STRANDED
CO-AUTHORED BY
MATT L. & HER REVENGE
PART ONE
The silver Mustang veered off the highway and traveled down a whirling road that eventually lead to a gravel path. Interlocking branches from the tall trees obscuring the moon, overgrown shrubbery in patches bordering the wiry trail.
The driver was a professional looking mature woman, auburn hair, delicate features and attired in a dark raincoat over her spiffy tailored treads. The passenger, seated next to the driver, was a cute college age female, long blond hair rolling over her shoulders, causally garbed in an inexpensive gray T-shirt sporting her college emblem and natty navy blue sweats.
Rhonda Steele, not yet forty was a dynamic - intelligent - astute professor of law who had just picked up her daughter, Brooke, from a certain Ivy League school.
The premise of this excursion, after picking up Brooke from an opposing school rather than the university where she held tenure, was a modest vacation before heading back to their exclusive Manhattan apartment.
Brooke was dynamic in her own right and rather knowledgeable in her own interests, wasn’t so fond of higher education and had a different set of goals than what her mother desired.
Thus the motive for the trip, besides some upscale bits of pleasure, was too mend a scratchy patch that separated them and too coerce Brooke into exploring a captivating field for later employment.
Brooke appeared bored, her pretty face dampen with a brazen hue of resentment. She would have rather flown to the lavish resort rather than drive there with her overbearing mother.
“You haven’t said anything in 15-minutes, pumpkin, what’s on your mind?” Rhonda asked.
Her tone of voice free of emotion, like fingers against the chalk board, it irked Brooke’s nerves.
“Do you know where we are?” Brooke softly questioned.
Rhonda’s eyes peering forward, the headlights revealing nothing but the night.
“Somehow I took a wrong turn but I’ll get us back on the highway, have no doubt.”
Brooke wrangled a strand of a beauteous blond hair, gazing out of her side window, she languorously droned, “Maybe we should stop somewhere for the night, we don’t have to make it to the resort tonight.”
Rhonda yanked up her chin, “And where do you suppose we stay? There’s nothing worth our wages to spend the night.”
Brooke clearly understood what her mother meant; People of their social rank never stay at anything less than five star hotels. Nothing out here in no mans land would meet their requirements.
Brooke rigidity coughed, “Can’t we do without the pomp and circumstance while we’re on vacation? I get enough of it at home.”
Rhonda sighed, “Really? Haven’t I told you countless times that people of our pedigree never settle for anything less than the best. And furthermore……….”
Rhonda rifled through the same lecture that Brooke was quite familiar with. All about living up to specific standards and class distinction. That their distinguished status demands appropriate conduct and etiquette.
Brooke interrupted her mother halfway through her stale speech, “All I’m saying is, can’t we just behave like ordinary people and just have fun.”
“We can participate in plenty of fun without behaving like those regular nine to five working class people.
Remember, we’re of a privileged circle.”
“How can I possibly forget, you’re always reminding me”, Brooke squawked.
The inauspicious path over the unfamiliar terrain, without markers of any kind for direction, weighed heavily on Rhonda’s mind. Rhonda’s arrogant nature prevented her from telling Brooke they were lost, and the atypical feeling of frustration needed an outlet. Nitpicking on Brooke was the required refuge for her nerves.
“You could have worn something a little more fashionable. This resort is very exclusive.”
Brooke fleetingly gazed over her stylish manicured nails, “Oh please, it’s the middle of the night, we’re on some deserted road, we’re not going to run into the Vanderbilt’s or the Thoreau’s.”
“I don’t appreciate your attitude, Brooke”, Rhonda stringently retorted. “You know very well that I meant for our arrival at the resort.”
Another lecture ensued.
“We mustn’t neglect our appearance, you’ll never know who we may run into. In your case, it could be a worthwhile young man but it’s highly doubtful he’ll give you a second glance while dressed like an uneducated hillbilly. I haven‘t a notion why such a physically appealing young woman like yourself would decide too downgrade her appearance……”
“I dress for whatever circumstances dictate the occasion, out on the road I prefer comfort against elegance”, Brooke candidly interjected her opinion. “You needn’t always look so extravagant, mom, we’re not having dinner at the Ritz or going dancing.”
