Carter, always a good Samaritan, didn't think twice before helping a young hitchhiker named Avery get home safely. It was a simple act of kindness on a hot summer day. He dropped her off at a modest house on the outskirts of town, her grateful smile the only reward he expected.
But the next day, as Carter watched the morning news, his face drained of color, his heart pounding with disbelief.
It wasn’t unheard of for truck drivers to encounter hitchhikers on the side of the road. Often, truck drivers were the only ones who would actually take them with them. So when Carter saw a girl at the side of the road, not looking older than twelve, he knew he couldn’t drive past her. He quickly pulled over and opened his passenger door for her.
The girl stepped into his truck without an ounce of fear on her face. “Good afternoon,” she said happily. “Hi,” Carter confusedly answered. “Where are you headed?” He didn’t want to pry too much, as he didn’t want to make the girl uncomfortable. The girl gave Carter an address that was about an hour's drive in the wrong direction he actually had to go on, but he decided to take her there anyway.
As he began to drive again, Carter tried to have a casual conversation. “I’m Carter. What’s your name?” he asked the girl. “I’m Tara,” the girl said, staring at the road in front of her. It stayed quiet for a bit, but Carter was just too curious. “What is a young girl like you doing all alone at the side of the road?”
He watched as Tara’s facial expression changed from neutral to a bit sad. Then, she looked at Carter and returned the question. “What is an old man like you picking up young girls off the side of the road?” she asked him, her big eyes staring right into his. Carter was taken aback by the girl’s sassy response, so he began to stammer.
“I.. Eh,” he said. Then, the girl began to laugh. “I’m just joking. But I won’t answer your question. It’s a secret,” Tara said. Carter sheepishly laughed, but he got a strange gut feeling about the girl. Suddenly, she didn’t seem so innocent anymore. She actually seemed rather strange. He turned his attention back to the road, looking at his navigation for the time.
He still had forty-five minutes to go with the strange girl in his truck. Sometimes, he would look at her through the corner of his eye, but she just sat there, staring in front of her in silence. Carter didn’t know if she was just a little frightened to sit in a stranger’s car or if there could be something else going on with the girl.
A child had never made him feel this type of way before, which confused Carter even more. What could a little girl like her even do to a grown man? Carter sighed; he had to loosen up. It wasn’t like him to act like this. Hell, last week, he beat up a guy who was trying to cut in line without second-guessing himself, and now he was scared of a little girl?