The Inn

by D. R. Mather

  Around eleven o’clock in the morning, Emma called and asked if Cindy would like to do a little shopping down at the mall.

  “I suppose I could use a few things for school,” Cindy said.

  “Great, I’ll come by in about 20 minutes and pick you up.”

  “Sounds great kid, see you then, bye!”

  As they walked the mall, Cindy seemed preoccupied and Emma was feeling ignored. Emma’s friends tried hard not to let her feel ignored; it was an area people tried to avoid at all costs. It seemed to bring out a much stranger side of her.

  “So, what’s on your mind that you can’t talk to your best friend, Cindy?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, I just feel different this afternoon. I can’t explain why or how, I just do.”

  “Well, I hope it’s not me…is it?”

  “Oh no Emma, it isn’t you at all. I just feel weird, you know, inside.”

  Emma looked at Cindy in a weird kind of way, and then just pushed the whole thing away. It wasn’t her fault, that’s all that mattered. Although Emma generally missed most things going on around her, she didn’t miss the fact that Cindy seemed to be slowing down at the windows of stores that had baby items in view. If Emma saw this, odds were that everyone else on the planet would see it too.

  “Hey Cindy, what are you doing looking at little brat stuff?”

  “I wasn’t,” Cindy protested a little too strongly, “I was just looking at all the pretty colors, that’s all!”

  “Oh yeah,” said Emma, “they are nice colors, but, we just came past an art store and there were some amazing colors in there. You didn’t slow one bit passing that.”

  “I must have been looking across the aisle to the other stores, that’s all. Hey, what’s with the third degree anyway?”

  “I don’t know, you’re just being weird today.”

  Cindy thought something was wrong and it was showing. “Know what, Emma? I’ve done enough for today. I have the stuff I need for school so it’s time to head on back.”

  “Now that you mention school Cindy, exactly how did you manage to save enough cash to not only buy all this stuff, but to actually get back into school in the first place? I used to work where you work, remember? I know how much it pays.”

  Crap. Cindy thought, how the hell do I explain this? Emma isn’t exactly at the top of the intelligence chain, just high enough to know you make friends with good gossip. The question is, do I tell her and swear her to secrecy or do I lie to my best friend? Cindy decided she needed to trust her friend to keep this a secret.

  “Emma, do you have time to hang out at my place for an hour after you get me back?”

  “Hell girl, I have time to spend the night if you want.” Both women were laughing as they went back to Emma’s car.

  ***

  Once Cindy had unloaded and they were both sitting at the kitchen table, Cindy told Emma the whole sordid story with Kevin, including what Emma already knew. She didn’t want to leave out anything.

  “HOLY CRAP, are you serious Cindy?”

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so.”

  “Let me see. Come on, show me the money, honey.”

  Cindy went to the freezer and took out what seemed to be an unassuming can of ice cream, brought it over, and opened it.

  “There it is; me is the rich bitch.”

  Emma dug in as if there were candy at the bottom. “Shit, I’ve never held this much money in my life!”

  “Well, there’s about a grand gone now, thanks to school clothes and all this supply crap.”

  “Oh Cindy, you’ve just got to have a party!”

  Cindy’s face changed instantly and she grabbed the money from Emma.

  “NO! It’s for my future; I’m not going to party that away. I have to be very careful about it. This might look like a lot but believe me, I’ll still be cutting it close. So, I’m sorry kid, but no party.”

  Cindy put the money away, then came back to sit next to Emma. Emma’s head was hanging low, a sign that she was feeling either highly insulted or hurt. With Emma, it could be either one.

  “Listen honey,” Cindy said, taking Emma’s hand; “You have GOT to keep this to yourself, there are a lot of unsavory people who live around here. I don’t need my throat slit while I sleep, right? Besides, the beggars will come out from every corner of this burg and you know it.”

  Emma promised to tell no one, not even her drinking buddies.

  “I’m going to trust you on this Emma, do the right thing here.”

  “Ok, ok, I get it, zipped lips.”

  Emma stayed a few hours longer, until Cindy announced that she was bushed and needed some sleep. At the door, Cindy hugged Emma. She felt good, but she felt strange at the same time.

  “But it’s still early, Cindy!” Emma began to protest.

  “Yes, I know it’s early, so why don’t you call some of your friends and have fun. You don’t need me dragging down a fun evening, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess so, maybe I can call Shelly and go to a movie. Then we could head over to the club! There’s some nice man meat there!”

  Cindy could only shake her head. “Yes hun, go find your ‘man meat’, I’ll call you tomorrow before I go on shift.”

  They said their goodbyes. Cindy closed the door and leaned against it.

  “Man, she can be a handful.” She smiled and headed to her bed. Ten minutes after she lay down, Cindy was sound asleep.

  ***

  Kevin woke in the mid-afternoon. This wasn’t unusual for him. When it was time to move on, he didn’t seem to be governed by the 7 p.m. rule. He just woke mid-afternoon instead.

  As he packed the few things that he had scattered about the room, he wondered where the new instructions would send him. If there was anything to be said about this new life, it was that he sure had seen a lot of the country. He’d traveled from Maine to California and a lot of places in between, going back and forth for two years.

