GRYDER'S COVE TALES: HOWLERS

holy water...or something like it...

Whatever power the church possessed that comforted Gail in her sleep did absolutely nothing for her fibromyalgia when she woke up in utter agony to a blaring alarm on a narrow church pew at 4:00 am. Slowly she reached for her phone to quell the blast of Rob Zombie's 'Scum of the Earth' after discovering that moaning 'Stooooop.....shut uuup.....' repeatedly doesn't work as well as actually shutting it off. By the time she realized the error in her approach, Olivia had sat up in her pew and was stretching, arms out wide.

"Kill that thing!" she groaned, managing to pry one eye open, "God, I think someone kicked my ass while I was sleeping."

"I did 'cause you won't stop bitching," said Gail in that early-morning-just-woke-up grumbling kind of voice as she shut off the alarm, "Come on, we gotta get outta here and back to the car."

Gail sat up very, very slowly, easing into a seated position, wondering if this is what steel joints would feel, if they could, when they're rusted up and forced to move. Her Pericodin was in her purse; her purse was in the car, which was farther than she felt she could make it without medication.

Too early for irony this rich and thick......

She leaned back to slide her phone into the right front pocket of her jeans. Olivia had already set about the task of gathering everything up, but when she reached for the witchboard to put it in Gail's backpack, she had a sudden feeling of unnameable dread and pulled her hand back, hesitant to touch it. Keep them separate, the voice had said. She pulled Gail's backpack up closer and looked inside, finding the planchette and moving it to a large pocket in front. The board went back into the laptop compartment in which it had resided since Gail acquired it. By this time Gail had made her way to the side door through which they had entered the night before and was peering out, looking in every direction for signs of anyone stirring. No cars, no one on the sidewalks, only that one lone streetlight burning faintly in the cold mist of the morning.

"Liv, come on. This is as good as it's gonna get," Gail whispered, though she didn't know why, being as nobody was out and about at this hour. "We should be able to get to the car without anyone knowing we were here."

"OK, I got everything together here," said Olivia, who had since donned her jacket and had her camera bag over one shoulder and Gail's backpack over the other. Gail slipped into her jacket and eased the door open, looking left, right, forward and even up. They stepped out into the wet early morning air and began to make their way toward the back of the old brick building. Gail took her keys out of her pocket and readied the key for the door locks, keeping an eye out for anyone who might sneak up on them and ask questions they didn't want to answer. Luck and the forgiving smallness of Derby Cross afforded them a clear path to Gail's car, a quick load-up, and successful getaway. The ride back to the motel was short and quiet, both longing only to get into a real bed for a few more hours of restful sleep.

Finally they were parked in front of that familiar door again. Gail opened a bottle of water from her backpack to take an extra dose before going inside. Olivia had already gathered the bags and was waiting at the door, eyes closed with her head against the wall. Gail made her way to the door, produced the key and unlocked it. There they were; beds, blankets, pillows, the whole nine yards, and they never looked better.

Olivia let her load slip to the floor and walked over to her bed, tossing her jacket onto it then slipping under the covers and curling up, shoes and all. Gail locked the door behind her and eased herself down onto her bed, face down on top of the covers. Her eyelids felt weighted, closing slowly until she felt herself beginning to drift away, closer and closer to that peaceful abyss where blissful REM sleep cocoons the human mind and body in tranquility and gives us reprieve from the stresses of the previous waking hours when BAM BAM BAM!!