It was still storming outside the next morning and I was still soaked to the bone. I sighed and got up going to the living room where Mike was already awake and watching t.v. “Hey there Sleeping Beauty,” he said smirking at me. I rolled my eyes. “I need cash,” I say to him knowing he had some he could give me. “What for?” He asked getting up from the couch. “My clothes are soaked and I need dry ones so I can wash and dry these clothes.” I say and he smirks. “I’m perfectly fine with you walkin’ round with no clothes on til your clothes dry. Ain’t gonna bother me none,” I glare at him and he rolls his eyes giving in. “Alright alright, how bout 30?” he says handing me the cash. I take it and walk out. Going down to a store that sold clothes.
After a while of looking around I found a t-shirt, jeans, and underclothing. I took everything up to the casher and waited to be given the price. I looked around and saw a picture of the little boy who lived in the strange house that disappeared and reappeared randomly. My eyes popped out of my head when I saw it. “Excuse me sir, but where did you get that picture?” I asked trying not to sound too worried. “That’s my nephew. His house burnt down with him and his parents in it. My brother and my sister in law. They all died in that fire. Damn shame it was. I’m almost positive it was my sister in law though. She hated my brother and the son she gave birth to. She was a cruel woman. May she burn in hell forever and may the devil show no mercy on her soul.” The casher stood there staring at the photo and I left the money on the counter, grabbed my things and walked back to the motel.
Once back in my motel room I went to the bedroom and changed into my new dry clothes. I hung up my other clothes to dry and walked into the kitchen to get a drink.
“Hey come on in here babe, let’s watch something” I scowled and walked into the living room. “Don’t call me babe” I spat and sat in the chair furthest away from the couch where Mike was sitting. “Well I gotta call ya somethin til you tell me yer name.” He said with a smirk and I rolled my eyes.
Hours past and we were packing our things to move on. Once we had all our stuff (which wasn’t much at that) packed into the truck we headed out. “This next stretch here is gonna be at least six hours til we reach the next town. Might wanna take a nap ‘fore we get there.” Mike told me and I turned away from him facing the door. I curled up as best I could then realized how uncomfortable it was. “You know,” he said stopping the truck for a minute. “There’s a little lever over here,” he reached over me to the other side of my seat and I plastered myself against the seat and tried to not take in his intoxicating sent which smelled of old wood and apples. “If you flip this back, the seat lays back and you got yourself a nice little place to rest.” He laid me down and went back to the wheel and started driving again. I stared at him not knowing what to think. He looked over at me and saw me staring at him. “Go ahead and take a nap babe. Yer gonna need the rest.” He said putting his eyes back on the road. I turned over to face the door and slowly closed my eyes. Still taking in the smell of old wood and apples.
I woke up to the sound of the pitter patter of rain on the roof of the truck. “Rainin’ again.” Mike said when he realized I was awake. “Not as bad as that storm when I first picked you up though. It should pass soon.” He said glancing at me for a second.
13
