Plans Change

I'm going to be star.  Well, that's what my plans were anyway when I left home. I was setting out to reach my goals, to follow my dreams.  Living in Iowa there wasn’t a lot of acting jobs.  I acted in a lot of small plays and in our local acting clubs. 

Oh how I loved to act!  I loved pretending to be someone else.  It let me hide behind a character. My life couldn’t be less exciting.  I was pretty much a homebody.  I didn't have any close friends.  I even went to our local college for a year, but that didn't seem to be a good fit for me, either.

I guess that is why I so desperately wanted to be somebody else.    I needed to move to Hollywood to become a real actress.

It took quite a bit of time but I finally convinced my parents to let me take a shot at the big time. I think my parents thought that I needed to get away from here and find out what I really wanted to do with my life.  They knew that I believed acting was the only thing that I really loved and they were willing to at least “pretend” they were happy with my decision.

It would be awful hard for them now to tell me “No, you can’t go”, or “You have got to be out of your mind” or “You are way too young; you don’t know what you are doing” since they spent the last 19 years of my life telling me, “Emily, you can do what you want to do and be who you want to be, and don’t ever let anybody ever tell you anything different.  Not even your parents.” I bet they are wishing right about now they could take that advice back but what’s done is done.

A week later I packed up and got ready to head on out. By the time I opened the car door and got in the front seat we were all crying, especially my dad. He was
extremely
emotional.

“Call home every time you stop for gas, OK, Emily?”

“I am not going to call you at every stop but don’t worry, dad, I will call,” I said. “Gotta go. See ya and I love ya.”

I had planned on driving straight through to California, but while driving through Wyoming, at night, my car broke down.  I couldn't get any reception on my phone.  I didn't have any idea what was wrong with the car and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere.  I didn't know what to do.  I finally saw a light in my rear view mirror.  The vehicle slowed down and pulled in behind me. To say I was scared at this point would be an understatement.

“Please be the police,” I said to myself as I locked my doors.  Hopefully, I wasn't going to get killed by a serial killer.  I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths trying to relax myself. 

I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard a door slam.  My eyes popped open and looked in my rear view mirror.  Someone was coming toward my car.  It was a very
big
someone. 

I kept muttering to myself to stay calm.  When the person tapped on my window, I let out a little yelp of surprise.  I rolled my window down just a little. 

The voice asked, “Do you need some help?" 

“My car broke down and now it won’t start,” I said to the massive stranger.

"The nearest garage is over half an hour away,” he said. “And besides, they aren't open this time of night.”

I just sat there, not saying a word.  I needed to pull myself together in a hurry because I was just about ready to fall completely apart.

“Miss, can you hear me?” he asked.

“Um, yes,” was about all I managed to say.

“My name is Jason Larson,” he said. "You can't stay here all night. It's not very safe and it gets really cold here once the sun goes down." 

I didn't want to stay here all night by myself. I was getting cold, had no reception on my phone and I was scared.  Really scared. But, I didn't know this man and I didn't want to get out of my car. 

"Why don't you come home with me tonight?  I can call the garage in the morning and have them come out and look at the car for you," Jason said.

I figured the position I was in it didn’t matter how scared I was, I was going to have to go with him. “God, I wish I would have never left home,” I said to myself.

Before I got out of my car I asked, "Do you have a phone?" 

He took out his cell phone and said, "It doesn't have any service right here.  When we get back to the house you can use my home phone.”

“OK,” I said. “I need to let my parents know where I am and what has happened to my car.”

I figured now was not the time for complete honesty so I added, “I had to agree with my dad before I left home that I would call him every 2 hrs and that second hour is coming up soon. As much as he loves his little girl, if I don’t call him at the scheduled time he will more than likely be calling the state patrol.”

I figured that would let him know that I had someone knowing where I was and they were expecting me to give them a call shortly.  I was scared to death to get out of my car. 

Then I thought of another great idea.  I asked him for his address.  Then I wrote a note that said I was with Jason Larson with his home address on it.  I added that I would be back to get my car and then left it on the dashboard.

