Earth Angel (The Kamlyn Paige Novels) (6 page)

“It’s strange how I’m taken and
guided where I end up right where I’m needed to be. Quiet your mind.”

 – Zac Brown Band

I drove for seventeen hours before I felt the need
to find a motel. I hadn’t slept the night before so I made sure to keep the
cooler on my passenger seat stocked with energy drinks. Ironically, my favorite
flavor was ‘Blue Demon’. As I gulped down my last can, I stopped in the middle
of Highway 2. Contrary to most highways, which are jam packed with cars, this
particular stretch of road was deserted. I stared forward for a moment,
mesmerized by the Nebraskan sand hills. The land was golden all over from the
unique shade of grass, rising and falling in every direction I looked. I could
see a family of foxes hopping through the tall blades of flowing grass as they
played. The sudden bursts of red from the little critters jumping into view
reminded me of fish emerging from the water to swim upstream. They didn’t have
a care in the world at that moment but to enjoy life and play. The loud sound
of my stomach growling broke me away from my trance. Desperate to find some
food for dinner, I continued to drive.

After twenty minutes without seeing so much as a
tree stump, I checked the map beside me to see which town I would be coming up
to eventually. I spotted a small place called Whitman that shouldn’t have been
more than a few minutes down the road. Not sure why, but when I saw the  name
of the little town, my stomach tightened from excitement as if I’d been looking
for the place all along. I’d never had the urge to spend time in Nebraska and
yet here I was, starving and buzzed from all the caffeine I’d had. I felt as if
something pulled me in the direction ahead. I chocked the whole incident up to
being overly hungry. After what seemed like miles and miles of nothing, I noticed
civilization starting to form around me. It started with a car passing by and
then trees lining the street. Finally, I saw a small sign which read ‘Whitman
population 190’. I’d had more kids than that packed into my high school
cafeteria for lunch.

Once I arrived in the heart of the mini town, I
pulled up to the only gas station in sight for directions to the nearest motel.
When I entered the run-down store, a little bell attached to the door gave a
high ring, signaling the cashier to a customer’s arrival. A middle aged man glanced
up from the book he was reading briefly to ask if I needed any help.

“Yea, where can I get a room around here?” I asked
while scanning the shelves for something healthy enough to be considered
dinner.

The hunched over cashier blinked slowly as he
stared off in my direction.

“Continue down the road,” was all he said before he
turned back to his book again.

I stared for a moment in disbelief. Usually people
were more helpful when someone wanted to stay in their town. I realized that a
place this small probably wasn’t used to having anybody pass through, let alone
wanting to stay the night, but he could have shown a little enthusiasm or at
least faked politeness. With nothing more than chips and cookies to eat in the
store, I headed out to find real food. I spotted an old fashioned saloon style
building down the road with the words ‘Bar and Grill’ glowing overhead. Pulling
into the lot, I figured the only bar in town would be the hot spot for the
locals. What else did these people have to do besides socialize and get drunk
off their asses?

I walked inside and sat down on one of the bar
stools. As I looked around at the people sitting at the crudely crafted wooden
tables all around, I noticed everyone in the place looked tired. They took a
sip of their beers and then went back to staring into their glasses before the
next sip. Taking a quick look around the bar, I realized why it wasn’t full of
fun and crazy drunks. The place was very dark and drab. Everything was poorly
assembled from cheap wood and the only source of entertainment was an old
jukebox playing outdated country music softly in the corner.

“Hi, can I get you something?” the young bartender
asked me with a smile on her face.

“Yea, I’ll have a beer and a burger with chili
cheese fries.”

My mouth watered at the thought of eating. I
grabbed a handful of peanuts from a bowl on the counter. I cracked them open
and tossed them back one right after another as if I hadn’t eaten for days.

“So, what’s up with everyone in here?” I couldn’t
help asking.

