A chipped and faded green sub compact Ford rattled down a narrow road where deer stood on the asphalt like they owned it. Every few hundred yards another one steps from the tree line to stare blankly into the headlights.
“The town was established in 1860 as a rail stop and post office,” Bex Beaumont said into the recorder app on her phone. “Population somewhere south of a thous—MOVE!” Bex laid on the horn as a doe stood in the center of the road chewing something. The deer blinked, and Bex eased around at a crawl.
“Population is less than a thousand and apparently every resident has delegated road maintenance to the local wildlife,” she continued. She cranked the manual window down enough to shout,
“I’m on your side, sweetheart,” and the deer watched her go.
She thumbed the recorder again. “Sleepy Creek sits on the edge of a wildlife preserve. One gas station. One diner. One church.” She glanced at her notes. “Actually one church seems low for this part of the world. Maybe they’re slacking.”
The last of the daylight bled across the hills.
“I dragged my butt down here from my dorm to cover the annual fall festival for class credit and maybe determine whether the diner actually serves the best coffee in the tri-state area.”
She snorted, “An extraordinary claim, to be sure.”
Her phone map gave up ten miles back and the screen displayed a gray void with a blue dot wandering through it. Out of the mist the reflected eyes of deer fade away for old stone and iron fences. Names worn smooth by a century and a half of winters. Passed the cemetery, the lone yellow light shown out of an old diner’s windows across the empty street. A hand-painted sign in the window advertised coffee and pie. Beyond it sat a squat roadside motel with six doors and a flickering vacancy sign. The parking lot held exactly two vehicles. Bex pulled in and made it three. The office smelled faintly of cigarettes, stale coffee and old carpet. Behind the counter a heavyset man slept in an office chair with a nudie magazine in his lap and a coffee stained mug at his side. His head hung forward. Drool glistened on his chin.
Bex checked her watch. 7:48 PM.
She rang the bell and the man continued snoring.
She rang it again. “Sir?”
“Sir!”
The snoring got louder.
“Checking in?” A feminine cigarette-laden voice comes from behind her.
Bex turned and the woman standing there in the doorway looked like she walked out of a truck stop calendar sometime around 1987. Heavy makeup. Dark brown hair. Short skirt. Low-cut blouse. A cigarette smoldered between two painted fingers.
“Uh, yeah,” Bex gestured toward the unconscious clerk. “I’m trying to get a room. Do you work here?”
The woman barked out a laugh.
“Yeah, Honey” she gestures to her outfit, “I work here.”
She slipped behind the counter and produced a key from somewhere beneath it.
“I’ll put you in room five. In the morning, just tell this lazy sack of shit that Ruby checked you in.”
She slid the key across the counter.
“What’s your name, hon?”
“Thank you, Ruby. My name’s Bex, Bex Beaumont.”
“Well, Bex Beaumont,” Ruby tapped the key, “Welcome to Sleepy Creek.”
***
The next morning she carefully stretched and wrapped her abdominal binder over the ache of her two-sided scar. As she slowly slipped into fresh clothes, the dream she had during the night lingered in her mind. Children laughing. Fiddles playing. Lanterns swung from the trees. The festival in full bloom beneath a perfect autumn sky. It felt real. Bex slung her bag over her shoulder with a wince and headed toward the town square.
The town looked smaller in daylight. A few leaves rolled across the cracked empty street. There in the town center, there was nothing. Houses stood with chipped paint. The ones that weren’t boarded up, looked like they should’ve been. No tents or vendors. No stage. No festival. The only sign of life came from the diner. A hand-painted sign in the window promised COFFEE • PIE • OPEN 24 HOURS.
The bell above the door jingled when she entered.
“Morning, hon,” an old rotund waitress stood behind the counter refilling mugs with a cigarette stained smile. “Sit where ya like.”
Bex straddled a stool at the counter and asked, “Do you happen to know where they’re setting up for the festival?”
“Oh it’s right here darlin’,” the waitress poured steaming black liquid into a mug beside Bex and asks, “Cream and sugar?”
