Dugan's Creek Read online

  Dugan’s Creek

  By

  P. A. Estelle

  Copyright 2013 Penny Estelle

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  Publishers Note: This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and

  events are the work of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to real person, places, or events is coincidental.

  Dugan’s Creek

  Heather Stone had been on the road for two days, driving over eight hundred miles to cry on her sister’s shoulder. Pam had moved away from Colorado when her husband had gotten a job in some horse and buggy town in Arizona. She hadn’t seen Pam, or her family, in over five years, but she needed her now. She needed her advice, but more that that – her sympathy.

  The two sisters had become as close as any two could be after their parents were killed one snowy night, when a semi had crossed the centerline. Though, they hadn’t seen each other for years, a week didn’t go by that they weren’t on the phone, yacking about one thing or another. When Heather had called, sobbing, her sister insisted she take some time and come see her in Arizona.

  She should have easily made it to Pam’s house in two days, but today there had been one problem after another.

  Heather left Denver, early yesterday morning. The first day’s drive was uneventful. She pulled into Santa Fe, NM, for a late lunch. She needed directions for the fastest route to Globe, AZ. The kid behind the cash register had never heard of that city, but a yahoo in a dirty cowboy hat overheard her question and spoke up.

  “Here’s what you do little perty. You just continue on Rt 25 all the way down to 60. Then you’re gonna wanna take 60 up to Quemado. Now from Quemado you go on to Springerville or St Johns, both setting right close to the AZ border. From there you just follow that yellow brick road and you are home free.” He tipped his dirty hat back further on his head, revealing sparse gray sprigs of hair and said, “I never could resist a perty red head.” He smiled wide, moving in close, his sour breath fanning her face and showing pieces of tobacco caked between his yellowing teeth. “Now is there anything else I could help you with?”

  “Oh no,” she replied in a rush, her chin length red hair flying side to side with the quick negative shake of her head. “I have it. Thank you very much.”

  By the time she reached Quemado, New Mexico, it was almost dark and she needed to gas up her car. Heather breathed a sigh of relief when she found one gas station in the rinky dink town. She asked the attendant where she might find a hotel and the pimply faced teenager pointed up the street. “Take the next right. Julie’s Home Away From Home.”

  The motel was pink, small and L-shaped. There was not one other car in the parking lot, except for an old pickup truck parked on the side of the office. “Apparently the jet-setters haven’t discovered this hot spot”, Heather thought. She tapped the little bell that sat on the counter when nobody came to check her in. From behind the closed door she heard some giggling and a “now quit that, Vern”, a bang and some more giggling.

  “I’ll be right there,” a woman’s voice yelled from the next room. The door opened and out came the bubbly, blonde Julie, according to the name tag on her yellow sweater that was stretched to the limit across her double D boobs. She talked all the way to room six, insisting on showing Heather the way. “Now honey, you just give me a call if you need anything at all. I live behind the office so it won’t be no trouble what’s so ever.”

  The room was clean. The bedspread was different shades of pink and purple stripes with curtains to match. The Berber carpet was different colors of beige with a few worn spots. The bathroom had only a shower, so her dreams of a long hot soak in a tub were dashed.

  It was quiet – too quiet! Every creak had her sitting up in bed. Thoughts of Psycho, the Bate’s Motel, and a crazed Julie, in a gray wig, coming to stab her to death, kept her a wake most of the night. Sleep didn’t come until the early morning hours.

  When Heather finally woke up, stretching to loosen some of her achy muscles from the lumpy mattress, she glanced at the clock---10:30 am. “Shit,” she muttered, jumping out of bed.

  She turned on the shower and quickly lathered up her hair. The water all but stopped. The pipes made a loud noise and then started trickling cold water. “You have got to be kidding!” By the time she had all the soap out of her hair, Heather was covered in goose bumps. She hurried to plug in her hair dryer and turned it on. Nothing. She hit the reset button, but still it didn’t turn on.

