{"id":2054,"date":"2025-06-14T14:33:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T06:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/?p=2054"},"modified":"2025-06-29T20:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T12:51:08","slug":"%e7%ba%b5%e6%a8%aa%e7%be%8e%e5%9b%bd-08-the-stranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/?p=2054","title":{"rendered":"\u7eb5\u6a2a\u7f8e\u56fd \u2013 08. The stranger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"350\"  src=\"\/\/www.bilibili.com\/blackboard\/html5mobileplayer.html?isOutside=true&#038;aid=714777490&#038;bvid=BV1jX4y1G7sk&#038;cid=314536577&#038;p=55\" scrolling=\"no\" border=\"0\" frameborder=\"no\" framespacing=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Day one: I am driving across the United States. I am leaving the East Coast driving west for new sights, new advantures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Day two: I drove all day through the Midwest. Day three: I crossed over the Mississippi and into the <strong>plains<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the fourth day of my drive across the United States. It&#8217;s the desert. The land is flat and <strong>barren<\/strong>, but beautiful, in a strange way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The music on the radio out here sure is different from Boston. I&#8217;m really starting to like this Tex-Mex music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The car has been pretty good so far, but it&#8217;s a gas <strong>guzzler<\/strong>. I have to fill it up a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hi, what can I do for you? Boy, it&#8217;s a hot one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, and I hear it&#8217;s gonna get hotter . . . Fill it up? Yeah, please. Uh, regular, unleaded . . . Oh, and can you check the oil?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you have a restroom? Yup, it&#8217;s around the corner. The key&#8217;s inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Excuse me, where&#8217;s the key? It&#8217;s hanging near the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t see it. On the hook by the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I put in two quarts of oil. Two quarts? why so much?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t know, maybe there&#8217;s a problem. Do you really think there&#8217;s a problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can&#8217;t tell. I&#8217;m not a mechanic, but the owner, he&#8217;ll be back in about an hour. He&#8217;s a mechanic, you should check with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you think I should wait? It&#8217;s up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe I&#8217;ll go on, how much do I owe you? That&#8217;ll be fifteen seventy-five for the gas . . . plus the oil eighteen ninety. 15.75<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cash or credit card? Cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You drove all the way from Massachusetts by yourself? Yup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s a heck of a drive. How far are you going? San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep your eye on that oil, ok? I will, thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good luck! Where am I going to sleep tonight?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope I can find a cheap motel out here. Maybe there&#8217;s something down this road?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sundowner Motel, great. Oh, no, it&#8217;s out of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>San Francisco is still 500 miles away. Heck, I&#8217;ll drive straight through. No more motels, I&#8217;m just gonna get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<br>Oh, don&#8217;t tell me. . . Now what am I gonna do? Hi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hi! Hello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you want to roll down your window? Car trouble, huh? Look, don&#8217;t worry about me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was just taking pictures. . . over there. Well, why don&#8217;t you pop open the <strong>hood<\/strong>, and I&#8217;ll check \u0001t out, ok?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ok, try it now. OK, start it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you all right? Oh, my God, I am so sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you want to sit down? Look, I&#8217;m so. Oh, God, I&#8217;m sorry. Let me see, it&#8217;s not bleeding. It s, it s not your fault. It s OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know it&#8217;s not my fault, but it&#8217;s my car and I feel terrible. I should get this hood fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, that&#8217;s a good idea. . . Look, look, I&#8217;m sorry I scared you. Oh, it&#8217;s ok, it&#8217;s just with all the stories you hear, you have to be careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, should we try your car one more time? Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ok, start it up. I&#8217;m afraid I don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s wrong with your car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not getting any gas. It may be the <strong>fuel pump<\/strong>. Well, now what am I going to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I see you&#8217;re from Massachusetts. Boston? Where are you going?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m not going anywhere until I get my car fixed. OK, well, why don&#8217;t we take my car and. . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uh, we&#8217;ll try to find a gas station or at least a pay phone. Maybe you could go and I&#8217;ll. . . uh, just stay here with my car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s not a good idea. It&#8217;s late, and everything&#8217;s going to close soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, there has to be a twenty-four-hour place. This isn&#8217;t Boston. Things pretty much close at sundown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, there&#8217;s got to be a place around here somewhere. Hey, we&#8217;re in the middle of nowhere, you may have to wait until morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, I don&#8217;t, I don&#8217;t. . . I guess I don&#8217;t have much choice. So, you should take anything that&#8217;s valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think your car will be safe, but you never know. My cars just up the road there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My name&#8217;s Alberto. Mine&#8217;s Rebecca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Are you a photographer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, actually I&#8217;m an <strong>architect<\/strong>. Photography&#8217;s just my hobby. Oh, what do you take pictures of ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Desert, sunsets, shadows. . . light. Ow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is it? Are you OK? I&#8217;m fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, I can drive if you&#8217;re not feeling well. Really, really, I&#8217;m fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<br>Do you want me to turn the heat on? The desert gets cold at night. Oh, no, I&#8217;m fine. Do you have any idea where we are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, Mount Eagle Road. What&#8217;s that over there? Looks like a hamburger stand or something. Maybe I could make a phone call from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello. . . You. . . Hey Hello, we need a phone. . . We, we have car trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There she goes. Ow, Hello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Great! Now what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day one: I am driving across the United States. I am leaving the East Coast driving west for new sights, new advantures. Day two: I drove all day through the Midwest. Day three: I crossed over the Mississippi and into the plains. This is the fourth day of my drive across the United States. It&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,28,41,42,29],"class_list":["post-2054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","tag-english","tag-28","tag-41","tag-42","tag-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2193,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}