“O-oh, no thank you. I’m not much of a coffee drinker.”
“It’s the best in the Tri-state, really.”
From her bag, Bex pulled a tall silver energy drink, “This is my drug of choice.”
The waitress eyed Bex uneasily, “You do gotta order somethin’ hon.”
“What’s good?”
“S.O.S.” a grizzled old fat man says slumped in a booth behind her.
Bex turns and repeats, “S O S?”
“Shit on a shingle,” the man says folded over a newspaper and rubbing his eyes.
Bex looks at the waitress confused, and the waitress rolls her eyes, “Biscuits and gravy.”
“I’m vegetarian, do you have tofu sausage?”
“Oatmeal, coming right up,” the waitress says disappearing into the kitchen.
“Your’e new,” the man tells Bex rubbing his face.
“Yeah, here for the festival. Got in last night.”
“Sleep okay?”
“Actually, yeah. Better than I have in months…” her voice trailed off for a moment before muttering under her breath, “even with the pain killers,”
His face dropped, “I figured as much.” The old man stared into the black of his cup. “If ya know what’s good fer ya, you’ll geton outta ‘ere.”
“Don’t fill her head with nonsense, Walter.” The waitress emerged from seemingly nowhere, sliding the bowl of gray slop in front of Bex.
“What’s his problem?” Bex asks with confusion.
“His wife’s sick. Been sick a long time. He’s exhausted caring for her. She’s bed bound.”
Walter’s puffy red dry eyes finally met Bex’s baby blues, “So’s everyone else.” His hand trembled as he lifted the mug.
The waitress topped off the coffee before he’d even finished half of it.
“Everyone else?” With no evidence of a festival, Bex’s confusion rolled in her stomach and grew into a desperate need for a story.
“Ain’t no virus or nothin’,” the waitress finally dropped the cheerful diner smile. “Work dried up. Kids moved away. Folks ain’t got much to look forward to. That’s all.” She reached for the pot again. “They just need a little pick-me-up.” The black coffee splashed into Bex’s untouched mug. “West by God’s best coffee.”
The bell over the door jingled.
Ruby shuffled inside rubbing sleep from her eyes.
“Morning, Regina.”
“Busy night, harlot?”
“Hardly.” Ruby yawned. “Coffee. Pronto.”
She spotted the mug in front of Bex.
“Oh, for me? What a sweetheart.”
Ruby slid onto the stool beside her and immediately guzzled the steaming black.
“You aren’t bothered by her calling you that?” Bex whispered.
Ruby shrugged. “Trust me, honey. I’ve been called worse.” She took another slurp. “Besides, she secretly loves me.”
“Liar,” Regina barked from the other side of the diner tending to an old couple sitting slumped in a booth.
Ruby grinned. “She’s jealous is all. Back in her day, she was the Glamazon. Prettier than all the girls, and stronger than most of the boys. But that was eons ago, and she’s in desperate need of a deep dickin’.”
Bex laughed despite herself, her blushing cheeks struggled against a persistent smile. Then she remembered her job.
“Do you know anything about the festival?” she asked gesturing toward the empty street outside. “Nobody’s setting up.”
Ruby frowned. “Heard folks talking about it months ago.” She took another sip. “Honestly? Maybe everybody forgot.”
“I told you. The festival is here.” Regina punctuated the statement by refilling both mugs.
Walter’s newspaper fell to the floor, and a jagged arhythmic snore rattled out behind Bex and Ruby. Walter had fallen asleep in his booth. Bex pointed, “The old guy said everybody in town is bed bound.”
Ruby looked over.
“I wish I was bound in bed,” Ruby says hiding a sly grin behind the mug, “Nah, but seriously, it’s like e’erybody just decided to sleep in… for a couple months straight.”
Regina splashed more oily black liquid into the mugs.
“Why aren’t you affected?”
Ruby blinked. “What?”
“You and Regina. You’re both fine.”
Ruby laughed. “Fine is generous.”
“You know what I mean.”
Ruby looked down at the mug. “Beats me. Between my chain smoking, drinking and whoring, it ain’t like I’ve got the healthiest lifestyle.”