  She called the office and the ever perky Julie answered. “Good morning, Miss Stone. Did you sleep well? If you haven’t taken a peek outside, you surely should. It’s a glorious day.”

  “My hair dryer won’t turn on. The outlet isn’t working,” Heather responded, skipping the niceties.

  “Did you try pushing the red thingy on the plug?” Julie asked.

  “Yes. Nothing happened.”

  “Oh, nuts! I’ll be right there.”

  Heather hadn’t even come out of the bathroom before there was a knock on the door. “It’s me, Miss Stone, Julie.”

  Heather, still wrapped in a bath towel opened the door. “I checked the plug in room five and it works. Just hurry next door and you can get your hair all prettied up. The door is unlocked. Sorry for the inconvenience, but these things happen!” and Julie walked off, whistling.

  Heather’s thick hair took awhile to dry. If she had let it just dry naturally, it would have been a curly, frizzy mess. She couldn’t show up on her sister’s door looking like Little Orphan Annie.

  It was after noon before Heather was able to get her car packed and leave Julie’s Home Away From Home. Her nerves were at the breaking point. She stopped at a small convenience store and bought a bottle of water, a bag of chips, and a honey bun, which was devoured in three bites!

  Driving out of the small town tears came to Heather’s eyes when she thought about her fight, or break up, or whatever the hell it was, with her boyfriend. She had been with Steve for the past three years.

  * * * *`

  Her mind drifted back to when she first met Steve. Heather had gotten a position with D & D Advertising right after graduating from high school. It was a feather in her cap when, after only being on the job for a year, had been offered the job of administrative assistant to Mr. Danbar, the head honcho, himself.

  One very hot, summer day, the air conditioning went out. She picked TCT Air Conditioning Co out of the phone book and somebody promised to be there within the hour.

  “Jesus Christ, Heather, when is that moron from TCT going to get here?” yelled Mr. Danbar from his office.

  “The moron is here,” said a friendly voice from behind her. She turned and looked into the sexiest, blue eyes, she had ever seen. His smile was straight from Heaven! He had sandy colored hair that lay just above his collar. The man was gorgeous! He held out his hand. “Hi, though I sometimes answer to moron, my actual name is Steven Lane.”

  A red faced Heather shook his hand and said, “Heather Stone. Nice to meet you.” She just held his hand, not moving.

  “Do you want to show me where your electrical room is?” Steve asked, holding on tight.

  “Oh, of course,” she dropped his hand and led the way. Talk about a moron!

  She showed him the way and left him to do his work. Mr. Danbar had called her into his office to go over some minutes of their last meeting and when she came out, there was an invoice on her desk from TCT. “Damn.” Heather muttered, disappointed. The eye candy
was gone.

  The next day, Heather was getting ready to go home, when Mr. Eye Candy, himself, showed up at her desk. “I thought I would check to see if everything was still up and running today.”

  Seriously, the man was a God. “It’s been working great,” she told him, hoping she didn’t drool on herself.

  “Okay, cool,” he said. “Well, I guess I better get going.” Steve started for the elevator, when he turned back to Heather and said, “I was actually on my way to Santori’s to get a pizza. I’ve heard it’s pretty good.”

  “It’s the best,” Heather said. “Go for the cheese stuffed crust. It’s to die for.”

  “Okay,” he laughed. “Look, I’m sure you have tons of things to do, but if you have time, and you aren’t married or engaged, it would be great if you could join me.”

  That’s where it started. They talked for hours that night, closing Santori’s down. She had told him over pizza that she was a sucker for the old monster movies, her favorite being werewolves. “I realize good old Frankenstein is the more suave and debonair type, but I just can’t resist a smooth growling werewolf. They just make my heart go pitter pat and turn my body to shivers!”

  The very next weekend Steve took her to a Lon Chaney, Jr. movie marathon that was being held as part of the comic con convention.

