Sometimes I just think about my stolen laptop. I wonder if anyone is using it, and what they're using it for. I wonder if they've discovered all the stuff I'd written and what they think of it, or maybe they just reformatted the hard drive. And I think of what would have happened if I hadn't had backups of my stories. I know, not too many people have read them, and they're not great fiction, but I think they're original, at least to me. And they're my creation, so to speak. A few people who have read them have told me they really like them and ask for more. A couple have told me they're good reading with an "X-files" quality to them (they ones they've read). And these are people whose opinions I value, college professors, English teachers, writing instructors. So I'm kind of happy with their reactions. If I hadn't had backups, I wonder if I could have rewritten them again.
I'd been putting off finishing the last chapter of a long storyline, where different influences converge on a group of people (maybe two groups) for unknown purposes. And somehow, the different influences may or may not be at opposite points. I'm getting jittery, I think. I haven't really written anything in about three weeks and I wonder if I can continue. The last one I wrote actually was from a dream I had. I have no idea why I had that dream, but I woke up thinking that the cafe in the dream was one mentioned in one story or chapter of the long storyline, one that the characters passed by one night. Anyway, the story has nothing to do with that other storyline. I did say I'd post a story that I had dreamed up, so here it is.
The Hard Rock Café
The farm. God, what a drag. Everyday, it’s the same old thing: get up, do the chores, go to school, then come home and continue working. When will it end? I can’t seem to get out of this routine, just keep on doing the same thing over and over again and again. I need a break.
Well, at least I get some type of break from the school, going to classes only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But then I’m stuck on the farm the rest of the days, repairing things or working on the crops. If it’s not one thing, it’s another; it seems like it’s a never ending cycle. Thank God the ol’ man lets me have Saturday afternoons and Sundays off. But even those days go up in smoke if something really urgent comes up. God, I can’t take this anymore! I need a break!
Going into the barn, I see Dad working on the tractor. I hope it’s something he can do by himself; otherwise I’ll be stuck here till all hours, till who knows when, helping him work on it. What if we have to take the engine apart and put it together again? What if we have to rebuild the carburetor? Or put in a new alternator? I hate having to remove everything, all the belts and parts to remove and then put back once again. It’ll be time consuming!
Well, here goes…
“Dad, I was wondering if you’ll need me for the next few days; I…I just need to get away for a few days…” I tell him, wondering what his reaction will be. “I’ve been thinking that maybe I can go to…to the beach for a few days and sort of recharge myself…”
He’s silent for a while as he works on the tractor, but I know he heard me. He’s just taking his time, thinking of what to say to me before he refuses to let me go. He stops working on the tractor and puts his tools down. I can see, just by the tools he’s using and the parts on the floor, that all he’s doing is just giving the tractor a sort of tune-up, no major repairs that we have to worry about. Thank God for that, at least!
He walks toward me and asks, “Did you take care of that irrigation problem at the field?”
“Yeah, Dad. I got the water flowing and put some more tubes into the canal so the water would flow into the rows. They’ll stay there the rest of the time until we put them away. There’s nothing obstructing the water, so the flow is pretty steady…” I reply.
“Is Gordy pretty much set up? He won’t need any help around the place the next few days?” he asks.
“I’ve taken care of everything that needs to be seen to,” I reply. “I’ve cleaned the garden; I’ve mended the fence where it needed it; I’ve even cleaned the tools and weeded the big fields. I think Gordy can handle anything else,” I tell Dad. Although Gordy works for Dad, he’s like one of the family and I help him in most of the chores around the place.
“How’re you doing in school? Won’t you get behind?” he asks me.
“Friday’s a holiday, so we have it off. I was hoping to get away Friday and return maybe Sunday or Monday if I need to. Missing one day won’t get me behind, but I think we have Monday off too…” I tell him. “I just need to get away a while, Dad, away from this place…”
He looks at me a minute or so and then grins.
“Well,
I was surprised. I had expected Dad to put up a fuss and object, and I was ready for any argument he might give me, but now, I felt a load lift off my back, so to speak.
Dad must have figured out what was going through my mind, and he gave me a big smile and swatted me on the shoulder. I smiled back at him, saying, “Thanks Dad!”