Something clicked and Bex turned toward Regina. “Do you smoke?”
“When I get a break.”
“Nicotine is a stimulant.”
“So? So’s coffee.”
Bex pointed toward Walter. “He doesn’t smoke?”
“He’s got chew, but his doctor warned him off it. Most folk are quitting, these days.” Ruby lowered her mug.
Bex looked at it. Then at Regina’s stained coffee pot. Then at Walter’s cup. Then at the dozen other mugs scattered around the diner. Every one empty. Every one recently refilled.
“The coffee.”
Ruby frowned. “What about it?”
“Everybody drinks the coffee.”
“Course they do.”
“No.” Bex sat forward. “Everybody drinks the coffee.”
Ruby slowly lowered her mug and the diner suddenly felt very quiet with Regina serving dishes of greasy slop to the older couple slumped over at the far side of the diner.
“Regina, honey,” Ruby said, “this nice young lady has a question fer ya.”
“A waitress might not make as much as a hooker, but the tips don’t need to be wrapped in rubber.”
“God, no.” Bex says shaking her reddening cheeks with embarrassment, then turning to Ruby, “Not that there’s anything wrong with sex work.” Turning back to Regina, “could you tell me… about your tri-state famous coffee?”
Regina’s expression softened. For the first time all morning she looked genuinely proud.
“My daddy taught me.”
“How?”
“We pull water straight from the Creek. Grounds are coffee and roasted chicory.”
Bex nodded.
“Anything else?”
Regina glanced toward the pot. Something passed behind her eyes.
“Maybe.”
Bex followed her gaze. The carafe was ancient. Black crust coated the inside. Years of buildup layered the glass like tree rings.
“Do you ever clean it?” Bex asks masking revulsion.
Regina looked horrified. “Clean it?”
“The pot.”
“Lord above.” Regina crossed herself. “My daddy’d rise from the grave and tan my hide.”
“That’s disgusting,” Ruby groaned.
“That’s flavor.”
Bex stood and moved closer. The smell coming from the pot wasn’t coffee. Not entirely. “What exactly is on the bottom of it?”
Regina’s smile widened. “Daddy found it.”
“Found what?”
“After a flood. Creek come up over the banks. Left all sorts of things behind.”
“What things?”
Regina shrugged. “He never knew.”
Bex waited.
“He said it looked like coal tar.”
Ruby pushed her mug away. “Nope.”
“But it weren’t tar.”
“What was it?”
Regina’s eyes drifted toward the coffee maker again. “A living thing, maybe. A big black blobby thing.”
“Like a Kombucha mother?”
“What now?”
“They’re white blobby things that make these wonderful alcoholic teas, as long as you keep it fed.”
“Well, this one makes coffee.”
Ruby pushes the coffee mug away in disgust. “I’ve swallowed some nasty stuff in my life, but—”
Regina smiled. “Folks started coming from three counties away.”
Bex felt her stomach tighten. “Regina.”
The waitress folded her arms. “What?”
“I need to see the pot.”
The smile disappeared. “No.”
“If people are getting sick—”
“They ain’t sick.”
“They’re sleeping through their lives.”
“They’re happy.”
Walter snored loudly from the booth.
Bex pointed. “That’s happy?”
“Shush now, he’s dreamin’.”
“Regina...”
“They all are.” The waitress stepped between Bex and the coffee maker. “They’re dreaming.” Her voice had become strangely soft. Reverent. “They ain’t worried no more.”
Bex felt a knot form in her stomach.
“Regina, move.”
“No.”
“Let me see the pot.”
The waitress’s fingers tightened around the handle.
“You aren’t going to ruin the festival.”
“What festival?”
Regina’s eyes widened. For a second she looked confused, then angry. “The festival.”
“There is no festival.”
The room seemed to stop breathing. Ruby slowly slid off her stool. Regina’s face twisted with grief. “Nobody wants to wake up,” Regina growled a whisper as her grip tightened around the carafe. “Nobody.”
