by Terri Marie
“When we land, you are to be called John Williams by everyone other than me. I have a wallet prepared for you with your first week’s allowance. Be careful how you spend it because you won’t be getting any more money for another week.”
“How much am I getting?”
“Three hundred and fifty dollars.”
“That’s it?!”
“That will be it until the following week. Your credit cards have been cancelled by your father, so don’t try to use them. If you have any, hand them and any money you have over to me, Daniel.”
Daniel reached behind him and pulled out his wallet. Carl smiled while he was handed four credit cards and a thick wad of large bills, which was kept in the penthouse.”
“Thank you, Daniel.”
“Oh my pleasure, Carl!” spat Daniel. The humor was ending and it was sinking into him that his father wasn’t joking.
When the plane landed, Carl led Daniel out to the parking lot. Sure to his word, the old, rusted red pickup looked exactly like the one they left in New York, only this one had more dents and rust on it.
“Get in, Daniel, and buckle up.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to tell me that twice. Carl, what’s that smell?”
“I believe it’s the upholstery.”
“Wow it’s gross inside here! If I end up smelling like this, I’m going to be really ticked off. This is a death trap, Carl. Where are we going anyway?”
“Your new apartment.”
“Great. I can’t wait to see it. Is it a smelly death trap too?”
Carl ignored the question. “Your father has agreed to pay the rent for one month. After that, it’s up to you.”
“Oh, that’s mighty nice of him. How long are you staying here?”
“One month.”
“What a coincidence, Carl. Are we neighbors?”
After an hour of the truck stalling, back firing, and shimmying, they finally entered Prairie. Rolling hills, cattle, barns, and darkness wasn’t impressing Daniel. Driving into downtown was just as appealing.
Carl pulled into a small gravel parking lot next to a rundown, one-story apartment building. It was small and reminded Daniel of the scuzzy pay-by-the-hour motels he saw on crime shows.
“Well, at least I know this is going to suck as much for you as it will for me!” Daniel laughed at the thought of Carl, in all his elegance, sleeping in this place.
A black sedan rolled up.
“Oh my God! You’re going to have security on me to make sure I stay put?” He laughed loudly.
“No, Daniel. This is my transportation to the hotel.”
Daniel sat up straight and began to go to a new level of irritation. Carl said he’d be accompanying me, and now he’s leaving?
“Wait, is it a dive hotel?”
“Of course not. I’ll be staying at a five star in Nashville. Good luck, Daniel. I’ll be contacting you. Here’s your wallet, and when you’re ready just check in at the office.”
“Carl! Wait a minute! Don’t leave me here!”
Carl slid into the backseat of the sedan, and off it drove.
Daniel climbed out of the pickup and walked to the office at the end of the unkempt building. The dirty white brick made him want to wear gloves to touch anything. Multiple bugs swarmed around the single light above the door, and a horrible sinking feeling was taking over his core. Daniel knew one thing for sure; he would immediately climb in the shower and scrub himself as soon as he reached his room.
Chapter 2
“Hello,” said Daniel in the most polite voice he could muster.
Beatrice was trying hard to think of a five letter word that matched the clue on her crossword puzzle, while she loudly snapped her gum. She saw the young man walk in, but he’d just have to wait a minute.
“Hello!” Daniel’s voice was showing his irritation. He wasn’t used to anyone not acknowledging his presence. “Can you hear me?” The older woman with the big, crooked blonde wig was already getting on his nerves. Her eyebrows, created with a dark pencil, gave her a constant expression of surprise. He smacked his hand down on the counter to add a little bit of noise, maybe snap the old bat out of her coma.
“Hold your britches.” Beatrice was sixty-two and not about to be shoved around by some young cowpoke.
Her southern twang was doing nothing for Daniel’s mood. If he could get away with it he would choke her.
“I’m here to find out which room I’m in, though I doubt I’ll be here for very long.”
“What’s your name?”
“Dan—err John Williams.”
“You ain’t from these parts.” Beatrice laughed.
“What room am I in?” The last thing that Daniel wanted was to have a conversation with this rude woman.
“Number four. Here’s your key. Don’t lose it or it’s gonna cost ya ten bucks!” Beatrice handed the key over to Daniel. She watched this John Williams feller walk out the door with her drawn-on eyebrows raised. What I’d give to be forty years younger…
The stench hit Daniel instantly when he opened the door. The smell of mildew, stale smoke, and something fried made him want to hurl.
The dim light revealed a small kitchen table with two metal chairs, which were covered by yellow-flowered vinyl. The top of the small table was yellow, chipped, and had some burned places from someone’s careless cigarette. But according to the smell of the place he’d have to add another thousand cigarettes to the cause of the problem. Daniel didn’t smoke and the smell was overwhelming him. The vinyl on both cheap metal chairs had splits on the seats. He was sure that the visible foam wasn’t always black. On the tabletop was a plastic pink flower arrangement and a collection of dead bugs.
