“Any chance you’ve gotten a signal?” Mr. Tomlin asked his wife as she paced back and forth along the narrow shoulder of the road.
It was a desolate stretch of country lane. Scout just sighed and let his head fall back against the seat. He watched his parents outside the car, his dad trying to fix a flat tire and his mom, embarrassed she had a husband who couldn’t change a tire, tried to get AAA on the phone before he really messed something up. Of course, Scout’s attitude wasn’t just due to the blown tire. He didn’t want to move to the middle of nowhere just before the start of his Junior year. No, he wasn’t the most popular kid in school, but he’d developed a well curated, interesting group of friends and was set to start playing lacrosse with the varsity team in the fall. That wasn’t going to happen now.
Scout side-eyed his little sister Sadie sitting beside him. Her black hair masked her dark eyes that were glued to whatever app she was playing. She was oblivious; he wasn’t sure she even realized they were pulled over on the side of the road with a blown tire. He shook his head and reached for the door handle.
“Where are you going, Sport?”
“Don’t wander too far!”
His mother and father spoke in unison, both seeming to care, but neither actually waiting for him to respond. Dad was back to the tire and mom was holding the phone over her head as it if she could get just a hair closer to the satellites orbiting earth then, maybe then, she’d get a bar or service.
“Just stretching,” Scout tossed over his shoulder to them as he moved down the road. Ten yards away and it was very dark. The canopy of trees, their branches crisscrossing overhead effectively blocked out any beams of illumination the moon might offer. Only the headlights of his father’s pride and joy, that stupid classic Mercedes, lit the immediate area. Scout could see a sign just up ahead and he approached it. It was a weathered, wooden sign, but it was clear someone took the time to come out and paint the letters every so often.
WELCOME TO SAVAGE
est. 1792 pop. 379
A curious feeling began to rise in his stomach as he looked at the sign. It wasn’t necessarily fear or straight-up anxiety, but something that bubbled at a lower simmer in the human mind. All of a sudden Scout felt paranoid. He turned back towards the family car and was instantly blinded by the headlights.
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“Damn,” he said outlaid as he blinked repeatedly moving closer towards the side of the road and out of the direct beam.
As his vision returned, the strange sensation in his stomach grew because now, instead of just two silhouettes standing by the car, there were three…and the new one was too tall to be Sadie.
“Who the hell…?”
Scout picked up his pace. Whoever it was was still behind his parents and it was clear they were clueless to the interloper.
“Dad, behind you…” Scout got out just as a singular beam of moonlight managed to inexplicably break through the web of overhead limbs to illuminate an older man with a mop of white hair and a kindly smile in a pair of denim bib overalls.
“Didn’t mean to startle ya,” the old man called out as he fished a handkerchief from his pocket, “I have a bad habit of walking around when I can’t sleep.”
Scout’s dad was clearly a little startled but hid it well as he approached the stranger and put out his hand. The old man took it and said, “I have a farm about a quarter-mile east of here if you’re having trouble I can go get a tractor to tow ya in.”
“Oh, no, no. It’s nothing worth going through all that trouble for. We just lost a tire, you see, and…” Mr. Tomlin started.
“But he can’t break the lug nuts loose and I can’t get any service out here,” Mrs. Tomlin jumped in; she was clearly ready to get back on the road.
“Well, let me take a look at that,” the old man didn’t wait for permission and before any of them knew what happened, the man was on his knees working away. Mr. Tomlin didn’t even remember handing him the lug wrench.
Scout was impressed as the man seemed to have the nuts off the wheel in no time. Pretty strong for an old guy. Six minutes later, the spare tire was installed; Mr. Tomlin was in disbelief. Mrs. Tomlin was already back in the car.
“I’m Hank by the way. Hank Collins. You’re the new doctor, I’m assuming.”
“Uh, yes. How did you know?”
“Small town, Mr. Tomlin, word gets around.”
“Well, I hope you’ll do me a favor and not spread it around town that I couldn’t manage to change my own tire. I mean, we were so close to making it to town without incident.”
“You’re secret is safe with me, Dr. Tomlin, and to be fair you made it into town about seventy feet back yonder. The welcome sign got taken out by a drunk driver some years ago and I think the man they hired to rebuild it was just as drunk. Put the whole thing in the wrong damn spot,” Hank laughed, “What are you gonna do?”
Mr. Tomlin laughed politely as he noticed how aside from his son and Hank, everything was so still around him, “Well Hank, I’m sure we’ll see you in town. We better get moving.”
“Of course,” Hank smiled, turned his gaze to Scout who’d been standing silently and observing this whole time, nodded deliberately then turned and walked back a few feet to stand under the lone moonbeam.
“Load up, son.”
Scout obeyed, but he couldn’t help but feeling that something was off. Inside the car, his mother and sister were totally absorbed in their phones. They didn’t seem to feel like anything was weird. Even his dad, who he could sense had been weirded out initially was focused on the GPS screen. As the car scrapped a bit getting back on the road and Mr. Tomlin swore under his breath, Scout turned and looked out the back window. The road was dark. The moonbeam was gone. Hank was nowhere to be seen.