Masked (4 page)

The door’s bell rang as I entered
the small café and the combined fragrance of grease, smoke and coffee rushed at
me. The scents were pleasant together and attacked my ravenous stomach, causing
it to jump into fits of rumbling.

The Elk Stand Café was a quaint
little place, with five booths along the front window and a bar with eight
stools on the other side of the room. Behind the bar was a small area for the
wait staff, with the kitchen on the other side of an open window just behind
that. On the wall, above the window to the kitchen, was a row of mounted animal
heads: a moose, an elk, a bear, and a wolf. It seemed maintenance of the trophies
wasn’t a priority, as they were all covered in dust, cobwebs and neglect. The
unfinished natural wood styling of the tables and chairs gave the café an
authentic attempt at a Rocky Mountain theme, I guessed.

The café wasn’t busy, with only
three customers besides me. A couple sat at one of the window booths. They had
to at least be in their seventies and seemed to be disagreeing with each other on
some issue, but I couldn’t hear what it was they were saying.  Neither of them looked
over as I entered. There was also a brunette woman sitting at the bar with her
back to me.

Another woman stood behind the
bar with her back also to me, talking with someone in the back kitchen. I walked
up to the bar and took a seat a couple down from the brunette.

“May I help you?” the middle aged
woman asked with a light, pleasant voice as she turned and approached. She was a
shorter, stout woman with dark blonde hair pulled back tightly. She wore a red
flannel shirt, jeans and an apron. The name tag on the apron said “Olive.”

“I’ll start with a cup of coffee
and would like to look at a menu,” I said with a friendly tone.

She smiled. “Sure hon.”

Olive poured the cup of coffee
and handed me the menu.

“Let me know when you’re ready to
order.”

As I opened the two-page white paper
menu, I heard “so we meet again” from the young woman sitting two seats to the
right of me. I looked up and recognized her as the girl I had briefly talked with
at the truck stop earlier.

“Hello again,” I said, trying to
be friendly and not let nervous words stumble out.  Now that I saw her again I
felt bad about being rude before.

She had an empty soda glass and
near-empty plate littered with the remnants of a sandwich in front of her. She was
wearing the same light blue jacket she’d had on before and this time her brown
hair was pulled into a neat pony tail.

“So I guess you decided to stay
after all,” she said. “Are you staying around here?”

“Yep, you were right, I couldn’t
resist the beautiful day. I’m checked in at the inn next door,” I said. I
wasn’t going to explain I had really checked in to sleep through the day and was
getting ready to head back out on the road once I left the café.

“I just checked in there myself,”
she said. “I wasn’t planning on staying the night here, but with such a nice
day, I had to take in some of the local hiking.”

I smiled and nodded in agreement.

“My name is Laura,” she said with
her hand stretched out towards me.

I reached for her hand and shook it.

“I’m Michael.”

“Nice to meet you Michael,” she
smiled. “Are you traveling alone?”

She was absolutely striking with
the most gorgeous emerald green eyes. She was the type of girl who looked best
not dressed up with a lot of make-up and fancy clothing, but natural in a
casual shirt and jeans. Her facial features had both a chiseled shape as well
as softness, allowing the perception of both strength and kindness with a
healthy dose of hotness.

“It’s just me. I’m visiting my
cousin in Oregon. I convinced my parents to stay home this time. They weren’t convinced
my truck could make the trip, but in the end they let me go,” I lied. “How
about you?”

Olive interrupted the
conversation and asked Laura if she was ready for her check as she cleared her plate
and glass.

“Yes please,” Laura said.

Olive turned to me.

“Have you decided what you want?”

“Ahh yes,” I said while fumbling
through the menu, obviously not having looked at it yet.

“I’ll take the double cheeseburger
platter with a coke and a slice of apple pie,” I said. “No, make it two.”

“Two of what?” she asked.

“I’m sorry. Two of everything.”

She looked skeptically at me, her
brow raised, but then shrugged.

“Sure hon,” she said as she walked
off to place the order.

“Boy, big appetite,” Laura said smiling.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m
hungry and that’s just for starters.” I teased.

I hadn’t had nearly enough to eat
when I was in Troy. Using my ability made me weak, especially when I didn’t get
enough to eat. Looking for the girl took way too much out of me. The headaches the
effort caused were the worst I’d ever had. It was the longest period I’d spent
looking without any breaks. The throbbing in my head had almost been unbearable.
I couldn’t begin to count how many pills I’d taken to be able to tolerate it.

The pain usually got better after
I could stop looking for a while and rest. The sleep had really helped as well
as the latest round of pill popping. The throbbing was still there, but in the
background. I hoped eating a real meal would take care of what remained. Compared
to protein bars and food from vending machines I considered a pile of
cheeseburgers and fries a real meal. A little beef and grease was exactly what
the doctor ordered.

“Yes. I’m traveling alone as
well. I’m heading back to school in Seattle. I’m a freshman at UW. I just spent
the last couple of weeks back home in Texas. So where do you call home?” Laura asked.

I tried hard to avoid casual
conversations like this as I’d found I wasn’t very good at conveying false information
about myself in a convincing manner. I had my standard response prepared, but my
presentation of it was mediocre at best. I’d already deviated from the standard
for some reason so was on a slippery slope already.

The truth was the closest thing I’d
had to a home since leaving the HUB was my old beat up truck. I moved from
place to place, never staying longer than needed. Staying too long in any one
place attracted attention.

