Tribulation Bay Chapter EIGHT

Clark was done with most everything he needed to do with the house, all of his mother's useless knickknacks and smaller pieces of furniture were taken to the thrift shop first thing, then it was back to load his personal stuff onto the pick-up, which included a dirt bike he got at the same time he got the used pickup. By 11:30 he had pulled away from the house for the last time, and was at the hospital morgue right at noon.

Clark had talked Lara into letting him hold the make-shift urn until the ashes were placed into it, and he sat in a chair on the side of the room waiting for Lara to show up. He looked up at the clock on the wall, it was now 12:30. “Come on Lara, what's taking you so long?”

“Can you call her?” Rachael looked at the body that was being rolled into the room. Even though a sheet was covering the body, the vague outline of what was under the sheet could be seen.

Clark called the number Lara gave him the night before, and she answered it on the third ring. “Where are you Lara?”

“I'm in the hospital lobby waiting for you,” Lara responded, “where the hell are you?”

“Down in the morgue waiting for you?”

“The morgue? Why there?”

Clark looked at the phone wishing he was on video call, so he could see how perturbed he was getting at her. “Because that's where Mom's ashes are!”

“Oh, that's true. How do I get there?”

“Go to the nearest elevator, and push the down button,” Clark spoke like he were talking to a child, for in effect he was, for she only had the mind of a 9 year old even though she was in her late 30's, “wait patiently for the elevator to come which may take a few moments. When it comes, step on and look to one side or the other of the doors. You'll see a row of buttons to push; find the button on the bottom of the row of buttons marked with the letter “B” and push the button.”

“Then what?” Lara asked.

“Stand clear of the doors while they close and take a short ride down.”

“And?”

“Has she never used an elevator before?” Rachael asked.

“Probably not,” Clark responded, and turned back to the phone. “When the elevator reaches the basement, the doors will open.”

“What do I do then?”

“I'll be standing right there waiting for you,” Clark sat the box of ashes and the make-shift urn on the seat and walked out to the elevator bay.

“If you say so,”

Rachael looked at the body that lay just inside the door as the doors swung closed behind Clark, she had a bit of a wicked idea. She walked up to the Mortician and pulled out a 10, she motioned to the body, she began to talk quickly and the Mortician took the 10.

---

Clark watched as the elevator doors opened and Lara stepped off. “Was that so hard?”

“Let's make this quick,” Lara looked up and down the poorly light hallway, as the tube lights flickered on and off randomly. “This place is already giving me the creeps!”

“What we have to do should take only 5 minutes.”

“OK,” Lara followed Clark into the morgue to find a dead female laying on a gurney. She had died with her eyes open, and the way her head was tilted it seemed like she was staring at her. She let out child like scream. “I want my mommy!”

Clark picked up the box of ashes and presented it to her. “He-ere's Mommy!”

By this time Lara was beginning to freak out. “Stop it!”

“Let's just get to the reason why we're here,” Clark noticed a funnel sitting on the supply shelf, he turned to the Mortician, “can we use the funnel for a minute.”

“Of course,” the Mortician looked back, noticing the corpse on the gurney was still uncovered, she moved across the room and pushed the gurney to one side after putting the sheet back over her face.

Clark grabbed the funnel and put into the mouth of the make-shift urn, then slowly poured the ashes out of the box and into the funnel, the ashes just fit. He then tapped out any residue into the nearby sink and handed the make-shift urn back to Lara. “There you go, Mom's all yours.”

Lara took the urn, “thanks. I guess this is where we say goodbye.”

“It's not goodbye,” Clark said with a sigh, “I just want to get away from that house. Once I get settled in where I'm going and detox from being the caretaker of someone who hated me my entire life, yet wouldn't let me go, I'm sure we can actually finally connect.”

“OK,” Lara slowly walked out the swinging doors with a sullen look.

Rachael watched as Lara went back towards the elevator. “Is she OK living alone?”

“She's in a group home where she's watched over by trained counselors 24/7 who know how to deal with her specific situation.”

---

Dawn finished eating at the plate of scrambled eggs she had made for herself, she had cracked open 6 eggs, but ate only half of what she made and was now moving the remainder of the eggs around the plate. She noticed Carolyn standing behind her looking at the eggs

“Why didn't you simply make yourself what you were planning on eating?” Carolyn scolded.

“Well,” Dawn sighed, “I thought I was hungrier than I was.”

“Now, we'll have to throw all these eggs into the garbage,” Carolyn grabbed the plate.

Dawn glanced over to see the raccoon she named Bandit scratching at the glass of the sliding doors. “Not so fast!”

“Why, are you suddenly getting hungry again?” Carolyn hoovered the plate of eggs over the garbage can.

“No,” Dawn nodded towards Bandit, “but he is.”

“I don't want you let that thing getting too used to being around here,” Carolyn looked at the raccoon, “besides, he could still wander off.”

“If he wanted to wander off, he's had 3 days to do so,” Dawn took the plate of eggs and sat the plate on the back porch where Bandit could get to it.

“So, I guess that thing's here to stay?” Carolyn looked at the raccoon enjoying the eggs.

“It sounds like you're the one who needs to get used to it being around here,” Dawn smiled.

“Fine,” Carolyn groaned, “it can stay. I just don't want you to let that thing come inside.”

