not enjoyable
It was another trip home from Oklahoma. I had been working w/ this group of guys for about five months doing concrete removal and prep. We did a lot of work in Tulsa and Stillwater(near OK City. We had been away from home for almost a week which was the norm. In a time frame of five days we could easily travel to three different states and work 4-6 different jobs. The hours were long and hard to say the least. In order to keep up w/ the work load our boss continuously fed us meth. We smoked it all the time. We usually worked over 24 hours straight so it wouldn't be possible w/out it. Well, we're driving home. I was driving w/ Mitch and the other three guys were in another truck taking the lead. We we coming upon the Waco area. Everything was going fine, it was about mid-day and we were beat. You would think it was a simple trip. Just stay awake for a few hours until we made it home, and to make it easier, we were following our boss. Mitch started driving pretty slow and soon the other guys were out of our view. For reasons that would later become clear to me, Mitch decided to get off the highway and onto the access road that paralleled the highway. I asked him what he was doing cause it was clearly not the way home and he said Denver (our boss), told him to meet at a truck stop near there. I knew this stretch of highway fairly well cause we had traveled it so much and I knew that there was no suck truck stop. Nonetheless, I decided not to argue w/ him, thinking that he knew what he was doing. I could see he was getting frustrated and he kept mummbling, "come on Denver, where are you". I half commented under my breath, "he's on the highway". Mitch decided to get off the access road and onto some weird country road that took us west. I knew there had to be something wrong w/ him cause unless he intended on going to New Mexico, there was nothing out there. I kept asking him what he was doing and he just insisted that Denver wanted to meet us. I figured Mitch was just tired from the long hours we had been awake so I calmly reasoned w/ him that there was no way Denver would be out this way. He gave up finally and kinda snapped at me say fine, then you figure out how the hell to get back on the highway. I'm pretty surprised I was able to do it, but I did navigate us back to the highway. Once we hit the road I was able to relax. I turned the radio on to ease the tension and sat back. After sometime I turned to make small talk w/ Mitch. We were just bullshiting about whatever when he suddenly told me to hush, and started messing w/ the radio. He kept turning the tuner to different stations, or so it seemed. I would hear a good song and say "hey, there's a good song", but he just ignored me. Finally he turned it to a station that was nothing but static. I thought he was just fucking with me. I asked him why he put it on that and he told me to be quiet, and listen. I was like okay man, whatever. What happened next had me half laughing my ass off. Mitch started talking to the radio. I was sitting there laughing and asking him if I could talk too. He gave me this look and was like, just be quiet, I can't hear him very good. I stopped laughing pretty quick. Oh shit I'm thinking, this guy is fucking serious. I sat there in utter disbelief while this guy sat there talking. It sounded like "he thought" he was talking to our boss, Denver. He would sit there having a conversation with him, and then curse and mess w/ the dial, acting like he couldn't raise Denver's signal. I was getting freaked out real quick. I had been awake for god knows how long and this was the last thing I need, especially when we were within 45 minutes from home. He would sit there arguing w/ Denver, saying where the hell are you man, and why didn't you meet us at the truck stop? Then he would pause and listen like Denver was talking back to him, when all that could be heard was static. I didn't know what to do. I had never experienced this before. I would later find out that this guy had been awake for like four straight days and done enough Meth to probably give me and overdose. Well, I knew I had to do something cause we had a lot of drugs in the truck w/ us. More than enough weed and meth to get are asses locked up for quite a while. I told Mitch I had to go to the bathroom. After bitching to him I got him to believe I had to go bad. We had pulled off the highway a ways back and were on back roads not far from home. Mitch stopped at a Subway restuarant. I went inside and into the bathroom. I had scanned the place on the way in and there were no phones inside. I didn't want to use one outside cause I didn't want Mitch to start freaking out. I splashed water on myself and just stared in the mirror, thinking fuck, what am I going to do. The thought did cross my mind of running through there kitchen and taking off out the backdoor. I was that freaked out. I had to get away from this guy. Then I came to my senses. Even though he was acting like a complete pyscho, I couldn't leave him. I didn't want him to get into trouble and my boss would have killed me for abandoning him like that. I figured I would just remain calm and hope that he drove straight to the shop where everyone else was waiting for us. I got back in and off we went. I was thinking that everyone must be trippin out about us not being there. Because of Mitch and his detours, we were two and half hours behind the time we should of already been there. We got through downtown Belton w/out a hitch, even though we did pass a few cops which gave me butterflies. We got to the last main road we would have to cross before a quck two minute, straight line drive to the shop. Well, Mitch does it again. He starts wigging out and takes a right. I wanted to cry. We were so close. I thought about bailing out of the truck, but no, I didn't want to fuck myself up. Beating him down and taking the wheel wouldn't do either cause the guy was really big, and you generally don't fuck w/ guys when they're on a meth high. Not to mention that he was acting so crazy that I figured he would literally try and kill me if I did anything. So on we drove. He probably drove us around for another half hour or so when he pulled over on the side of the road. He were headed towards the shop and even closer now than we had been before. That's when I saw it. Two of the other guys passed by on a street that crossed the one we were on. I yelled at Mitch to honk the horn and sat there praying that they noticed us. It took a few minutes but they came back and pulled up beside us. I jumped out of that truck and into the one w/ the other guys that they would later joke about how fast I had moved. I was scared shitless and tired. I explained to them what happened. One of the other guys had had a little experience w/ the whole sleep deprivation crazy shit so he jumped in w/ Mitch and was able to get him home. Maybe about two weeks later, Mitch would be on another crazy trip and try to fight my boss. My boss pretty much beat his ass and that was the last anyone saw of Mitch.