Flamingo Lane by Applegate Tim

Author:Applegate, Tim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Amberjack Publishing
Published: 2018-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chance

The night he checked into the Gibson, Chance slept like a lamb, his body catching up on the rest it so desperately needed now that his bout with food poisoning at the motel from hell was safely behind him. Fully energized, he hopped out of bed the next morning and took a long hot shower, disappointed but not particularly surprised by the lack of water pressure in the pipes. For what an old-school warhorse like the Gibson lacked in modern creature comforts—no Swedish mattresses here!—was effectively countered by its undeniable charm. Toweling off, he regarded the room. A tasteful seascape—a pair of winged trawlers anchored in Crooked River’s picturesque harbor—painted, according to a small sign underneath it, by a local artist. A blue cloud of a comforter floating on top of the bed. In lieu of a closet a mahogany armoire. Situated on the Gibson’s top floor, the room’s double window featured a sweeping view of the downtown plaza, the wheel of streets that fanned out from it, and in the distance, Christopher Key.

He was ravenous. What he wanted, what he craved this morning was bacon and eggs, pecan pancakes, a cinnamon roll. Out the window he saw the sign for the Delta Café and had to remind himself to remain cautious. The previous evening he had looked up Dieter’s name in the city directory and discovered not just the phone number but his address too, on Magnolia Street. Spreading a map of the town on top of the bed, he’d located the neighborhood mere blocks from the hotel, which meant that he had to be careful not to expose himself. The Delta Café would no doubt meet his needs, but for all he knew Faye and Dieter might choose to dine there this morning also.

He drove north along a coastal road separating an orderly corridor of inland pines from rocky beaches, briny mud flats, and occasional vistas of the pewter-grey sea. Though they remained invisible in the morning fog rolling in off the water, every few minutes he heard the whine of a Navy jet streaking along the coast on maneuvers, the pilots in the clouds dependent on their instruments. Clicking on his high beams to pierce the mist, he cruised through a dreamlike landscape. Tendrils of fog wrapped like whips around watery pilings. Houses on stilts marching, in lockstep, toward Apalachicola Bay.

As the fog began to lift, he spotted a roadside diner overlooking a brackish stream. Inside, he chose a table next to a screened window with a view of the tannic river, a towering live oak tree, and a solitary jon boat roped to a rickety dock. After a quick scan of the menu, he listened to a pair of bullfrogs croak back and forth on the muddy bank, checked out the waitress’s legs, then consumed, without hesitation, his bacon and eggs, Belgian waffle dripping with maple syrup, coffee black as tar. He liked the diner because it was peaceful there, the food was good, and the other customers ignored him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.