They
crept along, eye-weary, back-weary and bone-weary. They’d been driving for over an hour and they
had not seen another car, road sign, house or town.
“Okay, I’m freakin’ out,” Megan said. “I mean, if we don’t see some sign of life in
the next few minutes, I am going to freak out!”
“Let’s try to stay calm.”
“I wonder if this is instant karma,” Jackie
said, her shoulders stooped, eyes darting about nervously.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, how we got this car. I know you lied to that man back there. I
know it. Your mother doesn’t need medication, and now we are being punished.”
“Don’t blame me,” Megan said. “If it hadn’t been for me, we wouldn’t have
gotten the car in the first place.”
“And I wouldn’t be out in the middle of freakin’
nowhere!”
“Look, don’t start something you can’t finish,”
Megan said.
“I just can’t believe you lied to him.”
“Stop it! Okay?
Maybe I feel bad about it.”
Jackie was sweating. “I doubt it, and that was a nasty thing to
do. I mean that was just wrong. He was so nice to you and you just lied to
him. And, it’s Christmas.”
“I said, stop it!” Megan said.
“I thought there was something funny about the
way you acted when he shook your hand,” Jackie said.
“Jackie, that’s enough. Just let it go! While we’re arguing we could be passing a
house or motel. I don’t see anything but
this blinding snow.”
The wind howled like a wild animal, and snow
blew across the road, piling into drifts against the base of trees.
“How far have we gone so far?” Megan asked.
“I don’t know.
Maybe 40 or 50 miles.”
Megan blew out an audible sigh. “I feel like I’m in a snow globe and some
crazy kid just keeps shaking it.”
“Dramatic,” Jackie said.
“Scared,” Megan shot back.
Megan thought she saw a sign ahead, caked in
snow and leaning precariously to the right, as if a burst of wind would blow it
down.
“Jackie, stop!
Look. I think there’s a sign over
there. See it?”
Jackie slowed, saw the sign and stopped. “God, I
hope it tells us where we are.”
Megan struggled into her coat and gloves and
pulled on her hat. She shoved the door
open, braced against the wind, and got out.
Snow lashed at her face and she turned away, protecting her face with
her hand. She trudged through nearly a
foot of snow until she reached the sign, illuminated by the car beams. With her right hand, she brushed snow from
the sign, little by little, until she was able to read HOLLY and then GROVE 1
MILE. A little black arrow pointed
right. Megan looked right, shading her
eyes, and peered into the distance. She
saw something. She saw the shadow of a
covered bridge, looming out in the blur of snow. That must be it. The town was across the bridge. Energized, she whirled, stomped back to the
car and got in.
She was breathing rapidly. “It’s wild out there,” she said,
shivering. “There’s a bridge just
ahead. Holly Grove is about a mile
away.”
“Sounds quaint,” Jackie said. “I hope they have a motel and an all-night
restaurant.”
Jackie drove toward the bridge, the narrow road
to the bridge looking dark and foreboding.
“Wait a minute, Jackie.”
Jackie paused before making the turn. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
“I don’t know.
I just hate to leave the main road.”
“Megan, across that bridge is a town. We have passed absolutely nothing on this
‘so-called’ main road. Please, let’s
just get across the bridge and spend the night in Holly Grove.”
Megan nodded, still reluctant.
Jackie made the turn. But at the threshold of the bridge, Megan
called out again.
“Stop!”
Jackie hit the brakes again, irritated. “Megan, what?”
Megan stared at the bridge. It wasn’t a large bridge, probably no more
than 90 feet across a rocky stream, but something gnawed away at her, some
ineffable feeling of danger that she couldn’t put her finger on.
“Megan?” Jackie said, seeing a far-away look in
Megan’s eyes. “What are we waiting for?”
“Okay, okay...It’s just that...”
“What?”
“Forget it.”
Jackie nudged the car forward and it rattled
across the bridge. The two girls held
their breath in the cave-like interior, darkness swallowing them, the wind
screaming through the cracks all around them.
When they finally exited on the other side, they
released trapped air from their lungs.
“Wow, that gave me the creeps,” Megan said.
Jackie looked about uneasily. “What a freaky night this is.”
They passed through a gray and white shroud of
blowing snow. Suddenly, as if a curtain
were being drawn from both sides of a stage, a gust of wind passed over the car
and blew the snow away.
Jackie stopped the car. The girls looked at each other, then blinked
around in astonished wonder.
“What happened?” Megan asked.
Jackie was speechless.
There was snow on the ground, but only two or
three inches. There was no sound of
wind, no blowing snow, just a few gentle flurries. The whispering sound of the windshield wipers
was loud in the sudden silence and Jackie switched them off. They sat there, staring. Jackie rolled down the window and felt a cool,
intoxicating breeze on her face. She
looked up into the sky and saw a few stars and a ghostly near-full moon
swimming over the top of a distant shadowy mountain.