“What about Carlos? Is he going with you?” asked Dad. Carlos lived in town and he was one of my best friends.
“I haven’t told him anything, since I wasn’t sure of anything,” I told him, “but now I’ll give him a call and see if he wants to tag along.”
“I’d feel better if he went with you, you know, to keep you company,” said Dad.
Once again I said, “Thanks, Dad!” and went into the house to call Carlos and tell him what I planned.
Somehow my other best friend, Renee, found out about our planned expedition. I hadn’t mentioned it to her, since she’s a girl, and I had thought she wouldn’t want to go with us. But she called me up and asked to tag along with me and Carlos. When I asked her if she wouldn’t feel awkward traveling with a couple of guys, she said something about spending time with her best friends, not boyfriends, so she wasn’t worried; besides, we’d be staying in separate rooms.
So I agreed that she could come along.
We decided to leave Thursday afternoon, as soon as Renee and Carlos were through with classes. I’d pick them up in my 4X4 pickup and we’d leave for the beach. I hadn’t told Dad which beach I planned on going, but Renee, Carlos, and I decided to hit
I picked up Renee; then we went for Carlos, and once we were all together and packed, we took off. Finally, I was getting away from the farm for a much needed R&R! I hit the road, anxious to be off, and we left our little community behind as we got on the road that eventually merged with the highway that would lead us to
“Just think! Three days away from this damn place!” I said. “I can’t wait to get there and just have fun and not worry about doing anything else.”
Carlos just smiled and Renee laughed along with me. He always was the most serious of my friends and tended to be rather quiet, so I wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t as involved in our outpouring of joy.
“So Carlos, Renee, have either of you ever been to
“No,” answered Renee. “I haven’t been. I’ve heard of it, especially from those frat guys and sorority girls after spring break. It’s a beautiful place from what I hear; they say it’s always like a tropical area around there and that it’s always a fun place to be.”
“I’ve been there once,” said Carlos. “I went with some friends a few years ago and just couldn’t believe the place. It’s unbelievable; it’s always warm, even in the winter, and usually there’s always sunshine, and the beach…you just don’t see a beach like that anywhere else in the
“Yeah, how about the women?” I asked him.
“Ah, the girls…you know, people come from all over the
“Hey,” said Renee, “don’t get carried away now. I’m a college girl too, you know, so watch it; you’ll make me feel like an old loaf of bread.”
“Yeah, you mean a loaf of white bread,” replied Carlos, “but I hope you brought along your bikini,” he added, laughing, as Rene playfully hit him on the shoulder.
“So
“Let’s just party; that’s all I want to do, have a good time and really enjoy myself…get stinking drunk and dead to the world, dance the night away, just have a good time and nothing else,” I told her.
We’d been on the road a couple of hours when we decided to take a break. One thing about
We sat around eating out treats, and I wondered where exactly we were. We were still on a highway; we just hadn’t gotten into the interstate highway that would eventually lead us to SPI. We discussed how far we’d driven and what small towns we’d passed and decided we knew more or less where we were; we still had quite a long way to drive. So we decided to hit the road as soon as possible.
We drove south again, along a long lonely road that seemed to stretch out to forever. The mountains in the distant, the desert stretching away to the left and right, the brush, they all seemed to combine to give the land a kind of mystical look, almost magical, especially as the evening crept along into the darkening twilight.
We drove along until finally we started to see more and more traffic, a sure sign that we were getting near a major highway and were either going into or leaving a more heavily populated area.
I kept driving, wondering when we’d hit the major road. Finally, I could see other paved roads, crisscrossing in the distance. And most of those roads had more and more traffic.
We’d crossed several bridges along the road we were on, bridges that were built over streams and rivers, so I wasn’t surprised that we were approaching another one. I stepped on the gas, anxious to get across to the other side, and finally merge into the main highway, but as I approached it, I noticed a girl, not much older than us, by the side of the road, waving her arms at us to get our attention. She seemed agitated and waved her arms at us harder and harder, desperately trying to get our attention as we approached the bridge.
I decided to stop and ask her what the problem was; maybe it was some type of emergency and she needed our help.
