Romance in a Ghost Town

by Robert P McAuley

  “Got to eat and get to bed within the hour,” he said to himself. “I bet it gets real dark here.” Seeing that the sandwich needed turning, he flipped it and then stirred the soup taking a taste off the wooden spoon. He nodded to himself and removed it from the heat and set it on the ground as he took a ceramic cup from his supply of utensils and filled it. Bob finished the soup, removed the cheese sandwich from the frying pan and placed it on a plastic plate and extinguished the two Sterno burners. He was surprised at how dark it was without the burner’s feeble light and ate the hot sandwich faster than he really wanted to.

  Finished, Bob put the frying pan, pot, plate, cup and spoon into a plastic container and made sure that the seal was tight. Boy Scout training, he thought with a grin as he placed it inside the open tailgate, make sure that there is no foodstuff left out while camping lest a bear sniffs it down and finds you for its dinner. Well, I’m sure there are no bears out here, but why change a good habit?

  Turning, he bumped his hurt leg on the tailgate and winced as he realized it was now so dark that he needed a light so he took out the Coleman tent light and lit it. The battery powered light seemed to fill the night and the stark white light made him squint until his eyes got used to it. Suddenly realizing that he needed to use a men’s room, he hated himself as he went to the front of the SUV and standing there thought, Wish I had one of those bedpans right now.

  Finished, he went back to the car’s rear and standing in a circle of white, he pushed the cooler into the SUV’s interior and followed it in with the Coleman lamp. Hitting the electric ‘Up-Gate’ button on the SUV’s key chain, he listened as it locked tight. Bob had a hard time removing his boots while sitting up, but finally did and lay back on top of the sleeping bag. He fluffed up the built-in pillow and turned the lamp off. Instantly he was surrounded in a cocoon of blue, black velvet that was dotted with billions of silvery stars, as there was no city lights to cancel them out.

  This is beautiful, he thought looking out the windows at the panoramic view. This is what the people of Rattlesnake Haven must have seen every night. He lay back and was asleep before he could go over the day as he had planned.

  Bob woke up with his teeth chattering and scrambled to get inside the sleeping bag. He checked his watch and saw it was two a.m. and tried to go back to sleep. After ten minutes he knew why he was having such a hard time; it was extremely quiet! He unzipped the bag and sat up to listen to the noise of the town he purchased. Nothing! He realized that he had never once been in a place that had no sound what so ever. He lay back down and after zipping up his sleeping bag, finally went back to sleep.

  An intense gleam of white that seemed to slip past his closed eyelids woke him the next morning. Squinting he saw that it was the sunlight reflecting off of a strip of decorative chrome in the car’s interior and once he sat up, it harmlessly bounced off the SUV’s floor. He looked out the windows and opened the tailgate. Then he sat on the tailgate’s edge and put his boots back on before stepping down onto the hard packed street. He stretched and suddenly came to a realization: He slept without once having ‘the dream’!

  This is the first time since I don’t know when, he thought as he sat back and tried to think if maybe he had just forgotten that he did indeed have ‘the dream’, after all it sneaks into my head every night. Nope, he thought with a smile, I didn’t dream of it at all! My gosh! This is fantastic! Just wait until I tell mom. He stopped and shook his head, Wonder how mom’s doing? I have to admit it to myself: she can be a pain, but she is my mom and I do miss her…a lot. Well, I know she’ll be happy when I tell her that ‘the dream’ has maybe left me for good. We’ll see. And, if that was a typical night in town, I bet I can rent it out as the ‘quietest place in the U.S. to get a great night’s sleep’.

  He pulled out the burner and lit one of the wax cups. Next he took a bottle of water from the cooler and poured it into a cup before placing it over the flame. “Memo to me: I’ll need water just to wash out my cups and plates,” he said to himself as he opened a packet of instant cereal. Next, Bob poured some still-hot coffee from his thermos into a coffee cup and added his Soy Vanilla milk and a single bag of Splenda. It was seven-thirty a.m. and already he could feel the heat rising as the sun started to climb. He pushed back his hair and put his hat on then stirred his instant oatmeal into the cup of hot water and tasted it.