Megan opened the door and stepped out, without
hat or gloves. She turned in a circle,
smelling fresh pine, hearing the splashing stream they’d just crossed. It was quiet, a deep satisfying quiet that
relaxed her. She took an easy breath and
smiled.
“Jackie... it’s beautiful,” she said, as she
held out her hand to catch a few random snowflakes.
Jackie stepped out. It was still cold, but not a punishing
cold. There was a softness in the
air. Megan looked at Jackie, her brows
raised in query. She shrugged. Jackie shrugged. It was as though they were suddenly watching
the world at a slower movie projector speed.
Jackie saw a glow, just ahead, advancing toward
them. She pointed, excited. “Megan,
look! A light or something, up ahead.”
Megan turned.
“Yes! What is it?”
Through the smoky cloud of fog, two glowing headlights
slowly approached.
“It’s a car!
Megan, it’s a car. Let’s wave it
down. Hurry!”
Framed in the headlights, the girls walked to
the front of the car, and waved, using both arms. The car began to slow to a stop.
Megan gave Jackie the thumb’s up. Jackie stayed back, but Megan moved toward
the stopped car as the driver’s window rolled half way down. Megan drew up along side and looked in to see
an elderly man, with wary, watery eyes peering up at her.
White vapor puffed from her mouth as she
spoke. “Hi there. Thank God you came by. We’re lost and we haven’t seen anything or
anybody for miles.”
The man didn’t blink. He just stared. He stared at Megan. He stared at Jackie. He stared at their car.
Megan noticed his car. It was old—a very old black car—dusted with
snow. She noticed the running board and
heavy fenders. It looked like something
out of the Bonnie and Clyde movie her
father repeatedly watched.
Megan was actually looking at a 1934 Ford Tudor
Sedan, two-door body.
“Can you help us?” Megan asked.
“Well, what do you want me to do?” he barked.
“We were trying to get to Portland and we must
have missed the turn-off somewhere back.”
“I’ll say you did. You’re a good 30 miles away from it. You’re going in the wrong direction.”
“We haven’t seen a motel or anything. Is there somewhere we can spend the night?”
He kept looking at her strangely, then he stared
at Jackie again, and then at their car.
“What is that?”
Megan followed his eyes. “What? Our car?”
“Yeah.
What is that?”
“It’s our car.”
He shook his head. “Dang, I ain’t never seen a car like that
before. What is it?”
“It’s a Ford.
A Ford Fusion Hybrid.”
“A what!?” he asked, pinching up his face and
cupping his ear with his hand. “What did
you say it was?”
“It’s a Ford.
Can you please tell me where the nearest town or motel is?”
He couldn’t pull his eyes from the car. “Ain’t never seen anything like that.”
“Sir, please!
We are very tired and very hungry.”
He looked at her again and jerked a thumb behind
him. “Holly Grove is about a mile up the
road.”
He rolled up his window, threw the car in gear
and plodded off. Jackie waved. As he passed the Ford Fusion, his eyes bulged
wildly, face blank with shock. He
pressed down on the accelerator, hurrying off into the night.
Megan strolled back to Jackie.
“What did he say?” Jackie asked.
“Well, I guess he’s never seen a hybrid before.”
They got back into the car and continued on into
the uncertain night, straining every muscle to see the town. Moments later, they came to some railroad
tracks, bumped across them and saw a white sign with black letters that read
WELCOME TO HOLLY GROVE VERMONT
POP 5,400
“That’s what I call a small town,” Megan
said.
“What time is it?” Jackie asked.
Megan checked her phone. It was still dead. She looked at her watch. “Nine forty.”
They crested a little hill and entered the quiet
town along Main Street. The first thing
they saw was a billboard sign. It loomed
large over a low dark warehouse. There was a large picture of a white pack of Wrigley’s
Spearmint gum over a bright green mint leaf.
The advertisement read: SPEARMINT HAS GONE TO WAR.
Jackie said, “What’s that all
about?”
They passed 19th century brick
storefronts, a post office, a pawn shop and a barber shop, with a Christmas
wreath hanging inside its window. All
the signs were turned off. They saw
Dandy’s Market and Dot’s Café. Plastered
on the red brick face of Dandy’s Market were soda signs: Coca-Cola, Orange
Crush and Royal Crown Cola. They also
noticed a large poster with the photograph of a cute boy about 5 years old,
with ruffled brown hair and a pleading, sorrowful expression. He wore a white shirt, and had a little blue
ribbon and medal around his neck. He was
holding a toy car. Below the photo it
read:
HE KNOWS WHY
THIS CHRISTMAS
ALL OF US SHOULD GIVE WAR BONDS
That struck the girls as odd, but their attention was drawn to the
deserted streets. The town must have shut down for the night, they thought. What struck them as particularly strange were
the cars parked at an angle by the curb.
