Saints of Evil | Trepidation Trilogy | The Empty World Sequence

Eight

They made it as far as Maryland and parked in a small trailer park surrounded by small towns that had blurred into one area of suburban development.  All around were rows of near identical houses all wired to the same cables, rows of green lawns and shining fences.  Dogs barked on leases, as the children slept fitfully in the back of the van, all huddled together. 

     Rozz woke first in the morning.  He went outside, pissed under the tire, then went to look for directions.  It was his fault they were in this place.  They'd left in such a rush they didn't have a map plug-in for the area and he'd followed road signs all the way from New York City.  Rozz had thought he was going towards Viginia, he was pretty sure that was the state south of Maryland, but he'd ended up on a small three lane highway going North toward somewhere called Frederick.  There had been trees everywhere.  It was like being in Goth again, and so he'd exited and wandered up a dark country road to this trailer park.

     Down the road, Rozz found an old building that housed the postal office for this rural area right in the center of all the suburbs, as well as some sort of pub.  Rozz crossed the street against the light and entered the pub.  He immediately felt out of place.  Here were old men in work clothes, people who were no doubt hired-hands on the large mechanized farms they'd passed in the night.  He imagined their hands holding wrenches and screwdrivers and hammers.  Hammers vaguely frightened him.  There were a few women, waitresses on shift and some off, daughters of these older people on their way somewhere.  There were a few people in suits, stopping in on their way to work. 

     Rozz didn't see anyone to seat him, and he didn't much want to just pick a table, so he went to the counter.  Soon an older woman with one of the new superslick short haircuts leaned over the counter at him.  "C'n I help ya?"

     Rozz helplessly beamed a smile as he heard her accent.  "A cup of coffee would be great," Rozz said.

     "Sure thing, will that be all?"

     Rozz knew enough about America to know that some people where really sensitive about whether or not you considered them South, North, or Canadian Americans.  Maryland was one of those border states which you could never be sure about. 

     "That'll be all."

     Rozz found a cup of dark coffee and several small packets of artificial sweetener and artificial cream.  He was afraid to ask if they had the real stuff, he feared they wouldn't, so he drank the coffee black.  It was strong bitter stuff. 

     "What's a kid like you doing here so early anyway?" the waitress asked.  She obviously had nothing better to do than chat up customers.

     "Oh, I'm travelling south with my family.  They let me drive and I kind of got us lost."

     "I never could get the hang of those maps.  Where you heading to?"

     "We're going south."

     "Well I'll tell you what you should do...wait, which way you come by?"

     "109 I believe."

     "Off 270?"

     "I thought I was going to Virginia but I ended up going north."

     "Dear, you took a bad turn off the interstate is all.  Here's how I would go: Go up the road some more till you hit Poolesville town center.  You can get a good map there, the biggest town center in these parts, almost like being in Frederick or Rockville."

     Rozz wanted to laugh.  They were so much like villagers back in Goth.  They had no idea what big cities were really like.  "Poolesville Town Center?"