  People were dressed up in costumes from Frankenstein to Dracula to The Mummy. Steve grabbed a guy dressed like the Wolf Man and snapped a picture with his phone of Heather pretending to faint in the arms of the hairy monster. From that point on he started calling her Red from Little Red Riding Hood. What better fit for a girl with red hair who had a thing about wolves.

  They had been dating for a few weeks when Heather surprised Steve by taking a cake to his work on his birthday. It was a red velvet cake with red sprinkles all over creamy white frosting. The center of the cake also had a red colored pudding filling with a little ingredient added, compliments of Heather, herself. She made all his co-workers sing Happy Birthday and then cut a piece for everybody, which were all devoured in two or three bites. In a matter of moments, watery eyes popped wide and all the men were fighting for the drinking fountain. “Oh dear,” Heather said sweetly, scratching her head. “I didn’t grab cayenne pepper instead of sugar did I?”

  She bolted out of the office, with Steve hot on her heels. He grabbed her around the waist, swinging her in the air, trying to shove a piece of the gooey cake in her mouth. The laughing and wrestling ended in a long, deep kiss. They pulled apart at the sound of applause from a crowd that had stopped to watch. Burning with embarrassment, Heather let Steve take her by the hand and lead her to her car.

  A few months later was their first year anniversary. A box of beautiful yellow roses was delivered to Heather’s desk

  Mr. Danbar’s wife, Stella, was walking to her husband’s office and saw the box of flowers. “I know there’s a big vase in the coffee room. I’ll get it and fill it with water. What a lucky young woman you are dear.”

  Heather opened the card. Happy Anniversary! You Deserve These and So Much More. I love you!

  Stella was just setting the vase on the desk as Heather carefully opened the box. A terrifying scream burst from Heather’s mouth when two small mice jumped out of the box. As she jumped backwards the flowers were pushed forward knocking the water filled vase over drenching the boss’s wife. One mouse ran one way while the other jumped on Stella’s silk blouse, disappearing inside.

  Stella yelped as she ripped open her blouse to get rid of the disgusting rodent. Heather ran to the other side of her desk to help the woman, when both slipped on the water and fell to the floor. The two women, along with the other employees watched as the mouse ran at lightening speed down the aisle and out the doorway that led to the stairs, which was being held open by Steve. He turned his head away and slowly closed the door. Heather could hardly curtail a laugh that bubbled in her throat. She knew then and there she was hopelessly in love with this man.

  If their playtime was crazy, their sex life was explosive. Steve made Heather’s body come alive with a passion she had never known. She was no virgin when they met, but she may as well have been. He did things to her body that she had only read about. Steve made it so damned easy for Heather to love him with her whole body and soul.

  * * * *

  As in everything, sometimes fun has to take a back seat to reality. Heather started getting more responsibility at work, that involved evenings and weekends. Mr. Danbar started relying heavily on her to help with clients and presentations. There was talk of possible getting her into the marketing end of D & D Advertising.

  Heather realized she wanted this! When she and Steve were together, work was all she talked about. She told him he would have to just understand when she had to cancel plans. After all, she was working for their future.

  Heather knew Steve understood this too, or so she thought…until last week, when he stopped by her apartment and dropped the bomb on her that he needed…. space.

  “Space?” Heather asked slowly.

  “Look…” Steve stopped, running his hand through his hair. “Yea…space.”

  “No, please,” Heather said, folding her arms across her chest, “continue with what you were going to say.”

  Steve plopped down on the Ethan Alan black leather, no-armed straight back chair. “It’s us, Heather. We’ve been together for more than three years and…and, well it’s just not working anymore. What we had was magic and it’s gone.”

  She took her Liz Claiborne suit jacket off and carefully hung it on a dining room chair. “Well excuse me if one of us needs to play the part of an adult. And for the record, there is no such thing as magic!”

