by C S Allen
I walked into the diner and looked around to see where I could sit and heard a female voice.
“Hello, I’m Jody. I’ll be right with you,” the woman said, appearing on my left side where the kitchen was.
Everything looked old, from the 1970s, with dark wall paneling, dark wooden flooring, and tables and chairs that seen their better days. I just picked a table that was closest to the kitchen so the woman wouldn’t have to go too far.
“Hello there, my name is Jody, and I’m your waitress. Can I get you something to drink while you look at this menu?” Jody asked me, while putting down a menu in front of me.
“Hi Jody, can I get a glass of water? And I just want a cheeseburger with fries, if you have that, please,” I replied.
“Oh, you’re an easy customer. How do you like your burger cooked?” Jody asked politely.
“I like it cooked medium well, please,” I stated. Jody took my order and then went out into the kitchen and disappeared somewhere. I looked around the place and saw fake plants and a jukebox on the other side of the room. I didn’t want to just sit there the whole time, waiting for my order, so I went over to the jukebox. It wasn’t the 1950s version; it was newer than that, but the music in it was old. I looked at some of the musicians, and I started laughing because of their group names and song names. So many funny names of groups and the song names were just as good.
After about ten or so minutes, I walked back over to my table and saw my water glass was there, sitting on a napkin. I sat down on the chair, and it made a cracking sound like it was about to break. That sound pretty much told me that everything was old in that diner. I looked at the menu for dessert, and they had either apple pie or vanilla ice cream. I laughed out loud because it was genius to sell those separately. Most people like to have the ice cream with their apple pie, and the diner got to charge twice for it.
“What’s so funny there, kiddo?” Jody asked, while she walked over to my table with my burger.
As Jody put my plate down, I told her that it was genius to sell the desserts separately. That put a big smile on her face.
“That was my idea to do that. I get to charge double for what people want. Some people like their pie without ice cream, and some like it together. I learned that a long time ago in marketing school when I was young like you. I never did graduate though because a little tiny boy was in my belly, and then I got married. You may have met my husband out front if you got a room,” Jody stated with enthusiasm.
I didn’t think Jody spoke to many people because she kept on talking. I sat there at my table eating while Jody talked about herself mainly, and I didn’t have the courage to tell her to go away. By the time I was done eating, I decided that I had had enough of Jody so I didn’t order any dessert. I knew pretty much everything to know about Jody’s life by the time I excused myself to go to the register.
“Well, that was a really good cheeseburger, Jody. Thank you for keeping me company,” I said. I wiped my mouth and then stood up.
“Well, follow me over to the register so I can give you your receipt,” Jody said, walking away.
After paying for my lunch, I stood at the register, listening to more boring stories from Jody, before I finally went to my room.
My hotel room was just the regular run-of-the-mill room that wasn’t fancy or too old. I had the basic TV and the old-looking bedcover with flowers on it to make the place look homey. I sat down on the bed and thought for a moment about what to do next, and it came to me. I’m not going to run away from any of this mess, I decided. Tomorrow I’m going to call my parents and let them know I’m okay before going home. Why should I run from any of this? My friends were killed, Olivia is alive or dead, and I’m not going to run anymore. The cops were looking for me because of what had happened at the cabin, and all I could say was, “I don’t know what happened, I was sleeping in my friend’s car.” I felt a huge weight lift off of my shoulders when I made my decision to go home in the morning. I lay down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. I had many things running through my head. I couldn’t imagine being on the run for the rest of my life. I knew my parents would be devastated if they thought I was a killer, or I had been killed and my body was missing. My parents deserved to know the truth, but not the whole truth or they would end up being hurt. I eventually fell asleep even with so much going on in my head and slept for three hours before waking up.
