Okay so I post the first part of what happened and it did better than I thought which is good. Unfortunately it was taken down. Apparently it was considered a teaser (which I completely understand) so if you know how to format it where I can link each part I post together please let me know. I would love to format this correctly.
With that being said I might have to let someone else finish for me at some point or at least get you close to the end. Liz said that I’m going to be put under soon so I’ll give my phone to someone when that happens. Now I know what you’re thinking ‘How will they know what happened to you Michael?’ Well lucky for you I wrote down a few things before this all went down. Basically just a little work journal but it has some weird stuff I’ve seen. They’ll just copy that here for you all.
After passing a few buildings we pulled into a quite cozy looking 60’s dinner that had a space theme going on. Or to think it was space, I’ve never seen that much chrome in one place before in my entire life. Then the waiter and waitress had flying saucer themed dresses, shirts, and ties with these space helmet hats. I’m going to be honest when I think about it now they looked kinda cool actually. But then it was just very very shocking because I’m not describing what they looked like correctly. If you’re thinking of dresses and shirts with little flying saucers on them, that’s wrong. Not only is that wrong, it is actually the opposite. Think of a person wearing a flying saucer with pictures of dressing and shirts on them. But when I looked over at John, he looked like this was normal so I decided not to question that.
“You know if you were hungry we could have just stopped at Mcdonalds on the way here.”
“Look, I only get coffee from two places and this one is on the way to the ranger station.”
“I thought you were an energy drink guy?”
“I am when I’m out of town because most places can’t make a decent cup of coffee to save their life. So we’re going to stop here, get some coffee and head down the Station. After that we’ll get you set up at your cabin.”
“Wait, I get a whole cabin to myself?”
“Ah ah Coffee first questions later.” He said unlocking the doors and heading out into the dinner.
I thought about waiting in the car for him to come back but I decided to go in myself. Besides, the energy was starting to wear off and a part of me wanted to see what his place was all about. On my way inside the door I almost slammed into a waitress carrying a tray of burgers and fries. I grabbed her, pulling her close as I helped steady her tray.
“You okay?” I said, helping her hold the tray.
She straightened her saucer and adjusted the plates before looking over at me and nodding.
“Sorry about that Sir, it’s my first day. “
“Uhh please don’t call me Sir it makes me feel 20 years older than I actually am. “
“And how old might that be?” She said back in a playful way.
“Eighteen if you must know Miss.”
“Ugh, Okay I see what you mean.”
We both laughed as she looked me up and down again. Then she looked me in my eyes for a somewhat uncomfortable few seconds before smiling again.
” You’re not from the Valley are you?”
“Nope literally just got here. Just came inside for a cup of coffee on my way to my first day of work. “
“At the park right?”
Okay to be honest it really creeped me out when she said that for some reason. I gave her one of my most suspicious looks and a very uncomfortable smile.
“How do you know that?” I say in my bravest and not at all worried voice.
“Small town. Well it is not that small but everyone knows everyone and people like to talk. That position has been open for a few months and no one here wanted to take it so it only makes sense.”
“Wait, why did anyone want to take the job?”
Before I could get an answer an older woman in a saucer decorated with little coffee and no pads called from on the other side of the counter.
“Stop messin around and get those orders out ya hear!”
“Yes Martha!” She snapped back into the reality outside of our conversation, and I did the same.
“I gotta go but it was nice, meeting you Michael.”
“You too.” I said as she walked off. Then I realized I didn’t tell her my name and I decided to find John as soon as possible.
After a few seconds of looking through the crowd I saw John sitting at the counter. I walked over passing a few more space ships and sat next to him.
“I was wonderin when you would make your way over here.” He said sipping a cup of dark brown coffee. When the smell hit my nose I immediately knew why he wanted to stop her first. The coffee smelled rich and sweet with a hit of cinnamon and chocolate.
“Is that hot chocolate?”
“No it’s coffee, this place just has a special way of making that is just irreplaceable.”
As he said that the lady with the notepad spaceship costume? Uniform! That’s a better word. The lady in the notepad cover spaceship uniform came walking in front of me from the other side of the counter. She placed down a mug that had the same dark brown coffee John had and a piece of cherry pie.
“Sorry but I didn’t order this?”
“I know. It’s in the house. It’s so rare that we get new faces around here so I just thought I’d make sure you have a good first impression. Plus I’m sure John didn’t stop not once on the drive up here.”
“He slept for over half the ride, the kid didn’t even have time to get hungry.”
“That’s where you’re wrong I’m literally always hungry and besides who can turn down pie?”
The lady smiled and looked at John with a victorious grin. As I took a fork and ate some of the pie, it was the best damn pie I have ever had and I honestly don’t remember eating it all but when I looked up it was gone. The lady laughed as John shook his head.
