Vacancy
Fredric Shernoff
Whitemarsh Productions LLC
Copyright © 2019 by Whitemarsh Productions LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
To Anna and Evan
Chapter One
When Dylan looked back on it, the whole thing started with his baby brother Hunter’s stuffed bear. If Hunter hadn’t torn the poor fake creature apart in one of the manic bursts of destruction that afflict so many babies, then Dylan wouldn’t have found the store and everything that followed would never have happened. None of the intrigue. None of the terror. None of the death.
As it was, the bear (Mr. Cuddles, or “Cuds” in Hunter’s parlance) did get destroyed one Saturday morning in late June. The Merchant family was sitting around the breakfast table and Dylan was enjoying a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with almond milk. His mom and dad had been on an anti-dairy kick since around Dylan’s fourteenth birthday, and with his fifteenth now behind him he was starting to be a little suspicious at how so much milk was contained inside a nut.
Hunter was eighteen months old; a “surprise blessing” that had sent the Merchant household into a spiral of noise, dirty diapers and pureed food. Dylan enjoyed having a little sibling after so many years as the one and only child in the family, but some of those late-night crying fits weren’t so thrilling when he knew he had to pop up bright and early for high school the next morning.
“Anything exciting planned for today, Dyl?” Mr. Merchant asked.
“Um… I don’t think anything exciting, really,” Dylan said. “I was going to see if the guys want to go to the movies this afternoon or maybe the mall.”
“Maw!” Hunter screamed, a giant smile on his face. “Maw!”
Dylan reached over and tousled his brother’s hair. “That’s right, buddy. The mall!”
Hunter kept smiling and grabbed Mr. Cuddles off the table. He grabbed an ear and yanked. There was a tearing sound and the ear came loose with a trail of fluff behind it.
“Oh, lord,” Mr. Merchant said. “Honey, Cuds just got a serious ouchy.”
“Come again?” Mrs. Merchant said, poking her head into the kitchen from the laundry room. “What happened to Cuds?”
“Hunter happened to Cuds, Mom,” Dylan said.
“Ooh. That’s a rough one,” Mrs. Merchant said. She walked over to the table and took Mr. Cuddles away from Hunter, who kept on smiling and squealing with delight.
“Baby,” she said to her husband, “do you think you could swing by the drug store and, you know…”
“Replace Mr. Cuddles with his cleaner, less damaged identical twin?” Mr. Merchant smiled. “I have to run by the office really quick but I could probably make a brief detour.”
“You know what,” Dylan said, “I was going to take my bike over to Matt’s in a few anyway. I can hit up the store on my way.”
“That would be awesome,” Mrs. Merchant said. “You’re a great big brother, Dyl.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Dylan said. He pushed back from the table and grabbed his bowl in one hand and the wounded Mr. Cuddles in the other. He dropped the bowl and spoon in the sink and popped the bear in a small backpack on the counter. He slung the pack over his shoulder. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“Do you have your phone?” Mr. Merchant called.
“Yep. Got it.” He patted his right pants pocket. “Later, y’all.”
Dylan walked into the garage and pushed the button to open the door. The motor hummed and the chain rattled along its path. Dylan knew his dad kept talking about replacing the aging system with one of those modern deals that could be controlled with an app.
His dad was always upgrading something or other around the house. Dylan actually thought that was pretty cool. In fact, he thought his parents were about as cool as parents could possibly be. He swung his leg over his bike and pedaled out of the garage.
It was only a few minutes between his house and the Rite Aid where Mr. Cuddles had been bought and would now be exchanged. The air was warm and the leaves had the delicious smell of early summer. There was a time not many years earlier when Dylan already would have been enrolled in day camp, but at his age he would rather simply enjoy the summer with his friends. After all, once he was sixteen and driving, he would probably be working over his summers. Might as well enjoy the freedom while he still had it.
He pedaled down the side of the street and emerged from his neighborhood onto a longer road. His town, Jamestown, was quieter than the more developed municipalities to the south and west, Wissahickon and Mifflin and the like, while far less rural than the vast spaces in Lahaska and the other towns to the north and east. Dylan liked it well enough.
The Rite Aid was located on a corner along Route 238. Dylan rode across the large road without hesitation and narrowly avoided being hit by a Jaguar pulling out of the pharmacy parking lot. The car honked at him and Dylan reminded himself to be more careful. He parked his bike and pulled the backpack off his already sweaty back. He removed the damaged bear and entered the store.
There was no noise to signal his arrival, but the manager called out to him anyway. “Good morning, young man!”
Dylan waved hello as he approached the counter. The manager, with a mop of gray hair and a bushy gray mustache to match, smiled.
“What can I do for you?” the man asked.
Dylan placed Mr. Cuddles on the counter. “This is, um, damaged. I want to exchange it.”
The manager raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying the bear is defective?”
Dylan flushed with embarrassment. “No, sir, I just thought…”
“Relax,” the manager said, and then laughed. “Lucky for you we’ve got a surplus of bears right now. Aisle five. Want to leave the damaged goods up here for safekeeping?”
