Chapter I
I wish I could just wise up. Maybe if I had learned from my mistakes I would not have this type of problem, but no. If you had decided to ask me yesterday what I would be doing today I probably would have said, "Oh, I don't know, maybe go to the mall with my friends. Yeah, that would be awesome." I doubt that I would have said, "Jumping a train to the middle of nowhere with my friends and being chased down by a psychopath." No, I do not think I would have said that at all.
That morning started out like any other day, I woke up to a sunny Saturday morning sky and sleepily crawled out of bed. My window was open and a desert breeze crept in through it. I headed downstairs in my pajamas and ate a piece of toast and a nice and crisp apple before I got a phone call.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Marie? Is that you? It's Veronica."
"Yup, it's me, so, what's up?"
"Nothing, I'm so bored! Are you doing anything today?"
"I don't think so."
"Want to go for a ride? I'll call Wanda and Maureen. Meet me downtown in an hour."
I heard a click and realized that she had hung up. Veronica always was a demanding person. 'Oh well,' I thought, 'I don't have anything better to do today. So I hurried upstairs as quick as a rabbit and pulled on my pink and fluffy blouse and a pair of dark blue jeans. Before running out of my room I grabbed my little white purse off my dresser. I was going to go in the bathroom and put on a touch of makeup put when I heard my father singing "Rubber ducky, you're the one..." I decided he did not want a visit from his eighteen year old daughter. I hurdled down the stairs and back into the kitchen, "Hi Mom, bye mom!"
"Wait one second! Where are you going?" Sadly, I did not listen and my mom had to use my full name, "Gertrude Marie McChristophermanson! Where are you going?"
"Uh..." I did not really know myself where I was going, "Downtown with Veronica, Maureen and Wanda. I'll be back this afternoon."
"Oh, okay. You could have just told me that. Just write me out a note to tell your dad where you're going because I'm leaving too. See you later, XOXO honey!" I turned and hurried out the door. In the garage I swiftly grabbed the key to the lock on my bike and threw the helmet onto my head. As I pedaled downtown I looked around. Even though it was the beginning of December it looked like it could be September, or July for that matter. The weather never really changes in Arizona.
When I got downtown I headed to our usual meeting place, by the bike rack in the park. I saw Veronica and Maureen waiting and Wanda was waving from the other side of the park. I sped up and when I reached the rack I pulled my bike to a screeching halt.
"Hey guys," I said breathlessly, "What's up?"
Veronica practically ignored me and started off on her own tangent, "Okay, you guys ready to go? We're going to hop a train."
"What?" Maureen and I yelped together, our eyes wide.
"We. Are. Going. To. Jump. A. Train." Veronica replied, very slowly.
"We're not stupid Veronica, why are we jumping a train?" Maureen questioned.
"Because it's the quickest way to get somewhere. We're just going to Tucson to do some buying and we'll be back by the end of the day."
Veronica started walking away towards the train station. Maureen and I just looked at each other and followed her shrugging our shoulders. Wanda followed us, silent as always. None of us wanted to go but no one really wanted to stand up to Veronica either.
By the time we had caught up with Veronica she had already reached the train station. Noiselessly we slipped around the back and behind a train. Luckily, all of the cars were still being loaded with goods and we could slip into a compartment unnoticed. We settled ourselves behind a large crate of saltpeter in the far corner of the small compartment. It was a bit cramped and Maureen, Wanda and I were huddled together while Veronica was comfortably stretched out.
After what seemed like days of waiting we felt the train lurch beneath us. Veronica grinned at us. I tried to smile back but I was nervous for some reason. Why? I did not know. We were just going shopping, right?
The train hurtled on for what must have been three hours. After a while I began to wonder where we were heading. Tucson was only a few hours away. I glanced over at Veronica. She had fallen asleep with her head lying in a pile of packing materials. She had to have gotten us all on the wrong train. This was not right. We had been going for hours and the train showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. I looked around at Maureen and Wanda. Maureen had also dozed off but Wanda was looking nervously over at me, "Do you think we got on the wrong train too?" she asked.
"I don't know. This can't be right. It only takes a few hours to get to Tucson, and that's driving. I don't know where we're going. Ugh! Why did we ever agree to this?"
"We didn't," Wanda gave me a nervous smirk, "Veronica agreed enough for all of us."
"You're right. This is so not a good thing. I told my mom I was just heading downtown. I promised I'd be home tonight."