“We'll see how long that lasts,” Dawn said coyly, as she looked at her mother, “especially when Rachael gets here.”

“Oh, Lord!” Carolyn prayed out.

“By the way, when is she showing up?”

“I just got a text from her saying they just crossed over the Tacony-Palmyra bridge, so giving them just over an hour to get here, they should be here before three.”

“OK.”

“In the meantime why don't we go and put the finishing touches on their room.” Carolyn led Dawn towards the bedroom she was going to let Clark and Rachael share.

---

Clark made good time driving across Jersey and he was able to follow the GPS pretty accurately, and Rachael discovered that Clark didn't like to talk very much while driving, so she turned on the classic Christian Rock station. At this point in the ride Steven Curtis Chapman's song “The Great Adventure” was playing.

The GPS had Clark deviate away from the main highway and onto a lonely road that lead further East towards what seemed to be heading to the middle of nowhere.

“Are you sure you're following the GPS correctly?” Rachael asked.

“Don't forget,” Clark reminded Rachael, “Tribulation Bay isn't even on any Google Map, so when I set in the coordinates in the GPS, I just had to approximate where we're going.”

“Which means we're lost,” Rachael scoffed.

“We're not lost.” Clark stopped the car when the highway came to a sudden end. “The GPS is telling me to keep on going, but there's no place to go to.”

“There has to be,” Rachael looked at the GPS screen, “there just has to be.”

Clark played around with the screen and zoomed in on their location, but found nothing useful.

---

Andrew peered into the bedroom that Carolyn and Dawn were fixing up for Clark and Rachael there was one queen sized bed and various other pieces of furniture placed around the room. “I'm not liking this idea one bit.”

“You're the one who encouraged Clark to come with us to begin with.”

“Yes I did,” Andrew agreed, “but with the idea of them sleeping in separate rooms, not in the same one.”

“They are engaged,” Dawn reminded her father, “shouldn't that mean anything?”

“Yes it does,” Carolyn agreed, “to me at least. Give them a little bit more play room in their relationship.”

“But what will the members of the church say?” Andrew groaned out.

“I think the only person in the entire church who will have anything to say is that Miss McGrudibeggar,” Carolyn responded, “and, she'll have something to say no matter what we do. Most of the others will be understanding and supportive of our situation.”

“I understand that, but that woman has a big mouth!”

At that moment Carolyn's phone rang, she looked at the screen that indicated that Rachael was calling. “I better take this.” She said before answering. “Hey, Rachael, how far away are you?”

“Not quite sure, the GPS that Clark's been following took him to the dead end of a back road.”

“Well I have noticed that the town is sort of hidden away, despite being a seaside community,” Carolyn said before realizing that she wasn't helping.

---

Cordelia stepped into the Collins house, knowing that she was free to come and go as she wished. She let out a slight yell to make her presence known.

“Upstairs,” Dawn called out as she stood at the top of the stairs.

“Can I come up?”

“Sure,” Dawn replied as Cordelia made her way up, “hey how well do know the way into town?”

“Pretty well, why?”

“My sister fiance's GPS has them stranded on some dead-end side road,”

“I know where your talking about,” Cordelia reached out for the phone, and Carolyn handed it to her. “Hi this is Cordelia, I'm friends with your sister.”

“Hi Cordelia,” Rachael responded.

“OK. I know exactly where you are. The GPS had you come in through the back way, where the town is accessible via a side road.”

“We're on the side road, it's a dead end!”

“What I mean is, it's a side road to the side road,”

“Huh?”

“Wait,” Clark could hear both sides of the conversation, “there is some sort of a narrow dirt road through the woods.”

“That's the road you need to take, it will bring you into town behind the gas station, from there I think you can find your way; just look for the old rugged cross, and it will lead you home!”

“Cute,” Rachael smirked, as Clark began down the dirt road.

---

It was just a few short minutes later after traveling down the winding and twisting dirt road that Clark found himself driving up the small hill that lead to the church to find his Dawn and a rather attractive and athletic young woman with a slender and toned physique with a nice figure and long dark colored hair standing there against the sunlight. “Wow! She's a perfect 10!” Clark barely whispered under his breath

Rachael still heard it, and gave him the “if looks could kill” stare as she stepped out of the pick-up truck and stepped towards Cordelia. “You must be the girl I was talking to on the phone,”

“Yes,” Cordelia held out her hand in Rachael's direction. “I'm glad you found your way here.”

With intent, Rachael held her hands behind her back and looked at Cordelia with a stare. “I guess I am too!”

“You don't look it,” Cordelia responded, “it's almost like you've got some instant hatred towards me for no real reason at all!”

“Oh,” Dawn let out, “Rachael doesn't hate anybody.”

“I do now!” Rachael scoffed as she stormed towards the house.

“What exactly set you off?” Clark asked as he caught up with Rachael.

““She's a perfect 10!””, Rachael said, “like I'm not!?”

“I didn't mean it that way and you know it,” Clark watched as Rachael grabbed one of the boxes from the back of the truck and stormed towards the house, “Rachael!”

Rachael made a dead stop when she reached the porch. She looked angrily at the baby raccoon that was doing nothing more than laying on the porch railing sunning itself. “Get out of here!”

Rachael put the box down, and fished around in it until she came out with Clark's handgun and pulled back the hammer, aimed it at the raccoon and pulled the trigger....