The bedroom, if you want to call it that, was off the kitchen and in the same area. The bathroom was something Daniel definitely never planned on using. The dirt and rust on both was disgusting. Bugs had collected everywhere. There was no way he was going to touch this room. He sat his suitcase on a small twin bed with a heavily sagging mattress. There was a black plaid loveseat that had areas worn down to the stuffing. Burn holes covered the armrests, seat cushions, and carpet. He’d get out of this hellhole one way or another. I can’t believe this! There was no television, no dishes or silverware. He spotted an old space heater in the corner, and no sign of an air conditioner. The cupboards and refrigerator were bare, except for an exploded soda can and more bugs.
Daniel needed a drink…or ten.
Digging out his cell phone, he was ready to call his father. Instead, he placed it back in his pocket, not wanting the Great Francesco to know his misery. I can do this. He won’t beat me. This'll be easy...
Climbing inside of the rusted pickup, Daniel drove the five miles back into town. There was a small grocery store, feed store, a barber shop, and a few deserted buildings. He heard loud music and spotted the bar at the end of town. The Corral.
The country music was blaring. There were men and women of all ages standing out front, smoking and tipping beers. They were as loud as the music. Daniel didn’t care. It was nothing that several drinks wouldn’t fix. As he stepped through the wooden door, a man the size of a bulldozer ran right into him.
“Pardon me,” said an obviously drunk farmer. Daniel smelled the hillbilly’s foul odor.
He couldn’t help but laugh at all the hicks. The music was giving him a headache, and he desperately wanted a drink to make the taste of this nightmare go away. He found a small empty table in the corner underneath the dim lights. Line dancing! Before he was able to laugh at the spectacles that the men and women were making of themselves, he heard the definite sounds of a man and woman arguing.
“You’re fired!” yelled a plump, redheaded man in his early fifties.
“Good!”
The strawberry blonde in tight jeans, a small apron, and white t-shirt caught his attention more than anything else. She didn’t seem to be intimidated at all by the loud, plump man. She lifted a heavy tray and delivered the beer bott
les to a nearby table. Afterward, she approached Daniel’s table.
“What would you like?” she asked with a scowl on her face.
“You don’t seem very chipper.”
“Look, do you want something or not? You can’t just sit here and not order anything. House Rules, they’re posted.” She pointed to the sign by the end of the bar.
“Okay, I didn’t mean to offend you. Sorry if it seemed that way.”
“I’ve never seen you before. You new to these parts?”
“Yes, you could say that.” Daniel became very self-conscious of his attire. He loved to impress women, and this outfit wasn’t going to cut it.
“Name’s Katherine. Don’t call me Kat, it’ll piss me off. What would you like to drink?”
“I’ll take a nice dry martini.”
“Seriously, what do you want? I don’t have all night.”
Daniel looked around and reminded himself of where he was.
“What’s your name?”
“Da—uh John Williams.”
“Welcome, Duh John Williams. Spit your order out.”
“I’ll take a beer. Whatever you have on tap will be fine.”
“Be right back,” she yelled over the music.
As she walked to the bar, Daniel saw a large hand pat her behind. Katherine spun around and punched the guy square in the chin. The man went to grab her wrist, and before he knew it, Daniel was running full speed at the large man in overalls. He grabbed him, spun him around, and punched him in the mouth. Daniel thought for sure that the big lumberjack would go out stone cold. But Daniel had only seen fighting in movies; he hadn’t ever hit anyone before. The man smiled with his bloody lip and hit Daniel one time.
The sound of glass clanking woke him up. He was aware of his surroundings after a couple of minutes. Thankfully the music was off, because his head was pounding.
“Mr. Williams, are you doing okay?”
Daniel took a moment to let his vision clear. He looked at the waitress, who now had her apron off and her hair down. Long strawberry blonde curls hung in her face as she bent closer to him.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I think my eye is swollen.”
“You’ll have a pretty good shiner out of that one.”
“I guess I shouldn’t have hit him.”
“Well, it was my fault. I don’t like men grabbing me, and my lazy uncle wouldn’t have done anything quick enough. Thank you for sticking up for me like that.”
“I did a pretty lousy job. Did he leave?”
“Yeah he left. A few guys threw him out of here.” Katherine put a cold rag on Daniel’s eye, causing him to wince.
“Where are you from?” asked Katherine.
“New York.”
“Wow, you’re a long way from New York. Are you staying around here?”
“Up the road a bit.” Yes, I live in a gross shack. Just follow the smell and bugs and you’ll find it.
“Can I get you anything? This beer is on the house.” Katherine smiled, and that was all it took. Her green eyes, curvy little body…Knock it off, Daniel. You don’t even have a place that’s suitable to bring her to.
