6. Jess
By the time they pulled up at the motel in Fayetteville, it was dark and they were both ravenous.
In retrospect, snacks for lunch probably hadn’t been the best idea. But at least they’d managed to get around the Washington beltway before rush hour really kicked in. Now that they had arrived at the motel, Jess was eager to check in and walk over to the diner across the street for a sit-down meal.
“What is this?” Glory asked, wrinkling her nose as Jess took a spot close to the front office.
“It’s a motel,” Jess said. “We have to sleep someplace.”
She had broken the news about the length of the journey in the afternoon. Glory had been appropriately horrified, but taken it in good stride, though she pointed out that if she had her phone, she could have put in directions herself.
“It looks like something out of a horror movie,” Glory decided. “Can’t we go to a real hotel?”
It hit Jess all at once that Glory had never stayed in a normal roadside motel. Silas liked to travel in comfort, so high-rise suites were Glory’s only experience with life away from home.
“Most people go to hotels just like this one, Glory,” Jess told her. “And now we do too. I won’t be able to afford luxury on my own. And this is more fun anyway.”
“How can it possibly be more fun?” Glory asked. “Do they have cockroach races or something?”
“Oh, you’ll see,” Jess said, praying for a miracle as they got out and headed into the office. Surely, something about this would be fun.
They were greeted by an older lady who sat behind the counter with her knitting.
“How can I help y’all?” she asked politely.
Only a few hours in, and they were already hearing that familiar southern twang. Jess had always found it friendly and comforting.
“We’d love a room for the night,” Jess said.
“Well, you’re in luck,” the lady told her. “We’ve got a nice double with a view of the pool in back. Pool is out of service though, just so you know.”
“Thank you,” Jess said. “That sounds nice. How’s the diner across the street?”
“Oh, it’s great,” the lady told her. “The smoked brisket is the best, but there’s a nice pulled pork sandwich, too. Tell ‘em Gert sent you. They give a five percent discount to my guests.”
The mention of the traditional down-home food had Jess’s stomach grumbling.
“Thank you so much, Gert. We’ll do that,” Jess told her gratefully.
Gert rang her up and handed her a key on a plastic chain.
“Go left out the door and it’s the next to last room on the left,” she said. “Call me up if you need anything.”
Jess thanked her, and turned to see Glory studying a painting of a tree-lined downtown with people window-shopping.
“That’s downtown Fayetteville,” Gert said. “Young man in town does those paintings, if you like it.”
“Thank you,” Glory said politely. “It’s really pretty.”
Jess felt a bloom of pride that Glory had found something beautiful and something nice to say about it in the otherwise drab motel office.
“Hungry?” she asked.
“Starving,” Glory said.
“Let’s just get our stuff in the room, and we’ll head over to the diner for some dinner,” Jess said.
They grabbed their overnight bags from the car, and Jess used the key to open the room.
“Wow. An actual key,” Glory said. “No card.”
“Less to go wrong that way,” Jess said, pushing the door open.
The room wasn’t bad. The carpet was a sensible mud-brown and the decor was decidedly seventies.
But the beds were big, there was a nice table with two chairs, plenty of outlets, and best of all, it looked and smelled clean.
“Okayyyyyy,” Glory said, looking around. “Is this retro, or just old?”
“No reason it can’t be both,” Jess said, guessing it was probably redecorated sometime in the nineties, when there had been a bit of resurgence in the seventies style. “Which bed do you want?”
“This one,” Glory said, choosing the one furthest from the door. “You know everyone can see us right through that window.”
“We’ll just close the curtain when we’re getting changed or ready for bed,” Jess told her.
Happily, Glory didn’t have any more observations. They got settled quickly and then headed out, carefully closing the curtains and locking the door behind them.
Walking across the street with Glory, Jess felt free as a bird. No one was waiting for them for anything. She had even given away all her volunteer shifts at the school and the library. And no one here knew her to judge her or feel sorry for her for her husband up and leaving. She was just another mom with a teenage daughter, sharing some bonding time.
