Chapter Text
“Where’s Hackett’s Quarry?” Laura asks.
The cop puts his hand on his hip and shows a flash of teeth. Something you could maybe, by some stretch of the imagination, call a smile.
“Nice try. Harbinger Motel, can’t miss it,” he says.
Laura grits her teeth, squeezing the map between her fingers as the cop walks back towards his car. The lights flicker on the top in a bright white, red and blue. Muttering to herself she throws the door to the car open and takes the seat. Max clears his throat and looks over her shoulder at the map.
“How did that go?”
“Drive,” Laura says.
Max’s eyebrows raise and he turns behind, to see the cop car still waiting for them to move. He taps the steering wheel with his fingers and mischievously smiles.
“What a creep,” he says, “where’s the motel?”
Laura grumbles and shoves the map at him. She crosses her arms and feels the wetness in her socks from roaming out in the wilderness. Max frowns and picks up the map from in-between the cup holder, where it fell. Slouching down, Laura says nothing. Max puts the car into drive. He starts to steer but the cop car whooshes past.
“Bastard,” she snarls.
“I see that went well,” he says.
“Thanks for your help by the way,” she retorts.
“He liked you better anyways,” Max shrugs, “you know me, I get stressed, I bail.”
“You? Stressed? Never,” she says flirtatiously.
Max presses his foot lightly on the break and studies the map as Laura watches. She smiles a bit as his eyes go crossed trying to find the road.
“You don’t know how to read it do you?”
“I know what I’m doing,” he says.
Laura waits, watching his face get contorted and then easing up.
“Oh I see, it’s by Old Mill Drive. We passed by there earlier,” Max says.
Laura leans over his shoulder and immediately notices that he has the map upside down. She smiles and holds her hand out, waiting for him to give her the map. He frowns and gives it to her with a pout.
“I don’t understand why they can’t just tell you where to go, this is unintelligible. It’s like gibberish.”
“It’s fine Max, I’m the navigator for a reason,” she says looking down at the map, “OK. Keep going straight until we get to the stop sign.”
Max sighs and presses on the gas, they drive down the old country road for several miles. The green trees illuminated by the large full moon. Gently, Max rubs his hand on Laura’s thigh. She looks tenderly up at him and suddenly there’s a snag in her throat.
“Sorry for being a jerk back there.”
“It’s ok,” he says.
“No, no, it’s not Max I treated you like crap. I’m sorry, seriously.”
Max is quiet for a moment, before nodding in a rigid, uncomfortable way.
“I forgive you,” he says, as though straining.
Laura presses her hand against her chest, thinking about the letter she found in his bag. About college. She wonders if she should say anything. How could she tell him she had been sneaking through his bag? How could he not have told her about not getting into college? It was too late at night to be thinking about this kind of thing. Sighing, she leans back into the seat and closes her eyes.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Laura lies, “just tired.”
Max seems to understand, even though he doesn’t answer. It takes about twenty minutes to make it to the motel. It’s an old, decrepit thing, just the kind of motel you’d expect to see out in the middle of nowhere. Laura goes to open the door but pauses when a thought comes into her mind.
“How are we going to pay for this?” Laura asks.
“We’ll put it on the card, no problem.”
Laura sighs, “you know how much I hate that you do that Max.”
“Well, what choice have we got Laura?”
She shrugs and looks out at the neon white lights with the half working sign. MOTEL. This place was at least 50 years old. If not older. If one thing was for sure, it had never been renovated. Ever. It looked like the walls probably were filled with mold, and that was in the dark. Sighing, Laura opens the door and goes to the back to help Max unload the bags. Her throat catches as she sees the letter in Max’s backpack.
“What?” he asks, “you still spooked? It was probably just a deer or something.”
Laura nods, “yeah, yeah you’re right.”
They carry the bags into the big building that says LOBBY. The L, B and Y don’t work so it really says LOB. Laura remembers people taking pictures of signs that had lights missing that said some random hilarious thing. She didn’t think LOB would be that amusing to anyone though.
Max and Laura place the bags on the old carpeted floor. Looking around, the place is the definition of a time capsule. Everything appears as though it was from the late 50s, maybe early 60s. Max walks towards the desk, which is also carpeted. There’s a piece of plastic that hangs down from the ceiling to the top of the desk. It looks pretty flimsy, and is even cracking in certain places. He gazes behind the desk, into the backroom. When he sees no one is there, he rings the silver bell twice. A moment passes, and then an older man with a hunch walks out.
“Sorry about that,” he laughs, “I wasn't expecting anyone else tonight. You want a room? I got plenty.”
Not understanding what was funny, Max forces a smile. He passes the card to the man.
“Yeah, for two. A queen is fine, or whatever you have honestly.”
“That’ll be 45. Oh…”
He looks at the card and frowns. Tapping his tongue to the top of his mouth he exhales deeply. The wrinkles around his eyes deepen as he looks up at Max.
“We don’t take plastic, sorry. Cash only.”
Max’s jaw drops, and Laura interjects. She places her hand on Max’s chest and with an angry glare she scoffs.
“Are you kidding me?”
“No ma’am I never kid. Cash only. I’m sorry we aren’t that technologic savvy out here. If you want to pay with a card, stay in the city.”
“I see why you weren’t expecting anyone,” Laura snarls.
“Now, honey…” Max starts.
“We should’ve just kept looking for Hackett’s Quarry,” she sighs.
This piques the man’s interest, he leans over the counter, his face almost touching the plastic. He leaves a few breath marks on the inside.
“Hackett’s Quarry?” he asks, “Oh I see. You must be Chris's camp counselors.”
“Yeah and?” Laura asks.
“You know that doesn’t start until tomorrow right?”
“We are acutely aware,” Laura replies, “we need a place to stay until camp starts tomorrow, thanks to some stupid c–”
“We can give you some of our pay, I’m sure Mr. Hackett would be fine with that right?”
The man looks at the two of them curiously, and rubs the back of his neck.
“I don’t know, I don’t usually do ‘I owe yous’ for out of towners…but for the Hackett’s…I suppose I can make an exception.”
“Thanks, we are really tired and I really don’t want to drive anymore. It’s been such a long day with us getting lost and stuff I’m sure you understand I bet you deal with that kind of thing all the time,” Max rambles.
The man slides a key underneath the plastic and Max grabs it with his hand, feeling the metal between his fingers. He smiles and turns to Laura, but she doesn’t seem very happy. The two of them begin towards the door.
“Room 12,” the man says, “it’s on the bottom floor.”
They leave and begin walking down the long concrete slab. Counting the doors until they get to number 12. Max slides the key into the door and it clicks open. Laura reaches inside the room until she finds a light switch. She pulls it up and suddenly there is a blinding light. Her and Max glance around the room as a huge moth flies out at them.
“Oh my god…”
“What a dump.”