souls of black | fever in, fever out

chapter 147: black sun morning

The town ahead of them was the town of Merrill, which had a turn-off right smack in the heart of it all, which in turn took them up to Klamath Falls, or the big city of the area as they overheard from the attendant at the next gas station on the outskirts of town. Alex was still taken aback by the sight of the attendant there outside of his window once they returned to the road ahead of them.
"So, we're definitely gonna stay the night here," Sam told him as they followed the little two-lane highway past a series of farmland and some low tree-covered hills. "Stay the night and then we'll head on up to Crater Lake in the morning."
"Sounds like a plan," he declared.
The road took them into the hills off to the north; another corner around the bend and they were met with a cluster of little houses and a small lake. Probably man-made, given it didn't seem to go anywhere. The trees that poked up from the hillsides were a dark green with the heart of springtime: they had found their way to the eastern side of the mountains, but Sam knew that they were near it all, especially off to the north where the snow still shroud over those slumbering volcanoes. She almost expected to see dragons at the summit of the quiet white point due north of there.
"Quite the town here," Alex remarked as they reached the lowbrow outskirts.
"Yeah, I'll say," she added.
"Where are we staying at?"
"Well, let's see, the guy at the gas station—the guy who scared the hell out of you—told me that they've got rooms on the northern end of town."
"Still cannot believe that happened," Alex said with a shake of his head and a shrug of his shoulders.
The road soon widened out into four lanes and they wound through the southern edge of town. They snaked past the man-made lake as well as a series of little, tightly woven neighborhoods and a tree-covered ridge. At one point, she spotted a pale blue water tower through the trees on her side. They wound all the way around to the other side of the valley to the more desolate and rocky hillsides, through all the green lights and then past a line of trees until they reached the first red light. Sam peered out her window to the road on her left, and the way it rose up above a railroad and then dipped down into the northern end of town. Mount Shasta stood off in the distance, a lonely point with a lower twin next to it.
"Quite the little town here," Alex repeated with a little nod of his head.
"The big city of the area, too," Sam pointed out. The light turned green and they rolled forward. "Let's see, the guy said the hotel is... up by this next stoplight. He told me to hang a right and then go up the hill a bit. It's right near the school."
"There's a school up here," Alex stated. "Like a college school, or—?"
"Yeah."
"Sweet!"
She merged to the right lane right before the light and then she caught it green once more.
"Good job, good job," he remarked, and then she headed up the block to the crest of the hill. Indeed, there stood a nice hotel at the very top.
She took the first spot right near the driveway: a bit of a walk but after such a hefty drive and three full days of traveling for her, she knew that they both could use it. Alex slung his travel bag over his shoulder and he walked close to her as they made their way to the front lobby. She looked back at him and the pensive look on his face; she then realized that he still kept his eye on Mount Shasta off in the distance.
Their room overlooked the valley below as well as Mount Shasta, especially when the sun loomed low over the horizon and bathed the whole side of the mountain in bright pink light. Even though Sam hoped that they would have one bed in there, she was slightly disappointed to find two queens in there before the vast bay window on the other side.
All the memories of the tour down in New Zealand flooded back to her, except this time around she had come along with Alex, and the two of them were alone. He set down his bag on the floor at the foot of the bed closest to them and then he peeled back the top cover and he flopped down onto his back.
"Ohhhh, it feels good to lay down," he groaned, and he raised his arms up over his head.
"It feels good for you to lay down!" she scoffed, and he burst out laughing. She set down her things and she turned to him with a twinkle in her eye. Given he lay right there on the edge closest to her, she could see up his shirt a little bit.
"What time is it?" he asked her, and she took a peek at the clock on the nightstand between their beds.
"A quarter to four," she told him; she returned to the bedspread before her and stripped it off of the top. "I am so glad we picked staying in a hotel rather than make our way up to Crater Lake now. I asked the guy at the gas station and he told me it's another hour from here."
"It's a lot of driving, too," Alex pointed out, "and it's a lot of stress on my car to boot."
"Why, are you hungry?"
"When am I never hungry?" he joked to her, and she giggled at him. He tucked his hands underneath the back of his head.
"Never thought life out in the wilderness would be so eventful," Alex remarked.
"Out in the wilderness," she echoed him.
"It's a phrase in the music world," he explained. "When someone quits a band or gets fired and has to find his way, he's got to find his way through the wilderness in order to find the next clearing up from there."
"I see! The wilderness has plenty of food to go about, too."
"True! Hence why I said it's so eventful." He then propped himself up onto his elbows. "D'you see a bakery when we were at the stoplight at all?"