Rhonda’s wintry expression was replaced by a much more delightful aura and she conceited chimed, “I presume you just gave me a compliment, and I readily accept it. I’ll be forty in a couple of years and I’m in better shape than many girls half my age, including a few of your friends.”
The car sped over a rickety bridge, the iron girders coated in rust, a whirling mist heaving from the stream below. Whilst in giddy chatter, Rhonda failed too see the sign;
UNINCORPORATED HUNTSVILLE 5 MILES.
“You do have the right too brag mom”, Brooke chirped, “Very few females your age are as physically fit.”
Rhonda conceded in agreement, though her perceptive wit stirred her curiosity.
“Why is Brooke being so nice?”
Brooke’s sugary comments concerning her mother’s youthful beauty concluded with an audacious remark about herself, “It’s very beneficial that I have your genes, think of the boon it’ll grant my goals.”
Rhonda nodded, realizing without a doubt what was behind the flattery.
“Spill it”, Rhonda firmly bellowed, “What’s on your mind!”
Brooke vigorously spoke with her hands while excitedly stating, “Let me finish before you interrupt, alright! You know all about my grades, I admit they could be better but college isn’t so inviting at the moment. You Remember Sharon Pourish, she’s going to France next month for a fashion show, I was hoping you’d see too it that I tag along, I’d like too try it, modeling, you know?”
Rhonda didn’t even glimpse over at Brooke as she disparaging bickered, “I have provided you with the means to advance in a promising career and you want to become a fashion model. Are you aware that the odds of any real success in modeling is against you.”
Brooke kept the lid on her temper and serenely conducted her opinion, “I know but I have inherited your looks, intelligence and business sass. I’d easily mow over the competition.”
“I’d rather see you become a fat and barefoot housewife_.”
Brooke uncomfortably snapped, “Hey, that ain’t nice!”
Finally but fleetingly, Rhonda glanced over her daughter with a bold sneer.
“You seem to be carrying a little extra weight, pumpkin, how can you possibly achieve any success as a model if you can’t control your appetite.”
Brooke folded her arms over her shapely breasts and pouted, “So I gained almost twenty-pounds after I started college, I lost most of it.”
Brooke felt abnormally embarrassed as her mother blissfully conveyed, “You were a little chunky growing up, I honestly thought you’d be wearing double digit clothing before you were out of high school.”
“Does it bother you that I didn’t become a fatty?” Brooke angrily screeched, “I hope you’re not too disappointed.”
“Of course not”, Rhonda superficially replied, “Having a fat daughter would only encourage country club gossip, I’d be maliciously ridiculed.”
“Always thinking of yourself, mom”, Brooke acidly grumbled.
Rhonda sighed, though she wouldn’t admit it, Brooke was correct. Well partially.
Rhonda felt conflicted, at one end of the spectrum, having an overweight daughter would be an embarrassment in regards too her high society friends. However, it would produce an advantage in male attention. Rhonda clandestinely pondered, “A modestly well-fed version of Brooke wouldn’t be so awful.”
Silence corrupted the ride for a fair amount of the journey, the long stretch of the road was steep in darkness and Rhonda capitulated to herself, “We’re lost.”
An impoverished trailer court on one side of the grungy road, a seedy looking bowling alley on the opposite side. Still the Mustang plowed away, taking a few turns until reaching a run down looking motel aligned with a small greasy spoon diner.
Rhonda pulled off to the side of the road and addressed her daughter, “I need a cup of coffee to get my head back in gear and ask for directions.”
Brooke turned to her mother and smugly replied, “All those years of college and the renowned lawyer gets lost.”
“Put that attitude on hold”, Rhonda insolently gaped at Brooke; “You think that diner would be hospitable enough to go in?”
Brooke yanked her head toward the diner, her dazzling blond mane slithering over her shoulders, “We eat all the time at those types of places, it ain’t so unpleasant.”
Rhonda exhaled, “Please refrain from using words like ain’t, you’re a refine young woman.”