“Oh sorry I guess I was hungrier than I thought.” I said feeling pretty embarrassed.
“I like this one already. I’m Martha by the way Dear. “
“Michael. “
“Well it’s nice to meet you Michael. If you’re ever out in town and you get hungry don’t hesitate to come on down and get you some warm to eat. Heck if you bring a friend I’ll give you a discount.”
“Thank you Mrs. Martha, I appreciate it. “
“Looks like I’m going to eat with you every morning then.” John said stretching and taking a sip of his sweet smelling coffee.
That made me remember the fact that I had a cup. I pulled the mug up to my mouth and took a small sip of the dark brown liquid. It honestly felt like it floated into my nose like one of those old cartoons. I grabbed the cut and blew on it before taking a small sip. It tasted like a mix of cinnamon, chocolate, nutmeg, and other things that I can’t place on my tongue.
“Well we need to get going. We have to be at the park in 20 minutes and it’s a 25 minute drive. Let’s go! “
John grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me up from my seat in a bit of an annoying and impressive way.
“Hey! Hey! I’m coming! I’m coming! Geez I have legs.”
We both headed back out the doorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Oh shit sorry i passed out there for a second. I would delete it but I’m probably going to have to speed up a bit before I pass out again. Or die from blood lows, that would suck.
After about 10 minutes of driving through the Canny we started heading back into a more wooded area. The oranges of the noon As we continued down the road another sign came into view, it was made of wood and painted brown with a white trim around it. It read Canny National Park with the national park service logo on the side of it. He rubbed into a said parking lot in front of a big parking lot with a large cabin looking building. We both got out of the car and headed over to the building. As we got closer I started to hear the sounds of mumbled voices coming from the building along with music.
“Oh Goddamn it!” John said in an angry way not to dissimilar from how you say when you see your dog just poop on the floor for the 3rd time that day.
I followed close behind him, not wanting to wait in the car anymore. My sore butt thanked me as we both headed into a sort of reception area with a front desk with a few computers and chairs. Deer antlers, the head of a bear, and a rather large moose hung above a few different photos of the area in the park. Oh the floor was a huge rug with a map of the whole Canny, with cartoon drawings no doubt for little kids.
There were a few other side rooms and what looked like a dinning hall. I actually want to go round and look more that the building but John man a hard left to the hallway besides the reception. I had completely forgotten about the music until the sound blasted from a door that had breakroom rewritten on it. John walked steadily to the door and pushed it open making the door hit the wall on the other side.
As we both looked inside to see two people; a man who looked to be in his mid 20s with long black hair that shook back and forth as he moved. His arms were covered in tattoos. The woman’s age escaped me because she looked a mix of 20 and 35 at the same time with a beauty that was both youthful and mature. They were dressed not too different from John dancing to Killer Queen By Queen. The music seemed to be coming from a Bluetooth speaker sitting on a table in the middle of the room. A strong smell of perfume came from the woman and I covered my face. I honestly don’t know how they didn’t smell it. I coughed as John walked over to it and turned it off before throwing it away into the trash can.
The man and woman both looked over at John and voiced their complaints.
“Hey, that’s my speaker!!” The man said running over to the trash can and fishing through it for the speaker.
“Why did you cut the music??”
“Because I told you two that the next time I catch you both playing that music that loud again I would throw it away.” John said as he walked over to one of the tables and sat down.
“Patrick, Marybeth, this is Michael. Michael, this is Patrick, and Marybeth. He’s the new guy that Benjamin hired a couple weeks ago.”
The guy who’s name was apparently Patrick put his hand out to shake mind.
“So you’re the new guy. I wasn’t expecting someone so young to be honest. I thought we were getting another dinosaur like John over there.”
John waved him off while I returned the gesture as Marybeth stuck her hand out too.
“Marybeth, it’s nice to meet you Mike.”
She said with a soft voice that a thick southern drawl to it. For some reason I was fixated on her eyes, they were a light ocean green and shone in the sunlight reflecting my face back to me. Oh yeah, another thing I forgot was the fact that she smelled like a
After a moment I blinked a couple times then went to correct her mistake.
“I actually prefer Michael, I never liked how Mike sounds.”
Her smile left her eyes as she politely nodded.
‘Maybe I should let her call me Mike.’
A random thought pop into my head. I just took it as my brain trying to make me make her feel a little better but that is one thing I won’t change my mind about. I had no idea why my thoughts had a southern accent though. The smell of her perfume got a lot story when she came over and I pulled back a little.
“So where ya from? Micheal? “
“I’m from the city. I kinda got tired of all the noise and rude people so I wanted to give the great outdoors a shot.”
“Man if I was you, I’d turn around and go back to the city. This place is the capital of boring and weird. Plus what happened to the last guy? Man you must be really brave or really dumb.”
