Page 6 - FINAL DESTINATION

G B TAYLOR
leaned over his passenger. The driver was a tall thin man with a beard and blond hair that stuck out from beneath a baseball cap. The stained cap was covered in almost as much grease as his gray coveralls.
“Thank you, but no,” Neil said as he swayed on the fence. "Everything is fine."
"Thought you might have car trouble," said the passenger. He was shorter than the other man but had the same color hair. He was wearing a dirty flannel shirt and his baseball cap bore a large number five and the picture of a man Neil did not recog- nize. "We're mechanics," he added with pride in his voice. "Thought we could help."
Neil found his balance, swung his other leg over, and stepped down into the pasture, happy to put the fence between himself and the strangers. "No. No car trouble," he said as he reached down and picked up the box. "But it was nice of you to stop and ask."
"Not a problem," said the driver. "Glad everything is okay." He straightened up in his seat and shifted truck back into gear.
"So what you doing in old man Henderson's field?" the man in the passenger's seat asked. The driver gave him a swift back- handed slap on the upper arm and the smaller man flinched saying, "Och! What ya do that for?"
The driver leaned back toward the open window and said, "Sorry, mister, our mama never had no luck teaching this one any manners." He turned to the other man and said, "It ain't none of our business what that feller's up to."
"Sorry," said the smaller man to Neil. "I was just wondering."
"It's okay," Neil said. "I know this must look a little odd. I was actually trying to find the house where my mother grew up. It was part of her last request before she died." He turned and pointed to the thicket across the field. "I think it may be over there."
4