Forever Road by Catie Rhodes

Author:Catie Rhodes [Rhodes, Catie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Long Roads and Dark Ends Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

14

Long Time Gone was housed in a long, low, plywood building with a wooden deck hanging off one side. It sat on a small lot cut out of the dense, longleaf pine forest covering western Burns County.

On a Saturday night, vehicles of every kind jammed the parking lot. A long line of classic muscle cars took up the parking lot’s outer edge. There must have been truth to the rumors about drag racing out here.

Bikers hung out on the deck, yelling at each other, maybe due to the lasting effects of their loud pipes. They all stopped what they were doing to watch me, the newcomer, park my Nova and walk across the parking lot. When I got close, a guy wearing leather from head to toe hollered he’d buy me a drink. I pretended not to hear, and his friends jeered at him.

The heavy wooden door put up a struggle, much to the bikers’ amusement. Their catcalls provided the incentive for me to muscle my way inside. The interior of Long Time Gone hid under a haze of cigarette smoke. Politically correct no-smoking laws hadn’t reached this deep into the piney woods of East Texas—thank the powers that be. I dug for my cigarettes and lit up one of the little demons. A live band played classic rock rather poorly somewhere in the smoke. Raucous shouts and thundering games of pool punctuated the music, almost keeping a beat.

“It’s a five-dollar cover charge for the band.” The doorman emerged from the smoke and towered over me. Tall, muscular, and intimidating, this man looked like forty miles of rough asphalt.

Between the bushy black beard obscuring his lower face and the wild tangle of his shoulder-length black hair, he fit every stereotype appropriate to the situation. I dug a crumpled five-dollar bill out of my pocket and shoved it at him.

“Lemme stamp your hand.” He snatched my wrist and pressed a rubber stamp to the back of my hand. Tattoos covered his arm so completely the skin art merged into one big tattoo. It showed a naked tree, a wise owl, and the silhouettes of ravens.

I stared. I had tattoos, including a raven of my own, but nothing like this. Something so huge impressed me but also made me curious. Each of my tattoos meant something. I wondered what such an elaborate tattoo meant to this hulk of a man. The symbolism intrigued me. Under different circumstances, I might have offered to buy him a drink and let him tell me the story of it.

“Took me a year to get the sleeve. Big Billy Bob’s Ink in Arlington did ‘em.” He flashed a surprisingly even and white grin. “Didn’t hurt a bit.”

“I bet that’s a lie, but it’s good work.” We shared a laugh. He appealed to me for all the usual reasons. For once, I didn’t feel like acting on it.

“You have a good time, baby doll.” He winked and dismissed me.

I skirted the perimeter of Long Time Gone. Chase was nowhere to be found in the throng of merrymakers.

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