  Kevin went to the front office and settled up his bill, even leaving a very nice tip for both the owner and the cleaning staff. Kevin told the owner that he would vacate the room by 6 p.m. It was 4 p.m. now, so Kevin went back and sat in the chair next to the bed, waiting for the instructions to come. He didn’t let his mind wander now, but sat focused, almost seemingly in a trance. However, he remained aware of the lights and sounds of the day outside the room.

  At 5:30 p.m. there was a smell of mint in the air. The voice was quiet at first but as Kevin focused in on it, it became louder and much clearer to him. It was as if whoever was talking was walking closer as he talked.

  “Hello Kevin, we believe there has been a change of plans for the future. Things are escalating to a point where you can no longer handle this alone. We have decided to send you some help, so we will be sending you to a new location: a boarding house. There you will find a small group of people for you to evaluate. You must decide who can help you and who cannot.”

  For nearly half an hour, the voice gave instructions on how to proceed. Kevin and the voice exchanged needs and wants until an agreement was reached that fell within the original agreement. At 6 p.m. there was the sound of a car starting, followed by the sound of roaring side pipes entering a roadway and heading off into the distance, the state of Indiana fading in his rear-view mirror. It was time to head west to Colorado, into an uncertain future.

  Kevin found a nice little motel along the highway. He made good time. He always made good time on the road. He didn’t exactly do any of the ‘posted’ speed limits, yet the police never seemed to notice. He never seemed to run into traffic jams or detours either. Kevin chuckled to himself and wondered if the voice always cleared the roads for him.

  The motel was nice enough. It was a mom and pop operation, but they seemed to have pride in it. The rooms were well kept and neat. Kevin discovered they also had several small cottages in the rear and he discovered that one of them was vacant.

  “It’s perfect,” Kevin said as he walked inside and scoped the place out
, thinking it was clean and a good distance from the main building. He got comfortable in just a few minutes, and then decided a good shower would relax him. In the shower, Kevin was brooding. He didn’t like it when things were changed like this. Something was up and he didn’t like it at all. After he toweled off from the shower, he walked to his backpack and opened it to find a very nice foot-long roast beef sub, fixed just the way he liked it. Also in his pack were a bag of chips and a bottle of soda.

  “It’s even cold, go figure. I may have the only refrigerated backpack ever made.”

  He sat at the tiny table and ate in silence, not really thinking about anything except the delicious sandwich. “The voice should work in a sub shop, or maybe it does,” he chuckled.

  After Kevin had his fill, he cleaned up and headed over to the bed. No sooner did he lie down than he was sound asleep. No dreams haunted him tonight; he slept the sleep of the dead. It was time to regenerate his mind and soul.

  Kevin’s eyes snapped open. He listened and heard it again; it sounded like metal scratching on glass. He reached over and looked at his watch, 2:13 a.m. He heard it again. Kevin’s car was parked off to the left of the cottage although it wasn’t very far from the front door. Five or six paces and he’d be there. He had an advantage. Kevin put his trench coat on, thought something to himself, and then walked straight THROUGH the closed door without opening it.

  Between the lights shining from the main motel building and the moon, Kevin could make out the teenager standing at the side of the mustang. The boy had a coat hanger in his hand and was trying to get it in the window so that he could unlock the car. Kevin knew an amateur when he saw one. While the boy was still attempting to get into the car, Kevin suddenly showed up beside him.

  “You shouldn’t be doing that.”

  Kevin was pretty sure he heard a fart as the boy whipped around to the sound of the voice. Kevin placed his hand on the teen’s shoulder.

  “You should be home, sleeping. You should be studying at school and at home, you should be passing all of your tests, not out here doing this, got it?”

  “Ahh….yah. Yah mister, sure.”

  “Good, then go home, now.”

  Kevin was calm when he talked to the boy but the boy still ran for his life after Kevin let him go.

  “Well, so much for sleep. I might as well head out.”

  Kevin walked up to the main building but the office was closed. He went back to his room and left a tip, got into the mustang, and drove away.

  ***

  The teenager ended up living in Ohio as an adult. He just got elected as a state senator. His running platform was helping the juvenile offenders with real help, not the shit they had been getting. He planned on finishing the work that needed to get done there, and then move onto the U.S. Senate for some real nationwide change.

  ***

  As the next day rolled on, Kevin was once again on the road, heading to Colorado. He didn’t ask for directions, he never did. He never got lost no matter where he had to go.

  “Who the hell needs that satellite crap; I’ve got one running in my head,” he thought as he was driving.

  Kevin entered Colorado. He decided it was time to stop for a snack and some road-weary rest. Kevin pulled into the parking lot of a variety store just off the interstate, got out of his car, and went into the store. The register was off to his right and there was a customer there as well as the man working behind the register. Two things hit Kevin instantly: the look on the worker’s face, and then the small black barrel that was mostly hidden to the left of the customer. Everyone froze for a brief instant. Kevin turned full onto the man at the register and just looked at him. The man behind the counter was ashen white and looked like he was about to pass out. The other man turned and pointed the gun right at Kevin’s chest.

