His eyes met hers. There was a sad smile on his face, but still a smile. “What’s the moral of that story?”
“Storms don’t last forever. It might feel like you’re stuck in it, but sometimes you just need to draw back the curtains to see if it has finally passed.”
He faced forward again, squeezing his hands tightly over hers. Nothing was said after that. They stood there and stared out at the rocky terrain. Mother Nature in all her glory did indeed make her problems feel small, but there was nothing wrong with experiencing the small things in the same magnitude as the big things.
Something big: seeing the magnificence of the canyon stretching on endlessly into the horizon.
Something small: having her hand in Kevin’s as they comforted each other in the silence.
She appreciated both in the same way.
November, 18
Holbrook, Arizona
Kevin stopped outside the motel room door and groaned. He needed to brace himself before he went inside. They’d spent three days in a luxurious South Star resort and spending the night here was going to take some getting used to.
The hike from yesterday, the short tour they did today, and the three hour drive to Holbrook, had left him exhausted. Jasmin was still at reception, chatting merrily to the middle-aged man about all the places they could visit while they were here. Kevin couldn’t care less; all he wanted was a bed.
He opened the door and his first instinct was to run in the other direction. This was the motel room horror films were made of. Paint was peeling off at the edges of the wall. And on the topic of paint, the eerie light green very closely resembled the color that coated the inside of an asylum. People probably went crazy here too. It smelled musty and dusty…and rusty. Everything looked like it should have been replaced thirty years ago. The website said this was three stars. Maybe the standards were different here.
He carried their bags inside. The beds were clean. The bathroom was stained, but clean. It would have to do. Besides, the sun was already setting and he wasn’t going to let Jazz drive around at night in an unknown town looking for another place.
Dropping the bags, he walked across the room and fell onto one of the single beds. The coarse, dark green sheets could cause serious chafing if he moved too suddenly. He had just begun to relax when something caught his attention, a quick movement atthe corner of his eye. He sat up and looked around, but could see nothing. It could very well be a rat.
Another slight movement to his right took his eyes to the little table between the two beds. He waited and waited, preparing to see a huge rat run across the room. But what he saw…He could’ve in no way prepared himself for what he saw.
Two long, hairy legs came over the edge of the table. As another two gangly legs came up, he saw its face and then its entire brown, hairy body came into view. It wasn’t a rat. There was no rat. The rat had probably been hunted and eaten by this monster. Eight legs. Eight eyes. And a big, hairy behind.
That was a huge motherfucking spider!
So big that Kevin already knew that a rolled up newspaper would be an inadequate defense. Its long legs moved as it slowly inched its way across the surface of the table.
“Oh, hell no!”
He scrambled to his feet, but in his frantic attempt to scurry away, he kicked over the table and now that fucker was on the loose. He hopped onto the bed, hoping he could spot it easily with an aerial view of the room. Panic was gushing through him. His fear-stricken eyes were wide, searching the room manically. Where did it go? What did it plan on doing? Did it like the taste of humans?
As an attempt to lure the beast out of hiding, he grabbed the remote control and tossed it at the toppled table. The noise must have shocked it because it came running out. Despite himself, he screamed, a high-pitched scream that could probably be heard by every guest at the motel.
“Fuck, no!” He hopped from one bed to the other. “Fuck! No!” He took a giant leap, slid into the bathroom, and shut the door.
“Was that you screaming?” Jasmin asked.
Maybe he should have felt embarrassed, but he didn’t. There was a goliath spider lurking in the room and self-preservation was key. No shame in that. He opened the door just a crack. “Pssst! Jasmin, get in here. There’s a big-ass spider in the room.”
“So why are we whispering?”
Didn’t she know that spiders had an acute sense of hearing? “Just get in here!”
“Where is it?” She must have had a death wish because she walked into the room and started searching for it, lifting their bags and checking under the bed. “There you are.”
He watched her gently lift it up, using both hands to cradle it. Shivers ran down his spine and he had suppress a gag.
“Look at this little guy.”
“He’s not little!” Kevin spat. “Do you not see that it’s the size ofbothyour hands?”
“Isn’t he adorable?” she cooed, petting it like it was a poodle.