I pulled over besides her and asked her if she needed some help. She said no, that she was trying to stop us before we got on the bridge because there was a piece of it missing, and we couldn’t see it from the direction we were coming. If we had kept going at the speed we had been driving, we wouldn’t be able to stop and the truck would fall into the river.
I stopped the truck and got off, and she led me a little way into the bridge where I immediately noticed a big hole in the middle.
I asked her what had happened, and she explained that there had been a detour sign but she thought someone had removed it. She had noticed the sign was missing as she walked by and saw that the bridge hadn’t been repaired. But when she saw us coming at the speed we were traveling, she became concerned that the truck would fall into the river, so she tried to get our attention to stop us from getting on the bridge.
Carlos and Renee were looking around and saw the stand and the sign tossed behind some bushes. The sign had been shot full of bullet holes, but it was still readable, so we put the stand up again and put the reflective sign up once again on the stand so that others coming this way would notice it and take a detour.
“Thank you for stopping us,” I told her. “We’d have gone right into the river at the speed we were going, unable to stop in time.”
“Glad to help,” she replied, “I wouldn’t like to see anyone fall into that river.”
“You said you were walking…why don’t we give you a lift? We have to detour anyway, so it won’t be out of the way,” I told her.
“Well, where I was heading is only a couple of miles away, but ok; that way I won’t be late,” she said.
We all introduced ourselves, and she introduced herself as Rosie. She was going to a place called The Hard Rock Café.
“A Hard Rock Café?” asked Renee, “around here? You’re kidding!”
Rosie gave her puzzled look and said, “No, why would I kid you? But it’s The Hard Rock Café, not A Hard Rock Café.”
“No, I mean, is it from the chain?” asked Renee.
“What chain? What are you talking about?” replied Rosie.
“It’s not part of the chain of restaurants called The Hard Rock Café? That’s what I meant,” said Renee.
“Oh, no, it’s not part of a chain. It’s called that because of all the stones around that area,” said Rosie, laughing. “I didn’t know there were restaurants with that name.”
I made a U turn and then took a small paved road that lead away from the highway. After a while, we came to an old building that had a bright light coming out of it. We parked, and as I opened the door for Rosie to get out of the truck, we could hear the sound of CCR’s “
“Come on in and have a drink,” she told us. “It gets to be a lot of fun in there after a while, once everyone has warmed up.”
I looked at Carlos and Renee questioningly, wondering if they wanted to go in.
“Let’s give it a shot,” said Carlos. “What’ve we got to lose?” Renee agreed with him.
We left the pickup and followed Rosie into The Hard Rock Cafe. It was more of a tavern than anything else, with a main wooden bar in the back and tables scattered all around. There were more people in there than I expected, not having seen many cars parked outside. But there were a lot of people, from all social circles, it looked like. There were some dressed in expensive clothes; others in plain ordinary everyday clothes. But they were all having a good time, it seemed. They were drinking and talking animatedly with each other; some were dancing; some were playing cards. Others were eating hearty meals. And the music was loud, happy.
“It looks like there’s a party in here,” I told Rosie as we walked in.
She smiled at me and said, “It tends to get a little carried away at times, but that’s because everyone here is having a good time, really enjoying life.”
Carlos, Renee, and I walked over to the bar and ordered some beer. Then we carried our drinks to a table where we could sit and notice everything that was going on. Rosie saw some friends and went over to join them. She said she’d introduce us in a while.
A young guy came over and asked Renee to dance with him.
“What the hell,” she said, looking at us, smiling; then she got up and went to the dance floor.
Two lovely senoritas came and pulled Carlos and me from the chairs and led us to the dance floor, where we stayed for at least half an hour dancing with them and some of the other girls.
Finally we got back to our beers, and Carlos and I were laughing with the other people there, enjoying our new found camaraderie. People came over to speak to us and we talked and joked with them. Everyone was very friendly; it seemed everyone was having a good time.
“Ah, man! I wish we had a place like this back home,” I told Carlos as we watched Renee dancing with some of the other guys there. “It sure is lively here.”
The music from the jukebox seemed to play all my favorites just as loud as I like to hear them.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” said Carlos.