Now after hearing all of this I felt a feeling that I have never felt before. It was a mix of anger and terror, Tangor? Well my Tangor was hidden behind a clam smile as I turned to look at John.
“John, what happened to the last guy?”
John gave Patrick a look and said ‘You’re a dumbass.’ and pursued getting up and patted me on the shoulder.
“Patrick, stop trying to scare the kid off and get back to work.”
“John, you did not answer my question.”
Patrick gave out an overexerted sign before put his Bluetooth speaker in a bag.
“Come on Pat, I’ll give you a ride back to the lake.”
She said hold up her keys and giggle at them. They both waved goodbye leaving a very tangored me in the room with a very guilty looking John.
“John.”
“Yeah kid?”
“What happened to the last gu-?”
“Oh there you are!”
A female voice came from the door behind us. We both turned to see a woman in her mid 20’s with glasses and long brown hair put into a ponytail. She walked right over to him and looked me straight in then pursued to poke and prodded at my hair, face and chest. I was getting very uncomfortable. Now she was every pretty but I didn’t really like it when people got into my personal space without asking. So I decided to give John my best puppy eyes.
“Uhhhhh John??”
John basically pulled her off me before she could take a piece of my hair.
“Maddie, leave the boy along, you’re scaring him half to death!”
She looked over at my very uncomfortable looking face and calmed down.
“Sorry, I got a little excited.. I already know everyone in town and I don’t really talk to many people, plus you’re a new face so I got a look ahead of myself.”
She held her hand out and I took a second to consider talking about it. I thought it would be rude even if she did just destroy my personal space. I decided to just suck it up and I shook her hand.
“H-Hey I’m Michael.”
“I know, I’m the woman you talked to on the phone a few weeks back.”
“Oh you’re Madison right?”
Her eyes light up when I ask her name. I guess she wasn’t used to people remembering things about her. I kinda understand her better after realizing that.
“Yup that’s me. I handled all the H.R. work here along with hiring. We have a few things to handle if I can steal you away from John for a bit?”
She said looking over at him with similar puppy eyes I gave him a minute ago.
“Sure you can take em, I’ve got a few things to do since I’ve been gone and I hate being late to work.”
She grabbed my arm joining it with hers walking me out of the break room. As we passed through the door I loved back at John to see him waving me away. We head past the back room into a hallway with a few different doors, each one labeled something different. We passed a supply close before heading into a small office. The room itself was a desk, to chairs a bookcase on the side wall and I window opposite of the bookcase. Madison sat down at her desk and I sat in one of the chairs on the other side.
I won’t bore you with my personal information so I’m going to tell you about her. Maddie had been working at the park for the past 5 years and she, just like John was born and raised in Canny. She has two cats named Cheddar and Dip, Cheddar was a British shorthair and Dip was a Ragdoll. She has so many photos of them that she has to pay for storage space on Google Cloud.
Her favorite color was sky blue and she loved chocolate milk.
“One time John had brought a whole case of the stuff to work and I ended up drinking a whole gallon. He was so mad that I couldn’t see the vines popping you on his forehead. But he didn’t yell at me.”
“So you got away stock free?” I said, leaning back in my chair a little.
“No, of course not.” She laughed as she waved her hand.
“John made me clean all the outdoor bathrooms for a week. It may sound harsh but I told him I wouldn’t drink it but I did.”
“It’s a good thing I don’t drink milk.”
“I don’t think that’s good at all.”
Another female voice spoke from just behind me. I turned around in my chair, falling over on the ground and hitting my head on the wall next to me. I rubbed my head as I heard footsteps get closer to me.
“Is he okay?!?!”
As I opened my eyes I saw a tall woman with black hair accompanied with long red streaks that matched her crimson lipstick. She wore a long table coat over the green and brown uniform that everyone was wearing. I was freezing there for a second until she grabbed by my arms and pulled to my feet. Now I’m 6’ 1, maybe 6 feet even with all my hair cut, but she looked down at me at a height of at least 6’ 4.
She held my arms and patted the dust off my head before slapping me in the face.
“Ow!! Why!?!”
“Good, you don’t see to have any brain damage. I’m Elizabeth, I’m the on duty nurse here but make not mistake I am a doctor; one more qualified than anyone in this pig fucking town. So for while you are apart of our team I will be take over at you primary physician. “
She extended her hand out to and I heastently reached my hand our and took her hand slowly. She obviously noticed my timid deer at an rolled her eyes and gave me a look I will honestly never forget.
“Oh come on kid, I don’t bite.”
“Yeah she hits. I still have the knot on my head from the last time I missed my physical. “
Maddie said pulling my attention back from fight or flight.
“Sorry.. I just don’t do good with people in my personal space. It kinda makes me freeze up like a deer in headlights.”
