14.

~ Alex woke up to the smells of bacon frying the next morning. The aroma wafting from the kitchen into his small bedroom, was enough to rouse him out of a heavy sleep and remember what had happened.

Norma had come to see him las night. She's slipped into his bed and away again like a ghost and he had to reassure himself it wasn't just a dream. It wasn't a dream at all. They'd left evidence of their dalliance behind and his body felt heavy and sedated.

No, it had happened. It had been real. Now she was cooking breakfast in the kitchen and Alex wasn't sure what to do. Normally, with his casual sexual relationships, he was long gone before morning ever came. He hardly ever stayed the night, or if he did, he snuck away as soon as dawn broke and his companion for the night was still sleeping.

How would he act now? Now that Norma and probably Dylan were sitting down to breakfast?

Alex quickly showered and dressed for work. He felt as nervous as if he were getting dressed for prom night, and yet, when he walked into the kitchen, it was to see Norma and Dylan there; like normal.

She was dressed in the same blue summer dress she wore when he first met her. A color that complimented her beautifully and Dylan was explaining to his mother the importance of some video game now that his breakfast was done.

"Morning." Alex said smelling the eggs and other enriching foods in the kitchen. Norma smiled at him warmly and began fixing him a plate.

"Mom cooked." Dylan explained. "She hadn't cooked since we got here. I missed her cooking."

The child looked relived that he had good food again and not just cold cereal.
"Your mom's been sick." Alex told Dylan calmly. "It's hard to do things when you're sick."

"She makes good French toast. She makes it every Saturday." Dylan said.

"Too bad today isn't Saturday." Alex said as he sat down next to Dylan. Norma had laid out a place for him and asked if he wanted juice or coffee.

"Coffee." he said while they avoided looking at each other.

He wasn't expecting the plate load of eggs, bacon, homemade biscuits and fried hash browns she sat down before him. Alex had always been a light eater. He never had a weight problem and had always been trim. Did she honestly think he could eat this much in one sitting?

"Wow." he said looking at the impressive meal while Dylan took his plate to the sink. His mother having trained him to rinse all plates off after eating.

"Yeah?" Norma asked nervously looking back. She'd already cleared away most of mess she'd made from cooking and seemed to only want coffee herself.

"Looks great." he admitted. "It's a lot."

"Yeah, well, you're a big guy." she said in an anxious voice.

Alex glanced at Dylan who seemed not to have noticed the comment.

Norma closed her eyes and shook her head. Catching the inside joke far too late.
"I mean, big and… tallish, never mind. Just eat. It's going to get cold and it's not going to be a good cold."

Alex nodded and did as she beckoned. He was hungry after all, but it felt awkward with Norma standing just a few feet away and watching him. Added to that, Dylan didn't seem that eager to leave.

The three of them politely exchanging small talk about their plans for today and Alex trying in vain to catch Norma's attention, but she kept looking away from him.

Finally, all too soon, his meal was over and he felt ready for a nap. Norma had cleaned up the kitchen, all except Alex's plate and quickly swiped it away and into the dishwasher.

"Mom?" Dylan asked. "Can I go play at Oscar's house again?"

"No." Norma shook her head and refused to look at Alex.

"Why not?"

"Because… I need you here." she tried to explain.

Alex could feel it then. Feel that Norma was preparing to leave. She wanted Dylan here so they could leave. She'd made him a good breakfast and slept with him only as a thank you for all he'd done for her; nothing more. She was leaving him and she would probably refuse to even say goodbye.

"Mom, I want to go to Oscar's. It's boring here. There's nothing to do." Dylan said angrily.

"I said no." Norma told him sternly and Alex had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something. He had no place in this. No matter how he felt. Dylan wasn't his son and Norma wasn't his wife. They were just house guests and soon, they wouldn't even be that.

"I want you to go back to the cottage and wait for me, I'll be there in a second." Norma instructed him finally.