Dylan nodded. “Thank you, sir!” He placed Mr. Cuddles on the counter, and turned to find the aisle for stuffed animals and other kid toys.
He walked down aisle five and scanned the rows looking for exactly the right kind of bear to fool Hunter. As he studied the shelves, moving sideways down the aisle, he bumped into someone and stumbled back.
Dylan turned and saw a beautiful girl with wavy brown hair and bright eyes. She smiled at him. “Sorry!” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
The girl smiled. “It’s okay,” she said. “A person has to make the perfect choice when it comes to stuffed animals. Reflects your personality.”
“It’s not… I mean, it’s not my animal. It’s—”
She put her finger to her lips. “Shhh. Your secret is safe with me.”
Dylan studied her carefully, trying to figure out her angle. The girl saw this and burst out laughing. It was a warm sound and Dylan fell for her immediately.
“I’m just messing with you,” she said. She put out her hand. “I’m Emma.”
He shook it. “I’m Dylan.” On a whim, he grabbed a stuffed cat off the shelf and held it out to her. “Meow?”
As soon as the sound was out of his mouth he felt like a complete idiot. Emma rolled her eyes and smiled again. “You’re special.”
“Thanks?”
“You can take it as a compliment,” she laughed.
Dylan smiled. “Okay, I’ll do that. Do you live around here? I’ve never seen you before.”
“I actually just moved. I’m going to be a junior at Jamestown in the fall. You?”
“Wow, me too, actually.”
“You just moved here too?” she asked.
“No, no, I mean I’m a junior at Jamestown. Or
, I mean, I will be.”
“Gotcha,” she said and started walking down the aisle. “I’ve gotta pick up a birthday card for my dad. What brings you in to this fine establishment?”
“A bear,” Dylan said. He spotted Mr. Cuddles’ twin and held it up for Emma to see.
“Oh, so you are seeking a stuffed companion after all!”
Now it was Dylan’s turn to roll his eyes. “It’s for my little brother! He tore his old one apart so we thought we might be able to switch it up on him without him noticing.”
“Sneaky,” Emma said. “How old’s your brother?”
“He’s one. A little on the wild side.”
“Interesting,” she said. “Parents weren’t planning to have more than one?”
“Um…I don’t really know…”
She smirked. “It’s cool. I’m just playing around.”
“Do you have any siblings?” he asked.
“Nah, just little ol’ me,” Emma replied. “My parents say I was more than enough. But seriously, the way they move around and all, it was probably better to only have one rugrat to drag along.”
Emma studied birthday cards as she talked. When she found the one she wanted, she pulled out the corresponding envelope and turned toward the front of the store. “You need anything else here? I’m good.”
Dylan, who couldn’t quite figure out how he had become part of a joint shopping trip, shrugged. “I’m good too, I guess.”
They walked to the front counter. The manager beamed. “Welcome back, young man! I see you found more than just the bear you were looking for!”
“He crashed into me in the aisle,” Emma said. “I just thought I should look out for him before someone gets hurt.” She put her hand on his arm and Dylan felt himself tense up out of instinct. Emma pulled her hand away and he saw a little confusion in those sparkly eyes.
When Dylan had completed his exchange and Emma had purchased her birthday card, they walked outside the Rite Aid.
“Nice day,” she commented. “Where’re you headed?”
“I’m going to go down to my friend’s place. It’s not too far from here.” He felt the words you should come too on the tip of his tongue but his nerves took over and he remained silent.
“Well,” Emma said, “I guess if you’re around and want to hang out sometime, that would be cool…since we are going to be classmates and all.”
“Oh… yeah. Sure!” Dylan took out his phone. “What’s your number?”
She took the phone from him and added herself as a contact.
“You bike everywhere?” she asked.
“Everywhere close, yeah. What about you?”
“I walked over here. Usually if it’s any farther than that I have to get my mom to drop me off. I’m sixteen, but with moving and all I haven’t been able to get my license yet. Here you go,” she said as she handed the phone back. “It was nice meeting you, Dylan. Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
Dylan said goodbye and hopped on his bike. After pedaling down the road for ten seconds, he stopped and turned around, hoping for one more glimpse of the beautiful new girl. She was gone.
The rest of that day was a blur. It took all of five minutes for Matt to realize how distracted Dylan had become.
“What's on your mind, boss?” Matt asked.
“I met this girl,” Dylan said.
“Reeeally?” Matt inquired, elongating the word for effect.
“Yes, really. I got her number.”
“Ask her to hang out?”
“Nah,” Dylan said.
“Nah? What's that mean?”
“Like no. I mean, I thought I was going to ask her but I don't know. She's really hot. I don't think she'd go for me.”
Matt laughed. “She gave you her number, right? Dude you are dense.”
“I don't know. Let's just not deal with that right now.”
“Ok, whatever, man,” Matt said. “Sometimes you're a little tough to figure out, Dyl.”