“Thank you, Katherine. But didn’t you get fired?”
“He fires me every day. Even though he’s a hard ass on the outside, he’s a pretty good person on the inside.”
“You don’t have a southern accent. You must not be from around here either.” Daniel held the cold cloth against his eye.
“I lived up in Michigan, but my uncle needed my help. He fell ill with pneumonia so I came to help him out. I left school and had to use my money that I’d saved up for college to get this place up to code. Well, as much as I could. He’s better now, but school is out of the question for me.”
“What were you studying?” Daniel saw the sadness in the young waitress’s eyes.
“Fashion Design. That’s just a dream now, it’ll never happen.”
Daniel groaned as his hand touched the swollen flesh on his face.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Do you live close by?” Daniel knew he had to find her again.
“I’m staying upstairs. There’s a small studio apartment up there. It isn’t much but it’s a roof over my head. It’s been nice talking with you, Mr. Williams, but I have to close the place up, and it’s awfully late. I feel like I’m going to fall over.” Katherine flashed that beautiful smile again, but Daniel could see how tired she was. His head was still throbbing and he wanted to get some sleep himself.
“See you around!” Katherine said as she turned and walked back behind the bar to the register. Katherine couldn’t help but notice how gorgeous this John Williams was. Everyone looks good in a bar…Katherine shook her head.
Daniel smiled and waved before walking out to his dilapidated hunk of rusted metal. Luckily, it started after two tries.
Opening the door at his so-called apartment, the smell hit him as quickly as it did the first time. Where am I supposed to sleep? That’s the question. Pulling the blanket off the twin bed, Daniel covered the couch with it and stretched out as much as he could. He quickly fell asleep but was wide awake at four in the morning. A bug was crawling up his arm, and a few more were on his chest. That does it! Daniel got up, threw on his jeans, and climbed in his pickup truck to search for a store. He’d be damned if he was going to live someplace that was full of God knows what kind of bugs.
The grocery store didn’t open until six. That was just fine, he’d wait. At five-thirty, a knock on his window brought him to high alert. Daniel saw that it was an older man. He rolled down his window halfway.
“Sir, you can’t sleep in the parking lot! Go on back home and get your sleep. This place is for shopping!”
Daniel read the sign. "Prairie Market." The man’s name tag was covered up by an apron.
“Is this your store?”
“Yep, my name’s Clyde. You must be new. Everyone knows who I am. I’ve lived in Prairie all my life, and this store was built and started by my father.” Clyde smiled with pride.
“My name’s John Williams. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Daniel reached out his hand and gave Clyde a strong handshake. “What time do you open? I just need to pick up a few things.”
“We open up at six, but you can come on in and get what ya need. Folks around here are pretty neighborly, but I can see you ran into someone who doesn’t quite fit that description.” Clyde laughed and showed a mouth with very few teeth.
Daniel put his hand to his eye. “Yeah, something like that.”
Clyde walked inside the store and Daniel followed close behind. He would definitely need a cart.
“If you’re gonna need more than what I carry here, you’ll have to head on out to Nashville. You can find some malls and whatnot.”
“Thanks, Clyde.” Daniel didn’t know what he was doing. He bought tons of frozen food that could be quickly heated up in the small oven. He didn’t have a microwave in the gross apartment. He didn’t use either back home. He dined out at restaurants, or one of the sexy women he slept with would cook for him. He also bought bottles of water, twelve cans of air freshener, bug spray, and candles in every strong scent he could find. Daniel stopped in the cleaning aisle and picked up several bottles of cleaner.
“That’ll be eighty-five dollars and forty-seven cents,” said Clyde.
“Eighty-five dollars?”
“Well, it’s not in woodchips. Yes, dollars.” Clyde eyed the young man suspiciously. He wasn’t going to be happy if he had to put this stuff back on the shelves and in the freezer.
Daniel gave the man the money, then quickly realized that even though he never had to worry about price tags, and didn’t even bother looking at them, he had absolutely no concept of saving money. It was just always there for him. He definitely was going to have to watch his funds. I can do this!
Driving into Nashville took up the rest of his gas. The pump was flowing as Daniel washed the bugs off of his windshield and headlights. He didn�
��t dare wash the whole truck. The dang thing would fall apart.
Fifty-seven dollars was spent in gas by the time Daniel was finished cleaning off the front of the truck and daydreaming about his car back home. Normally he just swiped one of his credit cards and was done with it. Conserving gas and paying attention to gas prices had never even occurred to him.
Inside of a department store, Daniel picked out a set of sheets, a pillow, blankets, a pot, pan, a dinnerware and glass set, and an elegant looking box of silverware. He didn’t read the brands and, once again, didn’t look at the price tags.