“Welcome, welcome, I’m Sue,” the lady at the diner greeted them. “Girls’ night out, huh?”
“Yes,” Glory said, smiling brightly.
“Well, I hope you’re hungry,” Sue told her. “We’ve got all the specials tonight on account of the owner’s mom’s birthday. And be sure and save a little room for dessert, because you’ll get a slice of birthday cake on the house in her honor.”
“Thanks so much, Sue,” Jess said. “Gert from the motel across the street sent us. She said the brisket is the best.”
“She’s not wrong,” Sue laughed. “And I’ll make sure y’all get our motel-friends discount.”
She showed them to a nice booth by the window and placed their menus in front of them.
“Specials are on the insert, but you can ignore the daily part,” she told them. “Like I said, we got ‘em all tonight.”
A few tables away, a beautifully dressed older lady Jess assumed was the owner’s mom was holding court with friends and family.
“That’s nice,” Glory said as Sue walked away.
“It is,” Jess agreed. “And it all looks so good. I wonder what we should get.”
“Breakfast for dinner,” Glory said. “Obviously.”
“I remember taking you to the Llanarch Diner when you were a baby,” Jess said fondly. “You loved your pancakes. I had to cut them up and feed them to you as fast as I could. If I fell behind, you would start wailing like a fire engine. The waitresses thought you were the cutest thing they ever saw.”
“Well, good thing I can cut them up myself now,” Glory said. “Look at this special.”
She pointed to the banana split pancakes served with banana, strawberries, and pineapple, with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry on top.
“That looks amazing,” Jess told her. “Get an egg and some bacon on the side, too. You need your protein.”
“I’ll just eat some of your brisket,” Glory said, rolling her eyes.
Jess laughed. She never managed to finish rich meals, but she always gave them her best try.
“We’ll see,” she teased. “I’m pretty hungry after eating chips and TastyKakes for lunch.”
They ordered, and Sue brought Glory a glass of ice water and a steaming cup of decaf for Jess.
“This is nice,” Glory said again, as Jess watched the creamer swirling into her cup.
“It is,” Jess said, looking up happily.
Maybe it was the fresh air and the feeling of escape, but she suspected that it was the break from their phones that was softening Glory to her and bringing them closer together. They had a no-phones-at-the-dinner-table policy at home, but it seemed to Jess that Glory was usually distracted and thinking about her phone, even when she didn’t have it on her.
Jess had begun her own self-imposed ban out of solidarity a few days ago, but she was finding that not constantly seeing the news on the neighborhood chats and bulletin boards kept her own mood much calmer.
And I’m not thinking it might be Silas every time the thing buzzes.
It was still hard not to wonder why he had left. None of her friends had heard anything about another woman, and he hadn’t said anything either.
But that’s what it always was, wasn’t it?
His younger brother Everett was also acting as his attorney. He was the one who had originally explained everything to Jess—that Silas was gone and wouldn’t be coming back. He’d shown her what was in the account that was hers to run the house on until they had a property settlement agreement.
Everett had offered no reasoning, no personal words from Silas, nothing at all to tell her why the man she’d loved for more than half her life was leaving.
She didn’t even know where he’d gone.
Everett was sympathetic, professional, and completely tight-lipped.
About two weeks after she’d gotten the news, in a bout of weakness that Jess wasn’t proud of, she’d called Everett late at night, weeping and begging for information—anything at all. But he’d told her the best thing she could do was forget about his brother and move on with her life. How she was supposed to do that, she had no idea. But this summer trip felt like a good first step.
Their food arrived quickly and was delicious, as promised.
As she and Glory ate, they talked comfortably about past trips, funny family stories, and all the things Glory wanted to do this summer.
And to her surprise and delight, Jess felt the first rays of hope begin to dawn somewhere deep inside her chest.