A Wasted Hour by Jeffrey Howard Archer

A Wasted Hour

A wasted Hour is a short story written by Jeffrey Howard Archer, which tells the story of Kelley Ragland, a female student at Stanford university and her interesting stories while hitchhiking to college.

We learn that Kelley has always been hitchhiking to her college but has always kept it as a secret for her parents, as they would not understand her decision. We learn that the reason why Kelley is hitchhiking, is first because she wants to save money, but she also enjoys listening to other people’s stories, about their life and their dreams (p. 1 – l. 7).  Although Kelley hitchhikes a lot, Kelley do not accept rides from anyone, especially truck drivers, or groups of young men. Kelley also avoid drivers under the age of 60.  (p. 1. l. 18-21)

One day after Kelley’s father dropped her off and when to the highway to look for a hitchhike. She spots a pre-war Studebaker slowly driving towards her, she raised her thumb to give a sign. The car slowed down and pulled of the road, it was an elderly man by the name John. John meet most of Kelley’s requirements, but he was a smoker, however she jumped in. Kelley starts doing she always had done, started asking questions, but it did go back and forth. Kelley told John that she was studying American literature at Stanford, and that her dream was to become a writer that you learn about in school. John did also study American literature when he was younger but ended up flunking out, before getting his degree (p. 2 – l. 55-59). They discussed what books that where their favorites and what else they had to share. John then started to tell Kelley about his life story. Why he left his studies, so he could work at his father’s farm, and then how he travelled to California and got a job at Herald Tribune as a war correspond. He also tells her how he got involved with the CIA and FBI, his three wives’, that he got two sons and he also meet a lot of famous people like Martin Luther King and much more.