Dylan looked mutinous but pushed himself away from the table and left them. Norma looked ready to follow him when Alex gently grabbed her arm.

"Come here." he whispered pulling her towards him.

It was easier than any movement he could have planned or rehearsed. No stumbling of feet or protesting cries. Norma stepped backwards into his arms looking guilty and apologetic.

"I'm not sorry about what happened last night." Alex said once she finally gained the courage to look at him.
"Okay." she breathed. Her eyes growing wide. "Me either."

He wasn't sure if he dared it. Wasn't sure if she wanted him to, but the more he leaned in, the heavier her breathing got. Their lips meeting, gentle at first, and then remembering that heated exchange that consumed them last night. That passion that had caused them to lose their senses and forget themselves for a while.

His hands moved down her arms and to her waist and he could feel how perfectly she moved with him. How easy it would be to surrender and go back to his bedroom again. He could be late for work. It would be worth it. He didn't want to let her go. Not with her hair smelling of the clean, soapy shampoo and the feel of her lips against his. His body angrily awoke and wanted its' own feeding that was different from normal food.

Norma pulled away from him. Her body language becoming tense and withdrawn.
"I can't." she said painfully. "It's… too much." she tried to explain.

"Okay." Alex whispered easily. He didn't want to rush her but at the same time he still needed her. Still wanted her in a way he'd never wanted any woman.

"I'm sorry." she said softly seeing the disappointment in his face.

"It's… it's fine." he lied. His mind wishing for her to change her mind.

The pair stayed in each other's arms then. Seemingly afraid to move forward or separate because they knew what that would mean. It would mean forever. It would mean she would leave him and she would be gone. Forever. Quite possibly, he would hear about her arrest in a few months on the news.

The ticking of the kitchen clock seemed louder than normal. He'd never heard the crushing effects of time until now. When he wished time would stand still, and he could just stay here with her forever.

But she moved away from him. Moved out of his arms and there was nothing but cold air in her wake. He could feel his body ache at her sudden loss. As if a drug withdrawal had happened and he couldn't stand to watch her leave.

~ Alex's work day had started simply enough. He'd left the large house and checked into the Sheriff's station. He'd gone on a few calls, pulled over a few speeding motorists. Came back into town for lunch although he wasn't hungry. Breakfast had him too full.

No sooner had he come back into the station than the front desk clerk nodded for him.
"Romero, phone call for you. I was just about to radio you. Some woman. She wouldn't give her name." he said.

Alex looked around at the chuckles that emanated through the room.

"Line four." the front desk clerk said and Alex found an empty desk, well out of ear shot of the other deputies.

"Romero." Alex said curtly when he picked up the line. He could imagine all the teasing he would get about this mysterious woman calling him. Besides, he already knew who it was.

"Alex!" Norma cried. "Dylan ran away!"

"What?" he asked sitting down. "He looked around to make sure the other deputies were minding their own business before he spoke in a lower voice.

"Dylan ran away!" she cried again. "I was packing up the car and I told him we were leaving and we had this big fight. He's not anywhere! Alex, I can't call the police. I have to find him!"

"Where are you?" Alex said calmly. "Are you still at the house?"

"No!" Norma wailed. "No! I'm by some place near highway… the sight says highway 88. Alex, he was so upset! I don't know what to do! I stopped to get gas and he jumped out of the car and ran off. What do I do?"

Alex knew exactly where she was talking about. The gas station about two miles from the rancid old motel the Keith Summers still ran. The Summer's old house stood lonely and neglected up on the hill.

Gossip in town was that he'd mortgaged his grandfather's house up to his eyeballs and it would be repossessed soon; motel and all. Not that the bank would want it. Alex's opinion was the whole property was a money pit.

"Go back to the house. I'll pick him up." he ordered stoically. He was aware he sounded like his father when he spoke just now. A trait he didn't like about himself.
"Alex." Norma cried.
"Go back to the house. I'll pick him up. I'll bring him home." he said and hung up.

