You're Safe Here

 Part 7, Getting Lost

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             I must have fallen asleep, for when the Rover slowed, turned left and rolled over gravel, I woke suddenly. The sound of tires on gravel brought back buried memories. Things like coming home with parents late at night, coming in late after dates, that sort of thing. Why did it always remind of night time occasions?

            Then I remembered why I was here.
            The photos. The security footage of me snapping photos.  Ellis. Luminous.
            I watched the light from the headlights as we drove slowly past a large mailbox and up a long driveway. The name on the box said Flores.
            Not a ranch hand then.
            “Here we are,” Mike said.
            “Sorry, I went to sleep, I didn’t mean to,” I answered.
            “Oh, I don’t blame you. Driving at night does that. Why don’t I grab your stuff and show you the guest room?
            “ I don’t think there is any point in doing anything else tonight. It’s a nice room. You can raid the kitchen if you want. There is a girl who cooks, but she goes home after washing up the dishes. So you’re on your own there.
            “I’ll tell Doc you’re here and that you’ll talk to him tomorrow?” I nodded.
            As if I were a child, he came around to my side and opened my door, waiting for me to clear. Then he got my two bags in hand, and I followed him up two broad stairs onto the porch. It was one of those big covered porches like you see in hot places, for the shade.
            The night air was still warm. I was wearing the same clothes that I had worked in at Lorenzo’s earlier this day. I looked out over the land, back where we had come from. Flat, dark, mysterious, with those stars again.
            I was profoundly sleepy.
            Mike knocked once on the door, opened it, and I followed him inside.
            “I knock so Doc knows it’s me.”
            The room was large, finished in wood, surrounded by bookcases. Low rustic style furniture was scattered around. Two lamps provided a pleasant warm light, one from each end of the room. Straight on from the front door was a hall.
            Mike kept on walking toward the hall. I followed. His bootheels rang on the wooden floor. There were doors on both sides of the broad hall. He stopped at the first one on the left, opened the door, and looked back to see if I was still following.
            “This was my sister’s room, Jenae. Hope it suits,” he said and put my two bags, at the foot of the bed on the floor.
            “Thank you, Mike. I’m already asleep,” I laughed a little. “I feel like I’m already dreaming too.”
            “The kitchen is down the hall on this side, I’m sure you know your way around a kitchen. My headquarters are downstairs, across from Doc’s office and bedroom. We’ll be down there. Goodnight, Jenae. You’re safe here.”
            You know how sometimes words hang in the air? They almost leave a physical impression? Those words did that after he closed the door and was gone. Those words were still there. “You’re safe here.”
            It was a good solid bedroom. All dark wood. The bed was a twin and rather firm. The spread and the curtains displayed matching carmine rose patterns. There was a dresser, with empty drawers. A window, if the curtain had been pulled back, faced back towards Luminous. A deep red runner of carpet led from the bed to the small bathroom.
            I had a funny thought, if I didn’t get hungry I wouldn’t have to ever leave this room.
            But, I was hungry. So I crept out into the hall and down to the kitchen. In the fridge I found milk. They had raisin bran, so I had a bowl of that. I made a cup of instant coffee. This was no time to start a pot in a stranger’s kitchen.
            Then I washed up my cup and bowl and spoon and padded back into my room. I didn’t lock the door. Seemed like locked doors were not local practice.
            Even though the room was very nice, fancy even, during the night I was restless. I would doze off and then snap awake suddenly. I felt just a very remote tang of menace.
            I got out of bed sometime in the early hours and went to the window. I wondered if I could see the Luminous Lights from here. So I drew the curtains and opened the old fashioned wood framed window by sliding it up, like in the old days. Night air washed in, full of scents and quiet sounds.
            Looking back towards town, I thought I could see some faint light in changing colors right on the horizon, under the blazing stars.
            The sense of menace became strong and distinct. I pulled my head back into the room. Something was moving out there. I tried to focus on it. It approached slowly and silently, black, with just some dull orange lights. This thing was airborne. As it got closer, maybe fifty feet out, I saw that it was a flattish oval shape, maybe twenty feet in length and ten in breadth. 
            I jumped back. Slammed the window shut and pulled the curtains to. It never occurred to me to seek help or call out.  I leapt back into bed, covered my face with the blankets and waited for morning.
            I’d seen that very same thing in Ellis’s locked hanger clear up in Milltown.