While Regina’s attention remained fixed on Bex, Ruby lunged across the counter and seized the stained glass carafe. For a moment it looked like she’d won, but Regina screamed in panic. The waitress held the steaming sloshing pot with both hands. The two women struggled over it as the black liquid inside sloshed wild and frothing.
“Let go, you whore!” Regina roared, flailing her meaty arms.
Ruby yanked harder, and the handle snapped. The sound of breaking glass exploded through the diner. A jagged edge whipped across Ruby’s cheek and she hit the floor hard. Regina stood cradling the cracked carafe as the black viscous fluid poured through her fingers. A look of pain and fright contorted her face as she shrieked, “No! It’ll get cold!”
Bex froze at the sound of the insane words, and Regina turns to her with a desperate hungry face, “Look what you made me do.”
Before Bex could react, Regina seized her by the collar and slammed her against the counter, rattling her teeth and making her stomach convulse.
“Regina—”
A fat hand clamped over her mouth and gripped her jaw. Bex kicked and struggled. The waitress forced her head back. “It’s time.” The cracked carafe tilted and the black liquid frothed over the rim. “It’s time you visited the festival.”
The scalding, bitter poured into her gaping mouth. The taste of wet earth and cow cud, something ancient dredged up from the depths of the creek and refused to die. Bex choked. Some of it went down, more splashed across her face and blouse, burning her skin. Bex screamed and clawed across the counter, searching. Her fingers find purchase on heavy ceramic. Without thought, she swung and the mug shattered against Regina’s temple. The crack echoed through the diner, and her eyes rolled back. The giant woman collapsed backward like a dropped mattress on the tile. The broken carafe struck the floor beside her and exploded. Black liquid splashed hot across the tile.
For a moment, nobody moved. Ruby laid bleeding on the opposite side of Regina’s massive unconscious body. Bex slid down the counter onto trembling legs. Her lungs burned. She coughed black droplets onto the floor. A shallow puddle of coffee swirled around them. Shards of ceramic and glass glittered beneath the fluorescent lights. Then the puddle moved. Thin black tendrils stretched out between the fragments of shattered glass, reaching out toward Bex as she stares. “I swallowed it.”
Ruby looked up sharply, “What?”
Bex tried to stand, and her knees buckled. The diner tilts sideways. “No…”
The room grew distant, but Bex could vaguely feel somewhere, far away Ruby grabbing her shoulders.
“Bex.”
The glittering floor felt soft and warm.
“Bex!”
***
Her eyelids weighed a hundred pounds. The diner, the blood, the glass, Ruby’s screaming face, all of it peeled away like a bad dream dissolving in the morning sun.
Then she heard music. Banjos and fiddles worked out happy tunes.
She heard children laughing. The sound of a festival.
Bex opened her eyes, laying on a grassy hillside beneath a blue autumn sky. The sun hung warm overhead. Golden leaves drifted lazily through the air. She smiled. The knot that lived in her stomach was gone. For the first time in a long time, she felt rested.
“T-that’s right.” She sat up slowly. “The festival.”
The town spread out below her. Children chased one another through the streets. Every storefront stood open. Music drifted from a gazebo in the center of town.
Bex found herself walking toward it without worry and without hurry. The fairgrounds buzzed with life. Bex spotted Walter waddling across the grass holding his wife’s hand. The drooling motel clerk was laughing with a young boy as he emptied a pellet rifle into a line of steel ducks. People danced and smiled. People belonged. A warm hand slipped into hers. The waitress, Regina, stood tall and strong. Her eyes bright and back straight.
“I thought you’d never make it.”
Bex smiled. “Everyone’s here.”
“Almost.” Regina squeezed her hand. “Ruby’s running late.”
The words settled like a note played wrong, but Bex ignored it.
The smell of kettle corn drifted through the air.
Someone handed her cotton candy.
Children laughed.
The fiddles played louder.
Regina pointed toward the mountains.
“Ain’t it beautiful?”
Bex nodded, “It really is.” For reasons she couldn’t explain a lump formed in her throat. “What a wonderful day.”
Regina smiled.
