Romance in a Ghost Town

by Robert P McAuley

  “I promise,” he said smiling and rubbing her hand. “When will you be back?”

  “My boss wasn’t in this afternoon and I hope to pitch the idea to him tomorrow. So,” she said looking up at the ceiling as she mentally calculated the time before she could return, said, “Hopefully in two days.”

  “Well, when you know, will you call me?”

  “How? Remember there’s no cell phone service available out there.”

  “Well,” he said with a grin, “actually, there is.”

  “But I thought you said there wasn’t any?”

  “Technically there’s none, but I bought a satellite phone system and a generator to charge it.”

  “Well,” she said giving him a light tap on his shoulder, “promise me that when I’m there we won’t use the generator for lights. I love the candles.”

  “What about oil lamps?”

  “Absolutely love them,” she said as she kissed him lightly on the lips.

  He responded and held her tight. She looked at him and said as she took his hand and led him out of the living room, “Would you be upset if we didn’t use the double sleeping bags tonight?”

  Not sure what she meant he allowed her to lead him into her room and point to the double bed. “And if the weather gets any colder we can just put on an extra blanket.” She tilted her head to a door in the hallway and said with a grin, “The in-house…and I guarantee there are no snakes in there.”

  Bob was woken up by movement in the bed and turned to see not only the sunlight coming through the window but Anne placing a high, wide tray across his middle and she quickly slipped back beneath the covers and joined him. The tray was on wheels and she easily pulled it up closer to them as she lifted a round cover off a serving tray to reveal eggs, ham and toast. Next to her side of the bed was a pot of coffee and two mugs.

  “Good morning, mister deep-sleeper. Breakfast is served.”

  He sat and she kissed him. “Eat up, cowboy. We both have a long day ahead of us.”

  Boy,” he quipped as she handed him a coffee, “a guy could get used to this kind of treatment.”

  “You mean,” she said in mock surprise with her hands on her hips and her slate gray eyes narrowed, “you don’t get this sort of service every day back in Brooklyn?”

  He ticked off on his fingers as he answered, “Just Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The maid has Thursdays off.”

  “Does she greet you in the morning like this?” she asked as she kissed him.

  He shook his head and in a low voice stammered, “No. Never. Absolutely never.”

  She smiled and passed him a napkin.

  “Lipstick?” he asked as he wiped his lips.

  “No, egg yolk,” she said with a grin.

  Twice during breakfast her cell phone rang and she ignored it. The third time it was Tom Madren’s voice leaving a message on her home phone and it was just as awkward for Bob as it was for Anne as his message boomed from the phone.

  “Hey hon, I hear you’re back in town. Guess you’re in the shower right now…mmmm, great thoughts here. Ha, ha. You must tell me all about your trek with Jim’s friend, the City Slicker. Is it because he walks so slow that you had to take an extra day? Ha, ha. Hey, lunch at the new Greek place? I can be there at one. Buzz me back. See ya and hugs and kisses for my fave gal.”

  Bob swung his legs out of the bed as Anne grabbed his arm. “Bob, forget that jerk. I have, and I told him so before I left town. He can’t take no for an answer.”

  Bob felt his head spin as he stammered, “I-I have to get on the road, Anne. It’s getting late.”

  She jumped out of bed and ran to hold him as he tried to push her away. “Listen,” she said, “I completely understand how you feel but I beg you: forget him! He’s nothing but a one-sided conversation! Not worth it.”

  Bob reached for his clothes, “Look, let me go back to my place and think. Everything is happening so fast…I-I’m not that upset with what he said, I’m used to that kind of stuff. You don’t think that this is the first time it happened to me do you? Heck, he’s a lightweight compared to some of the people I’ve met.”

  “Then why are you walking away from me?” she asked softly.

  “Why?” he asked with open hands, “My God, Anne, you’re so beautiful! You are smart, articulate, and fashionable and yet you are down to earth at the same time. Not afraid to climb over a railing, dig a hole or use an outhouse with no lights. Why, you’re too good to be true and that’s my problem: what do you see in me? As all the others have noticed, I have a limp! I fall down when needed the most! I can only use one hand at a time because I need to hold on to my cane for support. No, sooner or later you’ll realize these things and I’ll be alone again.”

