"I think this is very, very far away from our old town," Claudette said to her eight-year old sleeping son, Pike. New mornings, new days, new life. She didn't know the town, but it was a simple one. Establishments have spaces between them. Trees were sulking on the ground. The sky is clear, no smoke blanched and blocked the nice view.
Clau looked at the diner where she parked in front of. It was a small dinner, different from her former town. She read the diner's name: Blank Diner.
She tapped her son's head. "Brew, it's time to eat." Her son didn't respond. "Brew…"
Brew groaned and scratched his head. The voice of her mother, waking him up, annoyed him. He slowly opened his eyes and stared pale on Clay. Clau smiled at her son and she caressed his face.
"I know you're hungry. We should eat by now." She removed the key from the keyfob, pulled her son towards her, then opened the car door. She exited the car with Brew.
Brew blinked. A new environment for a young guy like him. New place, new friends, new neighbours, and new enemies. He's used to his old town, and he's going to miss his friends, his enemies.
"Mom, where are we?" he asked Clau. Clau didn't respond. She didn't know either. It's been three days of travel. They stopped every time they found a hotel. For Clau, it is so close to their old town and she wanted to reach the farthest town from it.
She and Brew would start their new life with a large bag of cash inside the trunk of the car. It wasn't robbed, it was all of her savings which she withdrew before they left their last town, their home.
"I don't know either, but we'll see."
Clau and Brew went inside the diner. The door chimed as they entered. The cashier and some of the waitresses stared at them blankly. New woman… with a young son.
"May I take your order?" A weird, perverted guy stood closely to Clau. That made her feel disgusted. She and her son took a step back. The guy licked his lower lip, he's not even good-looking.
"Uh…" Clau trailed. A woman, who's probably in her early twenties, pulled the weird guy and was the one to face Clau and Brew.
"Oh, hi! Sorry for the weird guy. He's kinda… you already know with girls. By the way, I'm Layla." Layla offered a hand while holding a pen. Clau gazed at her hand. When Clau didn't accept her hand, Layla put her hands back to where it was positioned earlier. "New girl? Visitor? Tourist?"
"No one wants to tour our town!" A woman, who's in her mid or late sixties, sitting on the counter, commented.
"Oh, yeah! So, what brought you and your son to our cozy little town?"
At this time, Clau spoke, "We left our old town. My son and I wanted to live here." Oh, that was a lie. She never wanted to live here. It's just she never had a choice. If she wanted to have a peace of mind, she had to live here, very far away from her old town.
"Layla, let me talk to her," the woman who commented earlier said.
Layla smiled at her and turned around. Clau and Brew walked to the old woman. Brew looked at his mother, trying to stop her, but Clau was staring straight at the woman.
"What's your name?" the woman said in an authoritative voice.
"I'm Claudette… Claudette Jones." She looked at her son. "This is my son. Brew."
"Husband?"
Clau shook her head. "It's a very long story."
The woman slammed the counter. "If you wanted to live in this town. You should tell every little secret or past life that you have. You can eat in my diner, but you cannot stay in this town."
"Who is she? A mayor? An owner of this town?" Clau thought in her mind.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not comfortable telling it with my kid beside me."
"Layla!" the woman called and Layla trolled them as fast as she could.
"What is it, Laura?"
"Take the child."
Brew grasped tightly on her mother's arms. "I don't want to leave you, mom."
"Give him ice cream or any sweets."
Brew released his grasp. "Oh, really?" Laura nodded. "I'm gonna come back, Mom."
Brew held Layla's hand and they trolled away from Laura and Clau. Laura stared at Clau, eye to eye, with a serious face, and sweat dripping from her face.
"Now, you can tell me."
Clau gulped air, she tried to remember it all, from the start. "My husband is a bad guy. He's part of a gang and does crimes. He hurted me and Brew and I can't take it anymore. That's why I left our old town and old home. I didn't want my son to get hurt again."
Laura stood up from sitting. "Why did you marry a guy like him?"
Clau reminisced all those lies she believed. All those efforts which weren't true. All those cat-fishing her former husband did to have sex with her.
"He's good-looking. A very bad good-looking. I was young at that time and I fell out of love. We had sex and I got pregnant, then he married me. I really need to live in this town. We've been travelling for three days and I'm pretty sure that this is the town where my son and I will feel safe."
Laura held her chin. "You have an interesting story. I hope it's real, but yeah… Welcome to Blankenson!"