~ Keith Summers was sleeping at the front desk when Romero pulled in. The deputy could smell the decay of papers stacked tightly together in the back office. Alex had remembered when this place had been reasonably well maintained.

It had been mostly for summer people. Families who vacationed here and didn't mind a bare bones motel room. Now, a wooden framed motel bungalow where sound carried through the old pipes and traffic never stopped on the highway, wouldn't do for the average traveler.

Keith Summers rented rooms out regularly to people who weren't here to vacation. Alex had lost count of how many calls they'd received to the Sea Fairer Motel over the past few years now. Drugs, violence and all the other unsavory things that came with a man like him over seeing the place.

Alex had grown up with Keith and his sister Maggie. Gotten into trouble with them and all the other kids around town.

Then, as was the way of adults, Keith and Alex changed. Alex didn't like what Keith Summers had become. He was too much like his abusive father who'd died in prison. Maggie was too much like their mother who'd been killed by him.

No, Alex didn't like Keith because he'd become is father. He'd become the town drunk, the town bully and regularly threatened women and children at the nearby gas station. It had worried Alex that Keith liked to brandish handcuffs and claim he was good friends with the cops here in town. It made the people he threatened scared to call for help.

More than once he'd broken into people's homes, too drunk and belligerent to even know where he was. His sister Maggie always bailed him out.

Alex didn't like the idea that Dylan might have wandered into Keith Summers path. Didn't like the idea that anyone would cross paths with that man. He would prefer it if a giant sink hole would swallow this entire motel up with him in it. A lot of people would be very happy if he were gone.

"Alex!" Keith said smiling with half rotten teeth. Keith was Alex's age but looked older. Poor hygiene, diet and drinking too much had made Keith fat, graying and disheveled looking. "What brings you here?"

Alex could smell Keith's breath from here. Smell that foul body odor of a man who hadn't changed his clothes in a few days.

Romero nodded at him and didn't smile.

"I had a parent call up at the station." Alex said in a calm official voice that let Keith know he wasn't here to catch up on old times. "Seems a ten year old boy went missing from a gas station. Have you seen him?"

"Naw." Keith laughed.

Alex believed him. Keith was a terrible liar even in the best of times. He also couldn't be roused to chase after Dylan without reason.

"Mind if I look around?" Alex asked.

"Just don't bother my guests unless you got a warrant, deputy." Keith said angrily and pulled out a battered porno magazine.

Alex backed away from him. Something telling him not to take his eyes off of Keith Summers. He knew it had been smart not to mention the boy's mother. Not to involve the very idea of Norma to Keith Summers. He didn't want her in this world at all.

The Sea Fairer Motel was half motel, half junk yard these days. Keith kept a few rotten junked cars and trucks out back including a gutted out 1957 Ford 300 sedan*. It had once been blue and white, but the elements were grinding it back into the ground and soon it would be nothing.

Alex winced at the disgrace of letting such a beauty go to seed. It was far beyond saving and who knows why Keith had it, except to watch it die.

Alex wasn't at all surprised to find Dylan in the junk plies where Keith Summers kept old tires and ratted, useless motel furniture.

"Hey." he said surprising the boy who was tossing rocks at a rusty car door.

Dylan jumped and turned around. He'd clearly been crying, but looked away at seeing Romero there in uniform.

"Your mother called me." Alex explained gently.

"You're gonna have to arrest me." Dylan said angrily. "Because I'm not going back to her. I'm staying here. She's a liar. She's lying to you."

"Yeah. I know, Dylan." Alex admitted.

The child turned in alarm at hearing his real name.

Alex nodded.

"I've known for a few days now." he said. Romero looked at the horrid junk yard Keith Summers had accumulated over the years. Trash bags filled with who knew what. Rusted washing machines, and an old refrigerator.

Norma would hate this place. The house looked weathered and almost pretty sitting up on it's lonely hill, but not the least bit homey. Not the kind of place Alex wanted to be.

