But what if she’s gone in there and started crying? he thought. What if some woman is already in there, and she stops her and asks her what’s wrong, and Ellie tells her that her father tucked her into the backseat of a strange car and spirited her away like a thief in the night? Isn’t that a possibility?
Christ, yes.
His hand was already clutching the door handle to the women’s room when the door shushed open and Ellie came out. She looked up at him with an expression of consternation on her face. David glanced into the restroom and saw that the remaining stalls were empty. The single bulb at the center of the ceiling flickered.
“Come on,” he said, rubbing the back of her head as he led her back to the car. He was reminded of the gas tank when he turned the ignition over, so he pulled around to the farthest set of pumps. A few tractor trailers stood like gathered cattle at the far end of the lot. David climbed out of the car, discovered that the gas tank was on the other side of the vehicle, swore under his breath, then got back in and repositioned the car. In the backseat, Ellie sat motionless and wide-eyed, staring at him and not touching any of the snacks he’d tossed back there for her. He could feel the heaviness of her eyes on him. “Go on,” he told her. “Eat something. It’s okay.” The smile he offered her felt as false as a stick-on moustache.
At the pump, he pulled his wallet from his pants and had already slid his credit card through the slot when he realized what he had done. It seemed every muscle in his body tensed at once. Even his teeth clenched. Nearly in disbelief, he stared at the tiny digital screen as it processed his credit card, then stared down at the card itself, as if skeptical of its very existence.
“Shit, shit,” he hissed through his teeth.
The screen prompted him to enter his zip code before processing the card. It also gave him the option to cancel the sale. Which he did immediately.
There was the cash in the trunk, but he also had a wad of tens and fives in his wallet. He held up one finger to Ellie, who watched him, emotionless, from the backseat, then he went to the attendant’s booth, where he forked over thirty bucks to the ancient dark-skinned woman seated behind a sheet of bulletproof glass.
Three minutes later, they were back on the highway. When he saw a white van in the far right lane, David felt a cool sweat prickle his scalp. It looked identical to the one that had been parked across the street from their house on Columbus Court for the past few weeks. David couldn’t decide if he should slow down or speed up. Finally, he decided to take an exit that dumped them onto a secondary roadway.
Despite her proclamation of hunger, Ellie never touched the granola bars, never cracked open the Coke. He could use the caffeine himself, but he didn’t ask her to pass the soda up to him. She had been quiet since leaving the gas station, and he presumed she had fallen back asleep. So when she spoke up and asked him to turn on the radio, he nearly launched out of his skin.
And the radio was nothing but static.
3
After some careful deliberation, he decided to stop at a roadside motel for the night. Prior to this, he had considered parking behind a billboard off the main highway or something like that, catching some z’s behind the wheel of the Olds like he’d done in his old road-tripping days during breaks from college, but he thought there would be time for that soon enough. Moreover, sleeping in the car would only prompt additional questions from Ellie, questions he wasn’t yet prepared to answer. He was amazed she’d been so compliant thus far, but he wasn’t willing to push his luck. Besides, he could use a hot shower. In fact, that sounded like heaven to him.
It was one of those motor lodges where all the rooms had doors that opened onto the parking lot. He counted only two other vehicles in the front lot and, after driving around the building, two more in the rear. He told Ellie to wait in the car while he went in and got them a room.
The lobby was dressed in outdated wallpaper and threadbare aquamarine carpeting. The lights in the ceiling seemed impossibly bright and were orbited by a cloud of gnats. The guy behind the counter, grizzled and rheumy-eyed, looked no more lifelike than the half-dozen taxidermy animals adorning the wooden shelves behind him. Pressing a handkerchief to his mouth, he looked up as David approached.
“I’d like a room please,” David said to the fellow.
“Last name?” the guy asked through the handkerchief, swiveling on a stool so that he could tap out a few keys on an old PC.
“Arlen.” It was out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying. Just like back at the gas station with the credit card. How long did he really expect to last being this careless?
“Ireland?” the old man said.
David went with it. “Yes.”
The man tapped a few more keys on the computer.