Chapter Seven

Graham

I tried not to notice Holly's eyes trailing down my chest as I took off my shirt and set it on the miniscule bathroom counter. It was difficult, though, to ignore those eyes, the stunning green orbs that had caught my attention the first time that I saw them and kept coming back into my mind, no matter how infuriating it was to deal with the woman herself.

"So how does it feel to know that you got your ass kicked by both a girl and a bird on the same day?"

I felt the muscles of my jaw tense, but I tried not to show it. I didn't want to give Holly the satisfaction of knowing how much the events of the morning so far had pissed me off. I stepped forward into the bathroom.

"I'm not entirely convinced that you could refer to that person as a girl," I said. "She was almost as big as I am."

Holly looked at me with an expression of disgust.

"That's mean," she said. "She can't help how tall she is."

"Well she can most certainly help if she runs across the room and body slams me to the floor. "

"She was trying to help me. She had no idea what was going on. How was she supposed to know whether I was in danger or not?"

"Yes," I said, "because clearly if I wanted to attack you, the best place to do it would be in a crowded motel breakfast room."

"Stranger things have happened," Holly said. She picked up one of the wash cloths off of the counter and turned to me. "This is probably going to sting a little bit," she said.

She reached forward with the washcloth and pressed it to my chest. I hissed as the soap on the cloth stung in the cut that the turkey had made in my skin. It hadn't hurt much when it happened, but it burned like hell now and I had the sudden image of Day standing out back behind the main building turning out bars of soap made with lye for the motel. Holly looked at me with a teasing expression.

"Oh, don't be such a baby. It can't be that bad."

"Next time you get attacked by turkey, I'll remind you of that."

"I can't honestly say that I ever have been attacked by a turkey, and I most certainly don't plan on ever being attacked by one."

"It's not like it was one of my life plans," I pointed out.

I hissed again as she wiped up my scratch again and took a step back from her.

"Exactly how deep are you trying to clean" I asked her. "I don't think that the turkey got down to the bone."

"All right," she said, " I'm almost done. Just let me rinse this off."

She picked up the other washcloth and wiped it over the cut. I tried to ignore the way my stomach muscles tightened in response to her touch. She put the washcloth down and I noticed her looking around the bathroom.

"What are you looking for?"

"Bandages," she said.

"I don't think that those are standard motel amenities," I told her. "And if they are, it's probably not the kind of motel that you want to stay in."

"Maybe Day has some at the front counter," Holly said.

She walked out of the bathroom into the main room and picked up the phone. I heard her call to the front desk and ask for bandages. She thanked Day and hung up, then turned to me.

"She says that she has some up there and that you can come and get them."

"Seriously? You want me to walk through two and a half feet of snow to a motel lobby just to get some bandages?"

Holly gave a dramatic sigh and stomped over to the shoes that she had sitting next to the door.

"Fine," she said. "I'll go get them. But I'm taking the key with me. This better not be some sort of ploy to try to steal the room."

"Yes," I said, "because clearly if I wanted to fake an injury to get you out of the room the first thing that would come to mind is an attack by a turkey."

Holly opened the door and took a step out of the room, but before she closed the door all the way she peeked back in.

"You better not put the deadbolt on while I'm gone. Unless, of course, you're afraid that the turkey is going to come back to finish you."

The door closed, and I looked around the room. I hadn't had much opportunity to investigate it the night before and now that I was alone in it I was seeing just how simple it really was. The sparse furniture looked old and worn. The Murphy bed that had tried to flatten Holly felt like a relic from another time and the TV perched atop the tall dresser reminded me of the afternoons that I used to spend with my grandmother. It was nothing like the hotels that I was accustomed to. In fact, this entire room could probably fit into the bathrooms of many of the rooms that I stayed in. Yet there was something about it that I liked. It wasn't pretentious. It didn't look like every detail was crafted to impress me. Instead, it was like the people that I had met so far; honest, up front, and unapologetically what it was.

For better or for worse.

I eyed Holly's suitcase sitting on the floor under the window. I had the compulsion to open it and take a peek at the clothes that she had packed for her cruise. There was something about her that just didn't strike me as somebody who would enjoy a cruise, especially one that they took by themselves. I remembered what she told me about the boyfriend who broke up with her on Thanksgiving. I still couldn't believe that she had stayed for dinner with his family afterwards, but now that I had spent the night amongst artificial ficus trees in a motel lobby in the middle of nowhere and had an attempted escape thwarted by a turkey, however, I had a new appreciation of what she might have felt. With my phone not working properly, not being able to find my wallet, and having nowhere to go, I felt helpless. It was a feeling that I wasn't used to experiencing and one that I hated. I was accustomed to always being in control, always knowing what my next step was. Now I felt like I had no idea what was going to happen next and the feeling made my stomach turn.

I couldn't stop thinking about Charlie. I had been so excited to see him, and now I didn't know how long it was going to be until I would be able to get to him. He had already been disappointed so many times. Even though it had been his mother who had chosen not to bring him to see me, I knew that because he doesn't live with me there would always be a question as to whether I wanted him, or whether I even wanted to see him. I never wanted him to think that way. More than anything, I wanted my son to know how much I loved him and that he was the most important thing in my life. That was why I needed to do this, I needed to get to them and to convince Brandy that we belonged together as a family. If I could convince her of that then I could spend every day with Charlie. I wouldn't have to feel like I was missing important moments of his life, like I was missing him grow up. I knew that he was still such a little boy, but even in the few months since I have been able to see him, he seemed to have changed so much. Seeing him over a computer screen or video chats over the phone wasn't enough. All that did was show me what I was missing and how every day he was getting bigger, leaving behind the baby that I had held the minute that he was born and that realization had completely changed my life.

