Chapter Thirteen #2
At the end of my shift, I get in my car. It’s just after five p.m. and I cling to the wheel.
I don’t really want to go back to my empty apartment. The one I’m going to be kicked out of soon.
You could drive to Rapture, a little voice says in my head. I sit for a moment. Stare out of the window.
I’m twenty-three. I should be out having fun. Spending money like there’s no tomorrow. Except I can’t earn any.
I don’t want to live with my stepmother, so it seems increasingly likely that I’ll have to return to England and try and find a job.
Say goodbye to Canyon. A place that I used to despise, but recently, I’ve grown increasingly fond of.
I’ve realized that people like me more when I’m myself, and don’t try and fit in with everything that’s American.
I want to go to Scotch & Smoke tomorrow night. And maybe it’s with the hope of colliding with AJ again, but it’s also because, if I have to leave, I want to make the most of the time that I have left.
I switch on the engine.
This time, on the road out to Rapture, I can better see where I’m going.
I sail past the faded billboard from the real estate developer, past the signs that say the police aren’t welcome.
Long grass peppered with wild poppies lines the broken road and stetches for miles on both sides, pale and arid.
When Rapture comes into view, my heart starts to thud. I think about what I would say to AJ if I saw him again. What if they grant me a wristband, and then he was there tomorrow night? Could I be brave enough to ask him to have a drink with me?
Given my track record, I doubt that.
When I enter Rapture, there are a few people around.
A few of the stores are open, but the entire place still feels like a ghost town, patched up with corrugated iron and crumbling at the seams. I head to the empty lot outside Scotch & Smoke.
The last time I was here, it was pitch dark.
There are some cars and a line of motorcycles outside the entrance, the ground beneath my feet hard and cracked.
I get out, close the car door behind me. Put my hands on my hips.
I look up at the sign for Scotch & Smoke. I recognize the same older man who spoke to me the night I came to find AJ, only now he’s asleep in a chair on the porch with his feet up, a black cowboy hat lined with what looks like crocodiles’ teeth covering his eyes.
I approach the stairs. Play with my fingernails then clear my throat.
After a moment, he raises his hat. ‘Help you?’
‘Hello. I, uh, came to ask about a wristband for tomorrow night.’
‘Sorry, honey. We’re all out. Come back next week.’
He tilts his hat forward again. I find myself backing away toward my car. A little voice says ask to speak to Echo.
I get back to my car door, my fingers hovering over the handle. Then I turn back, raise my voice a little.
‘Would it be possible to talk to Echo, please?’ I ask.
Once more, the man lifts his hat. He gives me a hard stare, then takes his feet off the box they’re resting on. ‘Echo don’t talk to just anybody.’
I walk back to the foot of the stairs. ‘Is he here?’
He looks me up and down. His eyes narrow. ‘Who wants to know?’
I swallow. ‘My name is Hollie Palmer. The mayor of Canyon is my stepmother.’
He put his hands on his knees, gets to his feet, then looks me up and down one more time. My heart begins to thud again. ‘You best come inside,’ he says.
I offer him a hopeful smile, but he’s not friendly. I climb the steps. He opens the door to the bar, and I follow him inside. Somewhere near the back, I can hear the clacking of balls: a game of pool being played. Unlike last time, there’s no music playing. It feels almost peaceful.
The man leads me off to the right, through a door marked ‘Only Team’. For a split second, I wonder why the words aren’t the other way around. In a darkened corridor, I’m led to a second door. On it, in black Sharpie, is scrawled Mayor of Rapture.
The man taps twice on the surface.
A deep voice comes from the other side. ‘Yeah.’
‘Wait here,’ the man grunts at me.
He goes inside. The door is slammed in my face.
I wait while I hear the muffled exchange of the two men’s voices. My heart thumps even harder.
The door opens. The man in the cowboy hat stands there, facing me. He raises his chin a fraction, indicating I should go inside.
The little voice says, it’s too late to back out now, so I enter.
A moment later, the door closes again behind me, and the man in the cowboy hat is gone.
‘Don’t mind him,’ Echo Salinger says from behind his desk.
I take in my surroundings. The desk is solid, made of old wood.
Like the rest of this saloon bar, there’s nothing modern about it.
The most modern thing in here is the miniature rotary fan that sits on one corner of the desk, blowing out air and making a low buzzing sound.
Echo sits in a wheel-back chair, also made of wood.
He’s a man of substantial build, wearing a black Guns N’ Roses tank top that stretches over his rounded stomach, revealing all his tattoos.
I note an inked scorpion’s tail poking out from the edge of the tank top, in the same position as AJ’s, over his heart.
His shoulder-length curly gray hair hangs loose about his shoulders, but on his head is a black bandana.
In contrast, perhaps, he wears a pair of half-moon spectacles, which he removes.
I look down. There’s a cheap gold and black embossed name plate at the front of the desk that reads, ‘Mayor’. Maybe it’s meant to be a joke.
He sees me looking. ‘I’m guessing you ain’t here with a message from your stepmom,’ he says casually.
‘Definitely not.’
He signals to a chair in front of his desk with the arm of his spectacles. ‘Good. Have a seat.’
I do as I’m told. He eyeballs me for a moment.
‘AJ told me what you did,’ he states, linking his fingers together and resting them over his belly.
My eyes widen. I was not expecting to hear that. ‘Oh,’ I say.
He sucks air through his teeth. ‘Wasn’t thrilled to hear he left you in Roswell. Told him that’s no way to treat a lady.’
I pinch my lips together. ‘I was okay. I didn’t get lost on my way back to Canyon. And my crappy car survived the journey.’
‘Still,’ he says, drawing his brows together. ‘Chewed him out for it. He should have been honest with me in the first instance. Told me you were going with him.’
I lower my eyes to my lap.
‘Thank you,’ Echo says. ‘For doing what you did. AJ seems to think he can trust you not to say anything to your stepmom.’
‘I would never breathe a word to her, I swear,’ I say.
Perhaps it’s the emphatic nature of my tone that makes him smile. ‘Lester said you came asking about a wristband.’
‘Oh,’ I exclaim, feeling warmth spreading upwards from the base of my neck. ‘It was only if you had any left. The man outside… Lester… he said you didn’t have any, so that’s fine.’
Echo reaches down, pulls out a drawer. He takes out a blue wristband and places it on the desk in front of me.
‘In future, you don’t need to ask for one. Though, just know, I don’t want trouble. I can’t have Evelyn Wallace breathing down my neck more than she already is, because her stepdaughter’s coming out to Rapture, looking to have some fun.’
I pick up the wristband. ‘I promise I’ll keep a low profile.’
‘AJ know you’ll be comin’ by?’
‘Uh, no. I, um. No. I haven’t spoken to him since he left me in Roswell.’
‘Well, I hope that when you do see him, he’ll offer you an apology.’
More heat floods my cheeks. ‘Thank you for the wristband.’
Echo leans back in his chair. ‘You’re welcome. See you tomorrow night.’
When I leave, I make my way through the darkened corridor, back the way I came.
Excitement rushes through me at the thought of coming back here tomorrow night.
Out in the main bar, I initially can’t see anyone.
Heading toward the main door, I once more hear the clack of pool balls.
Glancing to my right, over the saloon doors, I glimpse the two pool tables, right at the end, past the main bar.
I recognize the man I see there. None other than the ringleader of my high school bullies.
Chase Brennan.
And so, once more, I flee Scotch & Smoke.