The Hitchhiker

This story is based on an event which happened to my father about five years ago.

My father is a truck driver here in Ireland, he has been for the past thirty something years. He told me this story shortly after it happened to him, I actually think he finds it hard to believe himself.

My father was driving from Cork to Dublin, it was a night run, about 3.30am. It was a cold November night, and there was a fair bit of fog and mist all around, so the road was fairly hard to see. My father doesn't recall stopping on the road, but suddenly he was aware that there was someone sitting next to him in the truck. He didn't feel afraid, and felt as if he had stopped and picked this person up, even though he hadn't.

My father and this person, a man, had a bit of a chat, my father couldn't help but notice that this man was very similar to my Grandfather, who had passed away some 20 years previous. The man wanted to get out of the truck, so my father stopped, and the man said, "mind the road ahead". My father nodded and was on his way, the road was thick in fog and there was a hump back bridge ahead of him, he heard the mans words in his head, and decided to slow down and be very cautious. He reached the other side of the hump back bridge and had to quickly grind to a halt, there standing directly in front of him was a policeman, with a police car directly behind him blocking the road.

The road ahead was flooded, and the policeman was there to warn people, yet because of the poor visibility the policeman could hardly be seen. My father reckons that the hitchhiker saved this man's and possibly my fathers life, as my father would not have been travelling at such a slow and cautious speed, had it not been the for the hitchhikers words.