  “Hey,” he said to himself, “this is how a modern day cowboy starts his day. Not much different than the way we do it in the city.” He ate his breakfast and washed it down with the coffee, then cleaned up. Finished he said, “Memo to me again: really must have bathroom capabilities out here.”

  Bob went back to the Community Hall and before using the bathroom, shined his LED light down the hole to make sure there were no snakes living there. Probably not, he thought as he illuminated the deep hole, just what the room was designed for probably would be enough to keep snakes away.

  Once back at the SUV he made sure all was packed for the return trip to Bransville and with a satisfied smile, started the engine. He spotted the roll of twine next to the shift handle and remembered that he had to measure the depth of the well. The New Yorker pulled out, made a left and drove up Main Street to the well at the end of town. He parked the SUV under the water tower then, rethinking his parking spot, moved it out from beneath the old tower. The well was about twenty feet away from the tower and he saw that there was an old crank hooked up to it, and a long, thick wooden arm that he had seen pictures of on the History Channel. He remembered, thinking, They used to harness a horse or mule to the end of the arm and have him walk in a circle around the well and the pump would bring up the water. Well I’m here to change the pumping system, he thought as he untied the string and let it fall down the well. When he felt the weighted end of the string stop, he tied a knot in his end of the cord and rolled it back up into a ball. When the weighted end appeared he was elated to see that it was a muddy brown.

  “Water! There’s still water here!” He put the roll of string back in the vehicle, popped open a Coke and headed back to Bransville.

  The trip back was uneventful and he cut it down to five hours and twenty minutes. Once he was in cell phone range he dialed Edward.

  “Bensen Reality, Edward Pushkin speaking. How may I help you?”

  “Hey, dude,” answered Bob, “don’t send that posse out yet, I’ll be in town shortly. Can you get away for lunch?”

  “Dang! Hey, partner, I was just talking to the missus about you. We were both wondering how your first day went? Why not meet me at my house? I’ll call Katey and we’ll have something to eat while you tell us about your trip?”

  “Sounds good to me. See you in about thirty minutes.”

  “Okay, partner. I’ll be taking the rest of the day off so we can have a few Butt-Kicks to celebrate.”

  “Can’t wait. See you soon.”

  The three sat at the Pushkin’s dining room table as Edward raised his glass of orange colored drink in a toast; “To the Mayor of Rattlesnake Haven and his overnight stay in his new town.”

  They all raised their glass and after touching them, had a sip.

  “Phew!” said Katey as she fluttered her eyes in a mock faint, “Edward, are you trying to get us all drunk?”

  “Naw, just take the edge off this heat wave, that’s all.” He turned to Bob and said, “So, partner, tell us; how was it out there all alone?”

  “Tell you the truth; I never had a moment to think about being alone, not until it got dark.”

  “And it does get dark out in those ghost towns,” said Edward in a knowing way. “But, if I remember correctly, there are no city lights to obstruct the view of the stars and,” he reached up as though he was plucking a star from the sky and continued, “they seem as though you could just reach out and grab one. Right, partner?”

  “Boy,” answered Bob with raised eyebrows, “are you right about that.” He shook his head, “I felt as though I was in outer space.”

 
Katey stood and wiped her hands on a napkin and said as she headed to the kitchen. “Hope you like meat pies, Bob.”

  “Please don’t go through a big deal for me, Katey. I would have settled for taking you both out to a restaurant.”

  “No restaurant for me on my day off,” she said as she took a sip before leaving the room, “I don’t want to see the same people that enter the bakery every day, on my day off.”

  “So,” asked Edward, “what’s next, partner?”

  “I need to fix those sidewalks. Each slat is 48-inches long and if I can get the SUV loaded with pre-cut slats, I’ll fix them.”

  “Hey,” said Edward with open hands and shrugged shoulders, “I’ll take some time off and come out and give you a hand, partner.”

  Bob smiled and answered, “Naw, Ed, thanks anyway, but I will call you when there’s a two man job. Okay?”