I looked over at the digital clock to see what time it was, and it was almost four in the afternoon. I decided to go down to my car and get some fresh clothes out of my bags and then take a shower. I grabbed my room key and then headed out the door. While I was walking down the stairs, I noticed that a few more cars were in the parking lot. When I got to my car, I noticed a woman sitting in her car next to mine. The woman seemed to be looking for something in her purse as I passed by. I went around to the back of my car and opened the trunk lid and grabbed one of my bags. I closed my trunk lid and walked back around to the driver’s side door to get in when I heard, “Excuse me, do you have a tire iron?”
It was the woman in the car next to me. I had one, but it was in the trunk, and I wasn’t going to open it again for this woman. “No, sorry, ask the man at the hotel desk if he has one,” I said, looking at the woman in her car.
I opened my car door, tossed in my bag, and got in, and as I was about to close my door, the woman said, “Please help me.”
I closed my car door and started the engine and thought for a second, What the hell is this woman’s problem? I rolled my window down and saw that she was crying. I felt really bad all of a sudden, seeing her like that, so I asked her, “What’s wrong?”
The woman looked at me, and I could see her eyeliner running down her face. “I’m pregnant and I can’t change my flat tire and my car died on me getting here,” the woman said.
If the woman hadn’t been attractive, I would have repeated what I had told her earlier, but she was really good looking. “Okay, I’ll help you; open your trunk for me,” I said, turning off my car’s engine and then getting out. I walked to the back of the woman’s car as she opened her car door and got out.
“Thank you, I feel so helpless,” the woman said, walking to the trunk and opening it. The trunk lid opened and there were clothes thrown about and boxes labeled ‘household items.’ “What can I do now?” the woman asked.
“Did you check under the carpet? Most of the tire irons are under there or attached to the side of the trunk,” I said, looking at the woman.
“No, I just thought it was in the trunk somewhere,” the woman said, looking disappointed.
I felt weird helping this woman without introducing myself, so I asked her what her name was.
“I’m Barbra; my friends call me Barbie or Barb. What’s your name?” Barbra asked me, trying to smile.
“My name is William or Will, whichever you prefer. Nice to meet you, Barbra,” I said, pulling out her boxes and placing them on the ground. “Can you remove some of your clothes for me so I can get under your carpet?” I said, after moving two boxes out of the way.
Barbra laughed and wiped her tears away and then started laughing some more. “Are you okay?” I asked Barbra.
“You just made me laugh by asking me to remove my clothes so you can get under my carpet,” Barbra said snickering.
“Oh my God, I did not say that. Wait, what?” I said, and then I realized it had sounded like that. I busted out laughing and turned red, while shaking my head in shame. “I didn’t mean it that way, Barbra, I’m sorry, it just came out wrong,” I said, looking away from her with a grin on my face.
“It’s okay, I’ll forgive you, William. It’s nice to have a young, good-looking man flirt with me for once in my life. I’ll get my clothes so you can get under my carpet,” Barbra stated, while grabbing some of her belongings.
“Let me get the back door for you,” I said, going around the car to open her door. Barbra started laughing again as she followed me and threw her clothes on the
back seat.
“What are you laughing at now?” I said and smiled.
“First you want me to take my clothes off to get under my carpet, and now you want to get my back door,” Barbra giggled.
I just grinned and shook my head. Once most of Barbra’s clothes were in the back seat of her car, I could pull up her trunk’s carpet. I reached down to where there was a handle and pulled up on it. There Inside was the spare tire, the jack, tire iron, and a black gun. “Whoa, there’s a gun in your trunk!” I said.
Barbra, who was standing by her back door, started snickering and said, “Did you say I have junk in my trunk?”
I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into with Barbra laughing and now a gun in the trunk.
“William, don’t worry about it. This is my ex-husband’s car. We used to travel a lot, and he carried guns everywhere we went. He used to hide guns under the seats and in the armrest so having one back there doesn’t surprise me. Just move it out of the way,” Barbra stated with a smile.
I moved the gun to the side and then picked up the jack and the tire iron. I went around the car, looking for the flat tire, and there wasn’t one. I was confused now, so I said, “Where’s the flat tire? I don’t see one anywhere.”
