The kind man at the gas station where the bus had dropped her off told her of a motel about a mile up the road. He’d even offered to drive her to the place, but she declined. She wasn’t so naïve to believe that nothing bad happened in a small town. There were bad people everywhere hiding in plain sight—just like Tim. Anyone who met him would never think he was capable of the things he had done to her. It had taken her a long time to come to terms with the reality as well.
She saw the blinking sign ahead advertising a vacancy at the motel with doors that opened to the outside. She preferred that style of motel. It gave her an easy escape if needed. Her suitcase trailed along behind her, the wheels blending with the sounds of the crickets chirping alongside the road as she walked.
She opened the door of the motel lobby and immediately smelled popcorn. There was a large cowbell on the door, signaling her arrival. A woman with smoke-stained teeth sauntered out from a small room and moved behind the desk.
“Just you?” she asked, clearly in a hurry to get back to tha
t popcorn Katherine could smell.
“Yes, please.”
“How many nights?”
Katherine looked around. “One for now.”
“Checkout is at eleven tomorrow,” the woman said.
“That’s fine.”
“I’ll need your name and a photo ID. Are you paying with cash or credit card?”
Katherine looked around the place again and judged it to be one of the places she could get away with not providing an ID.
“I don’t have an ID. I’ll be paying cash,” she said, staring the woman directly in the eye.
The woman stared back at her before nodding her head. “Fine. It’ll be fifty-five for the night. If you stay the week, you get the seventh night free,” she volunteered.
Katherine smiled. “One night is fine for now. Is there a store or anything nearby?”
The woman shook her head. “There’s a gas station about a mile down the road.”
“Okay, thanks,” she said, immediately regretting her decision not to buy food at the gas station.
“We’ve got a couple vending machines on the top and bottom floor, end of the row,” the woman offered.
“Thank you,” Katherine said, taking the receipt and the room key.
“Pool’s open until midnight. It’s heated.”
Katherine smiled. “Thank you. That actually sounds like a very good idea,” she said.
“Sure.”
Katherine grabbed her suitcase and went back out to the parking lot, quickly finding her room on the bottom floor, three doors down from the vending machines and ice machine. It looked like her dinner was going to come out of yet another vending machine. She promised herself she would treat herself to a nice lunch or dinner. Where, she wasn’t quite sure yet, but if she didn’t eat a real meal soon, she would be sick.
The room was like every other motel room she’d stayed in. There was a queen bed that faced a small flat screen television mounted to the wall with a bathroom at the end. It wasn’t The Ritz and it probably wouldn’t pass a serious cleanliness inspection, but she’d long ago given up the standard in accommodations her life with Tim had given her. Now, she was cool with fairly clean and a roof over her head.
She sat down on the bed, feeling more alone than she had in a long time. It was hard to imagine starting all over again. She knew there would never be another man in her life like Ben. He was a once in a lifetime match and she’d had to walk away to protect him. It made her hate Tim more than ever.
The thought of taking a dip in the pool was too good to ignore. Her neck was stiff, and her butt was a little sore from nearly two days of sitting. It would be good to soak. She plopped her suitcase on the bed, unzipped it and dug out the one-piece bathing suit she had been carrying around for over a year. It was one of the little luxuries she let herself have. Almost every place she stayed had a pool. Often times she would go down late at night when she could swim and relax without anyone else around. It was almost eight and she hoped she would have the pool to herself.
With her suit on, she grabbed a towel out of the bathroom and her room key and set out in search of the pool. It wasn’t hard to find behind the row of rooms. It wasn’t a big pool, but it didn’t need to be. It looked perfectly refreshing. She unlatched the gate and went inside, thrilled to find she could be alone, which was odd after just feeling so lonely only moments ago.
She pushed the thought to the side and put her towel and key on a lounge chair, kicking off her one pair of shoes and quickly diving in.
“Too good,” she whispered when she came up for air.
She did a few laps before turning to float on her back, relaxing her body and letting the water carry her away. Her eyes closed as she willed away all the stress and anxiety that had been plaguing her the last two days.