“Another lecture won’t get us out of hillbilly country, so lay off me”, Brooke condescendingly warbled.
Rhonda realized another argument wouldn’t be prudent, though as she unbuckled her safety belt, she strictly glimpsed Brooke’s appearance, “Yes Pumpkin, I can tell, you frequent these types of establishments often.”
“Ha-ha”, Brooke sarcastically uttered, “I imagine if you inherited your mom’s big butt, you’d wouldn’t be so vain.”
The females piled out of the Mustang and advanced toward the slipshod looking eatery.
‘STOP-INN’, that’s what the sigh read in big black letters over a gray and white backdrop.
The building looked as if it been released from a time warp, emanating a 1920’s era ambience with it’s bowed archway and conventionally modest size windows. The screen door was unusually wide with a metal trim which the top portion was heavily damaged.
Brooke cautioned her mother before entering, “Don’t put on any airs here, this isn’t Manhattan.”
Rhonda’s superior minded attitude couldn’t be quelled and she made it known, “I won’t appease these people by masquerading my class.”
Rhonda advanced into the diner, her gait and posture reflecting her arrogant disposition, Brooke trailing behind.
The diner’s interior appeared comfortable enough if not dated; spacious with a pair of dining rooms and a wrap around counter surrounding the kitchen. The walls were an abandon shade of white, grimy gray and black tile covering the floor while the aroma of coffee scented the air.
The patrons were of a contrasting branch of society that Rhonda, and too some degree, Brooke ignored. Looking down and out in hand me down clothes and uncomplicated expressions.
Off to the side, seated alone sat a heavyset older woman drinking what appeared to be tea while playing solitaire with a scruffy deck of cards. Her black hair interweaved with strands of silver was set in an old fashion bun style that amplified the roundness of her pudgy face that supported an acute red hue.
Her virtually obese body, genuinely apple shape in dimensions, was garbed in a multicolored sleeveless gown that resembled a garment burrowed from a gypsy.
“Strangers”, she eccentrically hummed, “Take a seat and make yourself at home. Somebody will wait on you.”
“If that’s possible”, Rhonda critically replied as she gazed over the group of females seated at a table adjacent to the counter.
Gaudily attired and within Rhonda’s age, their bimbo-speak chirping revealing their lack of education.
“I’m Gretel”, the rotund woman gladly introduced herself, her eyes zeroing in on the privileged females, dissecting their attitude and behavior by the manner in which they stood and the derisive look in their eyes.
“You’re mother and daughter, though more often than not, are mistaken for sisters”, Gretel coolly calculated.
Rhonda was one that swooned at compliments and she elegantly smiled, “That’s very observant, yes. People do indeed mistake Brooke and I as sisters.”
Brooke leaned into her mom, casting a rude expression upon Gretel, “Let’s get a table, alright?”
Rhonda swerved toward her daughter, “Just a minute_.”
Brooke flung her hands over her hips and gawked at her mother who continued her chat with Gretel, “We’re kind of lost_.”
“Kind of?” Brooke cantankerously interrupted her mom.
Rhonda smiled while apologizing for Brooke’s poor manners, “Please pardon my daughter’s behavior, she should know better than to interrupt.”
Gretel directed her attention to Brooke, her eyes brazenly focusing upon her slender figure.
Brooke emitted a delicate sigh, goose bumps over her skin coinciding with a chilly sensation.
Gretel rotated her face toward Rhonda and cordially addressed her, “Your daughter doesn’t mean no harm, she’s just a little bit edgy coz she’s hungry.”
“That makes sense”, Rhonda smirked.
Brooke was momentarily caught in a vacuum, Rhonda’s firm voice returning her to consciousness, “Find us a table and I’ll be right there.”
Rhonda glimpsed over at the trashy clad females and instructed Brooke, “A distance away from those trailer park women.”
Brooke nodded and strolled toward a table, the snap in her gait uncharacteristically fatigued.
“Anyway Gretel”, Rhonda began the conversation, “We’re on our way to this resort that’s a few miles from Capital City, and I must have taken a wrong turn. Where exactly are we?”