Andrew and Her

As Andrew looked at her, he once again knew that no matter what; he would never be able to love anything as much as he loved her. She was perfect. She never had an unkind word to say to him. Never let him down, was always there when he needed her. He in turn would always take care of her. He loved her more than anything he had ever seen. His truck was a thing of pure beauty.

Andrew took off from his house on a Saturday night in late November. Winter had come earlier than usual in the prairies this year, snow had been on the ground since late October. It was a massive blizzard that had spanned across the country. The snow after landing higher than he had seen since he was a kid, had decided to stay.

Andrew didn’t mind the snow much. His only complaint about her was that she didn’t have heated seats. As a result when the weather was this cold, even though he kept her in an insulated garage, as soon as he hit the seat he would spasm uncontrollably for a few minutes. Writhing around in the cold as he waited for his muscles to relax, and for the truck to warm up enough.

When Andrew was growing up, he never thought much about vehicles of any type. He liked the Delorean from Back to the Future, the Batmobile. He liked cars that transformed into robots or weapons. James Bond always had the kind of car that had missiles in it and other cool things. Andrew liked those kinds of vehicles when he was a kid. He never cared much for trucks. The only truck that he could properly name until he was nineteen years old was Optimus Prime,

It was when he was twenty years old that he finally discovered her. She was all black and not too high or low off the ground. She was old but well maintained. Andrew didn’t know much about trucks, but he knew that he liked it when cars were made of steel, and she was. Heavy and proud, not unlike himself. They would get along well, Andrew knew. It was love at first sight.

He couldn’t afford her, but he made some deals with family members and friends to help him out. She would be worth paying off debts for a year or so. So he also got another job on the weekends so he could pay for her.

Soon after he bought her, Andrew lost a lot of things. His family had always been broken, but the only person he loved left the city to go find a better life. He loved his mom deeply and was happy for her. Though now he was alone. Not alone, he had her still.

The people in his neighbourhood noticed that every now and then, that strange young man would start up his truck and go God knows where.

Only her and Andrew knew. They would drive. They would drive until the noise of the world. The loss and pain he had suffered from in his life, the doubts and stresses of his day to day existence dissipated slowly into nothingness. So that it was only him, her, and the road.

As Andrew made his way on this cold November night to the highway. He was already feeling a certain bliss. He struggled with a lot of things in his life currently, but today had been a good day. The night before he had received some potential good news from his mother. She had started a job and was most likely going to be promoted the next day after only being with the company for a short time. Andrew was elated for her when this was confirmed at noon when she called him.

He was in his favourite coffee shop when he got the news. He now knew that his mom would be okay. The barista noticed he seemed very cheerful, and she gave him her number when he told her his good news. She had liked how much this man cared for his mother. It was true that Andrew cared deeply for his mother, this news also gave something to Andrew that he had been waiting for for a very long time.

The bliss remained as he made his way to the highway. The highway was always where bliss became euphoria.

On a dark winter night in the prairies, the planes become a desert of snow. You can feel the wind at war with your vehicle, pushing you in random gusts from either side of you. Against the black of the highway snow drifts dance along from one side to the other, swirling and charging all along the road. The sides that are usually deep ditches, in winter have small peaks of snow, making the road feel as if it is a valley of blackness inside the white.

Aside from the wind, there is a deep and treasured silence of a cold winter night. A stillness that comes from the wind that allows you to feel as if you are the only being in the universe. This is a feeling that Andrew had a achieved several times in his life. When he was driver her though, he felt it every single time. The peace and magnificence of the highway filled him up till he burst.

Andrew was a large man, standing at six foot seven. He must have weighed over three hundred and fifty pounds. He had played a lot of football growing up. He liked it but he never loved it. He for a long time had thought himself of completely loving anything. Until he drove her for the first time.

Falling in love with something can cause some serious damage to a life that had relatively been devoid of it. Andrew now felt a longing to find this type of love in all aspects of his life. Only he didn’t know how. He had found this love by accident. He did not want to waste anymore time in his life hoping to bump into it again.

He felt obligations those in his life that helped him get her though. It was not a simple matter of only paying them back the money that he owed them. He had to pay them back for the love he now felt. Slowly but surely he began to try to help them stand on their own two feet. His brother was who he chose first. He got him a good job at a car dealership where his brother could use his wit and charm to sell people trucks like her. It was a good thing and he felt comfortable.

He made sure his friends were stable too. Got the ones that needed help, the help that they needed. Eventually he was satisfied he had done all that he could for them,

Finally it came down to his mother. She only had bad memories living in this city, and Andrew knew that he had to devise a way for her to get out of town. One weekend he took a drive and arranged for the father of one of his friends to offer her a job that she would be unable to refuse. He hoped that things would work out for her there and now, today, it was confirmed.

Andrew had given all he could now to the people that he loved. He had made sacrifices and made deals, he worked hard for them and they knew it and they loved him for it. Except for his mom, who as far as she knew, had this opportunity fall out of the sky for her.

Now Andrew was on the highway, his pack in the back, music playing softly in his ears as he felt the world and the road absorb him. He headed east on the highway for no particular reason other than the highway was a few hundred miles longer than it would be had he gone west.

She was driving smooth and humming quietly tonight. The wind whistling in her was the loudest thing happening. It made her sound high and free. The light pollution of the city glowed in his rear view mirror. One of Andrews favourite songs started to play on the radio and he sang along with it, letting the lyrics of the music fill him as the stars in the sky became clearer.

On a whim, Andrew pulled her over to the side of the highway. He started up at the sky and down at the snow, marvelling at the immensity of it all, and how he stood alone. He peed his name into the snow.

He got back inside of her, and continued east. A smile and a few tears streaming down the side of his face. He began to laugh. At first a low deep chuckle at first, building into a true and honest laugh that then finally turned into a scream of joy.

No one that loved Andrew ever heard from or spoke to him again.