  “Get out man. I don’t want to hurt anyone, just go now!”

  Kevin just looked at him and his dark blue eyes locked onto this man. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, and you know it.”

  “I know no such thing, I have the gun!”

  Without a second’s thought, Kevin reached for his wallet. “Look, here is five thousand dollars. Take it, it’s yours if you drop the gun and leave now.” Kevin pulled out the money and held it in his hand.

  “No way, I drop this gun and you’re both on me in a second.”

  “Okay,” Kevin said. “Tell you what,” he looked at the man behind the counter, “Sir, give me a rubber band.”

  The cashier tossed one over and Kevin wrapped it around the money. He opened the store door and threw it outside as hard as he could. The money went flying past the shop window and the thief could see that it went quite a way past the doorway.

  “Here’s what we can do,” Kevin continued. “You leave with the gun. When you get to the money, drop the gun, pick up the money and go.”

  The man’s eyes darted back and forth from Kevin to the cashier. “Are you kidding me man?”

  “Not at all.” Kevin turned back to the man behind the counter. “May I ask sir, how much is in the till?”

  “About a hundred and fifteen dollars.”

  “See,” said Kevin. “This ends up being your lucky day. Just do it my way and no one has to get hurt, OK?”

  The thief thought for a second. “Your way, right? Okay, your way.”

  “Now I’m going to move back over here, far enough away so that you can make a safe exit.” Kevin moved almost half way down an aisle.

  The thief didn’t waste a second; he bolted through the door and was at the money in no time. He picked it up and started to run when he heard Kevin’s voice coming from the doorway.

  “No, that wasn’t what we agreed to.”

  The thief stopped dead in his tracks for a second, looked down and saw the gun in his hand. He looked at Kevin, then again at the gun, and then he dropped it and ran from the parking lot. Kevin casually walked over to the gun, picked it up and went to the trunk of his car. He opened the trunk, did something inside that no one could see, then stepped back and closed it again. There was now no gun to be seen. Kevin then headed back inside and got what he needed for snacks. The owner was behind the counter when Kevin came up to pay. He’d been in a daze since the whole thing went down and was now just coming out of it.

  “How did you do that? He was going to kill me, I just know it.”

  “No he wasn’t,” Kevin said, just as calm as could be, “he was desperate and starving, you could see it on him. I bet if you followed him, he would have led you to a starving wife and child as well.”

  “But five thousand dollars man, you could have given him half that and he would have done the same thing!”

  “Half wasn’t enough. He needed enough to get him to his new job. Life can suck and sometimes we need a good intervention, that’s all that happened here and nothing more; a hand up. I will promise you one thing, he isn’t ever going to do it again.” Kevin then opened his wallet, knowing full well what he was going to find. “Here’s a thousand dollars for keeping this whole thing our little secret and for not calling the police about it, forever.” Kevin handed him the money with one hand as he touched the man’s shoulder with his other.

  The man took the money slowly, as if in slow motion, and said nothing as Kevin left the store. Kevin got in his car and off he drove down the road, the roar of his mustang still echoing behind him after he’d gone.

  The man never said a thing, not even to his wife. He only told her that he’d a great day at the store.

  ***

  About a half hour or so out of Denver, in the Indian Hills, the roads twisted and climbed higher as he drove. As Kevin turned a corner, he saw a small sign up ahead that was positioned just to the side of a small road.

  “The Colburn Inn.”

  He turned onto the road and found it was actually a driveway. True, it was long and winding, but it was a driveway nonetheless. The trees were amazingly dense and he couldn’t see around any of the bends. Over a quarter of a mile in, Kev
in came around a curve and there sat a beautiful old mansion. By his best guess, it was late 1800s or maybe very early 1900s. It had a dark stone exterior and very tall windows. To his left he could see what looked like a very long garage set off to the side. It wasn’t attached to the house, but it was only about fifteen or twenty feet from it. He counted the doors absentmindedly; twelve garage doors in all.

  “Man, that’s a lot of doors, maybe I won’t have to park this outside all the time.”

  Kevin parked the car in the driveway near the main doors, got out and looked up. The building was three full floors high with what looked to be a full-sized attic above them.

  “Wow, this thing is huge; I’ll bet it has forty rooms in it.”

  He walked up to the main doors and saw a sign mounted to the left door. It read:

  ‘WELCOME GUESTS,’ followed by ‘Please come in.’

  Kevin opened the door; it had some massive weight to it, but it was hinged nicely so you didn’t have to break your arm to open it. He walked inside and his eyes had to adjust to the darker interior for a few seconds. As he started to make out his surroundings, a medium built man in his mid-fifties walked over to him. Kevin jumped right in.

  “Hi, I’m Kevin Chase. I believe there’s a room waiting for me?”

  “Yes sir, we’ve been waiting on you. My name’s William, everyone calls me Will around here. My wife Barbara and I own this place. Oh, and you can call her Barb, everyone does.”

  Kevin thought it odd that anyone would be expecting him then remembered the voice and simply figured somehow it had been arranged.