I was pretty sure most people I interacted
with considered me rude. Whenever people tried to strike up conversations, I provided
short monosyllabic answers which fueled their disinterest, not giving them a
chance to go on. Ok, I know I was rude, but I did need to stay under the radar
and I really didn’t want to get to know people. I was better off if I could
keep my distance. Perfect cover as an angsty teenager I guessed. My life was a
lonely one, but loneliness was better than failure and heartbreak.

 Since, at the moment, I was in a
relatively good mood, mostly due to the prospect of a real meal, and since she seemed
kind and genuine, I decided I’d make the attempt to have a pleasant
conversation with her as I waited for my food. I would do my best to present
the manufactured information in the best way I could and pretend to be a real
person. I thought it might even be good to talk to someone and she was probably
ready to leave soon anyways. The fact she was a really cute college girl
interested in talking with me didn’t hurt as well.

“I live in Utah,” I said.

“Oh! I have some friends in the Salt
Lake area. They live in Logan.” Laura said energetically.

“I know some people in Logan as
well,” I lied. The only thing I knew about Salt Lake was what could be learned
by looking at a map as well as some basic facts from Wikipedia. I knew just
enough to bluff through most common follow up questions.

“Where in Texas are you from?” I
asked to be polite.

“I’m from Dallas,” she said. “I
don’t have to be back at school for another week, but thought I’d take some
time for myself.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It has been. I have been...”
There was a pause. “Just doing a little soul searching,” she continued.

“Here’s your check hon,” Olive said
as she rested the check on the counter.

“Thanks.”

Laura looked at the check and reached
into her jacket pocket to pull out two five dollar bills. She placed the money
on the counter next to the check.

“Do you like school so far? I
still have another year before I graduate and haven’t decided where I want to
go yet,” I asked.

“School’s good. Right now I’m
just trying to live the experience. I haven’t elected any major. I don’t want
to take it too seriously yet,” she said. “You should consider UW. It’s a lot of
fun.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

”Well if you’re ever in the area
look me up,” she said. She ripped off part of her receipt and wrote a phone
number on the back.

“Sure,” I said caught off guard
at her directness.

She smiled.

She stood to gather her keys and
purse. “Well, I better get going. I’ve been here long enough.”

She started to rise and I asked
“where are you headed next?”

“Not sure. I’ll probably make a
couple more stops though. I hear north Idaho is nice. No itinerary.”

“The best way to travel,” I said.

Laura pushed her stool back up to
the bar and turned to me. “It was nice meeting you Michael,” she said with her
arm stretched forward.

I took her hand and shook it. “It
was nice to talk with you.”

“Maybe I’ll see you out on the
road somewhere,” she said.

“You never know.”

Laura turned and headed towards
the door of the café. I watched her as she exited before I turned back around
to wait for the food. I was surprised to find I was sad to see her go. She
seemed to be a nice person and for some reason interested in me. That felt nice
and it was good to talk with someone for a change. I didn’t linger with those
thoughts for very long.

A few minutes later, Olive brought
over two plates, each overflowing with a large greasy cheeseburger covered in
all of the trimmings as well as a pile of oil heavy fries. A few seconds after
that, she sat down a glass of coke and two large slices of pie.

“Thank you,” I said to Olive.

“Sure hon.”

I didn’t waste any time digging
in. The food tasted absolutely delicious. I hadn’t eaten like that in weeks and
it didn’t take me long at all to get through the two cheeseburgers and mounds
of fries. They were wonderful. The greasy deliciousness slid down with little
more effort than breathing. When I was finished, I moved right over to the pie
and devoured each slice of the sweet flaky treat in an equally efficient manner.

It was awesome. Like I said
before, I get gluttonous when I haven’t eaten in a while.

Olive walked over and shot me an
amazed look. “Anything else,” she smiled.

“How about another slice of pie
and a cup of coffee, black.”

I don’t think she had really
expected me to ask for more, but politely Olive nodded and turned to get me the
pie and coffee.

“Make it two pieces of pie,” I
added at the last second. It was really good pie.

She brought round two of my eat
fest over, setting the pie and coffee down in front of me. I thanked her and heard
the bell to the door ring as I reached for the sugar.

“Good evening,” Olive said as she
looked up to whoever had walked into the café. “I’ll be with you in a minute. Have
a seat wherever you would like. As you can see we have plenty open.”

“Let me know when you’re ready
for your check hon,” she said. She turned to grab a menu before walking over to
help the new customer.

I never turned to look at the new
customer. As I ate, I debated on where to go next, and asked myself the larger question.
How long could I keep it up? It had been over a year now since I began my
wandering, going from town to town, motel to motel. What else was I to do?  It’s
not like I could go enroll in school or get a job. I didn’t have an identity. I
didn’t want to draw attention to myself.

Even if there was a chance for me
to someday have a normal life, I wasn’t so sure I wanted it. To have a
productive normal life, one needed to form relationships. I wasn’t sure if I
could ever handle that again. Besides, I‘d been able to help people and made the
ones who caused the victims’ suffering pay for their crimes. I could do things
most people couldn’t. Helpless people needed me which made my life worthwhile.
It was all I had.

So far I’d directed my wanderings
to places where I could best use my talents to help the authorities find
kidnappers, rapists and murderers. I’d saved lives.

Having no identity left me with limited
opportunities or ways to make money, none of which were legal. Even if I could
find a legitimate job, I moved around too much to keep anything stable, but I needed
money to be able to do what I did. The conclusion I came to was I had to steal
what I needed, which wasn’t the morally correct way to procure financing, but
it was the only option I saw. With no way to earn a living, I had to take what
I needed.