Renee finally dragged her skinny behind to the table and sat down, chugging her beer as fast as possible down her throat. She’d been dancing with some of the guys there, and they’d gone through several types of dancing as I had watched; they’d done rock, disco or hip-hop (they sound the same to me) and even a couple of kicker dances. She’d sat down right after a line dance, and she was still laughing when she chugged the beer. Her laughing while drinking made the beer go up her nose and she started laughing harder and coughing at the same time. Before we knew it, she’d spilled beer all over the front of her blouse.
Still laughing, she asked, “Think anyone will notice?”
Carlos and I laughed with her and said no, we didn’t think anyone would notice her wet blouse.
Rosie came over and brought some friends with her.
“Finally tired out, aren’t you?” she asked, laughing with us. “These are my new friends,” she told the others, “and they brought me here in their truck…”
We all said hello to everyone and joked around some more. They were interested in what we were doing and seemed excited at the thought of us going to the beach for a few days.
“Why don’t you just stay here partying with us for a couple of days? That’ll save you a long drive and you’ll get just as much out of it as if you’d enjoyed your days over there…” one of them suggested.
“Oh, yeah, spend a couple of days here partying…that would be good, but where would we sleep?” I asked.
“You can have a room upstairs and nap whenever you feel like it; this party’ll be here awhile, so you won’t miss much,” said Rosie.
While we had been talking, Renee had gone to the restroom. Upon returning, she said, “Stay out of those restrooms; they’re really awful and in sad shape…”
Rosie and the other girls laughed. One of them said, “Use the one upstairs, Renee. The one’s here are for the guys and they’re not particularly choosy. If you guys are squeamish, you can use the one upstairs too,” she added, looking at Carlos and me. They laughed then sat at the next table. Two of the girls decided they wanted to dance, so they dragged Carlos and me to the floor, and once again we danced to the loud music for quite a while.
Renee had gone upstairs to use the restroom in the second floor. She came out and saw some children playing in the hall, and looking around, she saw a couple of young women watching them. They smiled vaguely at her as they turned back to the children. One of them asked, “Having a good time?”
“Yes,” replied Rene, “but aren’t you joining them downstairs?”
“Well, someone has to watch the children; we don’t want to leave them alone,” replied one of the women.
Renee looked at the children playing and then at the women. Quickly before she changed her mind, she said, “Why don’t you go down and I’ll watch them for a while. I’m a little tired of all that dancing and partying going on, so this’ll give me a break.”
“Really? You really mean that?” asked one of the girls.
“Yeah, go on; enjoy yourselves, but don’t forget about me, and tell my friends where I’m at,” replied Renee.
The young women happily went downstairs, and Renee sat and looked at the children playing. There were a few children, ranging in age from toddlers to pre teens. The older ones played games like jacks or cat in the cradle; the smaller ones played with a ball they bounced to one another.
One of the littler ones started getting fussy and started to cry. Renee picked her up and tried to comfort her, saying, “Don’t cry; everything’s all right.” She placed her on her shoulder and carried her up and down the hall.
She’d walked up and down the hall several times without really noticing what was on the wall. Finally, she noticed there was mirror, and she noticed her reflection as she walked back and forth, carrying the little one.
Then she became aware that something was not right with the refection. She walked toward the mirror and stood in front of it. She saw her reflection, posed exactly like she was standing in front of the mirror. Only she was carrying a child on her shoulder, but the mirror didn’t show the child, just Renee.
“I’m drunk,” thought Renee. She felt the back of the child with one hand, and she felt the child’s weight on her shoulder, so she knew she was still carrying the little one. She turned and continued walking up and down the hall and keeping an eye on the other children. She went back to the mirror and tried to see the other children in the mirror. She couldn’t see any of them. She carried the little one, now asleep and wondered what to do.
“Oh, did she fall asleep?” one of the young women asked her as she came into the hall.
“Yes, I carried her a while and she just fell asleep,” Renee told her.
“Let me take her,” said the girl. “Thank you for giving me a break, but you should get back to the party.”
“All right,” said Renee, and she went back down.
