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Description
Scene from the upcoming sequel to my novel "The Outsider"

Ruthie had three large pieces of luggage. She had come prepared with everything she'd need to live in the field and excavate, along with extra boots and gloves. Yes, she could have waited and bought most of that stuff at any sporting goods store in Wyoming, but she didn't want to waste time shopping, when she could take care of all that in California ahead of time. She took it for granted Jacob would help out with the heavy lifting.

He rolled the luggage towards his pickup truck. Ruthie's opinion of her host dropped considerably when she saw the vehicle. It was a "Behemoth" from the Mega-Mega series, one of those enormous obnoxious double-cabin pickup trucks that had recently become popular around the country. Besides "the Behemoth", names in the production line included "the Colossus" and "the Road Crusher". The largest vehicle of the series, the one named with the most brutal honesty of all, was "the Global Warmer". The names were meant to be offensive, marketed to conservatives as an act of defiance against environmentalists and "big city liberals".

There was another detail that made Ruthie recoil with disgust. The "Behemoth" had three political bumper-stickers from "Fortress America" on the back tailgate. One portrayed a smiling Victor Meijer in a cowboy hat, another had the slogan "Good Walls Make Good Neighbors", and the third bore the slogan "Fortress America - The Shining Citadel on the Mountaintop".

"Jacob, what the fuck is this? Some kind of sick joke?"

"Sorry, it's my dad's. He's big into FA."

"What about you?"

"Not at all. Can't stand 'em. But, with my dad, it's his house, his rules. His truck, his bumper stickers. No point in arguing."

Ruthie glared at the offensive messages and didn't move. Jacob added:

"Longbow County is FA country. Meijer got 88 percent of the county vote in the last election. We're not California."

Ruthie took a deep breath. She felt that getting into the Dumfries pickup would somehow contaminate her. But it was either that, or giving up the possibility of a major scientific discovery and looking like a total idiot in front of Dickerson. Yes, there were plenty of people in California who would have refused, on principle, to ever get into an oversized pickup with Fortress America bumper stickers under any circumstances. However, what good would that do Ruthie, or the DSU Department of Geology, or the cause of scientific discovery? Also, what right did she have to judge Jacob Dumfries based on what his dad was into? It would have been the same as judging her on the basis of her mother's evangelical church.

Description
Scene from the upcoming sequel to my novel "The Outsider"

Ruthie had three large pieces of luggage. She had come prepared with everything she'd need to live in the field and excavate, along with extra boots and gloves. Yes, she could have waited and bought most of that stuff at any sporting goods store in Wyoming, but she didn't want to waste time shopping, when she could take care of all that in California ahead of time. She took it for granted Jacob would help out with the heavy lifting.

He rolled the luggage towards his pickup truck. Ruthie's opinion of her host dropped considerably when she saw the vehicle. It was a "Behemoth" from the Mega-Mega series, one of those enormous obnoxious double-cabin pickup trucks that had recently become popular around the country. Besides "the Behemoth", names in the production line included "the Colossus" and "the Road Crusher". The largest vehicle of the series, the one named with the most brutal honesty of all, was "the Global Warmer". The names were meant to be offensive, marketed to conservatives as an act of defiance against environmentalists and "big city liberals".

There was another detail that made Ruthie recoil with disgust. The "Behemoth" had three political bumper-stickers from "Fortress America" on the back tailgate. One portrayed a smiling Victor Meijer in a cowboy hat, another had the slogan "Good Walls Make Good Neighbors", and the third bore the slogan "Fortress America - The Shining Citadel on the Mountaintop".

"Jacob, what the fuck is this? Some kind of sick joke?"

"Sorry, it's my dad's. He's big into FA."

"What about you?"

"Not at all. Can't stand 'em. But, with my dad, it's his house, his rules. His truck, his bumper stickers. No point in arguing."

Ruthie glared at the offensive messages and didn't move. Jacob added:

"Longbow County is FA country. Meijer got 88 percent of the county vote in the last election. We're not California."

Ruthie took a deep breath. She felt that getting into the Dumfries pickup would somehow contaminate her. But it was either that, or giving up the possibility of a major scientific discovery and looking like a total idiot in front of Dickerson. Yes, there were plenty of people in California who would have refused, on principle, to ever get into an oversized pickup with Fortress America bumper stickers under any circumstances. However, what good would that do Ruthie, or the DSU Department of Geology, or the cause of scientific discovery? Also, what right did she have to judge Jacob Dumfries based on what his dad was into? It would have been the same as judging her on the basis of her mother's evangelical church.