She had dreams, big dreams, and they didn’t involve driving around half the State of Texas pushing pharmaceuticals, and certainly not being stranded in the backwoods.

She imagined the headlines. Samantha Isabelle Ayers, Junior Pharmaceutical Rep for RGI, found slain in Davy Crockett National Forest. Why had she taken this job anyway? Not like she enjoyed driving to every podunk town west of the Sabine and east of the Brazos, peddling pills and potions to the county hospitals and city clinics.

FLAT TIRE BY TRACE SHERIDAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 04

She heard the unmistakable sound of flapping rubber against asphalt and pulled the rented Honda Accord to the side of the road.

She was in the middle of nowhere.

Take Highway 7 West, cut through the big thicket, hit Interstate 287 and drive East to 59 South, miss the rush of travelers heading to the coast. That’s what the service station guy said 30 miles ago. It was a zig-zag through the pine woods, but she had to get back on schedule. She had a meeting at Sherman in six hours.

Now it appeared that she should have gone straight down 59. At least then, with the packed highway of Memorial Day travelers, she …