Chapter Two
"He will come like a thief in the night."
Izzy woke up with a start. It seemed as though she had just fallen off to sleep, yet she felt wide awake. "What was that noise? Sirens?" Getting up to look out the bedroom window, she thought she heard some commotion outside. At the corner of the house Izzy saw something move. Again startled, she quickly closed the curtains and ran to the bedroom door and opened it.
The young teenager couldn't hear anyone in the house. Were they gone? Did they leave? There was no clock in her room, and Izzy had no idea what time it was. Was Sam at work? Where was Linda? Was she dreaming? She jumped back in bed and covered her head with the blankets.
"Well, I can't lie here all day!" Izzy said aloud as she threw the covers back, climbed out of bed, and pulled the borrowed robe over her shoulders. She then headed up the stairs. It was still quite dark. Had she slept that long or was it evening?
No one was upstairs. The things Mrs. Denson had promised to get Izzy were lying on the piano bench with a note. "Izzy, these are for you, honey. Help yourself. We'll be back after eight P.M."
She finally found a clock on the wall in the kitchen. "9:30? I wonder if that is A.M. or P.M..." She ran to another clock; a digital that read nine thirty P.M.
"They aren't home yet? I slept that long? I'll call Jeff..... What's the number?...”
Izzy found the phone near the Denson's computer. She then looked for a directory, “Jeff...... Jeff Jefers? Or was it..... Jefferies .... Oh .... I don't know."
Izzy noticed the phone had preset phone numbers listed on it. She ran her finger down through the names. "Pastor... Hitchcock's .... Billy..... Jeff Jeffries..... That's it..... Number four.” So she pushed the number four and then pushed talk.
The phone began to ring. "One... Two... Three....... Come on answer four......"
"This is the home of Jeff Jeffries. I'm not here, but praise the Lord, I might be with Him. Otherwise, leave a message and I'll call you right back. God Bless"
"Oh now what?" A siren sounded in the distance. People were shouting and screaming. "What's going on?" Izzy wondered.
She grabbed some clothes off the piano bench and headed for the bathroom. Quickly she found an outfit that fit and dressed. Izzy wanted to find out what was happening outside.
She returned to the living room. A hooded parka just her size was still lying on the piano bench. She put it on and ran out the door. Quickly Izzy ran down the steps of the large dome house and headed toward the road and all the commotion. There was a bite in the air that she hadn’t felt before. “It must be relay cold,” she thought.
Izzy scampered out to the highway which was about a block away. She looked both directions. In the distance, either direction, she could see flashing red and blue lights. "I'll go that way..... toward the... motel," seeing a sign in the distance. Away she ran toward the north, and the distant motel sign..
Huffing and puffing, the scared teenager ran past the gas station. She hustled quickly across a road and then abruptly stopped. A vehicle accident had occurred near the Treetop Restaurant and Motel. Smoke and flames rolled from the highway. Apparently, a fuel tanker and a car collided head on. A few people stood on the highway in front of the restaurant watching all the excitement. There was no ambulance at the scene so apparently the victims had been taken away already.
Izzy finally arrived near the entrance to the lounge at the Treetop. She slowed down to a walk and causally moved onto the deck. Trying not to be conspicuous, she strolled up to those observing the spectacle.
"What happened?" she asked timidly.
"Tanker went out of control...... hit the little car..... smashed everything. Say, you new around here? My name is Joan; I own this place."
"I'm Izzy. I just got here this morning."
"Strange things been hap’n around here. And this is only one of them."
"Joan," a fireman called out, "Call Jim. It's really bad."
"OK!" Joan yelled back. Turning, she added in a some what lower volume, "Let's get out of this cold. Izzy isn't it? We'll go inside. I'll make the call."
Joan led the way to the front door. Opening it, she removed her coat and hung it on a coat rack and pointed to a table. Izzy hung her parka on the chair and sat at the table while Joan used a telephone by the cash registrar. Moments late Joan returned with two coffee cups in hand, sat by Izzy, and lit up a cigarette.
"Need a job girl?" she asked blowing smoke. "Apparently a couple of people are missing. Didn't show up to work today. Better drink that cup of coffee. Most of us here drink coffee to stay warm and alert in the wintertime. Want to start in the morning?"
Taken back by this barrage of words, Izzy stuttered, "I ...I ...I ... guess so. But... but….what about these people that didn’t show up……What’s happening?
