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CHAPTER 22
Cash
Abell dinged above me as I pushed my way into the tiny lobby of Snooze Lodge. I was dripping from head to toe and my sneakers squeaked as I made my way across the dingy linoleum flooring that was peeling at the edges. When I reached the counter, I rang the tiny silver bell sitting in the center and waited. Nothing.
“Hello!” I called out.
Again, nothing.
“Hello!” I yelled louder.
The overhead florescent lighting flickered above me. I felt like I’d walked onto the set of a horror film. I was beginning to think that Cheyenne must’ve looked up a different Snooze Lodge because this place did not look like it had a two-star rating much less four and a half on Yelp. I would walk out now but I didn’t have a lot of choices. There was no way I was going to get back on the road, so it was either, get a room or ride out the storm in the truck.
I leaned over the counter. “Hello!”
“Hold your horses! I’m comin’!”
A man with a Bud Light trucker hat, a T-shirt that might’ve been white at one time but was now a dingy yellow, and overalls that looked like they were hanging on by a thread shuffled up to the counter. He was as round as he was tall and had a white beard that fell to the middle of his chest and he had a toothpick sticking out of his mouth.
“Hi. Do you have any vacancies?” As I spoke there was a flash of light followed closely by a crack of thunder.
I hoped that Cheyenne was okay in the truck. Thinking of her being scared last night at my mom’s made me sick. I’d almost gone up to check on her the night before and after hearing that she’d been scared I’d wished I had. Hearing that she’d almost come down to the basement had made all sorts of fantasies pop into my head.
“Boy, oh boy, sounds like the devil is bowling out there.”
“He is,” I agreed. “Can I get a room with two queens?”
“Whoa, slow down, son. Alright, now let’s see.” Using only one finger the man typed on the beige IBM computer that looked like it was straight out of the ’90s. It might have been the first model ever made.
After a few minutes, he squinted at the screen. “I don’t have two queens available, but I can put you in a king.”
“Great.” I doubted that we’d be staying the night. Hopefully we’d just be here until the storm passed and then we’d be on our way when it was safe to drive again.
“You payin’ with cash or a card?”
“A card.” I pulled out my wallet and handed him my Visa.
He looked at it and chuckled. “Name’s Cash but you’re payin’ with a card.”
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that.
“Fred.” He pointed to the name tag that was covered by his scraggly beard. “Good to meet ya.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Fred set the Visa in a manual credit card imprinter, put the charge slip over it and slid the arm across the top. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen one of those. I felt like I’d stepped back in time.
After I signed the slip Fred handed me a key. “You’re gonna be in room 104. Check out is at eleven and we have movies that you can rent.” He pointed to a stack of VHS tapes that included The Money Pit, The Last Starfighter, Lady and the Tramp, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I honestly felt like I’d stepped into Bill and Ted’s phone booth and gone back in time.
“Thank you, Fred.” I waved as I grabbed my card off the counter.
I had to put my shoulder into it as I pushed open the door against the wind slamming against it. The rain was still coming down in buckets and I got soaked once again in just the few steps it took to climb into my truck.
“Is everything okay?” Cheyenne asked. “You were gone a while.”
“Yeah, I don’t think the Snooze Lodge has caught up with the twentieth century yet.”
She smiled, and it warmed me from the inside out like a shot of whiskey. My body tingled from the effect, but I did my best to ignore it as I told her, “We’re down at the end.”
