Manny's Mix-up

Part Three

Jason and Maddie hit the floor as the bullets whizzed past their heads, and crawled to a door on the other side of the kitchen.  Maddie got on her knees and opened it, and Jason followed her down to the basement.

“There’s a door to the backyard down here,” she said.  Unable to see much of anything, Jason grabbed the back of Maddie’s tee-shirt and held onto her.  She felt her way to the doors leading outside and pushed one of them open.

“Wait,” Jason whispered.  “What if those guys are out there?”

“It’s not guys, it’s the house.  Clarence hit the button.”

She climbed out of the basement with Jason close behind.  It was dark outside, too, and there were no street lights or buildings to illuminate their surroundings.  Maddie took Jason’s hand and led him away from the house.

“I go this way almost every day,” she said.  “We can’t take the road because someone will be looking for Jake and Manny.  They’ll know me.”

She kept hold of his hand as they entered the woods several yards away from the house.  She was trying to keep from hitting him with tree branches, but he kept getting hit anyway.

“Sorry,” she said when he complained.  “It’s not very far.”

They walked about twenty minutes and Jason could see lights through the trees.  They emerged onto a parking lot behind an old motel, and Maddie turned to Jason.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.  You know this place?  Shit, I wished we’d grabbed a shirt back there.”  He was still shirtless from the night of the concert.

“I’ve been here before.  The man who owns it eats at the dinner most mornings and I join him.  He buys because he knows I don’t have money.  We’ll ask him for a shirt.”

The motel was L-shaped with eight rooms and quarters for the innkeeper.  Even in the light of the streetlamp at the edge of the parking lot, Jason reasoned  that this place had seen better days.  They walked to the front door and he could see a small, old man sitting behind the counter.  When Maddie walked in, the old man smiled, but it faded when he saw Jason behind her.

“I hope this is a social call,” he said.  “I won’t give you a room for shenanigans.”

“It’s okay, Bill, we just need a place to hold up.  Clarence hit the house tonight.”

“Are you okay?” Bill said as he walked around the counter.  He put his hands Maddie’s shoulders.

“I’m fine.  Just a little shook up.  Can we stay in one of your rooms until things settle down?”

Bill looked at Jason suspiciously.  Then it dawned on him that he had seen this face before.

“You look just like Jason Taylor.”

“I get that a lot,” Jason said.

“He was a great singer.  I saw him for the first time in 2006.  I was just a kid then, but I never forgot that concert.”

“I’m sure he’d appreciate that.”

“Bill, can we have a room?” Maddie repeated.  “And do you have a tee-shirt he can borrow?”

“Oh, sure, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.  But you mind yourselves.  I’ll see what I’ve got in the back.”

As Maddie switched on the light, Jason groaned.  The room had two queen-sized beds, a dresser with mirror, table, two chairs and a TV.  The painting of Native Americans on the wall was faded from the Sun and the bedspreads were corduroy.  The bathroom wasn’t any better, with a free-standing sink and shower stall.

“This is depressing.  I thought I was in the future,” Jason said.  He sat down on a bed and took off his shoes.  He looked at the shirt Bill had given him.  It was a black and white checked Oxford dress shirt.  Jason shook his head.  “So, you wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“I told you, Clarence hit the button.”

“Yeah, you said that before.  What button?  Come on, Maddie, this is bullshit.  I wake up in Kansas of all places and some robotic girl tells me it’s 2051, but she can’t tell me anything else.”

Maddie walked past him and sat on the other bed.  “I wish I could tell you.  They didn’t bring me here to be part of it.  They brought me here to clean up after them and bind their wounds if necessary.  They don’t tell me anything.”

“What do you mean they brought you here?  Did they kidnap you?”

“Yes, they kidnapped me.”  She took some deep breaths and kept her gaze on the marbled beige carpet.  “I was hanging laundry in the yard with my mother when Joshua, that’s one of them, came to our house and asked for a job.  My father let him work on the farm and he would smile at me once in a while.  Then he asked my father if he could marry me and my father agreed.  When the ceremony was over, Joshua took me to the hotel and when he held my wrist, we both ended up in the safe house.”

“And nobody’s looking for you?”

“Not anymore.”

“How do you know that?  I can’t believe a girl with a family just disappears and nobody’s looking for her.”

“I’m sure they looked for me.  My mother would never just let me go.”

Maddie’s eyes were filled with tears, and as they streamed down her face, Jason got up and sat next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders.

“Did you ever try to get away?” he asked.

“There’s nowhere to go.”

“You could go back to your family.  Didn’t those morons ever leave you alone?”

“You don’t understand.  I can’t go home.”

“I’m sure your parents love you.  They wouldn’t hold this against you.”

Maddie stood up and walked to the dresser.  She put her hands on top and looked into the mirror.  “You don’t understand.”

“Then tell me so I can understand.  Why can’t you go home?”

“Because my home doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Why?”  Jason got up and turned her around.  He grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes.  “Why, tell me why?”

“Because Joshua took me in 1897!”