Ghost Town - Page 3

Gerald rubbed his beard as he entered his store.  No one had even stepped foot into his establishment in the past week.  He slowly walked past the dusty shelves which held an odd mixture of items.  When he reached the back room, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was entering the store or peering into the front window.  He opened the creaky door to the room and turned on a dim ceiling light.   The box was still there on the table.  His beefy hands began to sweat as he reached out for it....


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Will went into the diner and sat down in a booth near the back.  He began to look at the greasy laminated menu.  He could hear coffee cups clinking and light conversation around him, but it seemed as though he was in another world.  Where were his parents???


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Rachel's heart was pounding and she couldn't think straight.  Who did Dan take her kids to?  "Think!" she said out loud to herself.  Maybe he took them to a co-worker's house?  

Will ordered the Sunrise special and a side of buttermilk pancakes. A tall glass of cold OJ to go with it. He waited impatiently, thumping his fingers on the table. But not for long. The door opened and in walked the most beautiful girl in the world. He had no doubt. She was with two so-so girlfriends and he was sitting in this big booth, all alone. He got an idea to invite them over. He just needed one of the girls to look his way. He hoped it was the Most Beautifull, but instead it was the short one. She looked right at him and he ....

... Will gave her what he thought was his "winning" smile. He accompanied it with a hair flick and gave the open palm invitation for them to join him. The short girl raised her eyebrows and grabbed her friends by their elbows, and started whispering furiously to them both.

Will began to feel real foolish, when incredulously, the Most Beautiful girl in the world, shrugged her shoulders and slowly stretched out a predatory smile. (One that was not lost on her girlfriends.) She started to walk towards him, clearly coming over to share his booth! Her friends followed close behind. He wondered if they could feel the cold sweat of his fear, or was it excitement? His thoughts turned to mush. His words flew out the belfry of his empty brain. God, she was gorgeous! And terrifying all at the same time....

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Rachel couldn't keep wondering who to blame most for her perpetual misery, besides herself. There were others, and they needed to pay. She decided to visit her mother-in-law, one more time. Hear her story, again. There must be something she had missed. It had been a while since the funeral, which was when it was the last time she had spoke to Miriam. It didn't go well. But she had no other place to start. 

The thought that she was going out to visit made her pause in front of the hall mirror. She looked a fright. She'd have to do something about that first. A haircut and a color. When did that gray hair get there, she mused? I'm only 29. Just another thing to grumble about, but she also thought, I can fix this. She looked up the number of the beauty salon, and called for an appointment.

"No problem, we have an opening tomorrow." And they said, "We'll see you at 10 a.m. tomorrow for a cut & color with Gracie. It will be so nice to see you back at the Bee Hive Beauty Salon.  See you then, Rachel."

It felt better to have a plan. Any sort of beginning, anyway. She'd figure out the rest of stuff, eventually. She knew she would because she was never going to give up trying.

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Gerald

...and immediately peeked inside. Only then could he let his breath out. He did so evenly. He relaxed. He left the box where it was and felt the pleasure he always got coming back here. The bank of computer screens all brightly lit were the biggest source of his joy and growing fortune. They were indispensible and his preferred tool for sourcing his kind of trade. Gerald found it easier to make a living buying and selling, than he first thought. Turns out he has a knack for it,  and his surprising success is intoxicating to him. 

He checked on a few of his blinding screens and returned to the front counter, to his seat behind the cash register. He wanted to be ready for the interview for the psychic medium later this morning. He wanted to make sure the old bugger just wasn't full of it. He didn't want to waste time on frauds and quacks. He had discovered, he was making a reputation for himself. How pleased that made him feel!

Most Beautiful stopped at the head of his booth table and spread each of her buffed and painted nails out in a fan shape when she placed her hands on the table top. She looked at Will, with a little squint in her eyes and said, "Is this an invite?" in a faked surprise voice.

Will tried his hardest to be non-chalant, like he didn't really care one way or the other. It was hard though--- because he could feel his ears burning up. He managed to nod his head and say, "Sure, there's room." He thinks she smirked at this, and then slid into the booth seat so she ended up across from him. So he was staring right at her.

He hardly noticed the other girls, filing in and taking the remaining seats. He didn't realize the short girl was actually sitting next to him. 

It took about three seconds before his new acquaintances started to chatter at each other and  bombard Will with questions.

His head started to get that swoozy feeling again....

He thought Most Beautiful was saying something to him...what was it? He thinks she said ...

...."So, my name is Gina, what's your's?  What kind of car do you drive?"  She flashed Will a toothy white smile through her ruby red lips.

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Gerald heard someone rapping on the store front window.  He looked up from the counter and saw a short, white-haired, hunched over elderly woman peering back at him.  She had a wrinkled face and a large crooked nose.  Her eyes glared at him as if they could burn right through him.


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Rachel drove like a maniac on the way to her mother-in-law's house.  Her mind full of questions.  She almost lost control going too fast around a sharp curve in the road.   Her life was spinning out of control.   She jerked the wheel of her car to stay on the road and......

Gerald stood up and looked back at the old crone. He motioned for her to come inside. She shook her head "NO" and pointed her finger at him and and then curled it up, signaling for him to come to her.

Gerald shrugged his shoulders and thought, crazy hag! She better be legit. I'd hate to have to look at something that ugly for no good reason! He went to the door and walked outside.

Before he could speak, her surprisingly strong voice stopped him in his tracks, she said something only his mother could have known, something only he knew about his mother. It made him immobile, to remember her. He got angry for a second, he wanted to smash the crone to the ground. His Mother! The only one to love him, ever! How, he wanted to know.....

Will looked at Gina, and his insides turned into a frozen ball, like a ball of twine left out to overwinter in the garden. He managed two words, "Mom's Jeep".

Gina appeared to like that. She said, "You maybe, can give us a lift? Later? We got some places to go..." And there was that smile that seemed to suck out his brains, and turn him into a zombie. Her zombie.

He said, ...

Rachel felt her hands cramped and hurting from gripping the wheel so hard. She was stopped on the shoulder of the road. She was shaking. She tried to think how she got here. She remembered after a while, she unglued her hands and got the blood flowing again. Focus, she thought. I can't get myself killed, not without knowing, where are my babies! She cried.

And she looked in the rear view mirror, someone had stopped, and someone was walking up to her side of the car. She felt a panic coming on. Did she know this person? She looked harder and saw the Navajo design on the person's coat. It seemed oddly familiar and comforting. And then she heard their voice, asking ....

She wasn't sure if she heard a voice asking, "Are you alright?"

...Rachel found herself in a tailspin that ended with her facing the wrong way on the shoulder of the road. She felt out-of- her=body. She was an observer, like she was watching someone else that looked like her, for what seemed like an eternity. She felt a maddening impatience. She saw herself rest her head on the steering wheel. And then she shouted at herself, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

She picked her head up. Started the car, and turned it around. Nothing was going to stop her from her visit with her mother-in-law. Nothing. Death would even be welcome, she thought, but it still wouldn't be the end to what she need to do, to find her missing children.