They were all old, as old as the one that had stopped back up the road,
and they looked bulky, blocky and heavy.
“I’ve seen cars like this in those
silent movies. Those Charlie Chaplin
movies,” Megan said.
“Those two pickup trucks are
definitely vintage. This town must be
poor,” Jackie said.
Jackie and Megan were processing this as they
drove by the town square, with its tall stately Christmas tree, elaborate manger
scene, and old redbrick courthouse with a white-faced Roman numeral clock
tower.
At the Gulf gas station, Jackie slowed down as
they took in the two obelisk-type antique looking pumps. They saw a sign that said GAS 14 CENTS A
GALLON. Next to that was another sign
written by hand. NO GAS.
The pump on the left had rolling type numbers,
and the one on the right had a clock face, showing a dial-type gas meter.
Megan read a stand-alone sign near the entrance.
GET IN THE SCRAP
OFFICIAL RUBBER COLLECTION DEPOT
Jackie’s face fell into perplexity. “What’s
going on here? A gallon of gas for 14
cents?”
“The whole town looks like some kind of old
movie or something,” Megan said. “And
there’s nobody around. This place is
giving me the creeps.”
“We’ve got to find a place to stay,” Jackie
said. “I am absolutely exhausted.”
“I’m so
hungry,” Megan said, hearing her stomach growl.
“I’d love a Katz’s Corned Beef
sandwich.”
“Oh, God, they are so
good, aren’t they? How much are those
now?”
“15.95.”
“Really?”
“It’s worth it.”
They saw Green’s
Drugstore and John’s General Store, with a 6-foot Christmas tree outside. Just then, a young man about 15 or 16 stepped
out of Green’s Drugstore, carrying several little brown bags. When he saw them, he froze in utter shock,
his eyes bulging, mouth open. He
actually did a double-take.
Jackie stopped, and
Megan rolled down her window and waved at him.
“Hello there,” Megan
said.
The boy was
rigid. Then he trembled.
“Is there a hotel or
motel or Bed & Breakfast nearby?” Megan asked.
The boy swallowed,
whipped his head about, as if calculating the best route for escape, and then
bolted away right. He found a narrow
alley, skidded on his heels, and disappeared.
Megan turned in a slow
confusion, facing Jackie. Jackie lifted
a puzzled eyebrow. “What was that all
about?”
Megan lowered the sun
visor and examined herself in the little mirror. “I know I’m tired, but do I
look that bad?”
Jackie massaged her temples.
“This has been the strangest trip I have ever taken. Let’s just try to find someplace to eat and
sleep and forget this crazy little excursion ever happened.”
They drove on toward the outskirts of town, passing
THE GROVE movie theatre. The movie marquis
displayed GIRL CRAZY, starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.
“I saw that on TCM a
few months ago,” Megan said.
Jackie stared,
darkly. “There is something going on,
Megan. Something... weird.”
After the movie
theatre, they spotted The Grove Hotel, but it was closed. Fighting fatigue and despair, they turned off
Main Street onto Maple Street, a quiet tree-lined street with neat framed houses, and
the occasional vintage automobile parked in the driveway or along the deserted
street.
“I just can’t get over all these old cars,”
Megan said. “They look like something
out of those old gangster movies.”
“Will you stop it with the old cars, Megan? Please?
Find us someplace to stay. If our
stupid phones worked, we could have found something by now. What the hell is the matter with this
place? I am going to go out of my mind
if we don’t find some place to stay, and soon.”
“Okay, okay, calm down. Let’s stay positive,” Megan said.
“To hell with positive!” Jackie shouted. “I need something to eat, and something to
eat now! I am going to lose it!”
“Do you want me to drive?”
“No! I do
not want you to drive. I want you to
find us a place to eat.”
Megan spotted something. “Jackie!
Stop. Look over there.”
Jackie slammed on the brakes and they rocked forward,
Megan’s hands braced against the
dashboard.
Jackie followed
Megan’s pointing finger to a modest two-story house, with a white fence
surrounding a little yard. Above the
porch, hanging by two thin chains, was a sign that said BOARDING HOUSE. It was swinging easily in the modest breeze.
“The sign on the porch
says boarding house,” Megan said, excited.
Jackie crouched and
looked. “Are there any lights on?”
“I don’t care. Let’s try it.”
Jackie parked at the
curb, killed the engine, and the two girls snatched their coats and got
out. Jackie led the way, with energy and
purpose. She crossed the sidewalk, released
the latch on the white gate and marched up the walkway, mounting the three
concrete stairs to the door, where a Christmas wreath was hanging from
inside. Megan arrived, and both shaded
their eyes, peering inside through the square glass that was covered by a white
laced curtain.
