Masked Read Free Page B

pay.
    “Mornin',” said a small man with
pinched eyes behind the counter in a monotone voice.
    “Good morning,” I said back in an
annoying cheerful manner, responding to his lack of cheerfulness.
    The gas and food cost $47.59. I
gave the clerk a fifty from my pocket and he handed back the change and a bag
to fill with my purchases. “Thanks,” I said and left the store.
    As I was walking back to my truck,
I noticed the sky seemed much brighter than when I had gone inside only five
minutes earlier. It was getting time to find a motel for the day.
    I opened the door to the truck
and was about to get in when I heard a cheerful “hello” coming from the pump
next to me.
    “Hello,” I said and turned to the
girl I hadn’t noticed. I guess maybe I should have. She was striking.
    She looked older than me, but not
by much. Maybe nineteen? Her shoulder-length chocolate hair blew with the
breeze. Her jeans fit snug over her athletic but slim legs and she wore a light
blue ski jacket that seemed tailored to be worn by only her.
    She was filling the tank of a
black SUV. I couldn’t tell what make or model it was, but it was definitely
newer and leaps and bounds nicer than my piece of crap, probably made within
the last couple of years rather than the last couple decades.
    “It’s supposed to be a beautiful
day,” she said conversationally.
    I nodded. “It looks like it just
might be.”
    “Are you staying in the area or
just passing through?” Her voice was confident, but pleasant.
    “Just passing through.”
    “Me too, although seeing the
beautiful morning sky sure makes me want to find an excuse to stay.”
    “I have to get going but it was
nice to meet you,” I said as I got back into the truck, cutting the
conversation short.
    Did I mention I wasn’t very good
at small talk with girls or really people in general? I wasn’t shy, though a
pretty face was likely to fumble my words some and her face was undoubtedly
pretty. I’d just had a lot of practice at avoiding people. Small talk led to
questions I didn’t want to answer, also daybreak was closing in and I needed to
get going.
    The girl smiled, not showing any
annoyance at my rudeness. “You too.”
    Once in the truck, I got back on
the highway for a couple of miles and took an exit advertising the Rocky Ridge
Inn. It looked old and out of the way, my kind of place.
    I pulled up to the inn which
advertised free HBO and rates from $29 a night.
    I laughed. “They had me at the
free HBO.”
    The inn looked ancient and
neglected. It was a one-story, pull up to the door of the room crap hole with a
chipped paint wood exterior. I was familiar with the type of place. It provided
all I was looking for, ambiguity, a shower and a place to sleep.
    After parking, I walked into the
front office of. A tired looking middle-aged woman was sitting at the desk with
a cigarette in one hand and a novel displaying some bare-chested, long-haired
man on the cover in the other. The room had a strong odor of tobacco smoke
accompanied with an underlying musty smell and something else not discernible,
but unpleasant. It was kind of a sour rot and something I didn’t want to dwell
too much on.
    Apparently dressing up the
reception area had never been in the inn’s budget. It was a plain white room
adorned with years of neglect and a single smoke stained framed cross-stitch of
a brown owl. There was a cluttered desk with only a small area to stand in
front of it.
    The woman looked up as I let the
door close behind me.
    “May I help you?” she asked, her
deep husky voice revealing she probably started smoking right out of the womb.
    “I wanted to see if I could get a
room.”
    “Ok. Will you be staying past
11:00?”
    “Yes.”
    “If you’ll be staying past 11:00,
I’ll need to charge you for two nights,” she said.
    “That’s fine.” I didn’t really
care; that wasn’t uncommon due to the hours I kept.
    “Well, the only rooms I have left
are the two honeymoon