Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: MOTEL (03/06/25)
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TITLE: Shepherd's Cavern | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
03/17/25 -
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“You’ll be served as if you were the only people in the place,” a computerized voice said on the phone before I laid down some plastic. The message should have given me a clue.
My wife, Jenny, had played along after looking at the glossy images featuring a heated pool and sauna, full buffets, king-size beds, and a jacuzzi right in the room. She was used to me booking a last-minute deal at Motel 6 or some other frugal space from which we could enjoy adventures in the surrounding environments.
“I appreciate you pampering me,” she said. “Being eight months pregnant has emptied my joy tank and left me feeling like a walrus lumbering around. I need a place to sit and rest. I hope they have a massage to go with the spa.”
Our old van, rehabilitated and reconditioned from a yard sale, had already lasted six months and I had no reason to imagine that it might give up the ghost halfway up the hill. We’d just passed a sign reading Dead Man’s Gulch but I’ve never been one to give much credence to overly dramatic tourist traps and signs designed to create pseudo-history. We’d named the contraption ‘Hurley’ and Hurley turned from a pedigree racehorse on the flats to a stubborn donkey in the middle of nowhere. It sputtered as I shifted into first, lurched forward, and then quit while sitting at a forty-five-degree angle.
“What’s wrong with Hurley?” Jenny asked.
Being the brother of an ace mechanic led me to do the one thing I knew how to do with cars. I shrugged. “Probably overheated,” I answered. “Maybe I should have checked the oil and water.”
My wife’s eyes suddenly appeared to be owl-like. “I hope you don’t expect me to be walking anywhere from here,” Janny said. “Do you remember that last motel you booked? The one that claimed it had air-conditioning but only had a blast furnace working overtime in the middle of summer? And do you remember the one before that said it had a pool but had been closed for repairs for the past two years?”
“Someone should get onto all these joints with all their false advertising,” I said.
It was probably the wrong thing to say.
“False advertising!” Jenny bellowed. “You’re the one with false advertising. Why don’t you check out these places before you get me hooked on some fancy pictures taken a hundred years ago? I can’t believe I fall for this over and over. Do you remember that motel along the coast we went to for our honeymoon? The only reason there were no mice was because the cockroaches had scared them off. Do you remember that biker gang that rolled in and took over, partying all night so we couldn’t sleep?”
“We did find that Gideon Bible there,” I offered. “That’s what got us turned around in our lives.”
Her eyes stayed wide, now matched by her open mouth. “All I can say is that you better get walking and find this paradise you promised. I’m staying right here until someone comes back to get me.”
Wouldn’t you know it? There was no cell reception. I shrugged again. It only took an hour walking uphill to get to the place. And maybe it’s best Hurley died where he did. We could probably turn him around and coast back down to the bottom and save my wife’s blood pressure. As I said, the trail itself was overgrown and the buildings looked like they hadn’t been touched in years.
I guess I fell for this because I’d been reading the Christmas story and the Shepherd’s Cavern sounded like the perfect place where a pregnant woman would love to shelter. I had pictured rustic but perhaps this place was a little over the top for someone like Jenny.
She didn’t say a word as we coasted to the bottom of the hill and flagged someone to call a tow truck. The motel 6 was right where we needed it. And it had a Bible.
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