“I wish it could last forever,” Bex says putting a small wad of the candy in her mouth.
The sunlight dimmed for a second as a cloud crossed overhead and Regina’s fingers tightened around hers.
“Hush now, darling. It will.”
Something caught in Bex’s throat and she coughed. The cotton candy suddenly tasted wrong. Sweet artificial strawberries turned bitter. She retched and spat a black wad in the grass.
The music skipped like a scratched record and somewhere far away someone was shouting, “Bex!”
Everyone kept smiling and dancing.
“Bex!” The voice came again closer.
The festival flickered into darkness and returned like a dying lightbulb poorly screwed.
Bex turned. “Ruby?”
The moment the name left her mouth, a flat hand cracked across her face. The festival shattered. The blue sky burst like glass. The music died and suddenly she was in the diner, with blood and smoke and pain. Pain exploded through her body. Bex gasped. Ruby kneeled over her with a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth. She blew a stream of smoke directly into Bex’s face.
“Wake the fuck up!”
Bex rolled onto her side and wretched out a black glob, splattering onto tile.
“What the fuck is that?” Bex croaked.
Ruby held up a green can, “I pinched Walter’s Skol. You said nicotine was keeping us awake.”
Bex nodded weakly. “The festival.”
“What?”
“I was there.” Her eyes drifted toward the far side of the diner. “I was there.”
Around them chairs and tables were overturned and stacked into a barricade. The black ooze swirled against the obstacle. A black tendril slipped between two chair legs. Ruby backed away. “What do we do?”
Bex stared at it reaching out trying to touch them. She remembered Regina’s words. It needs to stay hot. She limped toward the kitchen.
“What’re you doing?”
“Making coffee.”
The cooktop clicked alive and flames bloomed blue over the gas. She searched the shelves and found chicory, coffee grounds and a small steel saucepan.
The ooze changed direction flowing across the floor toward the heat. The thing climbed the side of the pan and nestled itself inside. The goo began to bubble and the aroma filled the kitchen. Fresh coffee. Bex closed her eyes, just for a moment. She could feel the festival and warm sunshine, just on the other side. She could almost hear the music. Almost feel the belonging. No deadlines. No loneliness. No future. Just one perfect afternoon, forever.
The creature simmered happily. Bex stared into the bubbling black liquid. She understood now. Every person in town had been given exactly what they wanted. A dream too comfortable to leave.
Bex picked up the pan.
Ruby shouted, “What’re you doing?”
“Open the microwave.”
Ruby dashed into the kitchen and swung the microwave open. Bex shoved the pan inside, and Ruby slammed the door shut. Bex presses buttons and the box starts to hum. The two girls retreated backward into the wall, watching the microwave oven arc with electricity and flames dance as the black ooze beat on the glass like waves on the shoreline. Festival music echoes from inside. Fiddles, turn sharp and jagged. Children laughing turns to voices begging. The thing screams, and the microwave door bursts open and a wave of foul steam and smoke rolls across the diner. Nothing but burnt residue remains.
***
The little green Ford rattled down the narrow road out of Sleepy Creek. Bex held her phone near her mouth. “Sleepy Creek canceled its annual fall festival this year, for unspecified reasons.” The hills rolled by outside her window. She glanced in the rearview mirror, and the town was already disappearing behind her “Most folks claimed they couldn’t remember much. Regina woke about the same time as everyone else. She didn’t seem angry. Sad, and tired, maybe. She just got up and took her cigarette break.” A deer stood beside the road watching her pass.
“The town still feels tired.” She thought of Walter and his wife, and the way he’d held her hand on the porch that morning while they drank instant coffee from mismatched mugs. “But maybe that’s enough.” She lowered the phone.
The creek appeared beside the road and sunlight danced across the water. Something there caught her eye. A patch of black clung to a rock along the bank. No bigger than her hand. Bex slowed for a better look. The thing glistened in the afternoon sun and for a moment she considered stopping. Then the road curved and the creek vanished behind the trees. Bex stared ahead as her little Ford rattled onward. Sleepy Creek disappeared into the hills behind her and the water kept flowing.