Denielle
knew almost everything there was to know about her trip, she knew that she was
landing at SeaTac airport. A name that literally meant “We are in between
Seattle and Tacoma and couldn’t think of a better name”. She knew that
Starbucks had originated in the State but most ‘true’ coffee drinkers considered
it at best a last resort. She knew the
kind of car she was driving, the fact that I-5 freeway went north and south,
west of that was water, east of it was mountains. She knew she would be taking
her white Camry on a Ferry in order to drive another two and a half hours where
she would arrive at the legendary town of Spoonerville.
The drive
itself was really quite beautiful. Denielle had lived in Chicago for all but
her college years and the way everyone built their homes and towns into the
wilderness really spoke to her. Still there weren’t many places on earth that
remained interesting after 2.5 hours of driving, the trees were beautiful but
they were just trees.
The “Welcome
to Spoonerville” sign was the first thing she saw and she pulled over
immediately. She knew the sign they had made for the movie was actually smaller
and less impressive than the real welcome sign for the town, a fact enjoyed by
many of the Spoonerds. Taking your photo at the REAL “Welcome to Spoonerville”
sign was considered a rite of passage for most of them.
She parked the car on the side of the road about fifty feet away from the sign, grabbed her cellphone and made her way to the sign. The movie sign was held up by two smallish wooden posts and was about five or six feet off the ground, and about five feet wide and four feet high. The real sign was maybe four feet off the ground, easily ten feet wide and ten feet high lit by lamps at night. She walked up to the sign and tried to find the right selfie angle to catch it and her in the same shot, which wouldn’t have been a problem if Quentin hadn’t been such a bastard. She took several pictures before she had one she was happy with.
She pulled
up Facebook without thinking and the app let her know that she had no cell
signal and no wifi in range. She sighed heavily and shoved her phone in her
hoodie pocket and made her way back to the car. She’d post the selfie once she
stopped for lunch. She got back into her car and saw the road sign letting her
know that Quora beach was only nine miles away. Something in her mind liked the
idea of seeing the ocean and that lunch could wait. She checked the clock on
her phone and it was earlier than she thought, she had made good time. She could feel the devil on her shoulder
telling her that she never did anything impulsive and to live a little, the
town would be there in an hour and she could have lunch just as easily then.