The bartender laughed as she poured a Coors Light
from the tap into a freshly cleaned glass and set it in front of me. I tossed
the empty shells of the nuts I’d eaten onto the floor, as I saw many of the
customers had done before me. I’d been to places where people disposed of their
shells on the floor before, but usually someone swept them up after closing.
This place looked as if they did this only once a month.

“Well, this is a farm town, city girl. Most of
these people are up before the sun is, so they get tired fairly early,” she
said with a hint of sarcasm as she picked up another glass and dried it with a
rag.

Even though I had always lived only an hour drive
from Chicago, I never actually thought of myself as a city girl. Compared to
everyone in the bar, though, I guess I was. Most of the men had on dirty
coveralls and baseball caps. The women wore loose clothing and no makeup with
their messy hair pulled back into buns and ponytails. I was never one to pile
on the makeup, but my face didn’t look like a leather handbag either. Everyone
looked about ten years older than I suspected they actually were.

“My name’s Alli, by the way,” the bartended added,
smiling still.

I noticed as she put the glass she had been drying
down and picked up another that she didn’t really fit into the town of Whitman
either. She had on tight designer straight leg jeans and a small white tank
top. Instead of having her hair pulled back for work, she let her perfectly
straight dark hair fall, barely grazing her shoulders in a fashionable bob
style. She seemed to exude energy and cheer as she performed her monotonous job
of serving drinks. I was glad to find someone I could be social around without
the threat of attachment; someone to have a few laughs with before I head out
and never see them again.

“So, what brings you to our little town?” she asked
me, resting her elbows on the countertop. “Just curious since we don’t get many
tourists through these parts,” she added, raising her eyebrows in anticipation.

As I explained where I was from and lied about how
I was taking a cross country road trip, she stopped working and gave me her
full attention. Her dark brown eyes focused solely on me, lighting up when she
smiled. I realized how easy it was for me to talk to this girl. She was funny
and refreshing and in no immediate need of saving like most of the people I’d
met this past year.

Alli set my dinner down in front of me and I dove
right to devouring it. In that moment, nothing I had ever eaten tasted as good
as that burger. Just as I was polishing off my last fry, the door opened and a
younger guy strolled in. Next to the rest of the bar’s patrons, he stuck out
like a sore thumb in a fitted black button-down shirt and expensive looking
jeans. To my disbelief, he locked eyes with me and walked right over. He
towered over me as I sat there.

“Hello,” he said as he leaned one elbow on the
counter and gave me a perfect smile.

Before I had a chance to respond, Alli cut in with an
overpowering look of hatred.

“Get lost, Sari.”

I looked away from both of them, not wanting to get
involved in their personal vendetta against each other. It always made me
uncomfortable to be around people who were arguing. Don’t get me wrong. If the
situation calls for it, I will gladly dig my heels in to win a fight, but when
it was none of my business, I hated to be included. It always ended with me
having to pick sides. I didn’t want to pick sides in this situation. I just
wanted to sit there and enjoy my beer.

“Chill out, I’m just making conversation,” the
handsome guy retorted while rolling his eyes.

They were a dark shade of amber and completely
entrancing. I caught sight of them out of the corner of my eye and was drawn
in. Out of nowhere I was overcome with the overwhelming desire to crawl into
bed and close my eyes. I put my hand on the back of my neck and rubbed where a
deep headache had quickly set in. Normally, I wasn’t prone to getting
migraines, so I knew my body must be trying to tell me something. I reluctantly
said goodbye to my new bar friends as I gave a big yawn and headed for the
motel down the road. Alli and Sari continued to argue as I left. I wondered if
they’d dated before.

When I walked through the front door of the motel office,
I saw a gray haired man behind the desk sitting with his ball cap pulled over
his eyes and his head resting on his shoulder. I was too tired and in too much
pain to be polite.

“Hello?” I asked loudly, with an undertone of
impatience.

The man raised his head as he pulled off his hat
and blinked away the sleep from his eyes.

“Oh hey there, just resting my eyes for a bit.”

