Part 1
He trudged along the desolate road. He can tell it use to be a main highway, but that was long ago. Now the asphalt is cracked with tar patches. The county repairs it when someone complains enough but they won’t replace it. No o e drives on it. One of the main reasons he chose to walk along it. He wouldn’t have to worry about cars almost hitting him or the various teen throwing g trash at him.
He got it, he looked like a bum. He wore a token jacket and worn put jeans. His hair was long and his beard was past his chest now, but it was clean. He was clean as was everything he owned, which wasn’t much. He had a few change of clothes in his duffle bag he carried with him and some money in cash, always cause. He didn’t like banks, doesn’t trust them. He get money every month. Plenty of money. He won a lawsuit against the company he had worked for after getting hurt on the job. Some damn new kid hit him with a forklift and crushed him between the lift and a machine. The kid had gotten high on his lunch break and he paid with a few crushed vertebrae. After multiple surgeries and what seemed like endless physical therapy he was able to walk again.
He gets paid by a western union once a month from his lawyer. The lawyer questioned him on this when he told him his plan to walk through the country. He said through because he wanted to stop and see everything and not just walk across to get to the other side. He had no specific destination planned, it was the journey he wanted. He would pull so much money put whenever he needed it and he always made sure to make it last until the end of the month. He would stop at a grocery store or gas station yo but food and mostly bought his clothes from Goodwill. Every so often he would wander I to a Walmart for a fresh pack of socks, shoes, or underwear. He would shower at truck stops or wherever he could find a place to take a bath. He got a hotel room every now and again, but preferred to sleep under the stars.
He doesn’t own a car anymore and rarely rides in one. He prefers to walk and preferably down lonely empty highways like this one. He likes to imagine what the road was like before the interstate went in. The hustle of the old cars driving down a freshly paved road, maybe pulling into one of those restaurants where the waitress bring your food on roller skates.
As he walked his back started to ache. He was mostly pain free nowadays and his back usually only ached when it was about to rain. A loud rumble rolls through the sky in front of him. He looks up in time to see lightning flash off in the distance. A storm was brewing and he was walking right onto it. He started to look around for some type of shelter. During his time on the road he had stayed in many run down and abandoned buildings when the weather turned sour on him, like it was doing now. The wind began to pick up. He pulled his coat tight and began walking faster looking from one side of the road to the other. Finally as the first drops of rain began to fall on him he saw it.
A dark shape just ahead. It was a building of some sort. He began to walk faster towards. It. As he got close he could see a sign sitting on tip of the roof:
Ada aid s
Ada aids? He wondered what it had said originally. As he got closer he could still see where the stone drive entrance had been originally. Now almost completely reclaimed by nature he could still see the outline like the surgery scars on his back. Man will always leave a mark, he thought this and not for the first time since he began to wander.
He pushed through the bush to a small stone lot covered in weeds. The he saw the front door and written is script was Adelaide’s. The sign on the roof made sense now. This was some sort of bar or restaurant. The few windows in the front had been boarded over. He hoped he would be able to find a way in before the storm got really going.
Lightning flashed almost blinding him. It was close now. He grabbed the door handed and tried to open the door. It was locked or jammed or something. He started to slam his shoulder into the door to try and force it open but it wouldn’t budge an inch. He stood back and looked at the door frame wondering if there was any dry rot, someway he could force his way in. He walked around back and there was another door. Thus door swung out and was also boarded up. He tried to pull the boards off, but they wouldn’t move. It was almost as if the boards had been recently put on and not 40 or more years ago like the rusty nails suggested.
He continued his walk around Adelaide’s. The lightning flashed above him this time and that was when he saw it. There was a small broken window. It was smaller than the front windows but still plenty big enough for him to fit through. He jumped up and grabbed the sill and tried to pull himself up but could only get about half way up the wall. He looked around this time for something to stand on. He found some boxes and stacked them up. They wobbled as he climbed them but he was still able to reach the window and pull himself inside.
When he stood up he realized he was in a bathroom of some type. There was a trough and a couple of toilets along the wall with the window above it. Luckily he was able to avoid them when he crawled through he thought. The place had a musty smell. There was something, another smell just under the musty smell that seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.
