“What?”
“I need a deposit first.”
“I’ll pay you when we get there,” she said.
“Maybe you don’t have the money.”
“I have the money.”
“Then pay me now. I’m not going to wait around while you say you’re going inside to get the cash from one of your … customers.”
Marion stared at the man’s eyes in the mirror, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“I’m not a…” She paused. “I’ve got a child with me! You think I’m a prostitute?”
“Wouldn’t be the first hooker to have a kid, would you? Twenty dollars right now or no ride.”
She stared at him for another second, then broke eye contact and pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of her purse. She dropped it in the front seat, purposely avoiding his outstretched hand.
“Can we go now?” she said.
The driver shook his head a couple of times, like he’d seen it before and knew he would see it again. He dropped the taxi into drive and pulled out onto the street.
She spotted the Motel Monique a half a block before they arrived. It was a big dingy box of a building with a faded sign out front lit by a couple of floodlights. But most important, the neon sign that had been tacked on at the bottom said
The first thing she did after the cabbie dropped her and Iris off in front of the motel was to walk over to a group of newspaper dispensers in front of the liquor store next door. There were no more copies of
It was right on front, the lead story.
GAS LEAK ENDS IN FAMILY TRAGEDY
She stared at it, wanting to read more. But she knew if she did, she’d break down right there on the sidewalk. So she forced herself to fold the paper and stick it into her travel case.
Iris started to whimper against her shoulder. Marion repositioned her arm around the girl’s back, then said, “It’s okay, sweetie. Everything’s okay. You can lie down in a minute. Would you like that?”
The tone of Marion’s voice carried an undercurrent of panic, but there was enough comfort to settle Iris. The whimpering ceased, and the little girl lay her head heavy against Marion’s shoulder. A few seconds later her breathing was deep and even. Asleep now, no need for a bed.
Marion walked back to the Motel Monique clutching the child to her with one hand while pulling her suitcase behind her in the other.
From the moment she entered the motel’s office, the clerk eyed her suspiciously. He was sitting behind a poorly laminated counter with the very classy addition of a Plexiglas wall that extended from the counter’s top all the way to the ceiling. There was a small circle cut into the see-through divider about a foot and a half above the counter, and another, half-moon shaped, where the plexi met the laminate. Like an old movie-house kiosk, only scummier. The plexi was scratched and worn, and at some point in the past several years it looked like someone had thrown liquid against the surface, and no one had gotten around to cleaning it yet. But it worked well with the rest of the office’s decor: old, barely functional, and uncared for.
“Help you?” the clerk said as Marion approached the window. He was only slightly better than the room itself. At least it looked like he’d taken a shower in the last forty-eight hours.
“I need a room,” she said.
His gaze flicked to Iris, then back at Marion. “For how long?”
“Just one night.”
“The whole night?”
“I just need a place to sleep. For me and my child.”
“That’s your kid?” he asked, again with the suspicious eyes.
“Just tell me how much.”
“There’s an EconoLodge not too far from here. You’ll be more comfortable there.”
“Your sign outside says Vacancy. Are you telling me you don’t have any rooms?” she said.
“Lady, you’re not likely to get a lot of sleep here.”
She pulled out several bills. “How much? Sixty dollars?”
A slight widening of his eyes told her sixty was more than the going rate, but she wanted to close the deal.
“Here,” she said. She put three twenties on the counter just her side of the half-moon opening. “That should do it, right?”
He looked at the money for a moment, then reached under the counter and came up with a key.
“Third floor, in the front,” he said. “You’ll hear the street, but most of the other guests prefer rooms in the back.”
She understood what he was trying to tell her. “Thank you,” she said.