"I didn't, no," she confessed, and then she turned to him and the little twinkle in those deep blue eyes.
"Oh, during these few days we're up here, I'm gonna fill that little belly with all kinds of good food," she teased him with a little shake of her head. "All the ginger snaps and all the cookies you can dream of, Alex."
"I eat too many cookies and I turn into Jabba the Hutt, you know," he cracked back with a wag of his finger. She reached towards him for a little pat of his stomach and he lunged back towards the wall. She giggled at him and then she reached for the phone on the nightstand. She sat down on the side of the bed and dialed Ruben's phone number.
It would be another hour before they had dinner at a little Thai place in the heart of town and a series of driving about the blocks in search of something that piqued their fancy. Given the sheer amount of money which she had at her disposal, Sam wanted to spoil him silly there in that proverbial big city. But then again, she had to keep it all together lest something happen to them while up at Crater Lake. Extra ginger on his second helping of noodles and she could keep his beautiful stomach extra happy for the rest of the evening. A part of her wished she wouldn't do that to him, but then again, she watched him grow more and more comfortable with her at her side.
Spoil him silly, after all this time of toiling in obscurity with Testament and all the things that those five men had to experience up to that point. Spoil him silly, especially given the fact he was still that proverbial little Jew boy with a couple of professors for teachers and having grown up sheltered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Spoil him silly, for his being such a good boy to her all this time.
Near the restaurant stood a cozy little art shop twenty minutes from closing up for the night. She didn't have her journal with her at the moment, but she knew that a new pad of paper would serve her justice for the gallery back home.
At that point, night had fallen over their heads and she wanted to drive a sleepy Alex back to their room for the night. She had vowed to carry him into the hotel room, but he insisted on walking in even with his pants unbuttoned. No sooner had she unlocked their door and set down her purse when he collapsed onto his bed and fell right to sleep. She set up her drawing pad on the desk for safe keeping and without another word, she headed into the bathroom to change her clothes, and then she returned back out to her bed on the other side of the room. She crawled under the covers and switched off the light: the sole light came from the orange lights outside.
All the while, Sam flashed back on upstate New York and all of the lush greenery over there as well as the cozy feeling to all of the houses and apartments back there. She hoped that Joey was doing alright back there while she closed her eyes and went right to sleep herself.
She dreamed that she stood somewhere on the ledge on one slope of Mount Shasta and right above her loomed a diamond shape with mirrored faces on either side. She caught a glimpse of something that resembled to ginger root and she took a look down to what stood before her. A stray massive ginger root with a series of pearly white tips: through the branches, he stepped out so as to greet her.
The mysterious man. This time without a face and in its place a dark shadow the size of a watermelon: he wore a long black cloak which billowed back under the face of the mirrored diamond overhead.
"It's been a while," she told him in a flash and an echo.
"Indeed, it has," he replied to her in a voice that reminded her of John.
"Where have you been?" she demanded. "Why aren't you getting me off of here?"
"My hands are tied," he told her; his voice bled out like bleeding watercolors.
"What do you mean?"
The shadow crossed over his face, such that a little plume of white spread over his head and Sam thought about Alex.
"Alex?" she called out to him. Instead, he ducked back into the shadow and he took the shape of Eric for a momentary glimpse, followed by John again, and then he bowed back into the shadows, a phantom and mere figment of her imagination. She stood there on the snow-covered ledge and she took a glimpse up to the diamond with its mirrored faces. Sam hoped that the volcano behind her wouldn't erupt as she reached out to it.
"Why would you love me like this—" That sounded like Alex.
She opened her eyes and she gazed up at the shadowy ceiling: pale orange morning light filtered in through the rich velvet curtains to her right. Alex himself groaned in his throat and rolled over onto his back on the bed next to her. He let out a low whistle and he ran his fingers through his jet-black hair.
"You awake?" she asked him.
"I swear, it feels like I've just fallen asleep," he confessed. "I barely slept last night."
"All that ginger getting to you?"
"Nah. It was more just—the unfamiliar bed and the feeling that I'm without a band."
"Aw." Sam sat upright in her bed and she looked on at him as he lay there without a shirt on and his pants still unbuttoned. He was so full the night before that he had neglected to take off his pants. And yet he looked refreshed: his skin was still smooth and his eyes had a bit of an extra glimmer to them, even when in the shadow. She took a glance over at the clock on the nightstand and she saw that they had ninety minutes before the lobby downstairs closed for the morning.
"What say we grab some breakfast downstairs and then boogie up to the lake?"
"Yes, please! You know I want a cup of coffee."