Chapter 2

Ghost/Haunted house

II

The bright yellow impression rising through the trees somehow reminded Calvin of college, of hope, of something greater than himself, something that can't be understood, at least not yet. Lately he has found himself reminiscing about his college days. A simpler time, without bills and responsibilities looming overhead like some ominous dark cloud. Before Calvin could entrench himself too far into these thoughts, the radio blares at full volume. No music just that annoying hiss of white noise crowding the car. Calvin reached down to turn the radio off. “I know I turned that off earlier, maybe it's a short in the wiring,” he mumbles to himself.

“Did you say something?”

“What, no, no nothing.” His mind was snapped back to reality, whether he liked it or not.

Calvin thought it was odd that at 6 o'clock in the morning, on a Thursday, that this old stretch of highway was still barren, but the thought slowly subsided as he saw the concern in Amy's eyes over this frail young girl in the back seat. Calvin looks into those bright blue eyes of Amy and he sees fear. Fear that this young girl could die in their car today, without either one of them knowing where she is from, if her parents are worrying about her, hell, if she has parents that are alive or that care about her at all. Isn't that the biggest fear that we all have, to die in the arms of a stranger, with our identity and everything we are, washed aside like some neglected pile of driftwood washing up on some forgotten shore? With this thought in his head, Calvin knows he must do everything he can to make sure this girl survives.

Suddenly a scream tore the morning apart like a banshee's howl in some forsaken Irish countryside. The car swerved as Calvin did his best to find his piece of blacktop between the yellow and white lines. They made it to the rest stop and Amy rushed out of the car and opened the passenger side rear door. She was surprised to find the girl sitting still, eyes glazed, staring toward the front of the vehicle. Calvin ran inside to see if anyone was working the information desk or to at least find a payphone. Amy stayed with the girl, still trying to get a name or anything out of her, looking over her body for any injuries she may have missed. She ran from the car in a diagonal toward the road to get a better look at the gas pumps to see if there was anyone there. She could see a man pumping gas at the station around the back of the building. She ran over to ask him for help, to see if there was something he could do.

“There's a girl with me,us, me and my husband, I think she's hurt, can you help us?”

The man looked cautiously at the Amy, he's heard about con artists pulling scams; one pretends to be hurt the other robs the mark blind, but there was something in this woman's eyes that made him believe her.

“Yeah, sure, where is she.”

“She's in our car. We're parked around the front of the building. She has blood all over her, but I can't find any injuries on her.”

They move toward the car, as Amy explains to the man that her husband is inside calling an ambulance. They arrive at the car, but the girl is gone, vanished.

“But, she was just here, I don't understand.”

Amy peeks her head in the car as if the girl would be hiding amongst the floorboard. She then brings her head out and searches the parking lot, scanning for any sign of the girl, but nothing. Just empty parked semis and deserted blacktop.

“Maybe she's inside with your husband,” said the man.

Of course in her frazzled state Amy missed the obvious. They ran inside and found Calvin talking on an old rotary phone at the information desk. The old lady had a look of sympathy as she must have heard Calvin explain their situation and immediately knew she was Amy.

“Where's the girl.”

“What?”

“The girl, where is she.”

“In the car.”

“No, she's not. We looked everywhere around the parking lot. She's gone”

What are you talking about?”

Calvin finishes his conversation with the dispatcher and hangs up the phone. He walks out to the car parked haphazardly across three parking places, still running.

“She has to be around here, somewhere. She might be walking on the side of the highway. We have to find her before she gets hurt.”

Calvin was always the level-headed of the two. Maybe that's why they were so good together; they were polar opposites. They searched the side of the highway for awhile, but no sign of the girl. The ambulance arrived a few moments later and Calvin and Amy told them what had happened. They waited around for the police to file a missing person report. The officer asked them the usual; name, address, a description of the girl, but they couldn't give the officer much because they didn't know anything about the girl. Oddly Calvin and Amy found themselves unable to give a clear description of her. She was blonde, but everything else about her was a little hazy. She was in their car for less than a half hour, more than enough time to gather a fair understanding of what the girl looked like, but they couldn't remember anything other than the color of her hair and the blood covered dress she wore. The cop told them not to worry. She couldn't have got far and reassured Amy that they will find her. After the officer returned to his vehicle, Calvin turned to Amy.

“We should get going.”

“No, I'm not leaving that little girl alone on the side of the road or something.”

“Honey look, there's nothing else we can do. The police will find her. We need to get home and get some rest. It's been a long day.”