“Tell me about it,” Dylan said.
Dylan waited three days before texting Emma, not because he held to any kind of advice from Matt or anyone else about the length of time one should wait before contacting a girl, but because it took him that long to work up the confidence necessary to type out “hey” and send it off into cyberspace.
He stared at his iPhone for minutes that seemed like hours. Just as he was prepared to give up, his mind providing him ample reasons that he had misjudged Emma’s interest, the bubbles indicating typing appeared on the iMessage screen. Seconds later, he had his response. “Hey yourself!”
They made plans to meet at Starbucks. Dylan rode his bike as fast as he could, imagining as he went what irony it would be to get into an accident and never get to see Emma because he was trying so hard to get to the coffee shop.
Was that actually irony? He didn’t really know the proper definition, and had heard reports that the conventional wisdom about the word was wrong. He made a mental note to Google the question if he was able to survive the impending meeting.
Emma was already there waiting for him when he arrived. He walked his bike into the rack at the side of the parking lot and waved to her. She stood at the top of a short flight of steps leading to the front door and smiled.
“Hey stranger,” she called down to him.
He laughed, feeling both instantly relaxed and abnormally self-conscious in her presence.
“How’s it going?” he replied.
“Oh, you know, the usual. You hungry? Thirsty?”
“Both, actually.” This was true. It seemed that she brought out his appetite along with his nerves.
There was something about Emma’s expression that surprised him. In the pharmacy, she had been totally carefree and vibrant. As he followed her to the ordering line, he felt like there was something on her mind. He wondered if she was having second thoughts about meeting him at the coffee shop. He tried to think of something witty and fun to say to lighten the mood.
“Everything cool?” he asked.
“Yeah, I mean, sorta.”
“Okay… you want to talk about anything?”
She smiled. “Yes. Definitely, yes. But not yet. Let’s sit down first.”
They got their drinks and Emma led the way to a table in the far corner, a good distance away from any of the other patrons in the shop.
“So,” Dylan started, “What’s up?”
“You sound excited,” she commented.
“Should I be? How interesting is your drama?” He cringed at his words.
“Yikes. You think I’m dramatic?” She twisted her mouth in an exaggerated frown with her lips pouted out.
“No! No! I mean, that’s not what I meant to say. Sorry!”
She laughed. “It’s okay. It’s not drama anyway. It’s…well it’s something.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Can you keep a secret?”
She put her coffee down and took his right hand in both of hers. Dylan felt little flickers of panic and thought about pulling away, but he overrode his instincts.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m intrigued. What have you got?” He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Did you kill somebody?”
“Yes, how did you know?” She looked at him with a serious expression and he began to think he’d better get up and go when she suddenly burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t joke around! You’re just so adorably gullible and I need a little levity.”
“I’m so confused,” Dylan said. “What’s happening?”
“Okay, let me start at the beginning,” Emma said. “I was walking down in Ambler yesterday. My parents dropped me off by the theater, and I walked past this alleyway between a clothing shop and some kind of collectibles place.”
Dylan nodded. “Yeah. I think I know where you mean. My parents grew up around there and they’ve dragged me down a few times to show me the old hometown.”
“Okay, so yeah you know the place. So I was thinking about
checking out the clothing store, just to kill some time, right? And then I heard somebody screaming, ‘Look out!’ But it wasn’t to me. There was a car making a really bad left turn and it crashed into another car coming down the main road. Then another car rear-ended the second one.”
“Jesus! Was it bad?”
Emma shook her head, making her hair bounce around her face in a way that Dylan found entrancing. “Nah, it was maybe a little worse than a fender bender but nothing life-threatening or car-totaling.”
“Oh. Good! You weren’t hurt?”
“No, I wasn’t really near it. I mean, I was probably about twenty feet from it. But the taillight of the one car, a Subaru, I think, shattered from the collision and some glass flew in my direction. A couple chunks landed just a few feet away.”
Dylan wondered if this was all there was to the story. If so, he didn’t really see what the huge deal was, though he imagined it was probably scary in the moment. Either way, he liked watching her talk and was content to hear the tale to its conclusion.
“So I was a little bit shocked, right? Because it all happened so quickly. But my eyes were drawn to the glass on the street…and this is where it gets weird.”
“Weird?” Dylan asked. “Weird how?”
“Well,” she blushed. “No judgment, right? I don’t want you running away.”
“If that’s what it takes for you to come out with it, then fine. No judgment.”
“Thank you! Okay…I saw my reflection in the glass. It was angled toward me. That piece was bright red but I could still see myself. And behind me was a wall with a door in it.”
“Okay…”
Emma frowned. “That doesn’t sound weird to you?”
“That you could see the door of one of the stores behind you?”
“No. Not one of the stores. I was heading to the clothing store when the accident happened, remember? In the direction the reflection showed, I was standing in front of the alley. There was no store there!”
“That doesn’t make any sense. You know that, right? Are you sure you weren’t just seeing some trick of light bouncing off the glass or something?”
Vacancy Page 1