  “You’re call, partner. Just let me know when, and if you need, I can get a bunch of the younger kids to come along and we can use their backs while we supervise from the air-cooled SUV and sip a brew.”

  “Ha,” said Bob, “now that’s what I call a General Contractor.”

  “Anyway, Ned White runs the wood mill in town and we can get all the pre-cut wood slats you need and he’ll even load your vehicle too. Are you going back to Rattlesnake tomorrow?”

  “Yes. I’d like to spend another night there and get some more work done.”

  Edward nodded. “I’ll call Ned and have him cut and stack the wood, so stop by his place tomorrow before you leave town. He’s on Brewster and Clyde streets.”

  Katey came back with a half-dozen meat pies and they ate as they listened to Bob’s plans for the town.”

  “So,” asked Edward, “you think you can get the town put on a tour list?”

  Bob shrugged, “Why not? I know there are tours that go from ghost town to ghost town and let’s face it, Rattlesnake Haven has never been visited by anyone around today, outside of us.”

  ”Well,” said Katey with a make believe frown on her face, “I have to correct that statement: I’ve never been there.”

  “Well,” said Edward, “we’ll just have to fix that error, right Bob?”

  “Right you are. When?”

  “I don’t know,” said Katey caught off guard. “The last time I was in a ghost town…“ she looked at Edward who grinned and finished for her.

  “She had too much beer and fell asleep. I dang near had to tie her to the back of my motorbike to get her home an’ it took another two years for her folks to warm up to me.”

  “Well, mister,” she quipped, “that was a long time ago and I think I’m about ready to go to another ghost town.”

  Bob grinned as he cut open one of the meat pies, “I hope to have my new car tomorrow so I’ll be bringing out the wood for the sidewalks and hope to finish them in about a week or so. Then, if you can take time off in a week or two, that would be great.”

  Katey grinned and turned to her husband, “Edward! Let’s do it. It’ll be an adventure. What do you say?”

  “Sure, why not do a road trip?”

  She leaped from her seat and hugged him. “Oh, I’ll need some new boots, mine are down at the heels.”

  “Honey, do you really think this is the place to break in new boots? I think you should wear the oldest pair you got.” He tipped his head towards their guest and said with a grin, “At least until the Mayor fixes them damned street boards.”

  7

  Just A Congratulatory Drink

  Later that afternoon Bob went to the Clayton Hotel and signed back in, this time using his own credit card. He took a long hot bath before dressing in a pair of tan slacks that matched his shirt and loafers. He bought a newspaper and read it over a smoked salmon dinner in the hotel’s restaurant before stopping in the lounge for a nightcap.

  Entering the plush lounge, he stepped down the two stairs and took a seat at the end of the bar. The bartender was waiting on three men and a woman at the far end and Bob was content to wait as he looked around. Boy, this bar is short compared to the one in Rattlesnake Haven, he thought with a proud grin that brought a slight pain to his face. Ohhh! I’ve gotten some sunburn. The lounge was decorated in the style of the 1930s Art Deco Movement with stark, black and white photos and prints of women with cropped hair, their eyes peeking out beneath long bangs and headbands, all wearing gowns and fur wraps while the men wore evening clothes and the lights of Broadway reflected off their slicked down hair. A man dressed in a tux of the period sat at a piano and nodded at him as he sang songs of that era.

  Finally the bartender approached and Bob saw that his hair was slicked down and he wore the tux pants, shirt and bow tie along with wide black suspenders of the time period depicted in the photographs. The man added to the setting by wearing his mustache in a thin line just above the lip.

  “What can I get you, sir?”

  “I’ll have Johnny Walker Black Label, please.”

  The barman walked away as Bob, looking behind him by using the bar’s large mirrors, noticed a young lady standing in the corner with her cell phone to her ear, her motions very animated. It took just one moment for him to recognize her agitated movements; the last time he saw them was in front of the restaurant he had lunch in with Jim a few months ago. It was Anne Dallas, the young lady who switched seats with him on the aircraft. He looked away as she snapped her phone closed and started to leave. As she walked past him, their eyes met momentarily in the mirror and she broke stride as she tried to remember who he was. She was two steps past him when she remembered who he was and stopped. Seeing that she was going to greet him, Bob quickly started to get up.

