Shadow Valley

Chapter 2

     The rain had tapered down to just a mist as Mark made his way to his car. He noticed that the weather was rather humid for this time of year. He remembered that it was in the middle of January and that it seemed to him that the temperature was around seventy degrees. Wait! How did he remember what the date was? Just a few moments ago, he had no idea what was going on or who he was. Now he was still in a quandary on who he was but he seemed to be slowly remembering.

Mark stopped for a second under a streetlight which was adjacent to his vehicle. While standing there, illuminated by the dirty orange light. He went through his mind trying to find out if anything else had been revealed to him, but after a few moments he saw that no more doors had been open to him. "At least," he thought, "there is only one car in the parking lot." He furrowed his brow and continued on to his car. He took a key which he found in his pocket and inserted it into to the door of his Honda Accord. As he turned the key in the door, the lock made a soft clicking sound. He turned the key back into a vertical position and took the key out and opened a door.

After he had settled into the car, he inserted his key into the ignition and turned it. Again, the response was a click but there was no explosion of sound which would mark the start of the engine which was what Mark expected.

Mark leaned back in the driver's seat and let out a sigh. He remembers that he came here in order to escape. Now he was trying to escape... Again.

He opened his car door, closed it and leaned against it and stared into the distance. He was at the diner. He was pared in the parking lot and the car was perpendicular to what seemed to be the main Street of the town. As he walked up to the cracked sidewalk which ran parallel to the street, he gazed down it. He could see that both the asphalt and the sidewalk were in great need of repairs. The road was severely cracked and had huge potholes which lined it. The sidewalk was overgrown by kudzu which seemed to be a major problem to the town in more places than just the sidewalk. Across the street was a sign which was mostly covered with the same vines as covered a good portion of the sidewalk. The only words that could be read off the sign were "Valley" and "Motel". The second was obvious since Mark could see the building behind the sign which was filled with different rooms.

Motels, Mark thought, were one of the most lonely places to be. Each of the rooms that made up a motel are inhabited by a person which had no clue about the other inhabitants of the building. Neighbors who had never met. This person could stay at his home for only one days, but sometimes there are those who do not have enough money and live their lives out at these lonely places. Motels are a place where people come and go, and most are not aware of who they were.

Mark straightened back up, ready to try again at the act which he had once failed at when a movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Mark whirled around and saw that at the other side of his car, stood a man with a pipe in his left hand.

"Sorry to startle you," said the man, "I just saw that you were having car troubles and I thought you might like to spend the night in my little motel until you get your car fixed."

Ahh, he thought, it is only Mr. Hix who that waitress told me about.

But before Mark could answer, Mr. Hix handed him a keycard and motioned over to the motel, "Just take it, you will need it." He smiled under his hood.

"Just be careful." He said before turning on his heels and walking out into the night.