"Well, I don't think you will be. Wherever this is going, I don't think we'll get there tonight."
I nodded and stood up. There had to be a window I could open somewhere. I pressed my hand against the boards on the wall until my fingers found a small knob. I twisted and pulled at it until it finally jiggled loose. As a stream of fresh air raced in my eyes pressed shut to block out the sun. It was still awfully bright outside but then again we had left at 11:00. That meant that it was probably around 2:00 and if we turned around now we wouldn't be home until 5:00.
"Well, Wanda, the train has to stop eventually."
"Yeah, eventually."
After another two hours I began to panic. I tried to be as carefree as Maureen and Veronica but it was not working. How could they be sleeping? Wanda had tried too but she awoke every few minutes. She was just as jumpy as I was. Plus we had the added fear of what our parents would do to us when we finally did get home. We could not figure out how to explain us not getting home until at the earliest around 9:00 when I had left a little before 11:00.
Also, inside the train was like an oven. The dust in the air was clinging to my skin. The air smelled of grease and smoke from the train and every few minutes the whistle would blow rather loudly startling us all.
As I glared at Veronica I hurtled forward. The train was stopping! Finally, I could just find a bus somewhere to take us home. I was so glad that I had grabbed my purse on the way out of my house. I knew that everyone else had money too because Veronica had told them we were going shopping. As the train slowed Maureen began to wake up. She smiled at Wanda and I but we just stared back, "What?"
"Nothing, it's only four o'clock in the afternoon." Wanda was quick to reply.
"Four! No way! My parents set my curfew for nine! There is no way we'll make it back in time! Plus we won't be able to go shopping! Ugh! This was all so pointless!"
"I know Maureen," I replied, "But it doesn't really matter anyway because we got on the wrong train. This one is not taking us to Tucson."
Maureen's eyes must have become the size of golf balls. She seemed speechless as she turned her head and frowned at Veronica who was just waking up at that moment. So we all agreed that it was her fault that we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way home. I stood up to look out the window again and was shocked by what I saw. Nothing. I saw absolutely, positively nothing but a vast empty wasteland. Where had the train stopped?
It was then that Veronica decided to make a comment, "Hey chicas! Ready to do some hard shopping?" We all just looked at her.
"Do you know where we are?" I screamed.
"Yeah, Tucson."
"Uh, no, look out the window at your Tucson! You got us on the wrong train you moron!"
Veronica crawled up to the window and looked out as though she didn't believe us. When she looked out and saw the same deserted nothing that I saw her eyes got very wide. She turned around and sat herself back down onto the crate. Her eyes were sad and confused and I wanted to feel sorry for her but it was all her fault we were still here.
"Well," Veronica sighed, "The train will turn around sometime."
"Not anytime soon! Look around you; this car is still filled with crates! Have they unloaded it yet? No!" I was so angry at her, "I'm going out. If there's a train station here then there has to be a town somewhere."
I walked toward the door that the train workers had pulled down early. With a lot of force and a little screaming it finally opened. I looked around outside and when I did not see anybody I jumped out of the car and onto the desert sand. By this point I truly did not care if any of my friends were following me, I just wanted to get home. I began walked toward a road I saw a few hundred feet behind the train. It had to lead to somewhere.
After walking for a few minutes I turned to see if anyone had followed me. Maureen was right behind me and Wanda and Veronica were a couple yards back. We walked on in silence until we reached the road when I said, "Lets just keep on the road for a while until we reach a town somewhere."
Everyone nodded in agreement and we continued walking. We must have walked for a half an hour before Maureen spoke up, "Hey! What's that?"
We all looked up, we had walked past a town and not even noticed. It turned out that what Maureen saw was a motel. The Bates Motel to be specific. We headed over to what seemed to be the office to ask to use the phone. I slowly reached over and rang the bell. When no one came out of the back room we walked outside and saw a tall man running down from the house above the hotel.
He had dark hair and was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and jeans, "Hi, how can I help you four?"
"Well, you see, we've lost our way-" Maureen started.
"And our car," Wanda piped in.
Before anyone could continue our story Veronica piped in, "And we were wondering, could we rent a room? I mean, do you have any vacancies?"
"Sure do, twelve rooms, twelve vacancies."
My friends and I nervously exchanges eye contact, "Okay, um Mr. Bates..."
"Norman Bates."