  She moved close and he saw the tears well up in her eyes as she said, “Bob, you’re wrong on this. I may be many things but you didn’t say I’m a phony, which means that you have some faith in me. I can’t help what others may see in you but I see a funny yet sincere guy whose life is in transit and I’d love to share some of that with you.”

  He hung his head and said, “Anne, I need some time to adjust to all of this.” He looked at her, “Please believe me, I have never met anyone like you and as I said, that’s what scares me. If I follow what my heart says to follow, and it gets broken…I-I don’t know what I’d do.”

  She nodded her head as her chin quivered, “Okay. I really do understand.” She looked up and with a forced smile said, “Let’s make a deal. You don’t see anyone in town and I won’t either. And after a while…a short while, we’ll talk again. Deal?”

  “Which town are we talking about?”

  She hit him in the shoulder, stifled a sniff and with a grin answered, “Both towns, bozo! Both towns.”

  He grinned and said, “Can I give you a call?”

  “You better. I’ll write down my cell phone number for you.”

  “Do you use Skype?”

  “Yes,” she answered. Why don’t we set up a time so we can Skype each other every night?”

  “How’s about you set the time,” he said agreeing, “You know that after sundown I’m in the house.”

  “Yes,” she said with a soft smile, “with the fireplace burning, candles lit and maybe an oil lamp or two and me not there.” She caught herself and went on, “Okay, then why don’t we pick nine o’clock each night. Okay?”

  “Okay. Tomorrow night you tell me when you’re coming out to do the video. Okay?”

  “Okay. Can we seal the deal with a kiss?” They kissed and he left her house twenty minutes later.

  As Bob pulled away from her home, Tom Madren watched from his yellow Corvette parked at the corner. His eyes narrowed behind his dark glasses as he thought, Okay, limpy. It’s on. All’s fair in love and war…and for you, its war!

  Bob stopped at Edward’s house and as it was only eight thirty, both he and Katey were still home. “Hey, Bob,” Katey said as she ushered him into the kitchen, “come and sit. Coffee’s hot. She went to the stairs and shouted up, “Ed, we have company. C’mon down.”

  She poured him a cup of coffee and asked, “How’s it going out there? We haven’t seen you in a bunch of days.” She leaned close and said in a conspiratorial voice, “Word has it that you were out there with some gal.”

  He laughed and said as he lifted up his cup of coffee, “You have a great grape-vine, Katey.”

  “So,” she said with her arms folded on the table top, who is she?”

  “Anne Dallas.”

  She squinted her eyes in thought and murmured out loud, “Anne Dallas…mmmm, no, I don’t know her. She from town?”

  “She’s from the newspaper,” said Edward as he entered the room. They shook hands and he went on, “How are ya, Bob. Surviving I see. You’re getting a nice tan there.”

  “Not bad, Ed. How about you guys?”

  “No complaints here, partner. You gonna be in town long?”

  “No,” he answered shaking hi
s head, “picking up some more supplies and heading on back out.”

  “That girl going back out with you?”

  “No. She just wanted to see the town and maybe do a piece on it for the paper.”

  “Heck, that could be good for you, partner. That newspaper is also online and gets a lot of readers from outta town.” He took the cup of coffee Katey had handed him and lifted it in a toast, saying, “Here’s to Rattlesnake Haven online. May she bring in tourists.”

  “Here’s to that,” offered Bob and they took a sip. “Good coffee, Katey. Maybe I can have you make me a pot for my thermos?”

  “No problem, Bob,” she said, “Just stop by when you’re leaving town. I’ll be at work but it’ll be on the stove. Just reheat and pour an’ lock the door behind ya.”

  “See any horses out there?” said a grinning Ed.

  “No, but we heard them.”

  “You mean you tried to herd them?”

