THE ATTENDANT (A Short Story)
The windshield wipers were slapping in tune to the music on the radio as she travelled on I-40. Already 4 hours of driving, yet a few more hours to go. She started thinking about it and decided it was time for a break.
As if the world was reading her mind, a sign indicating REST STOP 2 MILES AHEAD popped up. It seemed like the best option for the immediate future, so, she decided she’d take a break from driving.
It wasn’t raining exactly, but it was misting heavily. It was a cold, grey day – very unusual for early September in Tennessee. She pulled into the rest area, parked the car near the end of the parking lot, and got out. It wasn’t raining enough to put a jacket on. Not too many people were around.
As she walked to the building, she saw a sign “STAY OFF HILLSIDE THANK YOU. THE ATTENDANT.”
“Hmm, that’s weird,” she thought. But she kept walking – she had ‘business’ to attend to…
Emerging from the restroom, she noticed the parking lot was now empty. “Wow, that’s weird too,” she thought. It wasn’t like traffic on the interstate was light.
She started walking back to her car, and got to the sign again. “Well, nobody’s here – I’m gonna walk on that hillside just because that sign is so stupid,” she muttered to herself. She took a step up.
“HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” a voice screamed.
She turned around. No one was there. She took another step.
“HEY! I SAID, WHAT ARE YOU DOING??”
She turned around again. No one was there. What the F— ???
She took another step.
“HEY!! ONE MORE STEP AND YOU’LL BE SORRY!!”
She stopped and turned around. Floating in the grey mist was an irregular outline of … something. It was kind of translucent, and flickering.
“Nobody will see me – what does it matter?”
“I SEE YOU!!!”
“OK. Good point. Why do you care? And who, or what, the f— am I talking to?”
“I CARE BECAUSE I AM THE ATTENDANT. IT IS MY JOB TO CARE.”
She was unsure what to do. There was a nice pavilion up the hill that she could walk to and relax for a bit. But this … thing, this thing, was scaring her a little bit.
“So, what if I keep walking up this hill?”
“I SAID YOU’LL BE SORRY!!”
She didn’t want to be like one of those people in horror movies that always did stupid stuff (don’t go in THAT room! Don’t unlock THAT door! Don’t buy that house!! Don’t buy that doll!)
So, she stepped off the hill, and walked back to her car. She got in, and drove back onto the Interstate.
“I’ll save that other experience for another day. I ain’t stupid!”