  “Please, Mister McKillop,” she said as she stepped towards him, “don’t get up.”

  As he was halfway out of his seat it was easier for him to continue. He stood and said as he leaned awkwardly on the bar stool’s back, “I always stand in the presence of a lady, or at least try to.” He extended his hand and continued as they shook hands, “Its Anne Dallas, right?” Her smile and nod answered his question and he went on, “It’s not too many people that remember my last name, Miss Dallas.”

  “Please, call me Anne.”

  “And, I’m Bob. Can I buy you a drink? I mean I really feel that I owe you that much for making you change your seat and all.”

  She kept her smile and said, “Bob, yes, you may buy me a drink, but you really owe me nothing. Anyone would have done that.” Seeing his eyes dip for a millisecond, she said, “But why talk of the past? Let’s drink to the future, shall we, Bob?”

  He pulled her bar stool out and they settled into the bar as the bartender came back and said, “Hello, Anne. Waiting for Tom?”

  “No, Peter. I’m here on my own.” She added with a chill in her voice, “Is that okay with you?”

  The man’s face dropped and he stammered to gain his composure, “Ah, well, sure it is. I just meant, that, well, you know, I mean…”

  “Scotch and soda and keep that soda on the side.” She turned quickly and smiled warmly at Bob, mostly for the bartender’s questioningly look. He stepped away quickly as she narrowed her eyes at him.

  “I hope I’m not making any trouble,” said Bob.

  She shook her head slowly as she answered, “Not in the least! In fact for the first time in a long time, I feel relaxed.”

  “Hard day at the newspaper?”

  “No, not at all. In fact I got a promotion this afternoon and was looking forward to celebrating it.”

  “Well then perhaps I should be on my way. I don’t want to interfere.”

  “Interfere? With what? My celebration?” She opened her hands as she looked around and went on, “Look around…this is my life these days. Locked into a situation that goes nowhere.”

  Bob hung his head in embarrassment for her. “I-I’m sorry. I really am. And if it helps any, I know how you feel.”

  The bartender placed her scotch and soda on the bar and quickly walked back down the bar.

&n
bsp; Anne smiled as she lifted her glass and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t want to burden anybody with my problems.”

  Her smile was contagious and Bob grinned as he lifted his glass and touching hers said, “Congratulations to Anne Dallas on her recent promotion on the great newspaper, The Bransville Speaker, read by all in the city of Bransville and hundreds of thousands of others internationally on the internet and, I have heard from reliable sources, even in Brooklyn, New York.”

  She arched her eyebrows at the unexpected platitudes from the new man in town and said with a laugh, “I’ll drink to that, Mister New Yorker with the gift of gab.”

  Now it was his turn to laugh and he said, “Actually I’m from Scotch heritage and they bestow the honor of the ‘gift of gab’ to the Irish.”

  “Close enough to share the same honor. Now tell me, Bob, what is it that you are going to do with your new town?”

  “So, you know about Rattlesnake Haven?”

  She took a sip and said, “It’s in my blood. I’m a reporter and hear things.”

  He grinned, “Good or bad?”

  She flicked her eyebrows, “Good for Bransville’s economy: buying a new car; camping equipment; generator and fuel. Things like that get a reporter’s ear and their attention.”

  “I found out yesterday that I’ve just touched the tip of the ‘supply-buying iceberg’.”

  “Oh? How did you discover that?”

  Bob sat back and shook his head, took a sip of his scotch and with a shrug said, “I stayed in Rattlesnake Haven last night and missed a few of the things that we take for granted.”

  Her eyebrows arched again and he could sense the excitement in her that was in him as well, as she said, “You stayed there last night? Do you know that there is nobody in town that ever even saw Rattlesnake Haven even though they were born and raised here? And here you are, all the way from New York City telling me that you stayed there overnight. Wow! Cheers to that!”