Dearly Departing by Geoff North (book reader for pc txt) 📕

eight hours away, ten if we take our time and stop at a few spots in the mountains to take pictures.”

“I’d like that. When do you think they’ll be done with my car?”

“Probably later in the afternoon tomorrow, more likely the morning after.” Ray wiped his face with a paper napkin. “I don’t feel like waiting around. “We’ll set out in the rental and pick your car back up on the way back.”

“How long, well… when do think that might be?”

Ray knew what she was getting at. When did he expect Grummy to die. “As long as it takes, unless you’re in a hurry to get back home.”

“No hurry.” There was a cold beer vendor across from the Subway with a sports bar behind. Ray considered crossing the street for a six-pack but changed his mind. He didn’t need to drink that badly, and he didn’t want to give his daughter any ideas either. They headed back to the hotel, planned for an eight AM departure, and went to their rooms.

Ray settled into bed thirty minutes later and switched through the TV channels. He watched the local news and quickly became bored with stories he knew little or nothing about. The weather channel was issuing dire warnings of a fast-moving storm pushing up from the States expected to dump a foot of snow within the next forty-eight hours. He watched the first few minutes of a mystery movie but gave up after the opening credits ended. A marathon of Family Guy was playing on channel forty. Even Peter Griffin’s mindless adventures were too advanced for his tired brain to follow. Ray finally turned the television off and tried to get to sleep.

He was in the ocean again. He could no longer see the resort. The sandy beach with its dozens of stumbling tourists was gone. It was just ocean, miles and miles of rolling waves. And then he spotted something in the distance. Something small and black bobbing up and down in the navy blue. It came closer. Ray wasn’t afraid. He swam to it and wrapped his arms around it. The thing was cold, like ice, and it was heavy. They started to sink, quickly. He could feel the pressure of the water pushing in on his body as blue faded into black.

Ray jolted up from his bed, clutching at the air above him. He woke up fully and looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was after midnight. He got up and stumbled into the washroom. Water was on his brain. He got into the shower and made it as cold as the dial would allow. The pressure from the shower head increased, stinging into Ray’s skin like needles. He tried to turn it off, but the stream intensified. It went from cold to warm to burning hot. The water turned black. Ray jumped back and slipped, falling to the shower floor. Two sinewy black ropes popped out from the drain hole between his feet. They grew fingers and wrapped around his ankles. The black thing started to pull.

Ray woke up and clapped a hand over his mouth. He’d been screaming. He glanced at the clock. Twelve-thirty. No more sleep. He didn’t want to be alone. Perhaps Dawn was still awake. He dressed and went to her room. Ray couldn’t see any light spilling out from the crack at the bottom of the door. He placed his ear against it and listened. No sound. She was asleep.

He went outside and breathed in the night air. A walk would clear his mind. Ray went back to his room, grabbed his coat, and set out. He went as far as the Subway and paused in front of the cold beer vendor. Maybe the sports bar on the other side was still open. Ray went around the corner and saw the open sign still lit up in red. One drink to calm his nerves, maybe a double, and straight back to bed.

There were half a dozen patrons left inside. They were clustered at a couple of tables in the back around a pool table. Young men, none yet thirty, all loud and drunk. Ray was about to turn and leave when he spotted a girl amongst them, slumped over and drunker than the rest. Dawn.

“Aw, shit,” he mumbled.

They stared at Ray as he approached as if an extra-terrestrial being had just stepped out of its spaceship. One of the two playing pool set his stick down on the table. “Hey, buddy. It’s kinda late for seniors to be out wandering. You got dementia or something?” His friends laughed.

“That young lady’s my daughter, and she’s coming with me.”

The guy sitting closest to her wrapped an arm around Dawn’s shoulder. “The fuck she is. We’re having a good time, and she ain’t leaving until she wants to leave.”

Dawn’s forehead was almost resting on the dirty table. Ray shook his head slowly. “I don’t think she’s capable of knowing what she wants at the moment. She’s coming with me.”

“You’re not her dad,” the guy said. “Just some old pervert trying to score with a chick too drunk to know any better.”

More chuckles. Ray looked them all over. Most were under six feet and skinny. The one sitting next to Dawn was the biggest, maybe Ray’s height. Ray was no fighter, but he’d seen enough in his younger days to know how things went. To even stand a chance against greater numbers, you had to take out the biggest threats first. Hopefully it wouldn’t get to that. He stepped closer to the table.

“Back the fuck off, buddy,” the big one warned. The other guys stood. The ones playing pool came around to Ray’s side of the table.

It had gotten to that. Most older men in Ray’s current position would try harder for a peaceful resolution. Ray knew this wouldn’t end peacefully, and he was