Barbra, who was now standing at the trunk, started laughing again. “William, you can put those items that are in your hands back in the trunk.”
I walked back over to the trunk and dumped the jack and the tire iron in. “What’s going on?” I asked Barbra. I was definitely confused.
“Will, you’re such a sweet boy. Do I look pregnant to you?” Barbra asked, looking serious.
I looked at her stomach and didn’t see any bump, but she could have been. “I don’t see anything, but you could be a few weeks pregnant, right? I asked, wondering what Barbra was up too.
“Will, I have to leave, make sure you behave yourself, all right,” Barbra said, while closing the trunk lid.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
Barbra walked over to her driver’s side door and opened it. “You better get out of the way, Willy, or you may just get run over,” Barbra stated, as she sat in the car and closed the door.
I quickly went around to the front of her car and said, “Why are you guys screwing with me?”
Barbra started the car and then backed out of her parking spot. I wanted to run after her car and pound on it as she sped off and away from the hotel. I had been fooled again by those bastards in the government and wanted to kill someone responsible for it. I looked over at my car and remembered that there was that damn knife in my trunk. “Shit!” I said. I pulled my key from my pants pocket and walked over to my car’s trunk to open it. I had to get that knife and put it in the front seat with me. When the trunk lid opened, the bag with the knife in it was gone. “What the fuck?” I yelled and looked around the area. I was being watched everywhere I went. I wasn’t going to be left alone or have any peace in my life. “Those goddamned bastards,” I said. I slammed my trunk lid hard and saw a few people look out their hotel windows. A bit embarrassed, I went back over to my driver’s side door and opened it to retrieve my bag inside and then ran back to my hotel room.
To my surprise, the phone was ringing, so I answered it while dropping my bag. The hotel owner was on the other end; he was concerned that something was wrong. I told him that someone had stolen some items out of my car, and I was apologetic for making a scene. He offered to call the police for me, but I told him that I would handle it from my end. I got off the phone, and my heart was beating hard. I felt sick. The phone rang again, and it made me jump. “What do you want know?” I said to the empty room.
After the third ring, I picked up the phone and said, “Yes, sir?” thinking it was the hotel manager again, but it wasn’t.
“Hello, William, thank you for putting your handprints on my gun,” the woman said happily on the other end of the line.
My mind instantly realized it was Barbra or whatever her damn name was. “What the hell are you guys doing to me? I told you all that I would never say anything to anyone. I want to be left alone along with my family. Why are you guys screwing with me?” I yelled into the phone.
“Willy, calm down, stop yelling. We’re just tightening up loose ends. We needed your prints on the murder weapon just in case you ever talk about our little experiment,” Barbra stated softly.
“What murder weapon? I didn’t kill anyone,” I replied.
“Willy, don’t worry about a thing. We have everything now, and won’t bother you after today . . . unless of course you screw up,” Barbra stated.
“So, no one is going to mess with me or my family anymore unless I screw up?” I asked.
“You got it, kiddo. Isn’t that what the waitress called you . . . kiddo?” Barbra asked and then hung up on me.
How in the hell did Barbra know that? I’m not ever going to be left alone, I can see that now. Why did Barbra need my prints? Who did I supposedly kill? My head was spinning again with questions that couldn’t be answered. If the cops were at my house, they were looking for me. They knew that I was missing and wanted to see if I was alive. If I was alive, then I had killed everyone somehow, right? Or did the police suspect that I had killed my friends, and Olivia had been taken hostage by me? Or was it that Olivia and I had killed everyone?
I had to come up with a plan in my mind on what to say to my parents. I went over to the bed and sat down to think. The government wanted me to say that I was passed out in the car, and I didn’t know what had happened. But why had I taken off and hidden for a day? Rinnng! Rinnnng! The phone rang again, causing me to jump.
“Hello?” I said.