  It took Bob a moment to understand what Ed had said and corrected him. “No, not ’herd them’ like corral them up. Heard them like they were walking around the house at night making noise.”

  Ed nodded, “Most likely that town has been a part of their traveling ritual for a hundred years. Maybe they’re looking for water? Do you know that they can smell water from miles away?”

  Bob shrugged as he said, “Nope, but we now have water out there so maybe I’ll put some out for them.”

  “They’ll be spooky about that at first but after one takes a sip, they’ll all do it. Then they’ll be back every night for their treat.”

  “What if I put some grain out for them to eat?”

  Ed shook his head. “Naw. Most likely good grain will give them a belly ache after years of eating scrub brush and tumble weed.”

  “What about hay?”

  Edward shrugged, “Could be okay. I mean, you can try and see. But, what’s the point? I mean it’s not like they’re dying or anything?”

  “I just thought that maybe they could use some good stuff for a change.”

  Katey shook her head. “Sometimes giving something good to someone who never had good, is bad. If you catch my drift?”

  Bob grinned as he thought of him and Anne, Katey is one sharp gal. Wonder if she’s right? Wonder if good is bad for me?

  “Hey, partner,” said Edward looking at him with a furrowed brow, “sometimes I wonder where it is that you go. You just seem to drift away in the middle of a conversation.”

  Bob snapped out of his thoughts, “Me? I do? Never knew that.”

  “So,” his friend continued, “you’re going back out today?”

  “Yep! Lots to do.”

  “Lots to do, before what?” Katey asked.

  Bob smiled and said with a shrug, “I don’t know what. Maybe before the first busload of tourists arrive.”

  Katey laughed, “That’s got to be at least a year away.”

  “That could be but I can’t just sit around town doing nothing.”

  Edward said with a huge grin on his tanned face, “Hey, partner, this here ain’t New York City. Go in town and catch a movie and a beer. That’ll kill a day.”

  “Aw, just not me, guys. Besides, I like going out there.”

  “Well, in that case, me and Katey would like to meet you out there in two days time. That okay with you?”

  “Wow!” answered Bob, “That’d be fantastic. See you then.” He looked at his watch and begged off, “I really need to be getting on guys. Thanks for the coffee.”

  “Don’t forget to stop by and fill up your thermos before you leave town,” Katey reminded him as she wagged her index finger sternly at him.

  “Promise,” said Bob as he finished his coffee, gave her a kiss on her cheek and shook Ed’s hand.

  The New Yorker went back to the Clayton Hotel and picked up the clothes he had left there the day before. Can’t believe how dirty they were, he thought as he remembered the clerk’s face as he handed them to him. He had lunch in the hotel, refilled his cooler at Pearl’s and added another cooler just filled with ice to his supplies and picked up some oil for the oil lamps. Next Bob stopped at the wood-mill and picked up the order he had placed when he had picked up the last batch. Finally, he stopped by Ed and Katey’s house, warmed up and emptied their pot of coffee into his two thermoses and set out for Rattlesnake Haven after topping the SUV’s tank.

  It was close to six in the afternoon that Bob arrived back in Rattlesnake Haven. He used the washroom in the Community Hall and carried one of the five-gallon gasoline cans out and put it in the SUV. He then slowly maneuvered the Chevy and trailer around the hardware store and parked in front of his house. He rolled the generator up to the outside of the living room and passed the receptacle through the living room’s open window. Next he set up his satellite phone system, attached it to the generator and passed that receptacle through the same window. He took his laptop, checked that the batteries had a full charge and put it on a small table in the same room. Next, Bob topped off the generator’s gas tank. Checking his watch, he went back in and started a fire in the fireplace, lit a few candles and filled two oil lamps and replaced the old dried out wicks with new ones that were in his kitchen cabinet.

