psycho ward

Now before certain family members scream at me, I never, well hardly ever, pick up hitch hikers. Last week I left early for Nova Scotia. I had the cats with me and their litter box was on the floor in front of the front passenger seat. The sun rose just as I was passing through the Cobequid toll booth. Just after that I put out my hand to the passenger seat and touched something wet and squishy. A cat had thrown up. I stopped shortly thereafter and cleaned up the solids, but the front seat was wet. That sets the stage.

Just after I got back on the road I saw a large young man in an orange jump suit frantically waving me down. I stopped and rolled down the window. "I've got to get to Halifax quick." "Huh?" I read "Psycho Ward" printed on his chest. This figures. He's desperate: "Contest". I open the door and he jumps in on the wet seat with his feet in the litter box. We're off.

"Radio Contest". There're three of us. I'm the last. The first to get to the station gets tickets to ...... concert." I miss the name of the concert which he seemed sure that I would know. "They took our wallets and cell phones, so I only have an ID saying that I'm in the context. So I'm supposed to phone the station on your cell phone." "I don't have a cell phone." "You don't?!!!". He really got a winner. We zipped down the road, faster than I usually go, but not as fast as he would have liked, although he didn't say so.

Then I realized that I was being tailed. It seemed that it was the radio station car who had dropped him off. I could see that the driver was on his cell phone.

My pickup was a nice kid who had taken a day off college. I learnt a lot about radio and about the Chicken Burger sale ($10,000,000.00) I took his picture as soon as I dropped him off. It must have been on the radio because immediately another car pulled over to pick him up.

I didn't have breakfast until I reached Windsor.