Chapter 7
It was light before the snowmaking system was back in operation. Hudson yawned as he paused at the entrance to Swallow Hill Road to let several cars heading in the opposite direction go by. His left turn signal was blinking, and he had started his turn when a pickup behind him suddenly shot by nearly clipping his left fender. He braked hard. The truck raced through the intersection, swerved around a westward-headed sedan, forcing it off the road, and swung into a convenience store with a gas pump outside. Hudson noticed the off-the-road vehicle was already moving back onto the highway, its driver peering back at the rogue pickup framing familiar words, and decided he needed gas. The driver of the truck went into the store as Hudson pulled up at the pump. He got out and followed him in. He was young, no more than seventeen, but looked as though he should be playing high school tackle.
“A little dangerous, wouldn’t you say?”
“What?” The kid put on a baffled expression.
“You nearly hit me and forced another car off the road.”
“I don’t care.”
What kind of response was that? “Other people might.”
“That’s their problem.”
“I don’t have to tell you that.”
A man appeared from a door with “Toilet” over it, the word, “Mike” on the left breast of his cover-alls. “What’s going on, Kevin?”
“Kevin nearly caused an accident.”
“But he didn’t, huh?” Mike was unimpressed.
“Does he have a license?”
“Look, take off old man,” said the young driver. “You don’t know how much trouble…” He pushed his hand toward Hudson’s chest. Hudson took it in both his.
“Ow!” The boy fell hard on his knees. Mike made as if to grab Hudson’s arm.
“Don’t,” said Hudson. Something in the way the word came out froze Mike. Hudson looked down at Kevin. “Watch your driving from now on. I’ll remember you.”
The rest of his drive home was unsatisfactory. He didn’t feel he’d handled the situation well. What did he prove, that he could physically impose his will on a scrawny clerk and a seventeen-year-old boy? He’d done nothing useful. Kevin wouldn’t have learned from what had happened. Right now Mike was surely not lecturing the kid on driving. He, Hudson, had only widened the gulf a teenager feels between himself and adults. Maybe if he hadn’t been up all night… But even if he hadn’t, what should he have done?