He told me that he grew up in Walton and that he goes back there regularly to visit his parents. I told him the story about being stuck in Hamden on a Halloween night and how we argued about how many street lights there were.
A couple of weeks later he e-mailed me to tell me that he been to Walton over the weekend and driven through Hamden. He wanted me to know that he had counted the street lights. There are twelve street lights in Hamden.
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