"Over the Long Haul" by Martha Soukup

 First appeared in Patrick Lucien Price's Amazing Stories. Reprinted by James Morrow. Up for the Hugo, Nebula, and Homer awards.

 This was adapted for an anthology show called Perverse Destiny, directed by Danny Glover, starring Erika Alexander and Lou Diamond Phillips [IMDB].

 

Summary:

Shawna Mooney is a single mom and a truck driver. Both. At the same time. It's not exactly a requirement, but in this future, it's become that way where people have to work. The trucks are mostly self-driven. But Shawna has seemed to have found love in the most unlikely of places: on the road, at rest stops as moves along her route. The gentleman is also a driver who only seems to have eyes for her.

 

Discussion with Spoilers:

After talking and making out with her at two stops, the gentleman seems to think they'd make a good couple and says he wants to introduce one of her children to his to see if they can get along in his truck. The only problem would be at mandatory child-check, but he knows where this will be and understands how the trucks talk and announce themselves. She consents as he is so knowledgeable.

However, a mandatory stop rears up before she knows it, and she does not have one of her two children and will get in trouble for that. She blows past the stop to catch up with the bad guy who is shipping contraband and needed a child to get through these stops.

The 80s and 90s seemed to be an era for wanting to inject the domestic into SF, more so than others, but this is quite astonishing mixing the future with trucks and child-rearing. This is Soukup's first story to grab the attention of award peoples, which isn't too surprising although my attention wandered in the middle. But the narrative takes off towards the end.

The premise is interesting and perhaps prescient considering how it anticipates our present--if not also problematic. Even if she doesn't need to give the truck her full attention, presumably she needs to take over, but it seems quite likely that a child might need attention when the road requires it as well. 

Much as I didn't want the protagonist to get in trouble, no doubt she would have gotten in trouble for giving away her child, potentially losing both children and her job.