“Willy, good news, my friend, in about three hours, I want you downstairs in the hotel restaurant. And while you are there, you will have a meeting with someone who needs to talk with you. So, let’s say at six thirty, you’ll be downstairs eating your dinner until your guest arrives. No need to wonder who it is your meeting with, you’ll know when you see her.” It was Barbra speaking on the other end. Barbra hung up on me again before I had a chance to ask any questions.
I threw the receiver against the wall and felt like yanking the phone cord out of the wall, but stopped myself. I started pacing back and forth, biting my nails, trying to think, but I was just too damn angry. “I’m going to do shit my way, damn it,” I said. I then walked over to the front door of the room and dead bolted it, then put the door latch across. I wanted to take a shower before that damn Barbra showed up, and I did just that. I took a long, fifteen-minute shower and tried to get my mind situated with what my plans were going to be for the night and into the next day. I made my mind up on going home to see my parents, but I would call them first from a pay phone. Luckily, the next day was Saturday, and my parents would be home. I was going to tell them everything and show them my money, including the bank receipt.
I got out of the shower and felt like a heavy weight had been taken off of my shoulders after making my mind up. I took my time drying off and thought about watching a pay-per-view movie as I got dressed. I looked over what I could watch on the hotel’s movie card, and there was a lot that I wanted to see. Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, The Burbs, and Pet Cemetery. Some of the movies were a few years old, but I hadn’t seen them at the theater, so I decided on Back to the Future. As I got comfortable on the bed, I switched on the TV to find the proper channel for my movie. Once I found the channel, it showed that I had to use a credit card or pay at the front desk to receive my movie. I didn’t have a credit card, and I didn’t want to leave my room until I had to for my so-called meeting. So, I just went through the channels and found that MTV was showing a video of my favorite rock band. I didn’t think anyone was on either side of me as a guest, so I cranked up the volume.
I started singing along with the band. “Girls, girls, girls, dancing down on the sunset strip, red lips, fingertips.” Then I heard a loud banging that interrupted my singing, so I quickly turned off the TV so I cou
ld figure out where the sound was coming from. Then I realized the banging came from the room underneath me.
“And keep it that way!” a man’s voice yelled at me.
It freaked me out a bit so I kept the TV off for a few minutes before I headed downstairs to pay for my movie to watch. I went to the front desk, and as usual, no one was there, so I said, “Hello? Anyone here?”
A woman came from the back room and asked if I needed a room. “No ma’am, I’d like to pay for a movie in advance, please.” The woman got on the hotel’s computer and then asked me for my room number and my age. I paid her the four dollars and ninety-nine cents that the hotel was charging and then got my receipt.
“You have to watch the movie when it comes on, sir. Every movie starts every hour on the hour, okay?” the woman said.
I had no choice, so I agreed to what she was saying and headed back to my room to wait. When I got back to my room, I had to wait roughly thirty-five minutes before the movie would come on. I switched on the TV, and luckily the volume was down low so I didn’t blast my neighbor downstairs again. MTV had a commercial on, so I changed the channels and stopped at the local public television news channel. There was a photo of a cabin on fire, and the news reported on the screen stated that five bodies had been found, two of whom were law enforcement officers. “Oh my God!” I said, as I continued to watch the story. Early reports from investigators believed that a fire had been started by the occupants of the cabin, and the responding officers had been consumed by it.
My head was back to spinning again, and I felt sick to my stomach. I tried to forget as much as I could, but nothing was going to let me have a break. Everywhere I turned, something had to remind me. I turned off the TV and just sat there on the bed, waiting to go downstairs and meet whoever I was supposed to meet. The hotel room walls were closing in on me, and I felt uneasy. I felt my pulse on my neck because I could feel my heart racing in my chest. I had to get out of the room, but I didn’t know where I would go or what I would do. I needed to talk to someone and not feel that I was alone. I couldn’t take the pressure anymore, so I got off the bed and went over to the phone.