  “Christ, Heather, we never go out. This is October! We have had to back out of two different Halloween parties because you have unexpected obligations. Hell, our Halloween parties are legend and you couldn’t give me two minutes of your time to help plan it. Don’t you remember our plan? I was going as the werewolf and you were going to be Little Red Riding Hood?” He watched as her face turned angry. “Can you not just say, “Sorry, I’ve got plans?”

  “Not if I want to get somewhere in this company!” She started pacing. “It’s all make believe, Steve. There are no werewolves, monsters, or anything else! It used to be fun to pretend, but we have to grow up. You…you have to grow up!” She turned, throwing her arms in the air. “I thought you were with me on this?”

  “Jesus Christ!” Steve groaned, “It’s not only that, Heather. Our…our sex life is boring and…”

  “Oh, God. Is all this about that blow job you wanted last week? Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t want a…a…”

  “Dick!” Steve yelled. “It’s called a dick!”

  “A penis,” she said, her face turning cherry red, “shoved in my mouth after I’ve put in ten hours at work!”

  “Heather, if I didn’t make waves, we would have sex mission style and that’s the only way it would be done. It would take approximately six minutes. I would be hurried out of bed to clean myself up, then I would get the obligatory peck on the lips and I’d be excused.” He was pacing the room now. “You are as straight and unyielding as your precious furniture in your apartment. There is not one comfortable piece here and that’s what you have become. You don’t bend. You aren’t comfortable!”

  “Well suck this!” Heather said in a huff as she walked to the door and yanked it open, doing her best to flip him off.

  Steven shook his head as he walked to the spotless glass coffee table and retrieved his keys. He walked to the door and took her hand. Heather leaned in, sure that he was going to give her a kiss and apologize so all could be forgiven. “You used to have passion, Heather. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I just don’t bring it out in you anymore. Find the person who can. Find the man who can make you sizzle like you once did.” Steven turned and walked out of her life.

  ****

  Red, puffy eyes watched as the temperature gage of her 2010 Volkswagen soared into the red z
one.

  “No! Please!” she cried as her navy blue Jetta sputtered and bucked. She drove to the side of the road, just as it pinged, then died.

  “Son of a bitch!” Heather Stone yelled as loud as she could, pounding on the steering wheel while steam billowed from under the hood. She flung open the car door, hauled herself out, slammed it shut, and kicked it for good measure!

  She raised teary hazel eyes to the Heavens. “Really? After everything I have been through this last week, you’re adding this? My car?” Heather looked down the deserted road. There had been a sign that said Springerville was thirty miles ahead. She got back in the car and found her phone. No service? Awesome! Just Fucking Awesome!

  She threw the phone back in the car, grabbed a bottle of water and her purse and started walking. The keys were left in the car and she yelled out to anybody or anything listening, “Help yourself!”

  ****

  Wasting no time, Heather quickly unbuckled her sandals and stepped into the cool water. What had the sign said - Dugan’s Creek? Her pink tank top was soaked in sweat as were her white shorts. She had blisters from her sandals and cried out when the cold water hit them.

  She sat down on a boulder. The sun was setting. What could she have been thinking? It would be dark soon. Would she have been safer staying in the car? God knows who or what might have come along and she would be trapped. But here, out in the open she would be fair game to anybody or anything. More tears sprang to her eyes.

  Get a hold of yourself! She reached in the water and scooped some onto her face.

  Heather knew she needed to find a place where she could sleep before it was pitch black. Maybe she could sleep in a tree. There were pines mixed with massive oak trees. The spot was lush with foliage of different kinds, flowers dotting the creek. The setting was beautiful with sunshine filtering through, but terror filled Heather’s entire being as the last of the sun started fading.

  On the other side of the creek were sheets of rock that disappeared into the trees. There were a few outcroppings of solid rock and if she could get to one, she might be relatively safe….maybe. Heather picked up her sandals and her purse and slowly, jumping from rock to rock, tried to make her way across the creek. The water rushed by between her and the next boulder. It would be a long jump and she wasn’t sure if she could make it.