"Oh……..don’t know……Haven’t had time to think about it." Another cloud of smoke drifted toward Izzy with the answer. "It seems that a whole bunch of people just went missing at the same time. Some say kidnapped, some say UFO's took um, others even say that God snatched them. Don't you like coffee? It might need sugar."
"I don't usually drink coffee."
"Well, ya better get use to it. If you work here. You'll be serving a lot of it."
"But, Joan I have no place to stay...... My stuff..... what little I have ....is over at.... the Denson's? ....They're gone?"
She wanted to cry. Izzy sat there with her hands covering her face. "And what about my mom and sis?" she thought. "Should I call them? I have no money..." Then aloud, "Yes I'll take the job!" She took a drink of coffee to cover up her abrupt answer but gagged on the taste.
"Don't like the stuff. Huh? How 'bout six AM tomorrow"
"I'm at the Denson's now. I don't want to stay there.... knowing... that they... might be... gone"
"Go get your things. Six am comes early. I'll have a room for you. Hurry back." Joan put out her cigarette. She went behind the counter and returned with a key. "106, Izzy, back here." Joan pointed out the window to a long building at right angle to the restaurant. It had a door on either end.
"The door at this end, then the third room down on the left. Here's the key. I'll use the housekeeping's key to check it. ........and leave you a note about the job."
She set the key on the table.
Izzy remained seated while Joan headed for the door. It opened abruptly. A tall rather slight middle aged man, and a teenager pushed their way inside causing a small dance at the door.
The adult was wearing a badge. He asked in passing, "Joan, is everything set for tonight?"
"As far as I know," drifted back as Joan grabbed her coat from the rack by the door and headed outside.
The officer headed straight to the coffee pot to pour himself a cup. The teenager walked casually up to Izzy with a questioning look on his face.
"Do I know you? Are you new around here? My name is Mike. Mike Summers..."
Izzy uncomfortable with another confrontation with a stranger, nodded, grabbed her parka and key, and headed out the door. Outside it was very cold so she pulled on her parka, stuffed the key in a pocket, and zipped the parka all the way up to her chin. As she headed to the parking lot, she could see the smoke still billowing from the tanker. Izzy couldn't remember which way she had come so she turned in a circle trying to find her bearings. "That way to the Denson's," she decided and moved northward down the highway taking another good look at the wreck. "That crunched little car looked like a multicolored Subaru."
Frightened again she ran until she discovered she couldn't run anymore. The scare teenager began to walk and contemplate all the things that had transpired in the last hour or so. She thought of her mom, her sis, Jeff Jefferies, and the Denson's. Her mind envisioned the new job and living quarters, and 106. "I don't even know what kind of work I'm doing," she sighed. Now her feet became very cold. Her toes were pins and needles.
"Maybe the Denson's are home," she thought as a tow truck passed by in the direction of the wreck. "Where's the house? It's taking forever to get back there."
Finally through the trees and brush she spotted the lights of the Denson's dome window. She must have left the lights on, or maybe, just maybe, they were back. Izzy slowly walked up the steps and cautiously knocked on the door. Well oiled hinges allowed the door to swing inward with the force of the knock. She hesitantly entered the front room. It was the same as she had left it. The rest of the clothes were on the piano bench with the note beside them. The same dishes were in the sink. No chairs or anything else seemed to have been moved. Her borrowed night gown and robe were still in the bathroom as well as the towel she had used when she first arrived. Not a soul in sight.
She found a couple of small cloth bags lying near the sewing machine and quickly began stuffing the clothes that fit into them. Uneasy with the emptiness of the house, she hurried to the front door only to stop abruptly. "Shampoo, soap, toothpaste, and a comb. What else?"
Reluctantly Izzy moved back through the living room and into the bathroom. In the shower she found shampoo and hair rinse. The shelf behind the toilet yielded a new bar of soap. Feeling like a thief, she grabbed a small zip lock bag filled with qui-tips. As she started to leave the bathroom, she saw a shining object on the shelf of the linen closet. She reached for it. It was a wristwatch. It read 11:05. She wondered, "Should I take it? If they're gone, they won't need it. I'll need one for work." Still undecided, Izzy dropped the watch in a bag, and hurried toward the front door.