“Oh really now?” Elizabeth said looking me up and down.
“Maddie honey are you done getting at of his information?”
“Well technically yes, we got the the official stuff down but we still have the team pictur-“
“Good.”
Elizabeth grabbed my arms and pulled me towards the door. Her hands were soft and warm, which was a complete 180 from what I’ve seen of her cold hard personality.
“We need to get all of you medical information verified.”
She pulled back into the hallway and down a few more doors until we got the last two. The one we stopped in front of had that staff of Hermes on the glass of the doors and window. Elizabeth started to fish coming out of her pocket (probably a key) while I decided to just look around the hallway. The door across from her office had a pine tree on the tinted glass.
“What’s that room?”
“That’s Benjamin’s office. He’s the head ranger here. He’s in the hospital at the moment, he was with our last new ranger when he died and he got messed up pretty bad too. He is still kicking but under my recommendations he’s not allowed back here for a few more weeks.”
“What happened to the last Ranger?”
She stopped what she was doing and pulled the key out of her pocket. She opened the door to her office. The air turned tense as she sighed loudly and rubbed her head.
“Sit on the bed, I need to take your blood pressure.”
Elizabeth walked into the room. As I got in, I noticed that it really looked like a doctor off. There were a few chairs on the other side of a desk with a bed against the far wall close to the window. Cabinets hung above and set below a new looking sink. After a few base tests she grabbed a clipboard off her desk and asked me to fill it out for her.
Now I’m just going to skip my medicine information but let’s just say I’m in good health but for her I need to be in great health.
“How do you feel about Bananas?”
The quiet caught me a little off guard.
“The band?”
“What?! no. The fruit dumbass!”
“Oh, umm I guess they’re okay. “
“Good because I’m going to need you to eat two a week and drink a glass of milk a day.”
“Ugh no. Milk is gross.”
“You may find them gross but it’s good for your bones. So you will drink a glass a day or you going it have to deal with me. “
I thought about it for a moment then gave out a honestly very childish growth.
“Finnnne.”
“Good. Now you should probably get some rest. It gets dark and I’m sure you haven’t been to your cabin yet. John should be waiting for you.”
“Wait, I get a whole place to myself?”
“For now. That doesn’t mean you mess the place up and party. It’s still owned by the park. And you honestly don’t want to deal with Benjamin when he’s in a bad mood.”
I stood up stretching as all my bones sounded like the best bowl of rice krispies this side of any river. I headed to the door ready to leave when Elizabeth got up from her desk.
“One more thing. Please try and be careful out there. I really do care about everyone and I don’t want to help put your body into an ambulance..”
“I’ll try my best to be safe.”
She sat down seemingly accepting my answer. I waved to her and closed the door slowly not wanting to she her made. I wonder if this is what having an older sister is like. Before I could get lost in that thought I made my way to the entrance. I looked out the glass of the windows and doors, seeing John standing outside of the car waiting for me. The sky slowly turned from day to night as he waved me over. I made my way out the door and to the passenger side of the truck.
“Hey kid. How did everything go?”
He asked as he started the trunk. It mumbled as a mulled over everything that happened today.
“I just mainly answered questions. I mean it wasn’t bad but I just wasn’t expecting to do that all day.”
“We got back a little later than I wouldn’t have liked so there was much work left to do today.”
“I believe you mean that you made us late by getting your coffee. I had to finish mine in the car, I still have to give that cup back later.”
John gave me a rie smile that only meant bad things.
“If you didn’t take so long getting out of the car you would have had time to drink it.”
I think John is warming up to me more. Maybe I remind of one of his daughters in some way and that made him want to tease me a little. After that little back and forward we both decided that it would be better if I just headed out while there was still a little sun outside. We drove a little farther up the road from Ranger Station for a good time before pulling off on a grave path. Lights could be seen through the trees as we got closer and closer the cabin came into view. It was a cozy two story building with a small shed to the side. John pulled to the small grave driveway and unlocked the door.
“I dropped your stuff off and got you some before I came to get from that station. There’s a pizza on the table in the oven, it should still be hot but just want it up if it gets cold. There’s a paper with everyone’s number sitting on the coffee table in the living room if you need to reach any of us. You would be getting a radio but we need to order more so the landline will have to do it for now. “
I nodded as I opened the door and got out of the car. My foot hit the ground as I hopped out of the raised trunk and I turned to close the door. I poked my head up to the window to tell John good night. He waved as I hopped back down and walked over to the front porch. I watched him pull out for a little while I made my way inside. I’ll go into the details of my cabin a little later at a later time sadly I really have to go for now. I can really free my fingers too well and I can barely see. So if this is the end it was fun I mean not maybe people can say they died like this. Well, except for the last ranger…but I digress. With that being said, see you when I see you.