The Night Shift
Authors: Jack Parker
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events or locations is entirely coincidental.
Text
Copyright ©
2012
by
Jack Parker
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced, in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
DEDICATION
* * * * *
For mom and my wife
Contents
Welcome to Arbur Winslow
A dark figure was walking through the night in
a
forest. He seemed as if he was going in a designated or planned direction. Behind him was a large sign that had a large map on it with the words ARBUR WINSLOW STATE FOREST MAP
written at the top.
"
All right, where is it?" the figure asked.
Out of nowhere, a sharp knife was plunged into the figure's neck. Then there was silence. The figure fell to the ground, dead without question.
The knife was removed. A large gate that led to an abandoned part of the woods opened and another figure ran in quickly. The sign that read ARBUR WINSLOW STATE FOREST MAP
was seen covered in graffiti and littered with small holes.
The dead figure continued to remain motionless on the dirt.
-
ONE YEAR LATER
-
"All right. Welcome to Arbur Winslow."
Collin's eyes lit up and his face suddenly had excitement plastered all over it. "You mean, I…got the job?!"
Lisa smiled. "Sure did. Welcome aboard."
"Awesome!" Collin anxiously reached out and shook Lisa's hand from across the desk. "Thank you so much, Ms. McNorr. I promise I won't disappoint you!"
The grin stayed on Lisa's face.
It was around the beginning of the summer, with Collin once again looking for a gig that would last him the season and help earn some money that would pay for college and everything else that required his hard-earned cash in life.
He had just graduated from High School only a few days ago, but he wasn't wasting any time job searching for some summer work. At least, that's what he told everyone who asked him what he was doing that summer, anyway. But everyone found it strange, for some reason. It sounded like Collin knew that he wanted to work there for the summer for the longest time, even though he never really seemed to have too much interest in being an outdoorsman. Working in a state forest and helping to keep campsites clean for tourists dropping by for a few days seemed like the last thing he wanted to do, especially considering how serious his
last
summer job was.
"Wow…thank you so much!" Collin said anxiously. He looked more delighted than a small boy on Christmas who just got a truck that he had wanted for five weeks. (Which would be like an eternity to a four-year old)
Collin had thin and short brown hair and looked like he was built to work, which was good, because he would have done
a
lot of it while working at Arbur Winslow State Forest that summer.
"No, thank
you
," Lisa responded. "It's been awfully hard to get new people to work here for a while. I think you're the first person to apply for a job here in almost a year."
"Heh…imagine that," Collin lightheartedly answered. "You think it's because of the murder that happened here last summer?"
"Probably. And actually, that leads me to one more question I have for you."
"What?! I thought you said I had the job?..."
"No, you do," Lisa confirmed, "I just wanted to ask you why you want to work here."
Collin looked a little confused and annoyed by that question, but he tried to retain a smile on his face, even though the one he was wearing now was obviously fake. "I thought I already answered that: because I like being outside and breathing fresh air and meeting all sorts of weird people."
Lisa looked at Collin very suspiciously. She was thirty-three years old and was a twelve-year veteran at the forest. She started working there after she dropped out of college for financial constraints. She had long black hair and a serious face, but was really a nice person and encouraged people to goof off on the job occasionally or have some fun, which she believed would help get the work done faster and with more quality instead of if people just did work because they had to and only put half their real effort into it. She was the "second-in-command" for about three of those years until last summer when her boss quit and she got the promotion.
"You sure that's the reason?" she asked once again as she looked at Collin's previous job records.
"…Yeah," he insisted, now sounding a tad uncomfortable. "Is there a problem with that?"
Lisa sighed. "No, I just thought I'd ask. All right, once again, welcome to Arbur Winslow."
Collin smiled and shook her hand again. "Thank you," he answered proudly.
"You'll start tomorrow, working 8:30 to 4:30 Monday through Thursday. You'll be more of a maintenance worker and help out wherever you're needed. Sound good?"
"Sounds perfect."
"Great. Why don't I show you around today and you can meet some of the people you'll be working with? With any luck, you'll get a feel for the kind of work we'll have ya doing."
"Sounds good to me."
"All right. Let's go."
Lisa got up and left her office, which was the only place around the entire forest where there was
any
air conditioning. There was a typical desk that came equipped with a few drawers and had walkie-talkies and radios placed by the computer. Posters were all over the walls, encouraging people to not litter, doing anything they could to prevent forest fires and told campers where to go in case there was an emergency and what they should do.
Collin really didn't notice anything too special about the entire office, save for one thing that caught his eye right as he was about to leave with Lisa to see what his work would have in store for him. Next to Lisa's computer was a framed picture that showed Lisa smiling at the camera and having her arm around the shoulder of a man who looked about her age and had heavy blonde hair. His was a face Collin knew all too well, but he wasn't expecting to see a picture of him right there.