Stopping one more time before leaving, Izzy started to think out loud. "Do I have everything I need? ...When I get paid..... I can get the other things.... Got to go... at least my feet are warmer now."
Izzy hurried outside closing the door securely and raced down the steep steps. She walked into the cold darkness carrying her burden in more ways than one. She had only traveled a short distance when she stopped suddenly.
"There... there behind me... footsteps" She was afraid to look back. "It's probably a dog or cat but maybe... oh... no... Can’t be." Her pace increased rapidly.
Within a few minutes, but never looking back, Izzy arrived back at the Treetop. By the glow of the almost extinguished tanker fire, she noticed that the little car was gone. But the truck was still sitting there, a glowing, smoldering pile of blackened and twisted metal. The lights of the Treetop were now turned off putting the buildings and the parking lot in shades of darkness. Izzy found her way to the front door of the motel building and walked quietly along the warm hall searching doors to the left.
"106, there it is.... Now where is that key?" She sat the two cloth bags down and rummaged through her pockets. Deep in the right pocket of her parka she found the key with a tag. "106. Economy." As quickly as she could she opened the door. When she was inside, she shut the door, and threw herself and all her belongings on the bed.
Izzy wanted to cry but there were too many things to think over. She got up and unpacked her new wardrobe. There was a small dresser under the television. She neatly put away the clothes. Then she hung up her parka in the miniature closet provided.
Izzy found the bathroom, a little room with a compact shower, toilet, and sink. She put the toiletries away.
"A note... Joan said there'd be a note," she remembered.
On the television she found a small piece of stationary with "Treetop Motel" at the top. It read: "Izzy. Tim, my son, will be in the restaurant in the morning. He will train you to wait tables on the day shift. I don't know what your schedule will be yet. Talk to you about three PM. Joan."
Suddenly the young woman became very sleepy. This had been a long twenty four hours. She searched for something to sleep in, got ready and rolled under the covers.
Izzy let out a big sigh and began to cry.
"Ooooo .....What have I got myself into? .... Mommmmmy!! Becky!! Da.... No!!!"
She laid there for the longest time curled up in a ball, crying and mumbling about her mistakes in the past. In the midst of all this inner despair, she remembered that she had to get up in a few hours and her alarm wasn't set. "Do I have an alarm clock in this room?...There on that night stand." Izzy set the alarm for five AM so she could take a shower before work. She shut the light out and tried to go to sleep.
It wasn't more than fifteen minutes later, she was wide awake sitting up in bed. "What was that sound?" Quickly she jumped out of bed and went to the window. In the darkness, Izzy thought she saw movement across the motel grounds. She searched with her eyes for several seconds. Just as she started to close the curtain, there was movement in the shadows. This startled her for a moment. Then out of the dark walked a very large animal. "A a... moose maybe? And two calves?" Sure enough, it was a momma moose and her two yearling calves meandering through the deep snow in the courtyard of the motel.
"Whoosh, ...Thought it was..... O ..... Got to get to sleep."
Izzy closed the curtain and returned to bed. She fell fast asleep.
The next thing the teenager remembered was the alarm ringing in her ear. She buried her head in the pillow, not wanting to get up. "But I have to ..... go....to work." She moaned. Quickly Izzy hopped out of bed and began preparing herself to take a shower.
"Oh how refreshing," she thought as she hurriedly put on a clean outfit to work in.
"Wait a minute. Where's that watch....? I.... borrowed." She dug through both of her bags and found it at the very bottom of the second bag. "I need to make sure it's set right. .... five thirty-six. Pretty close." She put it on her right wrist. It fit perfectly.
It was almost time for Izzy to walk across the lot to the restaurant. She stood in front of the mirror to see if every thing looked all right. "My hair? Is it?...The shirt is kind of baggy. Oh well, beggars can't be choosy. Got to go."
The newly hired young waitress headed out the door and down the hall. "Whoops! Almost forgot something. My parka. It's probably cold outside." She quickly returned to her room and grabbed her large coat and put it on as she walked down the hall.
Izzy felt the bitter cold even through her parka as she opened the door to the outside. She ran quickly across to the Treetop Restaurant. The burned out diesel was still smoldering in the road. Arriving on the deck in front, she stopped for a second to look at the thermometer. "What?....thirty-six below? Am I reading that right?" That made her feel even colder as she opened the front door.
