Midnight Auto Supply

Chapter 6: Hotel, motel, make you wanna cry

I hated how calm things seemed right now. 

It was nearly the end of my first full day with these nerds and things were far too calm. There's no way that they were this bad at tracking, so what the hell was going on? 

The sun had dipped below the long horizon out west, which I could see from my left window, but we still had quite a while until Maine. And everyone smelled really bad. 

I could feel my eyelids droop and this time I couldn't control it. I hadn't had coffee in a while and I was starting to hit my threshold on lack of sleep. I didn't want to pass out on the wheel and accidentally crash, but I didn't want to leave them out of my sight either.

"Ok, so I have a proposition," I started, injecting life into the sleepy vehicle. None of them had really been napping but they all sort of zoned out and taken advantage of that post-meal daze. 

"Would you all be okay with finding a motel or something to stay the night? Because I don't really wanna hang out in this van again and I think I need a shower," a motel room sounded amazing to me, I just had to keep in mind our funds. 

"Can we pay for it?" Paul asked from the back.

"Um..... I've got about 150 cash on me soooooo, maybe? We'll definitely need to share though, so figure that out. I'm takin the floor," I shifted my weight as I spoke to feel the money in my back pocket. It was only so long until we ran out, but I didn't really feel like thinking about that right now, so I didn't.

"Where tha' hell did you get 150 cash?" John skeptically asked from the shotgun seat. 

"Um, well part of it I saved up from a summer job, part of it I always keep in the car, and part of it-"

"There's no way you got all tha' money on yer own," he interrupted. 

"I don't know how cheap you think everything is now, but 150 dollars is not a lot of-" I slapped my head with my hand before realizing what was going on here, "Wait! I know what's going on here. We haven't considered inflation rates."

"Wot?"

"No, y'know, like, money gradually becomes less and less valuable, so like one dollar in your time is like 9 dollars now. I don't know the exact rate, but rest assured, however much money you think I have now it's about a tenth of that."

"Ah," he stroked his chin while mentally doing the math, "oh, so we really are fucked." 

I nodded. 

"We'll just rob a bank, then," Ringo suggested.

"Yeah, because that'll help us run from the law," George replied. 

"Well, we're already running from them, it can't really get any worse. Might as well," Ringo shrugged. 

I spotted an exit that promised a motel, so I pulled off and silently drove through the country road, trying my hardest to make the bumps and cracks in the old pavement roll off my tires as smooth as possible.

About a quarter mile from the highway I was able to pull into a small alcove, with a half filled parking lot and a dingy looking motel. Perfect. 

I parked the car and pulled my key out of the ignition. 

"Okay, so, I guess this is it for the night." 

"Home sweet home," Paul hummed. 

We drifted out of the car and as soon as I had to propel myself forward with my feet I realized just how tired I was. I barely had the energy to walk. As soon as my eyes focused I yawned and felt tears brim them.