  Finished, he went into the kitchen and lit the stove. After a few minutes he was cooking a pot of Mac and cheese. Not the best thing for anyone’s cholesterol, he thought as he stirred the thick mix with a long wooden ladle, but boy does it taste great. It came to a boil and he removed the pot from the stove, poured the contents onto a deep bowl and quickly poured water into the pot before it became too hard to clean. His shadow flickered on the wall as the oil lamp’s flame danced in the old glass burner and he felt satisfied as he ate his dinner and then followed it with a cup of Katey’s coffee. Just doesn’t get much better than this, he thought.

  He placed the bowl in the sink, added water and checked his watch for the tenth time. Finally it was eight-thirty and Bob went outside to the generator, which was bathed in the light coming through the window. He opened the ignition switch, gave a steady pull on the pull-cord and was rewarded with a roar that quickly eased off into a soft purr as he throttled it down. The gauges told him that it was working as advertised and he went and checked that it was delivering power to his satellite system. Seeing a dim, red indicator light on the unit, Bob slowly turned the dish until the light turned a steady bright red indicating that it was locked onto a satellite.

  “Success!” he said as he went back into the house and settled down in front of his laptop. His watch said it was now eight fifty-five so he powered up the laptop and opened the Skype program. Anne’s name and number was one of the few he had on the program and as it appeared in the Skype window, he double clicked on it. In a moment there was a sound not unlike a telephone ringing and suddenly her face appeared as her laptop’s camera came to life and he knew his face was imaged on her laptop as well.

  “Hi cowboy,” she said with a warm smile.

  With a warm smile of his own, Bob said, “Hello cowgirl. How’s life in the big city?”

  She answered with a mock frown, “Just not the same since I had a taste of the small town life.” Bob saw her eyes wander to his rear and she said, “Oh! Is that an oil lamp you have lit?”

  “Yep,” he answered as he lifted the laptop. “Hold tight for a ride around the room.” He slowly turned the computer around the room as its built in camera scanned it.

  “How romantic it looks with the candles, lit fireplace and oil lamps.” She put her hands up to her cheeks and whispered, “Wish I were there too.”

  “So do I,” he said placing the laptop back on the table.”

  “Guess you have the satellite system all set up?”

  “Yeah. Pretty simple to do. Just follow the instructions.”

  With her mock frown back on her face Anne said, “So you don’t need me then?”

  “Are you kidding? I mean, who am I going to save with my trusty six-gun?” He emphasized that with his make-believe handgun by point
ing his index finger at an imaginary snake crawling along the floor.

  She laughed. “Not another fair damsel in distress I hope.”

  “Hey,” he said as he held up a garment for the camera to pick up, “do you know that you left your skirt here?”

  She giggled again and added, “Of course I do, silly. It’s an old trick: leave something behind and I have to come back to get it.”

  “Ohh, I get it.” He put it down and asked, “So, when do you come back?”

  A frown crossed her face as she bit her lip and answered, “Uh, there’s a small problem.”

  “What’s that?” asked Bob hunching his shoulders as he sat closer to the computer.

  Anne shook her head. “I wanted to tell you when we were together but thought that I wouldn’t need to.”

  “Need to what?” he asked as he moved his laptop slightly to shift the fireplace’s glare from his screen.

  She bit on a nail as she said, “When I met you on the airplane coming out of New York, I had just left a big television studio. My boss had me pitch them an idea and they just got back to him with a ‘yes’. The City of Bransville wants to expand their television audience and as there are so many people leaving the Northeast area, they think that if they join the large New York station, they can offer them these people living here now. This way we combine our local news, weather and traffic with the latest from their old New York television channel. Plus, the New York station reaps the benefit of being able to attract more advertisers as well as sell their current advertiser’s products to these relocated people.”

  With a shrug, Bob asked, “So, you’d be in television rather than newspapers?”

  “I’d be doing both at first but after learning the television business, I’d be running both the newspaper and TV as we’d be tying them together.”

  “Wow!” said a smiling Bob, “That’s great! You’ll do fine, I just know it.”

  “Well,” she answered there’s a problem.” She hesitated a moment and looked down then looked up and continued, “I have to go to New York City for seven months to learn it.”