“I see a light on in a
back room,” Jackie said.
Megan noticed
something hanging in the picture window.
She stepped over to examine it.
It was a blue star on a small red cloth banner. She shrugged and joined Jackie.
Jackie gently pressed
the doorbell. They heard a soft DING
DONG. They waited, anxiously, taking in
the silent neighborhood. There were no
lights on anywhere and it was very dark.
“No action in this
town,” Megan said. “It reminds me of a
town in Indiana where I did summer stock a few years ago. Two months there seemed like two years.”
The front room light
flickered on, not the porch light. The
girls inhaled hopeful breaths. They saw
an elderly woman draw back the lace curtain and peek out. The girls gave her their friendliest smiles.
A moment later, the
door opened, but only a couple of inches.
“Hello,” Jackie said,
brightly. “Can you help us?”
The door opened a
little wider. She was a small, thin
woman and a bit stooped. Her white hair
was up in a bun and she wore a long gray nightgown. Peering out from the granny spectacles on
the end of her nose, she looked at them
slowly and carefully. “What do you
want?”
“Please...” Jackie said.
“We have been traveling for hours and hours and we are so tired and
hungry. Do you have room for us?”
The woman hesitated,
then opened the door fully. Her eyes
widened as she studied them, up and down.
“It’s late. Why are you out so
late?”
“We got lost. We were trying to get to Portland.”
“Portland? That’s hours away. You would have run out of gas. There’s no gas anywhere. Did you get it on the black market? I don’t take people who cheat. I’ve got a grandson fighting in Italy.”
Megan and Jackie
exchanged mystified glances. Both were
thinking, “Is this woman nuts?”
Then Megan recalled
how she’d lied about her mother and the medication so she could get the
car. She had cheated. Megan gave Jackie a coy glance.
Jackie said, “No
ma’am, we don’t cheat. We just want a
room. Please.”
“I only have one, with
one double bed. The other two rooms are
occupied with regulars.”
“That’s fine,” Jackie
said. “One room is fine.”
The woman was
conflicted. “This is very unusual. I only take in people I know or who are
referred to me. How many nights are you
wanting to stay?”
“Just tonight,” Megan
said, twisting her cold hands.
“Please. We are so tired.”
The woman stepped
aside, let them in and then closed the door.
“My name is Aunt
Betty. May I know your names?”
“I’m Jackie Young and
this is Megan...” Jackie looked at Megan, forgetting her last name.
“Jennings. Megan Jennings.”
“Well, that’ll be a
dollar each for the night and 35 cents each for breakfast. If you want something to eat tonight that’ll
cost you 50 cents. I was going off to
bed, but I’ll put something out for you.”
Megan stared into
Jackie’s uncertain eyes.
“You mean one single
dollar each?” Jackie asked.
“That’s a fair price,”
Aunt Betty said, a little defensively.
“Oh, yes, that’s very
fair,” Megan said, quickly. “That’s
fine, Aunt Betty. And we’d love
something to eat. We don’t want to put
you out. Anything that’s easy.”
“You get your things
then and I’ll take out some cold chicken, apple pie and bread. I hope that’ll do.”
The girls smiled,
gratefully. “That sounds wonderful,”
Jackie said.
After Aunt Betty
padded off toward the kitchen, the girls took in the surroundings.
The living room seemed
from another world. It was a simple
square room, with a mantel, hearth and several seascapes set in gilded frames.
The mantel held a manger scene, some holly surrounding it, and a white candle
in the center. Next to that were simply
framed black and white photos of what must have been family. There was a meager 3-foot Christmas tree,
garlanded, with ornaments but no Christmas lights.
The room was clean enough, but both women
noticed that the white paint had yellowed and the rose wallpaper was faded,
with some damp spots. They saw floral Victorian antique lamps with opaque glass stems, hand-painted with roses
or white and yellow flowers.
They stood on a thin, patterned floral carpet
and first heard, and then saw, an old grandfather’s clock standing resolutely
in the corner. Its tick tock was steady
and loud in the muted silence. A solid
wood console radio, with a lighted dial, seemed to dominate the room, much as a
TV would, but neither Jackie nor Megan saw a TV.
The furniture was simple and heavy, the couch
and chair upholstered in solid fabrics, the couch looking worn but comfortable,
and the broad arm chair sunken and looking dejected.
Jackie sensed something was wrong, but she was too
hungry and tired to care. Megan glanced
about, feeling strangely out of place and time.
There was a quality of light and energy around them that neither had
ever experienced before, and it was unsettling.
There was a growing, uncomfortable sensation that they had become
lost—very lost.