"We should go. We can't stay here." Alex said.

"I'm not going back. Mom wants to take me away again. I won't go!" Dylan cried. "I like it here with you. I like Oscar and we're already making plans to sit together at lunch in school. We're gonna be best friends and we're gonna met his other friend Ryan when he get back from summer camp. He says we can have sleep overs in the woods near his house and everything and Ryan's dad has a boat-"

Alex put up his hands and tried not to smile. It was so easy and yet so hard to be a kid sometimes.

"Okay. We are not going to see your mom right away." he promised.

~ Alex had called Norma on his cell phone to tell her Dylan was safe and that the two of them were going out for ice cream.

"We'll be home soon." he promised.

"Soon?" Norma cried. "No, he's in big trouble. He shouted at me and ran off. I was worried sick, Alex!"

"Norma, I want you to calm down." Alex said taking a deep breath. Dylan had ordered a large ice cream cone and was watching in awe as the lady behind the counter made it for him.

"Calm down?" she cried.

"Yes. This whole situation is upsetting for him." Alex whispered into the phone. "He's a kid remember. He's already made friends. We'll be home soon, I'm going to fill his head with gruesome stories of what happens to kids who run away from home and no one is going to fight or yell or scream." he ordered.

Norma was quite on the other end.
"Fine." she said at last. her voice slightly petulant. "I'll start dinner. It's a summer stew so take your time. Make the stories really gruesome. I want him to have nightmares."

"Alright." Alex agreed feeling like he'd achieved a small but major victory.

~ "You know you can't run away like that." Alex told Dylan once the two of them were settled outside. They were away from the tourists and anyone who could hear them.

Dylan seemed relaxed and happy. Content to have Romero with him.

"Anything could have happened to you. Bad men and women take kids just like you all the time and hurt them. Kill them. You know that. Sometimes we find the bodies, sometimes we never find them at all." Alex said feeling sick he had to tell a child this.

"My step-dad used to tell my mom he would kill her and no one would ever find her body." Dylan said nonchalantly. He nibbled his ice-cream and looked sad.

"Sam Bates?" Alex asked and Dylan nodded. "What else did he say to her?"

"That she was a bad mother. Told her to shut up all the time. Me and Norman used to hide. We would hide when he came home and mom would cry a lot." Dylan explained.

"You ever see your step-dad hit your mom?" Alex asked and Dylan nodded quickly.

"She usually got hit everyday. It was normal. Once, he hit her so hard she fell back in the kitchen and cut her arm. There was blood. A lot of it. It was scary and she was crying because we were in the kitchen when it happened. Then one time… I was really little and I tried to stop him and he hit me really hard and mom pushed him and he punched her so hard she cried. Then he locked her in her bedroom for days and wouldn't let her out. Wouldn't feed me either. Norman was at his grandma's house and it was like I was all alone. I would bring her crackers and slip them under her door so she wouldn't starve. I thought he wouldn't come back for us but he did."

Dylan explained all this and shuttered slightly. His face becoming sad and his ice-cream forgotten.

"I'm glad we left that place, but I want to stay in this place." Dylan admitted.

"Why?" Alex asked.

"Mom isn't scared anymore. She smiles now. She talks more. She never talked before. Not ever. I'd almost forgotten what she sounded like. I like it at the cottage. We can stay there and I can help you with the big house and the lawn. Mom can help to. We can pick up Norman to. Mom said so. I don't want to leave." Dylan said pitifully.

* 1957 Ford 300 sedan. What Janet Leigh drove in 'Psycho' movie. Also Alex's car Lucy in "That Same Color Blue"

I forgot to say thank you for all the warm feedback I've been receiving lately about my depression. It's one of those things that gets better when we talk about it because so many of us share in the struggles. It's never good to feel alone. It's why I write the way I do. I always try to write stories that encourage a happier life. A happier ending even if it started out sad.