She looked around and saw Gary and Carlos talking with some other guys, and they all seemed to be involved in a lively discussion. She saw Rosie with her friends dancing with some the young men there. She went to the bar and looked carefully in the mirror in the back, but there was nothing reflected. She was puzzled.
She tried to talk to Gary and Carlos, but they kept getting interrupted and going to the dance floor with the pretty girls there.
“Oh man, I’ve never had so much fun,” said
“
After a while, she gave up trying to talk to them and went outside for some fresh air.
She breathed in deeply, taking in the fresh air into her lungs; then she exhaled slowly and started to walk around, stretching her legs, tired from all the dancing they’d been involved in earlier.
She walked around to the back and stopped, carefully looking at what lay in front her.
“Now I understand why it’s called Hard Rock Café,” she thought. After looking around for a while, she went back inside.
She walked in to a lull in the party. Though the music still played, loudly, though the people there were still talking or playing or dancing, it felt as if things had calmed somewhat, the usual lull that occurs when a bunch of people get together and wait for something else to happen.
She noticed Gary and Carlos, sitting and sipping their beers, and she walked over toward the table.
“Come on guys, I think we should be leaving,” she told them. “Don’t you want to hit the road and head toward the
“Yeah, I was just thinking that,” said
“Carlos and I haven’t had as much to drink as you; we can drive,” said Renee. “Come on, let’s get going; the people here won’t miss us…”
“You know, Renee, you really can be a pain,” said Gary, “but I guess you’re right; we should be going if we want to be there at least in the morning…”
Standing up, the three left the Hard Rock Café and headed toward the pickup.
“Hey, let’s not forget Rosie; maybe she needs a ride back,” said
“Don’t worry about her,” said Renee, “I’m sure she can get a ride if she needs one.”
“Come on, don’t be like that. She did save us from the river and she did bring us to this place…it’s the least we can do; it’s only right,” said
He came back almost immediately with a puzzled expression on his face.
“There’s nothing there,” he said. “Where’d they all go?”
“What?” asked Carlos. “What do you mean there’s nothing there?” He opened the door and left the pickup, Renee right behind him.
They went back to the old building and opened the door. There was nothing inside, no bar, no tables, no people.
They walked inside, looking around and didn’t see any sign of activity, no sign of a party that had occurred all evening in there.
They walked out,
“What’s going on? Where’d they all go?” asked
“Hey, I must be as drunk as you are,” said Carlos, “I don’t know what’s going on either.”
They looked at each other, not really knowing how to react.
Finally, Renee said, “Look, I think I know what happened. Let’s see if you can figure it out. Just come with me, ok?” She took their hands as they walked toward the back of the building.
“I think this is why they call it the Hard Rock Café,” she said, as she stood between them, looking at what lay in front of them.
They stood at the gate of the cemetery, looking at rows and rows of tombstones gleaming in the moonlight. Renee led them to some of the graves and showed them the names engraved on those tombstones, names they recognized from the evening they’d just experienced.
“Come on,” she said, “let’s get out of here.” And she led them back to the pickup.
They passed the old building in front of the cemetery, and
“You mean they were all ghosts?” he asked. “Ghosts?”
He stood there, just looking at the door of the building, just lost in his thoughts.
Carlos finally came up to him and said, “What the hell,
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And that's where my dream ended, and so that's where I ended the story. But one of my friends who read it told me she thought it was unfinished, that the reader needed to know what happened to them, if they finished their journey, etc. I thought about it and added another part to it to sort of end it for her, I think.
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Gary, Carlos, and Renee spent the weekend at
They approached the damaged bridge, and slowing, drove toward where they had driven that evening when they had visited the Hard Rock Café. They drove for a while, then realizing they had missed the old building and cemetery, they turned and drove slowly back the way they had come. Once again they didn’t see the place.
As they neared the bridge once again, they saw Rosie by the side of the road, waving to get their attention.
“What do you guys think?” asked
Renee looked out the window at Rosie as they came closer and closer to her. Finally, she said, “Don’t stop. Let’s just keep on going home…”
“Yeah,” said Carlos, “let’s just go home. I mean, ghosts…I’m not sure that knowing they’re ghosts…I mean…”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” said
posted by JO at 6:43 PM
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