Long Distance
April 16th, 2021
Starring: Colby, Lex (both male, 50-60)
A truck stop, evening. An outdoor bench, parked near the convenience store. There’s a trash can near it, one of those with a sand ashtray on the top. Lex sits on the bench, smoking a cigarette, watching the trucks move in and out, the cars speeding down the interstate.
Colby walks out of the store, holding a large styrofoam container of some drink. He walks towards the trash can, taking out a plastic straw and nudging off the paper wrapper. He tosses the wrapper and pokes the straw into the cup lid. He drinks. He looks over to Lex, noticing the open cigarette box. A few more silent moments, then:
COLBY
‘Scuse me.
Lex looks over:
COLBY (to the cigarettes)
I’ll give you a buck for one of those.
Lex takes a cigarette out, handing it to him with his lighter.
LEX
Save your dough.
COLBY
Appreciate that.
Colby lights the cig, tossing the lighter back to Lex. He coughs a little. Actually, a bit. Lex looks over:
COLBY
Sorry. It’s rare for me to light up.
LEX
What’s the occasion?
COLBY
Not sure.
...
Nice night. Almost home.
LEX
Good enough.
...
Where’s home?
COLBY
Billings.
You?
LEX
Sioux Falls.
COLBY
Nice town.
LEX
Eh. My place is a shack. Pay peanuts for it. Good incentive to stay on the road.
COLBY
Nobody home?
LEX
Not a soul. Wife and I are split. I have a son, but he’s enlisted. Off on some aircraft carrier someplace.
So yeah. I’m wild and free.
COLBY
Gotta be easier. When no one's waiting for you to come back.
LEX
In some ways. Sometimes it’s too quiet.
But the guilt’s lifted.
COLBY
Man. I need that.
I got two girls, fourteen and seventeen.
LEX
You talk?
COLBY
All the time. They all know the drill by now.
…
That’s what hurts. That they’re used to it. The older they get, the more it gets to me. The distance feels greater. You hope it doesn’t screw them up.
LEX
It might. That’s the curse. You have to abandon them to take care of them.
COLBY
Yeah. I do.
But it’s love.
A special twisted kind of love but
All love.
LEX
It is.
And you’re almost home.
COLBY
Ha.
I can make it by bedtime, if I punch it.
LEX
Well don’t let me stop you.
COLBY
Not at all.
You kept me going.
Colby stubs out the cigarette in the sand. With his free hand, he takes out a dollar bill from his pants and hands it out to Lex:
LEX
Come on—
COLBY
Come on. For my conscience.
Lex pauses, then takes the bill with a begrudging nod. Colby tips his hat and walks down towards his truck in the lot, still coughing a little.
LEX (calling out)
Happy trails.
Colby doesn’t hear him, drowned out from the sounds of the other trucks. Colby unlocks the cab of his own, getting behind the wheel, starting it up. He slowly traverses out of the spot, then sets out onto the interstate. Lex watches him ride off.
Like clockwork, another semi-truck enters, taking Colby’s spot. Lex lights up another cigarette, blowing smoke into the night.