This, That, and the Other

Teresa, the Haunted Wordsmith, tagged me to write part 2 of her latest Finish The Story challenge, titled “The Open Road.”

Here’s how Teresa started the story:

It was Spring 1962. Mick, Harry, and Jefferson just graduated from Lincoln High School. The VW bus was stocked with a few changes of clothes, and enough food and 8-track tapes to last for days. It was just them, their future, and the open road.

“Man, this will be great,” Mick said, leaning back in the driver’s seat. He pulled his draft card from his shirt pocket and threw it out the window.

Harry and Jefferson laughed. They burned theirs the night before. No one was going to tell them where they were going to die, or that they had to kill others in the process.

“Nevada, Colorado, then Canada,” Jefferson said, sweeping his long, stringy blond hair out of his eyes.

Harry looked at him through his light brown vail and laughed. “Failed geography, huh.”

Mick laughed. “So did you.”

“Ah, who cares!”

As they drove down the highway past the redwoods and toward the open desert, the Beach Boys blared through the open windows, and the wind blew their concerns away with it.

After a few hours of driving, they saw a little red car pulled off to the side of the road with a very distressed young woman standing near it.

“What do we know about cars?” Harry asked as Mick pulled over.

“Less than we know about pretty girls,” Mick quipped.

“Need some help?” Harry asked through the passenger window.

And here is part 2:

Sally was trouble. She knew it and she used it. Her long, dirty-blonde hair, her large blue eyes, and her extraordinary body were her tools that enabled her to get pretty much anything she wanted.

She was standing there by the side of the road, next to her stranded, somewhat beat-up MG-TD roadster. Wearing a loose halter top, tight bell-bottomed jeans, leather sandals, and a dazzling smile, she was like an apparition to these three eighteen-year-old boys.

“Oh thank God,” she responded to Harry’s question. “Stupid me, I ran out of gas out here in the desert, of all places. I was beginning to lose hope and then you boys came along to save me.” Sally batted her eyelashes and said, “I’m so terribly thirsty.”

Jefferson, carrying a canteen of water, was the first out of the old VW bus. He handed it to her and was joined shortly by Mick and Harry. “What’s you name and where are you headed?” Mick asked.

“Sally,” she said, “and I am hoping to get to San Francisco.”

Jefferson looked at his two companions and then back at the girl. “You are in luck, young lady,” he said. “My friends and I are heading to Canada by way of San Francisco.”

Harry started to object, but Mick poked him in his side with his elbow.

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To continue this journey into the great wide open, I am tagging Keith over at Keith’s Ramblings. I hope he’ll pick it up and run with it.

Rules–

1. 1. Copy the story as it appears when you receive it (and the rules please)
   2. Add to the story in which ever style and length you choose
   3. Be sure to pingback or comment on the original post (here) please
   4. Tag only 1 person to continue the story
   5. Have fun!

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I also snuck in my Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (extraordinary) into this post.