He reached under the desk for the check in form and
slid it across the counter to me. I filled out the paperwork as quickly as I
could, scribbling down my information. I paused for a minute to look at what
I’d written, wondering if it was even legible. I was too tired and in too much
pain to care, I reminded myself. He checked me in with very few words and went
back to resting in his old wooden chair. I somewhat understood the demands of
farm town hours, but couldn’t the people here at least fake a little enthusiasm
for their one and only tourist I wondered yet again. Once I got to my room, I
dropped my bags on the floor. Not having enough energy to keep my eyes open any
longer, I flopped my worn out, fully clothed body onto the bed.

*

I must have fallen asleep the minute my head hit
the pillow, but I didn’t remember a thing. I opened my eyes as soon as the sun
crept across the room and shone on my face. I had been too tired the night
before to close the blinds, but I was glad I hadn’t. I couldn’t remember the
last time I had watched the sun rise. I sat at the little round wooden table in
front of the window with a hot cup of coffee from the room’s tiny pot and gazed
in awe as the clouds transformed from pink to white. It felt good to just stop
for a moment and enjoy something.

Once the sky was completely blue, I jumped out of
the chair feeling completely rejuvenated and went to the bathroom to brush my
teeth. Since I still hadn’t received a call from Cara, I decided to have a
relaxing day wandering the town and reading one of the novels I picked up at a
gas station in Wyoming. They had slim to none, but I managed to find a
compilation of famous stories by Washington Irving. We had read ‘Sleepy Hallow’
in high school for Halloween and I remembered how much I enjoyed the eerie
short story. I grabbed my jacket and small paperback as I stepped out of the
stuffy motel and into the crisp fall air. There was a slight breeze, chilling
my nose and blowing my hair around.

Walking down the sidewalk, I caught sight of a
quaint café standing all alone with a bakery inside. Even though I’d had a late
and rather large dinner last night, I decided to get some breakfast anyway. I
sat down at a small mosaic bistro style table for two and opened my book while
I waited for a waitress to come and take my order. For once, I wasn’t in a
hurry to get a job done so I could afford to take it easy and unwind. I
listened to the cracking of the brand new book’s binding as I bent the pages
back to loosen it up. I folded the cover around to the back and began the chilling
tale of the headless horseman once again. I didn’t even make it through the
first paragraph before being interrupted.

“Hello again,” said a voice I wasn’t soon to
forget.

My stomach dropped and my pulse began to race. I
looked up to see the handsome guy from the night before pulling out the chair
opposite of me to sit in. In the sunny café, with the morning light pouring in
through the many windows, I could see all of his striking features much better.
He was over six feet tall and mesmerizing as he stared down at me. His chestnut
hair was cut into a longer, tousled style that fell into his big doe eyes. He
had higher cheekbones than most and when he smiled it formed the cutest dimples
I’d ever seen. My stomach tensed up once more as he sat down.

“Hi,” I said in a small voice, forcing an awkward
smile.

I was sure my face was beat red from embarrassment.
I could feel the palms of my hands starting to perspire as I closed my book and
set it down on the table. Not wanting to stumble over my words and look like an
idiot, I thought for a moment about what I would say next. Just as I was
beginning to inwardly panic at the fact that I couldn’t come up with anything
interesting to say, the waitress came over.

“Hey, Kamlyn!” a cheery voice greeted me. “Sari…”
was added with distaste.

“Hi, Alli,” I responded in a voice more my own.

I had planned on going back to the bar later for
drinks and more talk, but I was grateful to see her there just then.

“So, you work at the café during the day and the
bar at night?”

I smiled up at her while she put her pad of paper
and pen back into her apron. Ignoring Sari’s sigh of annoyance, Alli told me
how she came to work at the two places while she pulled up a chair from an
empty table and sat with us. Apparently, she had just moved to Whitman not all
that long ago after leaving an abusive boyfriend. This explained why she seemed
so different from everyone else in the sleepy town. She said she needed to get
as far away from him as possible and traveled all the way from New York.