I resisted the urge to go through Holly's luggage and opened the drawer in the nightstand instead. Inside it was a blue pocket folder filled with loose sheets of paper. I pulled it out and was flipping through it when the door opened, and Holly came back inside. She looked cold, wet, and angry, but had a handful of bandages. I followed her back to the bathroom and let her apply antibacterial ointment and then tape a thick piece of gauze to my chest with long strips of adhesive.

That is seriously going to suck when I have to take it off. I'm going to be missing a few chest hairs.

When she was finished patching me up, I looked at my shirt and sweater. There really wasn't much that I could do about the long slash through the fabric, so I folded them up and put them aside, opening up my bag to pull out a fresh option that didn't look like I had gotten into a skirmish with a very small Freddy Krueger. Holly was looking at me as I straightened the hem.

"So, what should we do now?" she asked. "It looks like we're kind of stuck here, at least for the time being."

I was somewhat surprised that she would even put 'we' in a sentence, but I had to figure that she was keeping an eye on me. For all she knew I could find out that the train was coming back and not tell her. Which, to be honest, probably wasn't too far from the truth last night. Now, though, I was feeling less rash. I was willing to set aside my compulsion to one-up her for a time, if for nothing else than to keep myself from going crazy while stuck in what very much felt like was supposed to be a charmingly rustic snow globe.

"Well,” I said, “according to this delightful cultural guide to Whiskey Hollow," I gestured to the blue folder I left sitting on the bed, "there's a movie theater in the main village. That could probably kill some time."

Holly looked unconvinced.

"A movie theater? I didn't notice anything like that on our way here last night."

"It's probably not very big," I said. "But it doesn't really need to be."

Holly seemed to think about this for a few seconds and then finally nodded.

"Okay. I guess that could be fun. And if nothing else it'll use up a couple of hours."

“Way to be optimistic.”

She shot me a glare as she reached for her coat and put it back on.

"Don't push your luck," she said.

We made our way out of the room and trudged toward the main building, doing our best to follow the footprints that we had already made the last couple of trips. The snow didn't appear to be slowing down any, and by the time that we reached the main building it occurred to me that we really didn't have any way of getting down to the Village. I had already pretty much eliminated the possibility of walking down there and the night before had confirmed that there was no hollow taxi service.

Suddenly I heard the sound of a tractor puttering towards us. I looked up and saw a familiar face smiling in our direction, one gloved hand waving at us as if we were long-lost friends. As if the thought had beckoned him, Boom Boom was coming our way.

"Well, hey there, Graham and Holly. Did you have a good night's rest?"

"Some of us more than others," I said.

"Isn't it just a beautiful day," he said, looking around by the falling snowflakes like he should be holding a beagle and singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing. "Sure gets you into the Christmas mood, doesn't it?"

I was getting ready to ask him if he would mind giving us a ride back into the village when I heard a strange sound coming from behind him. I looked around him into the wagon and saw a massive turkey nestle down into the hay. I took a step back and looked at Boom Boom.

"Is that a turkey?" I asked

"Sure is. This here's Cornelius. He got out this morning and went running around and when he got home he looked like he was feeling guilty about himself and I found some strings on some of his claws, so I thought maybe he got himself into some trouble. I was coming up here to ask if anybody had seen him."

Holly was giggling behind me and when I turned to look at her she covered her mouth with her hand.

"Graham saw him," she said.

"You did?" Boom Boom asked. "He wasn't rude to you, was he?"

"He just gave me a little scratch."

"Cornelius" Boom Boom scolded. "That's not the way to act. Now you apologize to Graham." He climbed off the tractor and walked around to the side of the wagon where he reached in and grabbed the turkey, scooping him into his arms like a small child. "You apologize," he said. "Tell him that you're sorry and that you know that's not the way that we welcome new friends into the hollow."

The turkey made a few warbling noises and Boom Boom stroked his head lovingly.

"That's a good boy, Cornelius," he said. "I just can't imagine what got into him. He's usually such a well-behaved turkey."

"He saw me walking down through the woods," I told him. "I think I might have startled him."

"You were in the woods" Boom Boom asked. "Why would you do a foolish thing like that? It's cold in those woods and dark, even in the daytime. And those trees just keep getting denser and denser the further you go. Until they aren't dense anymore because you've gotten to the other side, and then they kind of start opening up a bit more and it's easier to see, but you've got to not lose your damn self in there or find a beast of some sort before you can get to that part. Cornelius here didn't attack you. He was trying to help you."

"You've got a guardian turkey," Holly said. "That's close to a guardian angel."

"That's right," Boom Boom said. "Feathers and everything. And Corny here is such a nice white color, not like some of those big heritage birds. I bet if he had his back to you and spread his wings out real far, you'd think he was just a short, chubby little angel."

I stared at him.

"I'm sure I would."

Boom Boom looked over his shoulder at the turkey again.

"I'm sorry for scolding you," he said. "I take back everything I said. You're a good turkey."

Cornelius gave a warble that sounded like he was actually listening and buried his head down in the hay.

"I'm going to have to get him a scarf. It's just too dang cold out here for him." He sighed as though his mind were jotting that down on some persistent to-do list and then he turned back to us with another beaming smile. "So, what are the two of you doing out wandering around. Just enjoying the winter majesty?"

"Actually," I told him. "We were thinking about heading into the village to see a movie. Maybe grab something to eat."

"Well, hop aboard! I'll be happy to bring you down there. Looks like I'll be needing to swing by the Hobby Hut and get some yarn, anyway. I can drop you right off at the theater. Sling you a quick tour, if you'd like."

"We don't know when the movies start," Holly said.

"Oh, just any old time. Don't you worry about that. You won't miss anything. Climb on in. Cornelius, you scoot over and give them some of the good hay."