He opened the bathroom door and the smell that had been underneath had attacked his nostrils like a freight train and he instantly knew what it was. This place had burned .
He could see the black scars along the wall where the fire ran across them. He found the back door that was boarded up and saw long streaks carved down them as if a bear had tried to claw it’s way out. The room had a stove in one corner along with some other food prep tables. He found a metal pot on the floor that had some rust holes in it. It wasn’t cold right now but if that storm got bad he may need to build a small fire in this pot to keep warm.
He grabbed the pot and headed I to the main room. There was a bar along the other side and a dance floor with a stage at one end. There were some tables between the bar and the dance floor. Most of the tables were tipped over and showed signs of burning. There was plenty of old dry wood to burn in the pot if needed. He found a chair and sat it upright and took a seat. He pulled an old folded up paperback put of his pocket. He had folded the corner of the page he was on and opened it up.
He didn’t have a phone or any other electronic device, although he could easily afford one. He didn’t really watch TV or movies, although he did go to a theater now and again just to relax for a little bit. He would stay in a hotel Avery now and again, but he rarely watched TV. Sometime he would flip through it and if there was a ballgame on he would watch, but mostly he just read the books he picked up at thrift stores. This one was a Louis L’Amour western about a nameless stranger who came to a small town. Whenever anyone would ask his name he would just say “Passin through”. He liked this book a lot because like the character in the book he was just passing through.
He set the book down on the table and decided to go find something to burn. It hadn’t gotten cold yet, but there wasn’t enough light to read by. He went behind the bar, there was another door there, and more claw marks. He began to wonder what had happened here. This door didn’t open easily but he was Stull able to nudge it open enough to fit through it. Inside was a small office. The desk was a small metal one. There were pictures hanging on the wall, most had been burnt up. There was one that the picture in the frame was still visible. It was of a black couple arms wrapped around each and they were smiling. In the background was Adelaide’s and there was another sign, this time a banner that red: Grand Opening. He wondered if that woman in the picture was Adelaide and the man next to her, maybe a husband. They were dressed in old school clothing as if it was the early 1900's. What happened here? He thought.
Bang, bang, bang
He jumped at the sound
It was coming from out there somewhere. He slowly stepped through the office door. He could see the entirety of the small bar from the doorway. “Hello?” he called just to hear the sound of his own voice come back to him. There was no answer.
Bang, bang, bang
Thus time he did jump. The sound had come from the kitchen. He walked to the kitchen door at the end of the bar and slowly pushed it open. “Hello?” He called again. “If anyone is in here just know that I didn’t mean to trespass. It storming out and I just needed shelter. Hello?” he said to the empty room.
Bang, bang, bang
He spun quickly. This time the sound had come from the main room.
Bang, bang, bang
“Screw this.” He rushed to the front door and tried to pull it open. Just like before it wouldn’t budge. He switched the lock and tried again, nothing. He kept switching the lock and kept trying. The door was frozen shut, but he couldn’t see why.
He turned and jogged to the kitchen door and towards the bathroom with the broken window. When he got to the door it wouldn’t budge either. The door had opened freely when he first came in but now it was as if it was boarded up like the back door in the kitchen
All the doors except the office door were shut tight and could not be opened.
A loud boom went off right above his head and the whole building shook. The storm had arrived in full force.
Part 2
He remembered a small window in the office. He wasn’t sure if he could fit through it but he was damn sure he was going to try. The office door was still open. He sat on the bar and slid across it and darted through the door. He could hear the tap tap tap of the rain as it smacked against the old window pain. He pushed the desk up against the wall right under the window. As stood on the desk his shoulders were just above the window sill. A tight fit but I maybe able to fit, he thought. First he tried to open the widow? But like the doors, it was frozen shut.
Bang, bang, bang.
He turned his head towards the office door unsure of what he might see. Just like before nothing was there. He got down from the desk and pulled one of the drawers out, climbed back up and smashed the window open. It was a single pane, so it broke quickly and easily.
BANG!
This bang had been louder, closer. It echoed through the little office. He spun around quickly the drawer raised above his head. The office door that was once open had somehow slammed just. Part of his mind, the rational part, told him it was the sudden rush of air from the window breaking that caused the heavy wooden office door to slam shut. He knew that wasn’t what happened. His face had been in front of the window and no big gust of wind had blown through it when it broke. Yes wind was coming though the window, along with the heavy rain, but it wasn’t enough to slam that door.