I wish I could just wise up. Maybe if I had learned from my mistakes I would not have this type of problem, but no. If you had decided to ask me yesterday what I would be doing today I probably would have said, "Oh, I don't know, maybe go to the mall with my friends. Yeah, that would be awesome." I doubt that I would have said, "Jumping a train to the middle of nowhere with my friends and being chased down by a psychopath." No, I do not think I would have said that at all.
That morning started out like any other day, I woke up to a sunny Saturday morning sky and sleepily crawled out of bed. My window was open and a desert breeze crept in through it. I headed downstairs in my pajamas and ate a piece of toast and a nice and crisp apple before I got a phone call.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Marie? Is that you? It's Veronica."
"Yup, it's me, so, what's up?"
"Nothing, I'm so bored! Are you doing anything today?"
"I don't think so."
"Want to go for a ride? I'll call Wanda and Maureen. Meet me downtown in an hour."
I heard a click and realized that she had hung up. Veronica always was a demanding person. 'Oh well,' I thought, 'I don't have anything better to do today. So I hurried upstairs as quick as a rabbit and pulled on my pink and fluffy blouse and a pair of dark blue jeans. Before running out of my room I grabbed my little white purse off my dresser. I was going to go in the bathroom and put on a touch of makeup put when I heard my father singing "Rubber ducky, you're the one..." I decided he did not want a visit from his eighteen year old daughter. I hurdled down the stairs and back into the kitchen, "Hi Mom, bye mom!"
"Wait one second! Where are you going?" Sadly, I did not listen and my mom had to use my full name, "Gertrude Marie McChristophermanson! Where are you going?"
"Uh..." I did not really know myself where I was going, "Downtown with Veronica, Maureen and Wanda. I'll be back this afternoon."
"Oh, okay. You could have just told me that. Just write me out a note to tell your dad where you're going because I'm leaving too. See you later, XOXO honey!" I turned and hurried out the door. In the garage I swiftly grabbed the key to the lock on my bike and threw the helmet onto my head. As I pedaled downtown I looked around. Even though it was the beginning of December it looked like it could be September, or July for that matter. The weather never really changes in Arizona.
When I got downtown I headed to our usual meeting place, by the bike rack in the park. I saw Veronica and Maureen waiting and Wanda was waving from the other side of the park. I sped up and when I reached the rack I pulled my bike to a screeching halt.
"Hey guys," I said breathlessly, "What's up?"
Veronica practically ignored me and started off on her own tangent, "Okay, you guys ready to go? We're going to hop a train."
"What?" Maureen and I yelped together, our eyes wide.
"We. Are. Going. To. Jump. A. Train." Veronica replied, very slowly.
"We're not stupid Veronica, why are we jumping a train?" Maureen questioned.
"Because it's the quickest way to get somewhere. We're just going to Tucson to do some buying and we'll be back by the end of the day."
Veronica started walking away towards the train station. Maureen and I just looked at each other and followed her shrugging our shoulders. Wanda followed us, silent as always. None of us wanted to go but no one really wanted to stand up to Veronica either.
By the time we had caught up with Veronica she had already reached the train station. Noiselessly we slipped around the back and behind a train. Luckily, all of the cars were still being loaded with goods and we could slip into a compartment unnoticed. We settled ourselves behind a large crate of saltpeter in the far corner of the small compartment. It was a bit cramped and Maureen, Wanda and I were huddled together while Veronica was comfortably stretched out.
After what seemed like days of waiting we felt the train lurch beneath us. Veronica grinned at us. I tried to smile back but I was nervous for some reason. Why? I did not know. We were just going shopping, right?
The train hurtled on for what must have been three hours. After a while I began to wonder where we were heading. Tucson was only a few hours away. I glanced over at Veronica. She had fallen asleep with her head lying in a pile of packing materials. She had to have gotten us all on the wrong train. This was not right. We had been going for hours and the train showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. I looked around at Maureen and Wanda. Maureen had also dozed off but Wanda was looking nervously over at me, "Do you think we got on the wrong train too?" she asked.
"I don't know. This can't be right. It only takes a few hours to get to Tucson, and that's driving. I don't know where we're going. Ugh! Why did we ever agree to this?"
"We didn't," Wanda gave me a nervous smirk, "Veronica agreed enough for all of us."
"You're right. This is so not a good thing. I told my mom I was just heading downtown. I promised I'd be home tonight."
