"I'll let you off in Sussex."
My voice trailed off a little and I hesitated. I had picked him up hitchhiking about an hour earlier and had been thinking on and off the whole time whether I should tell him. It's a good story, and it's just that, right? A story. I couldn't help myself.
Not sure if I should tell you this but years ago I was hitchhiking with a friend, coming the same direction you were. As we were approaching Sussex he started a conversation much like many other conversations I'd had with people that have picked me up when I was on the road - one time when I was hitchhiking…
And that's when I heard about the Sussex Bridge Curse.
Apparently, years earlier, when he was hitchhiking, my driver was dropped exactly where he was going to drop Ralph and I. He said it was one of the worst nights hitchhiking for him because minutes after his ride dropped him off clouds appeared and it poured rain all night. He found some shelter under the bridge but didn't get a ride until morning, cold and wet.
Ralph and I had been on the road since morning hadn't packed any food we had money we could see a diner from where we stood on the side of the highway. We decided to grab a bite before we ventured further west - this was our first mistake.
After filling our guts with a mediocreBurger combo, we started back to the bridge to stick out our thumbs. Immediately we saw clouds gathering in the evening sky and this led to mistake number two.
Ralph and I decided that we did not want to be victims of the Sussex bridge curse and made the regrettable decision to walk to the next on-ramp. It was the days prior to cell phones and we had no map or knowledge of the area. It turns out the next exit was 25 to 30 km up the road. We had just gotten out of sight of the bridge when the clouds started spitting on us. It was spring, it was nighttime, and we were in New Brunswick. Temperatures dropped to freezing. It was the worst night that I've ever had on the road, before or since.
We were quickly wet and chilled to the bone as it rained on and off through the night. We truck turns keeping each other motivated - only one of us was allowed to be depressed and want to give up at a time, though we agreed that we could both complain about the driver that had cursed us. We ended up, the two of us, sleeping standing up in an old Bell phone booth we found at an abandoned gas station on the side of the Trans Canada, just to get a half hour break from the cold rain.
Finally, as the sun was rising, the clouds dissipating, we crossed another bridge and came to a gas station restaurant. The idea of changing clothes was quickly abandoned when we opened our bags to find everything inside soaked as well. I remember bringing a Stephen King book in case we got stuck somewhere so I would have something to read. It had rained so much while we had been walking, that the book had been soaked and swelled up til it was almost round. It was quickly discarded with our hopes of being dry.
Now, years later, as I retold this story to the innocent hitchhiker who is now my passenger, the two of us laughed.
"I hope you haven't cursed me" he joked as we arrived in Sussex. I dropped him off, pointed to where the diner was and drove off. It took about 5 minutes for the clouds to appear and less than 5 more before it was pouring rain as I continued West.It would appear that the Sussex Bridge Curse was a spoken spell.
