Peripheral Vision: A Supernatural Thriller(17)
The door to the lobby creaked loudly as Sarah made her way inside. The old man that had greeted her so kindly the night before, was no longer behind the hotel clerk’s desk. Instead a young, blonde girl with thick, black-rimmed glasses sat in his place. The girl seemed to be lost in a book and didn’t bother looking up as the creak signaled Sarah’s entrance.
“Hello. I’m just checking out.” Sarah announced.
“Ok, what room?” The clerk asked, her eyes still looking down at her book.
“312.” Sarah set the keys on the counter in front of the clerk, and once again had to fight the urge of tapping her hand down on the little bell she had noticed the night before. “Hey, do you know where there’s a grocery store around here?”
Now the girl looked up from her book. She gave Sarah a partially hidden, but obviously annoyed look. “There’s only one.”
“Okay?” Sarah responded. She was trying not to let the surprisingly rude attitude of the girl get to her, but it was almost impossible. It had caught her off guard. “So can you give me directions or…?” Sarah asked with a forced smile. She tried to hide the passive aggressive tinge to it, but it was an unsuccessful attempt.
The girl let out a long, annoyed exhale from her nose, closed her book and pointed at the window to her right. She spoke quickly. “Just hop back on Highway 22, make a left at the stop light, and then you’ll see it, The Corner Market. It’s on the corner.”
Sarah bit down on her tongue hard. It took everything in her to stop from telling this girl to fuck off or smashing her in the face with that tiny bell. I thought everyone is supposed to be nice in towns like this? Her thought was interrupted by the loud creak of the opening front door. Sarah turned toward the door and saw the friendly face of the old man that had checked her in the night before. The man’s smile disappeared.
“Teresa?” The old man asked. “Don’t you have a test today? Where is your mother?” He’d taken five steps into the room before he even noticed Sarah. When he did finally realize that she was there he gave a short smileless wave hello, and then went immediately behind the counter and started fussing with papers. “I can’t believe this!”
“She said she needed me to watch the front desk over lunch. I don’t know where she went!”
“Well get on over to the high school now dammit.”
“Grandpa, it’s almost 2. School’s out at 3. I can’t go back now.”
“I don’t care about that. Just go back and I’ll call and tell them why you aren’t there.”
“Fine!” Teresa yelled and picked up her book and left.
Sarah stood there for a moment wondering what she had just witnessed, before the old man spoke and broke the silence.
“I’m sorry about that. What can I help you with Miss?”
“I was just checking out. Room 312. But I’m not in a hurry, so if you need to…”
“No, no. It’s okay. I’m sorry about all that, just my good-for-nothing daughter is always fucking up. Excuse me…messing up. And now she’s got her own daughter covering for her. Ridiculous…I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Let me get you all squared away here.” The old man wiped his watering eyes with the back of his hand. It was a feeble attempt and only seemed to make his eyes water more.
Sarah had noticed the tears welling up in the man’s eyes and now felt completely sorry for him as he handed her the receipt to sign. She smiled at him hoping that it would somehow make the old man feel better.The old man smiled back and cleared his throat changing the subject.
“I see that you’re friends with the Fielding boy.”
“Oh, you know, Nick?” Sarah asked.
“Well, he was quite the football star around here when he was in high school. About the last good team we’ve had, I think. Go Eagles.”
“I didn’t know about that.” Sarah said.
“Also used to drink a few cold ones with his father every now and then, when he was alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Ah, don’t be. He was an asshole.” He said matter-of-factly.
The phone on the desk began to ring loudly. The old man picked up with lightening speed for a person his age- before the first ring even finished.
“Wagon Wheel Motel, this is Todd…yes, yes…Oh hello, Mary.”
He flipped open a blue spiral bound notebook and began to jot down notes. Sarah waited for a few moments and then, realizing that the conversation was destined to be a long one, waved to Todd and headed out the door.
The sun was bright out in the parking lot. The day was still cold, and it felt good on her face, warm and safe. Sarah unlocked her truck and got in. She turned the ignition key, and grinned at the sound of the country love song that escaped from the truck’s speakers. Her eyes glanced up at her reflection in the truck’s rearview mirror and she laughed out loud at her current surroundings. Things sure have changed over the last two days, she thought, and then put the truck in gear.
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It was forty-five minutes later that Sarah, arms filled with brown paper bags, exited through the slowly opening automatic doors of the Corner Market. I really should’ve taken the carryout boy up on his offer to help, she thought. Too late now. She was having trouble locating her truck keys from inside her purse while balancing all of the grocery bags. As she dug deep into her seemingly bottom-less purse to find them, she noticed two men across the parking lot. They seemed to be watching her. They were watching her. She looked away when they made eye contact with her and finally her fingers desperately grasped around the keys at the bottom of her purse. She placed the bags in the back of the truck and tried to wedge them behind the wheel well. She doubted that they would hold up to the washout bumps on the river road, but it was worth a shot.