"Well, I don't think you will be. Wherever this is going, I don't think we'll get there tonight."
I nodded and stood up. There had to be a window I could open somewhere. I pressed my hand against the boards on the wall until my fingers found a small knob. I twisted and pulled at it until it finally jiggled loose. As a stream of fresh air raced in my eyes pressed shut to block out the sun. It was still awfully bright outside but then again we had left at 11:00. That meant that it was probably around 2:00 and if we turned around now we wouldn't be home until 5:00.
"Well, Wanda, the train has to stop eventually."
"Yeah, eventually."
After another two hours I began to panic. I tried to be as carefree as Maureen and Veronica but it was not working. How could they be sleeping? Wanda had tried too but she awoke every few minutes. She was just as jumpy as I was. Plus we had the added fear of what our parents would do to us when we finally did get home. We could not figure out how to explain us not getting home until at the earliest around 9:00 when I had left a little before 11:00.
Also, inside the train was like an oven. The dust in the air was clinging to my skin. The air smelled of grease and smoke from the train and every few minutes the whistle would blow rather loudly startling us all.
As I glared at Veronica I hurtled forward. The train was stopping! Finally, I could just find a bus somewhere to take us home. I was so glad that I had grabbed my purse on the way out of my house. I knew that everyone else had money too because Veronica had told them we were going shopping. As the train slowed Maureen began to wake up. She smiled at Wanda and I but we just stared back, "What?"
"Nothing, it's only four o'clock in the afternoon." Wanda was quick to reply.
"Four! No way! My parents set my curfew for nine! There is no way we'll make it back in time! Plus we won't be able to go shopping! Ugh! This was all so pointless!"
"I know Maureen," I replied, "But it doesn't really matter anyway because we got on the wrong train. This one is not taking us to Tucson."
Maureen's eyes must have become the size of golf balls. She seemed speechless as she turned her head and frowned at Veronica who was just waking up at that moment. So we all agreed that it was her fault that we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way home. I stood up to look out the window again and was shocked by what I saw. Nothing. I saw absolutely, positively nothing but a vast empty wasteland. Where had the train stopped?
It was then that Veronica decided to make a comment, "Hey chicas! Ready to do some hard shopping?" We all just looked at her.
"Do you know where we are?" I screamed.
"Yeah, Tucson."
"Uh, no, look out the window at your Tucson! You got us on the wrong train you moron!"
Veronica crawled up to the window and looked out as though she didn't believe us. When she looked out and saw the same deserted nothing that I saw her eyes got very wide. She turned around and sat herself back down onto the crate. Her eyes were sad and confused and I wanted to feel sorry for her but it was all her fault we were still here.
"Well," Veronica sighed, "The train will turn around sometime."
"Not anytime soon! Look around you; this car is still filled with crates! Have they unloaded it yet? No!" I was so angry at her, "I'm going out. If there's a train station here then there has to be a town somewhere."
I walked toward the door that the train workers had pulled down early. With a lot of force and a little screaming it finally opened. I looked around outside and when I did not see anybody I jumped out of the car and onto the desert sand. By this point I truly did not care if any of my friends were following me, I just wanted to get home. I began walked toward a road I saw a few hundred feet behind the train. It had to lead to somewhere.
After walking for a few minutes I turned to see if anyone had followed me. Maureen was right behind me and Wanda and Veronica were a couple yards back. We walked on in silence until we reached the road when I said, "Lets just keep on the road for a while until we reach a town somewhere."
Everyone nodded in agreement and we continued walking. We must have walked for a half an hour before Maureen spoke up, "Hey! What's that?"
We all looked up, we had walked past a town and not even noticed. It turned out that what Maureen saw was a motel. The Bates Motel to be specific. We headed over to what seemed to be the office to ask to use the phone. I slowly reached over and rang the bell. When no one came out of the back room we walked outside and saw a tall man running down from the house above the hotel.
He had dark hair and was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and jeans, "Hi, how can I help you four?"
"Well, you see, we've lost our way-" Maureen started.
"And our car," Wanda piped in.
Before anyone could continue our story Veronica piped in, "And we were wondering, could we rent a room? I mean, do you have any vacancies?"
"Sure do, twelve rooms, twelve vacancies."
My friends and I nervously exchanges eye contact, "Okay, um Mr. Bates..."
"Norman Bates."