Lunar Inn

CHAPTER I: THE CURIOUS CASE OF LORAINE CHAPMAN

Hollow Creek, AZ,

October 27th, 1986

8:36 A.M

Harvey Chapman was staring at a graveyard of stars. Tiny, almost impossible to notice were the fragments scattered around the kitchen counter. Had it not been for Harvey's fixated attention in the making of breakfast, he would have surely slash his skin with the unforgiving glass. Or worse, little Julie.

"Hey, Julie! What's taking you so long, come on!" Harvey finished the last layer on her pancake, eyeing the glass shards.

He walked around the mess of a kitchen. Stumbling upon the empty whiskey bottles belonging to one Cooper Chapman. Harvey's nose sniffed at the stench, rolling his eyes, how did he not notice before? Sure, he had grown used to it, but he sometimes forgot there was a smell to worry about at all.

Harvey crouched to pick up his father's shame, praying Julie wouldn't pay attention to it, hopefully thinking that her brother spilled another detergent like last week. He threw the whiskey bottles outside in his secret stash by the porch, a few drops clinging to him. Swiping a tablecloth by the counter, he headed to his parent's bedroom, or more accurately his father's bedroom.

Harvey was greeted by the scent of even more liquor and maybe sickness along the way. The room was dark, except for the rays of sunlight that tried so hard to enter the hollow room, as if stretching their arms to light up anything at all. Family portraits, empty glasses, jewelry, and books were coated with a thick layer of dust; one that haunted Harvey every time he was in the awful room. The remainder of who they used to belong to taunting him.

A loud snore brought Harvey back to reality, Cooper rearranged himself from his spot on the floor. As to why he didn't use the perfectly good bed was a mystery to Harvey, maybe waking up next to the empty spot your wife used to sleep in was too hard for Cooper. The cold floor seemed like the best next choice.

Harvey bent down, avoided his father's vomit in which the old man rested, and pulled on both of Cooper's arms. He dragged him to the bathroom's shower, and turned the tap.

The cold water hit Cooper's chest as if a million bricks came crashing down on the man, waking him up from the marble floor, screaming.

"The hell is the matter with you," Cooper cursed as the water tried to erase the hangover on his face.

"If you're going to stink the house with your bottles, at least try not to look like crap in front of Julie," Harvey said. Cooper stared at him, then shifted his gaze to the drain that swallowed the ill-colored water. Harvey pulled the shower curtain closed and shut the door hard, the sound echoing through the house.

"Where's Dad? Is he up?" Julie asked with a mouthful of pancakes and multiple-colored scrunchies tied to her hair as Harvey walked back to the small kitchen.

"Yeah. He just went to take a shower," Harvey replied.

"Oh cool, I left him some of my pancakes for him to take to work." Julie smiled and picked up her backpack from the kitchen stool. Harvey nodded at her, knowing the pancake would still be there when they returned in the afternoon. He whisked his shoulder bag and the car keys.

Julie walked with Harvey to the door, then squinted her face at him.

"You may want to go easy on that cologne, you smell." Julie pointed out, nose scrounged as they exited the house.

"Shut up you gremlin." He tugged Julie's ponytail, not contradicting his sister on the smell definitely not belonging to some cheap cologne.

He walked alongside her to the cherry red VW Beetle parked in the driveway. The car had been a gift from Robbie's folks, an old rusty car they knew Harvey would enjoy fixing.