Welcome to Ber-Tri

June 19, 2020 8:00 AM

“Are you ready for our summer vacation?” Davis asked his wife as he turned off the alarm clock trilling incessantly on the bedside table.

Marissa was already out of bed and fussing with the suitcases they had packed the previous night and set by the bedroom door.

“Oh yes,” she agreed, knowing that this wasn’t going to be anything like the wild summer vacations they had taken together in their youth. It probably wasn’t going to be very fun at all, considering the sole purpose for this trip was to help out their daughter who was just entering the second trimester of her pregnancy and was having a rough time of it. She was sure, though, that they would try to squeeze a little enjoyment in here and there when they could. “How long did you say it would take to get there?”

“According to Google, about eleven or twelve hours from here to Saint Louis.”

“Hmmm. So fourteen or fifteen hours, then.” Marissa picked her heavy coat up from where it was draped over her floral-print rolling bag and returned it to the closet, replacing it with a lighter windbreaker.

“Right,” Davis conceded. “We’ll probably get as far as Springfield today, spend the night there, then on to Saint Louis tomorrow.”

An hour or so later, after showers and a quick breakfast, the two of them were on the road with Davis at the wheel.

***

June 19, 2020 7:30 PM

The drive through Oklahoma had been flat, boring and humid.

Now that they had entered into Missouri it was more of the same.

Marissa, behind the wheel now, wondered and not for the first time why Charlene and her husband had chosen to live in Missouri (or The Land of Misery, as Davis liked to call it.)

“Once we get to Springfield should we stop for dinner before we look for a hotel?” Davis suggested.

“I think we’re going to need to stop before we get to Springfield,” Marissa replied, peering at the gas gauge on the dashboard. “We’re almost on empty. I’ll take the next exit, then we can get back on the freeway.”

Less than a quarter of a mile after exiting the freeway they passed a liberally bullet-riddled sign upon which was written Welcome to Ber-Tri, MO. Population 411 and growing.

“Only four hundred and eleven people?” Davis mused. “I wonder if they even have a gas station.”

He had to raise his voice a bit to be heard over their Garmin GPS unit, which was demanding that they make a U-turn and get back on the freeway.

“The gas station probably is the town,” Marissa joked. Her smile faded as she glanced at the GPS’s screen. “Huh. That’s weird.”

‘What’s weird?” Davis queried, leaning forward in the passenger’s seat to look at the device as his wife tapped its surface with her fingernail.

“This area’s all empty space. It doesn’t show a town or anything.”

“Maybe Ber-Tri’s a new town and it’s not on the maps yet,” Davis suggested. That seemed a logical assumption. The town did, after all, only have a population of four hundred eleven.

“And what kind of name is Ber-Tri for a town?” Marissa wondered with a little frown.

“Bermuda Triangle?” Davis grinned. This earned him a roll of his wife’s eyes and a dismissive flap of her hand.

The town did indeed have a gas station, small but clean and well maintained at least from the outside. When Marissa pulled up to one of the pumps she noticed a printed sign taped over the credit card pad. Please pay inside.

“You pump, I’ll pay,” she told Davis. He nodded his head in agreement and unbuckled his seat belt, opening the passenger’s door.

The gas station door uttered a loud mechanical ding-dong that set Marissa’s teeth on edge when she pushed it open. She would much have preferred the gentle tinkling of an actual bell, but that was just her opinion.

“Good evening,” the cashier greeted her. He was young, perhaps in his early twenties, with neatly combed dark brown hair and a thin face ravaged with the aftermath of a recent acne outbreak. His smile was friendly enough, despite his teeth being none too straight. He probably needed braces as a child and never had them, Marissa thought to herself.

“Good evening,” she replied as she walked up to the counter. “Can I get twenty five dollars on pump four, please.”

“Of course.” The young man took her money and stashed it away in the cash register. “Haven’t seen you around before. It’s always nice to meet a new resident.”

“Oh, we’re not new residents,” Marissa stated, wondering why on earth the cashier would jump to that conclusion. “We’re just passing through. We’re on our way to visit our daughter in Saint Louis. Probably spend the night in Springfield.”

The cashier’s smile hadn’t left his face and it was still just as open and friendly as he shook his head. “Oh no, mam, no one ever just passes through Ber-Tri. You’re new residents, all right. You’ll love it here, I promise. Everyone loves it here.”

“Yes, well, thank you.” Marissa’s own smile felt in danger of sliding off her face as she took a couple backward steps away from the register before turning toward the door.

Davis was just finishing up with the pumping when Marissa slid back into the driver’s seat.

“You okay?” Davis queried as he got back into the car and noticed the perplexed expression on his wife’s countenance.