He got down off the desk and cautiously walked to the door. He grabbed the knob and pulled. It didn’t budge and part of him, the irrational part knew it wouldn’t. He let go of the door knob quickly. It had burned him. The door handle had somehow grown hot. The put the back of his hand to the door like they showed in all those training safety videos they made him watch every month where he use to work. Fat load of good they did him, he thought.
He could feel the heat emanating through the door without even touching it. He began to breathe a little harder now. He could smell smoke. He looked down and saw black smoke coming from under the door. He took a few steps back. It’s on fire, he thought. He wondered how it had caught on fire, had he started a fire and forgot about it? No, he remembered sitting the pot on the table and went looking for something to burn. Then what, did lightning hit the old place? He doubted that. Although he had never been in anything hit by lightning, he was sure he would have known if the building he was in was.
Part 3
He had climbed back onto the desk and tried to pull himself through. He had been able to squeeze one arm and his head through before he got stuck. He tried both shoulders first, he could not fit. He thought about going feet first but had no way to get his legs up there. He had started to use the drawer to try and widen the window enough to fit through when he heard something at the door.
He climbed down and slowly crossed the small room. As he got closer the sound grew louder. It sounded like someone was scratching at the door. He remembered the claw marks. The marks he though a bear or some animal who had somehow accidentally gotten into the building had made. As he drew closer the scratching had become frantic, that’s when he heard the screams.
He covered his ears as the screams grew louder and louder. It sounded as if twenty people or more were screaming, the smoke had gotten thicker and taken on the smell of someone cooking meat. The scratching mixed in with the screams and the smell. Someone or maybe a lot of someone’s were being burned alive.
The screams and scratching grew louder and louder until he started screaming himself, his hands still covering his ears even though they weren’t blocking any of the horrible shrieking sounds. He grabbed the drawers and began smashing the edges of the window again until he broke through the wall. His lungs and eyes burned from the smoke, his ears and head ached from the screaming and scratching when finally the wall broke away enough and he was able to climb out of the window.
He around to the front of Adelaide’s where the parking lot was, more importantly where the road was. The wind was dying down and even though it was still raining it had slowed. When he got to the front he turned expecting to see flames bursting through the roof and boarded up windows.
He turned as saw nothing. The building was just like it was when he first entered the grown over parking lot. The sign with the missing letters still sat on the roof, it was just missing the letter D now. There were no flames, no smoke and for the first time he realized he couldn’t hear anyone screaming or scratching.
Part 4
Epilogue
He had walked throughout the night until he came to a small town. He rented a room and took a shower. Went to the local laundry mat and washed his clothes from the night before. Even after washing them 5 times they still smelled like smoke and burning meat. He ate a salad AR the local diner, he wasn’t in the mood for a burger, maybe never would be again. He then headed to the local library.
When he entered the library there was an older woman with pointed glasses sitting behind the desk. He thought either she was playing the part of small town librarian to a tee or she was born for this job.
“Hi” he said to her.
“Hello, how can I help you?” She said.
“Yes I was coming into town on old route 65 amd I saw an abandoned building a few miles out, just off the road…”
“Oh, you mean Adelaide’s.” She said cutting him off.
“Yes, that’s the one.” He confirmed, “ what happened there?”
She looked around the small library cautiously as if was about to say something g she shouldn’t. “Well back in the early 1920’s Adelaide and her Husband Theo Johnson had bought and opened up a night club for black folk only. Some of the townsfolk back then didn’t like it too much. So, one night about 20 or so of them had gotten all liquored up and went put there. Story goes that the boarded the doors and windows shut and set the place on fire killing everyone inside. When I was a little girl, us kids always thought I was a scary place and haunted. I never went up there but the story is town legend now. I don’t known if any of it is true but according to legend, Adelaide, her husband , and about 30 or 40 of their patrons perished. Many believe the Sheriff at the time was one of them that set the fire. No arrests were ever made.”
He looked at her. She may believe it was just a story, but he knew that it was all true.
The End.
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