Way Stations

It had been a long, hot Summer day off the side of I-95 when Laura looked up from behind the counter of the refurbished Cenex station to see the long figure rounding the corner of the building. He strode through the glass doors, looked around, and then walked up to her.

“Hello,” he said in friendly but polished tone. He had clearly been practicing this as he walked over.

“Hi there,” Laura said in her most casual-yet-welcoming voice. The gas station was large, but nearly empty of customers. Behind the open slot in the wall perpendicular to hers she saw Eric and Manuel cleaning grills and generally killing time before someone inevitably stopped in for some food on their way to who-knows-where. Melanie was somewhere in the offices off to her right, hoping that that’s all anybody wanted while the mechanics were away.

Who knows how long we can keep going like this?

Laura pushed the grim thought out of her head as she realized the young man had started speaking again; she plastered on a Midwestern smile as a penance for her lack of attentiveness.

“So, we’re on a long drive and are having some tire problems. It’s probably just a lack of air; do you have a hose available?”

Laura nodded enthusiastically:

“Oh yes, right around the side there by the bathrooms.”

He nodded, making it clear that he’d already seen it.

“Great, so that is it; and would you happen to have a tire gauge of any kind?”

Laura’s smile became strained and apologetic.

“So, we don’t have a gauge available for use,” she said. The next words were out of her mouth before Laura thought better of them: “because people keep stealing them.”

She laughed nervously, and the young man joined her with a wave of his hand an easy smile. Laura felt the tension evaporate from her.

Not everyone is quite so judgmental, y’know. He knows where he is.

Seeing the look on his face though, Laura hastened to come around from the counter and walk towards a nearby aisle.

“We have them right here for sale though-yes right there. Tire gauge.”

He breathed a small sigh of relief, and Laura took a moment to size the man up. His hair was dark, as was his close-cropped beard: clearly not from around here by the tan on his skin and his nice, but casual, summer clothes. She had no idea what he was doing driving through the state like this, but he was projecting an aura of calm and control. Something was there though, just beneath the surface.

As the man rose to his feet, he regarded the small plastic and cardboard container in his hand. He looked around and his gaze fell on a package of gummi worms. Laura caught a glimpse of his face as he did so, and she just couldn’t shake the feeling that he was concerned. Her own son put on a similar face, except usually it was because he had dug up some real bug or other creepy-crawly that held his fascination.

Thinking about him brought on gray moods again, and she turned to go back behind the counter before their new customer looked up. By the time she was once more behind the scuffed-up glass top her smile had returned as well. She held out the scanner gun:

“Will that be all for you, sir?”

The man opened his mouth, paused, and then turned around. He looked back towards the rack of labelled candies, then seemed to make up his mind and select one. He turned back to her with his own, slighter, smile and put the gauge and the sweets on the counter.

Laura rang him up quickly, the total amounted to less than ten, and he paid with a credit card. She couldn’t help but see the New York Driver’s License in the clear pocket of his wallet.

“You have a good day now!” she said, imagining what things were like all the way over there and what had brough this young man out here. Harry had often talked about taking her and John there, before he’d bought the station.

The customer wished her the same, and then he was out the door; he hadn’t quite run, but his steps were with purpose. Laura watched him go before sighing and rubbing her forehead. When she looked back up Eric was staring at her with a raised eyebrow.

Laura shrugged slightly, and Eric threw his hands up and turned around to help Manuel with unloading some frozen food or other. He was a hard-working kid, barely still in high school, and the closest thing to fresh blood the place had seen in ages. Manuel was also hard-working, but he was transient, trying to get himself and his family somewhere else.

Who wouldn’t be? Laura thought to herself. This time it was too late to stop the thoughts from flooding in, and it was all she could do to remain outwardly composed.

It wasn’t a bad life, all in all. They were close enough to some of the bigger towns that things didn’t get too lonesome, and she could go take John to see some local attractions on the off weekend or dead month. Nobody they’d hired was unpleasant, and Melanie worked hard to keep things running. The people that came through occasionally could be a bit rough, but they rarely actually caused trouble.

Just…it wasn’t the life I wanted. Wasn’t the life WE wanted.

The memories connected to that thought were too powerful to resist, and Laura felt her eyes grow warm. She wiped them quickly before she caused a scene.

Which was a well-timed decision, as the man walked back through the doors moments later. He had an apologetic look on his face as he approached the counter. Laura forced the same smile back onto her face.

“Hi,” he said with a small half-smile. “I’m sorry, it’s the yellow one, right?”

Laura nodded, “Yep that should be the one!”

The young man nodded in return, if only to himself.

“Oh ok: would you happen to know how to turn the air on? I can’t seem to find out how…”

This guy really isn’t from around here, huh?

She quirked an eye at him and scratched her head.

“It’s not on already? It should always be running.”

Or at least I hope it is because I sure don’t know anything about this stuff.

He didn’t seem terribly pushy however, which Laura was thankful for. In fact, by the look on his face she’d guess he’d walk out right now if she left it at that. Try to suffer through figuring it out by himself.

Maybe he isn’t so different from the folks around here, at least some of them, she thought with a smile this time. It led to another, more positive thought.

“Try pushing down on the small metal button in the center,” she said, raising her hands to try to demonstrate as best she could the rough shape and dimensions of the hose. “If some air comes out it should be on.”

He smiled again, brightly this time, and thanked her before striding quickly back through the doors.

Laura watched him go, feeling a bit reinvigorated by the interaction. It was nice just to help somebody with something simple. She still couldn’t shake the feeling of a nervous tension beneath his placid demeanor, however.