I explained to Jason that I didn't want anybody to come by and think that I just left my car.  He chuckled a bit about that explanation.  He could tell I was scared. Some actress I was.

I reluctantly left the safety of my car and walked back to his truck.  He was nice enough to carry my bag for me.  It was a huge truck.  I literally had to crawl up into the front seat. 

"Do you need any help getting in the truck?"  Jason asked.

"No,” I replied.  "I can get in on my own."

We headed to his house.  I kept very close to my side of the truck.  Not that I didn't have enough room, it's just that I was feeling very uncomfortable.  It was so dark out here. No stars, no moon, no nothin’. The only lights were from the dashboard of the truck. I had seen movies like this before and it never turned out well for the stranded motorist.

It only took about 30 minutes to get to where we were going. 

Neither one of us spoke during the car ride to Jason’s house, which gave me plenty of time to imagine to myself every worst case scenario you could possibly imagine.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere. 

We came to his ranch.  There were several outside lights and the outline of barns and other buildings.  The house was the first building we came to. 

"We'll, we are here."  Jason said.  He looked over at me and asked if I needed any help getting out of the truck.

Again I said "No.” I practically slid out of the truck and onto the ground. 

My legs could hardly hold me up because I was so scared and for some reason my body wasn't moving. I had always thought that the term “frozen with fear” was just blabber, but here I was a human statue.

He came over to my side of the truck and told me to follow him to the house.  I looked at him and gave him a very weak smile.  He noticed that I wasn't moving. 

“Let me help you," he said.  “Everything is going to be OK.”

I think he finally realized that I was incredibly frightened.  My head was spinning so badly by this point that I didn't remember a thing until we were inside the house.  Once we got into the house the first thing he did was show me where the phone was. 

I called my parents to let them know what had happened to my car and where I was. I actually gave the phone number to them.  I was relieved and feeling so much better about this whole mess now. 

I was finally starting to relax a little. 

“Are you hungry at all?” Jason asked.

"Just a little," I answered.

I was actually starving as I hadn’t had anything to eat all day.  I had been so excited about “living my dream” that the thought of eating had never entered my mind.   Now that Jason had asked, I was really feeling the hunger pangs. 

Then I remembered that I never did tell him my name. "My name is Emily," I blurted out.  “I just forgot to tell you that earlier, when you rescued me.”

He looked over at me and said, "It’s nice to meet you." 

I went on to explain that I usually have better manners, but I was just so nervous when he stopped to help me, it just slipped my mind. 

"That's okay. We better get something to eat,” he said.  

He walked over to the kitchen and fixed me a sandwich.  “Let’s sit down here at the table while we eat.”

I finally got a good look at my rescuer.  He was definitely a large guy. I would guess that he was about 6 ft. 4 inches tall.  He looked like he was in good shape, too.  Really good shape!  He had brown, wavy shoulder length hair and piercing blue eyes.  He was without a doubt the handsomest, sexiest man I had ever laid my eyes on and he appeared to have a heart of gold to boot.

After we finished our sandwich, he said that he had to go outside and check on his cows.  He left me alone in the house.  It was nice and comfortable.  The house wasn't overcrowded with too much furniture.  It was almost all brown.  Actually, there was a lot of brown in the house.  There did not appear to be any womanly touches in the house. 

He came back about an hour later from checking on his cows.  “You can sleep in my bed,” he offered. “I’ll take the couch.” 

I hadn't realized how late it had gotten. It was well after midnight.  I felt uncomfortable about taking his bed and told him so.  “Let me take the couch. Please,” I said.

He went and got a pillow and blanket for me and then he said goodnight.

It took forever for me to fall asleep. Thoughts of a gruesome death were no longer racing through my head. They were now filled with thoughts of what it would be like to “BE” with this Adonis of a man.

When I woke up that morning I could smell the bacon cooking in the kitchen. It smelled great.  I thought to myself, “Not only was this guy great looking with a hot body, he was kind and giving and, to top it all off, he could cook. JACKPOT!!”

“Good morning!” Jason said. “Are you up for something to eat?”

“That would be wonderful,” I said. “Thank you very much.”

He told me that he had called the repair shop in town to get my car towed and worked on.