Hello, and welcome to the twelfth issue of
Tales from Snippettsville
, Short Stories From A Small Town.
[Laurel - please insert here 'SnipTales.jpg' - sent by Alex March 9]
If you want to know what it's all about, go to
Snippettsville Group
If you have any feedback, and let's face it, as writers we all love feedback, just click on the author's name, in blue at the head of their piece. If you want to make a general comment on the group, click on the group link above.
Contents of Issue 12
There's Always A Welcome At The Showboat Hotel
by Max Sebastian
Reconstruction
by Rhinoguy
Later ...
by Alex de Kok
Dor
by PierceStreet
Illustrations
Banner, (c)Quasimodem, 2003
Header Picture, (c)Alex de Kok, 2003
Footer Picture, (c)Perdita, 2003
Now read on...
* * * * *
There's Always A Welcome At The Showboat Hotel
by
Max Sebastian
It must have been that last trucker I hitched a ride with. Seemed nice enough, but when I nodded off he must've reached inside my jacket and swiped my wallet. So here I was, in a small town called Snippetsville without a cent on me.
They seemed sympathetic in Hannah's Diner on North Main Street - I was given some tasty cherry pie and the use of a telephone. But it turned out it was going to take three days for my credit card company to courier a new card to me.
"Where am I going to stay for three nights without money?" I demanded of the poor credit card people through the phone, as if they could help.
As I put the phone down, I realised I had caused quite a scene for this quiet, small-town establishment.
"Hey, why don't you try the Showboat Hotel?" an old guy said to me as I took a sip of coffee to still my nerves. "Old Bob Cassidy always offers strangers a bed for the night if they're in trouble."
So here I was, at the Showboat Hotel three blocks away. Not a bad looking place, actually, a low profile but clean enough.
"Sure, I can give you a room, sir," old Bob smiled. He seemed all right. "I always like to help out those in trouble, like yourself."
I let out a sigh of relief. "I was beginning to think I'd be sleeping on the street tonight. But I can pay you once I get my card through - "
"No need, sir." he said as he turned and picked a room key off one of the rows of pegs. "I'll even offer you some supper tonight, sir." Small town hospitality, you can't beat it! "But you'll have to do something for me in return, sir."
Ah, here it came. No such thing as a free lunch.
Well, sitting eating my "free" supper, I felt a little strange, a little weak, shaken. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe I'd agreed to it. I'd never done anything like this before. Bob gave me some red wine with my meal, and I needed it to boost my nerve.
My heart was in my throat as I approached the door, knocked, and unlocked it. What would she be like? Would she like me? What if we didn't 'click'? I was terrified.
"Hi," the girl said as I entered, she was just as wary as I was at first.
She was, frankly, gorgeous. I couldn't believe it. Was this really going to happen? She was younger than me, brunette, pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way. She was, she explained, hitching across the States before starting college in Berkeley next month.
"I lost my wallet the last ride I took," she said, and the resemblance of her story to my own struck us both.
"So are we going to go through with this?" I asked.
"We don't have any other choice," she said, making me gasp as she suddenly pulled off her blouse, revealing exquisite, shapely little breasts confined within a pink cotton bra.
"But they're watching β you can see the cameras!"