Wow, thanks everyone for all of the faves, follow, reviews, comments, etc. I've loved getting all the emails I have so far about this story. With this being only my second SoN story I am glad to know that I have some readers out there. I found out that a story with this name and story line has been done before. Since it's based off of a song I'm not too surprised, but mine is a little bit different from the other one, so I hope you'll continue to read it. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Same as before I don't own anything related to SoN or the song that gave me the idea for the story. This is all for just a little fun and entertainment.
Ashley took off from the side of the road and decided not to look back. She just wanted to get out of here. She didn't care if some redneck woman thought she was being irrational or harsh with her perception of this place. Even if that woman did happen to be drop dead gorgeous.
She flipped on the radio. All that she could get besides static out here was country music. It wasn't what she preferred listening to, but it would do compared to hearing only static.
Hadn't the woman said it was only about three miles to the intersection where she would need to turn? It felt like she'd already gone that far or farther. Then again, she had somehow managed to get lost out here so she probably wasn't the best judge of distances at this point. She was used to having street signs on every corner that told her her location.
Finally she saw the old store come into sight. Even at this distance from the building she could tell the woman had been telling the truth. It was covered in old advertising signs. Some were quite worn out from their days spent out in the weather; others looked like they might have just come out of a box and hung on the wall. The signs advertised nearly everything. Pop, bread, milk, motor oil: you name it, it was probably advertised on one of these signs.
Ashley pulled up in front of the store and parked her car in the little gravel parking lot. She stepped out of the car and made her way over to the front door. She pulled it open and stepped inside. She was amazed, by the sight. It was almost as though she had taken a step back in time. There were yet more advertising signs on the inside and an old fashioned soda fountain. Though she wasn't sure it was still a working soda fountain it was still neat to see one in person. There were also modern conveniences in the store as well, like a modern fountain drink dispenser, bottled drinks, and just about any kind of snack food you could possibly want.
"Well, hello there," a woman said startling her out of her musings about the fountain. "How are you today?" she asked.
"I'm fine, thank you," Ashley replied.
"Is there anything I can help you find?"
"Um, I was told to stop in and ask Ms. C for her sweet tea."
"Well, then come on over and I'll get you fixed up," the woman said. "I take it then that you met our Spencer down the road?"
Ashley just nodded her head in response to the question. She realized for the first time that in the time she spent talking to the woman she had never learned her name.
"Sorry, but what exactly do you mean when you say our Spencer?" she had to ask Ms. C.
"Ah, well you see, she happens to be my daughter and our family owns this store, but everyone in town kind of claims Spencer as a part of their family so we all kind of use the phrase our Spencer. We all thought she was destined for bigger and better things outside of this place and she was truly.
"She was the Valedictorian of her high school class, she received a major scholarship to Stanford and her life started to take off from there. She had figured out that her calling in life was to become a doctor and that was what she wanted to do more than anything. She finished her pre-med courses, made the honor roll at school, had been accepted into medical school, etc.
"But life sometimes has other plans. Not long after she started medical school her father became ill. She decided she wanted to quit. We begged her to think about it, tried to convince her that things here would be fine and she should finish her education, but nothing would do except for her to come home and take over her father's place working. So she did. She quit, left her life, her friends, and her girlfriend she'd been with for over a year. Just like that. She's been here ever since. I don't think there's anything she wouldn't do to help someone out who needed it."
Ashley sat there in stunned silence. She couldn't believe she had been so wrong about someone like she had been about Spencer.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble on about our life story to a complete stranger. Here's your tea," she said handing Ashley a huge cup filled to the brim.
"No, don't apologize. We all have a story. I'm always glad to learn things about people," she responded. Ashley handed over money to cover the cost of the tea and waited while Ms. C made change for her from the register.
"You know where you're headed when you leave here?" she asked.
"I have a pretty good idea. I got lost back down the road and came upon Spencer. I stopped and asked her for directions on how to get back to the interstate. That's when she suggested I stop in here before I went back.
"And I can't really say that she was wrong for telling me to stop in. I would have missed seeing something amazing if I hadn't," Ashely said smiling at the thought of what she would have passed up.
"Sometimes you have to look beyond the surface of things, look a little deeper," Ms. C replied.
"So I've been told," Ashley responded as she took her change and gathered up her tea to leave.
"Thanks for stopping in and you take care of yourself," Ms. C called as Ashley turned to leave.
"I will, thanks," she replied.
Ashley headed out the door across the small parking lot to her car. Once situated inside she took a sip of the tea. She nearly choked on it when she swallowed. She was pretty sure she had just drunk liquefied sugar cane for the first time in her life. She had sweet tea in the past, but this was nothing like what she knew. Now though she could tell people she'd been here and had tried the local sweet tea. She wondered how everyone around here wasn't a diabetic if they all drank this stuff all the time.
She pulled out of the parking lot and continued the short distance down the road to the flashing yellow caution light. She looked in front of her, to each side, and her mirrors. There wasn't any traffic in sight along the road in any direction, so she decided to sit there for a minute and contemplate things for a bit. She thought about where each direction could possibly take her.
Once she had thought about where she was and where she wanted to go she took off.
Thanks for reading! As always I'd love to know what you think!