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I've written before about the trucker's version of Taxi Cab Confessional. It usually occurs when two drivers are riding together and one feels the need to talk about some private matter, but I've heard it over the CB as well.
One such incident happened to me last January. I was new to my current job then, I'd been there about a week, and I was riding with a guy because I was going to have to fill in on his route for three or four days and I had to learn it. I'll call the guy Ben, but, of course, that's not his real name.
We had finished the route and we were on our way back to our home terminal when Ben cut loose about a problem he had. He had a vacation home in another state and some time last year he invited one of his friends to it for a weekend of drinking beer and goofing off in general, or so he claimed. Turned out that this friend was a cocaine dealer. Ben said he knew about it and didn't have a problem with it as long as the guy did not bring the stuff around him and his home. Well, the drug dealer friend turned up at Ben's vacation home with enough dope on him to keep Jim Morrison happy for a year. The really bad news was that the drug dealer had been followed to Ben's place by law enforcement who raided the place not long after he entered it. Ben was looking at years of prison time. He was still working, though, while awaiting trial.
Then Ben asked me not to tell anybody about it. He said he hadn't told anyone about it at work- not even the management. That was about mid-January of this year. And I kept my mouth shut until now. I was also aware that there were some curious aspects to Ben's story. The same night of the confession he was telling me all about his vacation home, and the hot rod he was building, and his extensive music library along with his collection of vintage guitars. This guy was making $140 a night on his job and he was single. I make quite a bit more than that now and I still can't afford one house let alone a vacation home. I'm sure you see what I'm insinuating.
Well, a couple of weeks ago Ben went AWOL from his job. It was found out that he was in jail in a different state and he naturally lost his job. But Ben knew it was coming. He told a guy who had been riding with him the night before he was to go to jail the same story that he told me. That rider told everyone about it when Ben went missing. I was going to spill the beans, too, but I was going to wait until I knew for sure that Ben would not be back.
I can gossip with the best of them, but I won't say anything to anybody that another person wouldn't tell anyone else. When it comes to secrets I'm like that German guard on Hogan's Heroes- I know nothing.
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