Thinking it through, she decided to go get Melanie. He would probably be fine, but she’d seen enough travelers stuck in the middle of nowhere because they couldn’t find help. Her sister-in-law was no mechanic, but she probably knew the most about the actual physical operations of the place out of anyone around. Laura looked around perfunctorily.

Not exactly like we’re swamped right now.

Walking over to the wood panel door at the other end of the station, she paused and then knocked on it once with her front two knuckles. There was a moment of silence, then:

“Come in!”

Melanie’s voice matched her face: brusque, business-like, but not unfriendly. She was sitting at her desk when Laura walked in, working on something on her computer. The office was sparse but clean, the same wood-paneled walls creating a somewhat dark but intimate, sheltering atmosphere. Laura sometimes wondered if Melanie needed an escape from the messiness outside as she did herself.

Spare except for the pictures on the desk and walls. Some were grainy sepia-toned photographs of her and Harry as kids, covered in the arms of Laura’s mother-in-law. A few however were more recent; she tried not to let her eyes dwell too long on a crisp, modern image of herself, Harry, John, and Melanie. It was taken shortly after they’d bought the station, and the three of them were holding each other and laughing with Mel smiling holding the deed.

“Sorry, one second,” her sister-in-law said flatly but apologetically as she saved whatever was open in front of her. Then Melanie looked up from behind her professional, square glasses. Laura took the time to clear her throat quietly.

“What’s up?”

“Sorry to bother you, Mel,” Laura knew it was a rare day the woman wasn’t swamped with something pressing. “It’s just, there’s a customer who says he’s having some tire trouble; looks like he might be having problems figuring out the air hose? I told him to test it but-”

Of course, before Laura could finish Mel was already raising her short, stocky self out of the depths of her chair. She never was one to let business wait or leave a problem, even a potential one, unattended. Laura always admired that about her, even if she sometimes worried that it came at the cost of her own peace or satisfaction.

Not that I have much room to talk. The thought came upon her with bitter irony.

The two of them walked out together into the main store, then past the glass doors and out into the sweltering sun. It had been like this all week, and while she couldn’t actually see the air shimmer in the heat, it felt like one of those days.

There were a few cars pulled up at the pumps, fueling up for the next stage of their journey or the few locals topping off for the week. Laura saw the Honda parked near the air pump by the side of building, with the bathroom signs a few feet further down. She watched as the customer pulled the hose away from his face and began to kneel. He saw the two of them approach though and straightened up.

“Oh, so you were able to figure it out,” Laura said to him with a small amount of relief.

“Yes! All good here,” he gestured with the hose and towards the tires. “Thank you for all your help.”

Laura gave Mel an apologetic look, and she rolled her eyes at her in response, but there was a small smile on her sister-in-law’s face.

“Well, glad for that at least. Let us know if you need anything else,” she said to him.

The man’s eyes drifted to the open windows of the parked car, but he smiled warmly.

“Of course, will do.”

Laura followed his gaze and saw sitting in the driver’s seat an absolutely gorgeous young woman. She was petite and dressed very nicely, with fair flawless skin and long, brilliant red hair. She sat nibbling on a gummi worm, with the bag held lightly in her lap in front of her. She was looking straight ahead and seemed to have been crying.

The man set to work on the tires, methodically removing the caps and checking the pressure in each one with the tool he’d bought. He seemed familiar with the process, and Laura and Melanie turned around and walked back towards the station doors.

“Ah well, I needed to stretch my legs anyway,” Mel said with a knowing look. Laura laughed.

Neither went back inside just yet though. Laura stared out towards the highway, her hands clenching and unclenching. Melanie stood silently beside and a little behind her.

“Three years….” her sister-in-law said with a low voice. It felt strange, coming from her.

Three years….

It had been late on a summer night, not too different from this one, when Harry went out to check on the pumps. Laura always told him that he worried too much, that he fussed over what amounted to a franchise, but he insisted that he’d taken on the responsibility.

“And besides anyway, honey bunch, it’s on temporary; a couple more years and we’ll be set up to go wherever, give Johnny whatever.”

That had been two years into running the station. He’d always said five, tops, and they’d be done with it. He also knew she couldn’t say no when he called her that name.

So Harry had gone out to check, he’d heard from the kids closing that there was an irregular noise coming from one of the machines. He’d parked his truck and walked out by the side of the road to see if it was a power-line malfunction. His back had been turned when the car came careening off the highway, headlights off, burning past 90 mph for who-knows-where.

The tears flowed freely down Laura’s eyes this time, and she felt Mel’s hand close around her own. She looked back towards the Honda, and the young couple were now sitting together in the front cabin. The man had finished his work, finally, and he held the beautiful young woman’s hand gently and whispered what Laura guessed were soft, comforting words in her ears. She looked at him, smiled, and then put the car in gear.

“I’m going back in; I’ll see you before you go, Laura?”

Melanie’s words were kind, and Laura nodded. She brushed her face with her arm as she watched the SUV disappear down the road and head back onto the highway.

“Yeah, see you in a minute Mel.”

Laura saw Mel nod quietly out of the corner of her eye and then heard the door whoosh open and closed. She was still watching the dust left in the car’s wake, and she wished the two her best; it wasn’t much, but it was all she could do. Maybe that was enough.

She looked down at her watch: Mel was right, it was nearly mid-afternoon. John would be getting out of school soon.

Laura turned and walked inside the Cenex station, reached for her keys, and opened the cash register. It had no doubt been a long, hot day; she wondered if maybe John would want some gummi worms.