“Yes,” she replied. “The young man in there was just very strange.”

“Did he say something to you?” Davis scowled. “Do I need to go in there and talk to him?”

“No, no, it was nothing like that.” Marissa laid a hand on his arm. “He just wasn’t making much sense. Drugs, probably.” Poor thing, she mused, growing up in a town this small there’s probably not much to do other than drugs.

There appeared to be only one diner in the town, which according to the hours of operation painted on the glass door would be open until ten ‘o’ clock.

“Shall we?” Davis suggested. He held the door open and ushered his wife in ahead of himself.

They were greeted with a bright smile by a petite red-headed woman who was approaching middle-age but wasn’t quite there.

“Welcome!” She effused. “Follow me. I’ll get you to a table right away.”

She was still grinning as she stood beside their table.

“My name’s Becca and I’ll be your waitress tonight. It’s so nice to have you here. Take your time looking at the menus and let me know whenever you’re ready. Can I get you started with drinks?”

Both Davis and Marissa ordered decaffeinated coffee.

“I’ll brew a fresh pot. That’ll be just a few minutes, if that’s all right.”

“Yes, it’s fine,” Marissa agreed, wondering how much wider the waitress’s smile could get before her face split in two.

“She seems friendly,” Davis commented as he opened his menu.

Probably drugs, Marissa thought to herself.

“You want me to drive the rest of the way to Springfield?” Davis offered as the two of them walked back out to the car. The temperature was a touch cooler at this time of night than it had been during the day but not much, and the humidity still hovered somewhere around eighty to eighty five percent.

“No, I’m all right to keep driving,” Marissa replied.

She turned the car around and headed back toward the gas station and the freeway entrance.

Except there was no freeway entrance.

The gas station was there, at the end of what now appeared to be a cul-de-sac.

From there the street they were on made a gentle turn which would lead them back to the diner and the residential area beyond it.

“This isn’t right,” Marissa stated, frowning.

You have reached your destination, the Garmin on the dashboard informed them in a voice that in no way could be mistaken for human. Glancing at the screen, Marissa saw that Ber-Tri was now labeled on the map. It hadn’t been before. She was sure it hadn’t.

She turned to stare at Davis, her eyes wide.

“It must be malfunctioning,” he said, but his tone was uneasy and the pinched frown on his countenance mirrored her own.

You have reached your destination.

“We exited the freeway before the gas station. It wasn’t in a dead end. What’s going on?”

“There has to be some explanation,” Davis commented before his wife could work herself up into a complete panic.

“Does there?” She snapped. “What is it, then? I’m losing my mind? Is that what you think?”

“Of course not. But, well, it’s dark and…”

“Oh, please,” she cut him off. “I’m better at night driving than you are. You know that.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that, considering the fact that her point was valid.

She started the car again and followed the road back around to the diner and past it. There were several blocks of tidy little houses and apartment buildings...that also ended in a cul-de-sac.

The town of Ber-Tri offered no entrance or exit from the freeway upon which they could have, had they rolled down their windows, heard cars driving up and down.

You have reached your destination, the GPS unit intoned again.

Marissa drove back to the gas station.

Shaking, she got out of the driver’s seat and slammed the door.

The same young man was behind the counter with his crooked-toothed grin.

“What is going…” she started to demand, but he interrupted her.

“Welcome home. You’ll love it here. Everyone loves it here.”

***

June 24, 2020 3:30 PM

Davis smiled as he stepped out of the small but homey apartment he and his wife lived in. It was a beautiful summer day here in Ber-Tri.

His cell phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket.

The text message was from someone in his contacts named Charlene. He couldn’t remember who that might be, or why she was in his contacts.

Dad, are you and Mom okay? You should have been here four days ago. I’m getting really worried. Why haven’t you called?

The door behind him opened and Marissa stepped out behind him to follow him down the stairs, closing and locking the door behind her.

“Do you know a Charlene?” He asked her.

She cocked her head to one side. “I don’t think so, why?”

“Nothing. Wrong number, I guess.”

***

June 23, 2021 5:00 PM

“Hey, babe, can we take the next exit and find a gas station or something? I’ve got to use the restroom.”

Grace turned her head to give her girlfriend a little smile.

“You just went three miles back, mini-bladder,” she teased her.

“Come on, please?” Cathy replied. “You don’t want me peeing in the car, do you?”

“God, no.” Grace flipped on the blinker and merged smoothly onto the exit.

A little less than a quarter of a mile further on they passed a sign that looked as though someone had used it for target practice.

Welcome to Ber-Tri, MO. Population 413 and growing.