SALVATION chapter 14

Salvation
chapter 14

The California desert
6:PM

Michelle parked at the far end of a rest stop some
fifteen miles east of Desert Center along the I-10.
She pulled off the helmet, glasses and spandex face
protection breathing deep the fresh desert air.
She had to pee, bad.
Five and a half hours after leaving Long Beach
she'd covered two hundred and twenty miles..
Made a quick fuel stop outside the town of Indio
using a credit card at the pump avoiding confronting
anyone inside the convenience store itself..
Slamming bottled water from of a vending machine
as she filled the gas tank..
She had to go then, but didn't dare risk the challenge
of communicating a bathroom key, or where that encounter
might lead.
Indio was an hour ago and she couldn't wait any longer.

The rest stop appeared quiet, deserted..
She pulled the cotton from her ears dancing foot to foot
as bladder pressure and the anticipation of it's release
lay fifty feet away at the public restroom.
A clear rush of fresh air filled her ear canals giving a
pleasant distraction from her immediate stress affording
some added precious seconds.

Approaching the restroom she heard a low banging noise
from inside..The unmistakable sound of a stall door locking
device striking metal against metal.
Michelle waited outside the restroom certain someone
was inside..She strained but heard no other sound..
No slight shuffling of feet, or clearing of a throat.
No flushing, no water running, or toilet tissue
spinning off a roll..She listened intently but now the
interior of the restroom was as quiet as a tomb..

Her bladder begged..She slipped up to the entrance
and peered into the room.
Ambient lighting only..
The dimly lit four stall facility housed permanent
moving shadows as sunlight swept across fine meshed
vent screen near the roof line..
The closest stall appeared empty the door hanging
agar...She bent her knees, her bladder screamed as
she tried looking beneath the bottom of the stalls for
any evidence of an occupant..

The little light surrounding the room was sucked
completely away in the lower corners.
Darker still in Michelle's vision due to contracted
pupils accustomed to direct sunlight.
She blinked then blinked again trying to force her
eyes to adjust..
"Hello?...Is anyone in here?"..
Her own voice answered an echo bouncing off the concrete
floor..

Vague outlines of individual doors began forming distinction as
her pupils adjust..Gray stalls against flat brown cinder
making up the walls. Bolted on her right, stainless steel
sinks hung like gargoyles of symbolic protection.
She took a step toward the nearest stall then stopped as
a shadow moved against the farthest stall..
Her eyes opened wide as the stall door swung inward
a third then swiftly slammed shut duplicating the sound
she'd heard outside.

Michelle froze in mid step unable to move..
Her heart lodged..Her brain worked over time frantically
deciphering information as her eyes continued adjusting
to their surroundings..
A spit second passed..Only a moment before pissing
her pants while tearing from the fear, her brain shouted
"The wind!..The wind!..The fucking wind."..The Santa
Anna wind was forcing the stall door open and
sucking it shut like a vacuum..She breathed and bolted
claiming the nearest stall..

The floor was wet and the smell of urine stung her
nose leaving sticky imprints on the bottom of her boots.
She rolled her eyes and squatted over the filthy toilet
taking care to hover there never touching the seat..
"Ok, ok you can go now!" She hissed at her self and the
hesitant inbred response of a body forced to relieve
it's self subject unnatural position in an unclean
environment. Her thighs trembled realizing how tolling
the day had become.
And then the noise came...The noise from outside.

The sound of rolling tires crushing over loose gravel..
The sound of them out there and me in here with no exit.
Nearer and nearer locking like radar low idle pushing
closer and closer.
She jumped up pulling at her jeans as if by God I am not
going to die with my pants down..
"Too late" she thought..The crumbling sound of tires
came to a silent stop just outside the restroom..

Michelle stood facing the doorless entry and realized she
was in the exact same spot she froze earlier only facing
out instead of in..
"Beep...Beep"...It was a horn..But not the deep baritone
blast of a truck horn..."Beep"...Not even the obnoxious
blare of a passenger vehicle...
She took two steps forward and peeked at the rim of the
doorway..Nick Flannery was pushing down his kick
stand and smiling in her direction..

She almost knocked him down..He'd just dismounted the
bike and was working on his chin strap when she flew
into him..Grabbing at him and throwing her arms around
his neck..
His helmet fell on the ground as he hugged her waist lifting
her feet off the floor of the parking lot.
He'd taped his cell phone to the helmet next to the left
ear flap...It fell on the ground too.
"How did you find me?"
He breathed deep inhaling the sent of her hair and she
felt him shaking..
They spoke as one holding on to each other afraid to
let go.
"This is my second time on this loop..From Blythe to Desert
Center and back...I was so worried about you!"
She released him unzipping his jacket sliding her arms
around his waist.
"Well,...The traffic was just horrible."



Blythe, California

Dusk settled by the time Nick lead Michelle off the main road
onto a winding dirt drive ending at a modest two bedroom cabin located
in a remote area outside the town of Blythe..
Nick's Uncle owned the vacation home set on ten quiet acres fronting
the Colorado River..
Uncle Jimmy was a water sport enthusiast and the place was his
idea of Shangrila.
He'd bought it over twenty years ago and used it from June through August
every year without fail planning to make it his permanent location once retired from the Buena Park Fire Department in Los Angeles.
Nick held a standing invitation to use the cabin any time he desired..
It was the place of safety that sprung to mind when Nick suggested
Michelle and he meet in the desert.
"Does this place have a shower?" Michelle had asked him back at
the rest stop..
"Yep."..
"And, does this place have a bed?"
"Yep."
"What are we going to do about food?"
"The place is stocked."
"Can we be there in five minutes?"
"More like thirty five minutes."
"Let's roll."

An hour later the smell of baking pizza filled the cabin.
Hot steam escaped the bathroom door mixed with Michelle's
sweet singing voice as she luxured in a claw foot bath..
Nick leaned on the front door jam nursing a bottle of cold
Miller Highlife.
A back drop of purple mountains clutched at the endless sky.
Streaking flames of cirrus clouds, against dark blue hues of space.
Reflecting smooth wide flows of the Colorado River, a stones
toss from the door..
Crickets agreeing with his Uncle..This Shangrila.