Escape from LA was just so much $#@&5\% fun!

Image courtesy of Caleb George by way of a Creative Commons search. https://unsplash.com/@seemoris

They had to pry my hands off the armrest. I didn’t know which was worse: flying 2,500 turbulent miles or landing at Los Angeles International Airport.

I was a nervous wreck.

Where was my luggage? “Over there,” a security guard told me, pointing in the general direction of Tokyo. Turns out my luggage WAS in Tokyo.

Then, I couldn’t find a shuttle despite signs with 10-foot tall letters: SHUTTLE STOPS HERE. A VW minibus pulled up with I swear to God a Taco Bell Chihuahua nodding on the dashboard. “Where are you going?” the driver yelled. “Costa Mesa?” I replied meekly. He gave me a look as if I’d passed gas and roared away. Another van whipped in and I was hauled aboard.

At last. Safety. Sanity.

My vanmates consisted of an elderly couple returning from a cruise, and an editor for Scholastic Books.

They were mad at the driver. He kept circling LAX for more passengers. But they wanted to go home.

Words were exchanged. The driver fell menacingly silent as we veered onto the 405. One hour and 30 miles of 12-lane bumper-to-bumper traffic later, my vanmates had been dropped off.

It was just me and the driver.

Alone.

He turned around and glared at me and I was seeing Norman Bates.

“You ready to get the hell outta here?” he screamed.

Uh, yes. Sir.

We careened wildly down the street. He began cursing.

“Cursing” doesn’t do justice to this man’s performance. He was Scarface on speed. It was at once the angriest, most venomous tirade I’ve ever heard.

“That $#@&5\% old @&$%#! What does she mean tellin’ ME how to drive?

“That STOOOOPID &#@$&! Don’t she know a guy’s gotta make a living?

“Why would ANYONE wanna marry a woman who looked like a bulldog?”

Each spew was punctuated with a “You hear me?” to which I quickly agreed, “Damn right.” My life depended on the promptness and tone of my response, and after flying 2,500 stomach-churning miles I wasn’t about to die because an “X-Files” refugee thought I was being a snark.

“What’s the most famous person you ever picked up,” I asked, trying to change the subject.

He slapped his forehead and shouted, “That’s the STOOOOPIDEST $%#@ question I’ve ever been asked! You think anybody famous is gonna climb into this nasty-ass van?”

He strangled the steering wheel as he drove. “There’s a system, you know? You hafta be on the list, and once you’re on the list you hafta to be called. You don’t get called, you don’t get in the airport. You don’t get in the airport, you don’t make the dough. How’m I gonna make the dough to fly my girlfriend up from Rio?”

“What does your girlfriend do in Rio?” I asked, wishing all this would end.

I could swear he said, “She’s a hooker.”

Allll-righteee then. At that moment a vision of loveliness appeared in the window. The Wyndham Hotel. My destination.

As I paid the driver, he declared, “Hey, you’re OK. Not like those other #$@%&! If you wanna tour of the stars’ homes or somethin’, gimme a call.”

Sure thing, #@$%&*!

This column was originally published in the Wednesday, January 13, 1999 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.

About the author:

Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”

Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.

As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.

Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .