Chapter 12.6 – The Bushweeds Autumn Tour 2023: part VI – Old, derelict and dreadful..

 Monday September 26^th

 

Last nights rain had turned into rainshowers who, in spite of letting the occasional ray of sunshine through, was still doing their best to drench the small town of Pleasantview, making this monday morning seem even more monday-like...

 

Nonetheless, the barkeeper was already up cleaning the bar and getting it ready to serve the guests at his motel, and the usual regulars that would show up a little later in the day..

 

Merete was the first band member to wake up, feeling surprisingly fresh and well rested, even though the beds were admittedly of a cheap kind and the mattress was just a little to hard.. and though she knew that another long – and judging from the sound of dripping water from the gutters outside – rainy day in the car was ahead of them, she was still feeling very optimistic about today and the future for herself and the band..

 

..before she walked out of her sparsely furnished, but relatively well decorated room to occupy the only shower on the lot, leaving the remaining band members waiting outside by one of the small tables, the only one of them that was under a roof... It was pretty clear that the owner had been cutting corners here and there to save money, such as on furniture and bathroom facilities..

Nothing in excess! And judging from the shrieks and moans coming from inside the bathroom, he was probably looking to save a few pennies on the electricity bill too..

As Sam was the last one to use the shower, he definately felt it.. it remined him of how his dad and his sister had pranked him for his 10^th birthday, by turning the kitchen and laundry room faucets on full steam, using up all the hot water just when he was about to shower.. this was pretty much the same feeling...

 

..after everyone was clean and fresh, everyone but Sam sat down to eat each their plate of yoghurt for breakfast from the motel room refridgerators. While they sat down eating, Kajsa made an admittance that if she wasn't in a band, she would've chosen to be a painter instead, maybe even studying art at the local university college in their hometown, and maybe one day she would, but for now her focus was solely on the band and them making it big, hopefully..

 

Sam, who has had enough of cold stuff for a while, said he wasn't feeling hungry, and instead went downstairs to talk to the barkeeper about.. the weather... "Is it always grey, cold and rainy in this town?"

Apparantly that question hit a sore spot in the barkeeper. They were just unlucky to come here on the one day of the year where it rained. It wasn't usually like this, not at all.. they didn't call it Pleasantview for nothing!

 

Right.. Well, Sam didn't excactly believe in what the barkeeper said, and as soon as the other bandmembers were downstairs they all agreed that maybe it was time to get moving again.. maybe the weather was a little better once they had crossed the mountains and made it to the coast..

 

..because there wasn't really all that much to do around here, and the weather just kept getting gloomier and gloomier. Even Merete who woke up feeling like sunshine this morning was starting to get a little down.. It seemed to them now that the place didn't at all live up to its name, and maybe it was one they had chosen to cover up that this place was nothing but a depressing small village by the foot of some mountains.. or worse..

 

..apart from the monotonous hum of the engine, the constant back and forth motion of the windshield wipers and the tires rolling across the wet road, there was a pressuring silence in the car as everyone sat there in their own thoughts while the car moved on towards the mountains and the coastline on the other side.. they didn't share their thoughts with each other, but somehow all of them felt that there was something more to this town than just being a cozy place by a river, something that wasn't supposed to be talked about..

It was only around noon, but it already looked like night was falling, and the trees along the sides of the road started to feel a little ominous.. it was as if they slowly creeped in on them from either side whispering to them somewhere through the wind and the rain that they needed to get away, because something bad was about to happen in town this night..

-----

..then followed several more hours of driving through valleys and past mountains, and stopping at yet another strange town in the middle of nowhere to stop and have a bite at some dusty old roadside inn straddled with paparazzis.. It's amazing sometimes isn't it, how they manage to creep and crawl their way into the most distant and unavailable crevices of this world, with their cameras and notepads always at the ready to make life more miserable than necessary for a traveling group of people only seeking to entertain people and perhaps make a little cash from it... I'm telling you, celebrity life may just be a tad overrated.. and these guys aren't even there yet..

..there were a couple more valleys and some road tunnels they had to pass, before they finally were back at the coast... The town of Pleasantview and whatever was about to happen, or perhaps happening there right in this very moment, was for them now long gone.. who knows what it was or what it wasn't, but maybe it would one day be one of those things that someone would decide to write a book about.. or something...

The weather hadn't improved much on the way, as they had hoped, but atleast the landscape had opened up a little bit.. the trees weren't as intimidating out here, and the valleys seemed a little less claustrophobic, and the lights beaming from the downtown area gave them a renewed sense of hope..

 

Even though it was Gerdas car, Kajsa had ended up taking charge of who was driving when and where, and had allowed Sam to drive the car this last bit into town.. something she started to question when he struggled to keep the car in his lane on the motorway and came to regret when he was mere seconds from ramming into a taxi on his way into a roundabout..

The screeching sound of tires breaking on wet asphalt and a long car honk was heard over Kajsa shouting from the backseat...

"Sam! SAM!! You were supposed to YIELD for that car!! What the hell is wrong with you!? Can't you read signs!?"

    Sam didn't know what to say after having just missed slamming into a taxi...

"Sam!" Kajsa continued after the car had stopped abruptly choking the car engine "Just.. start the car again and get us out of here.. safely, please.... We can't be standing here in the middle of the road.. and as for the rest of the tour, I think the rest of us will take over the driving from here on..."

"..and maybe you should consider taking some driving lessons when we get back home.." Merete said after the shock had began to settle. "I know it's been a long day of driving in the rain, and we're all tired, but how could you not see that taxi?"

Sam kept silent for the remainder of the trip while he did his best to navigate the city streets to locate the Simb'n'b apartment they had rented for their stay..

 

He felt shameful, but still a little at ease that atleast there was, for some reason or other not much traffic on the city streets this evening..

"Must be due to the rain.." he thought to himself while still gripping the steering wheel hard with his knuckles and tapping the brakes lightly before every road crossing and turning his head to glance around every corner.. just in case...

 

"Well, this must be it..." he said after making a slow left turn, finally breaking the unpleasant silence that had been in the car since the near incident. "It's uh... probably nicer on the inside than it looks.."

 

Kajsa kept her mouth shut this time, but was a little disgruntled at the sight of the dilapidated building in front of them.. She had trusted Gerda with the organizing of accomodations for them, but now she had her regrets.. did she really have to do everything herself..?

 

"You know, this place really looks like a dump... " Merete told Kajsa as they were about to head up the staircase to the top floor where their apartment was.. "I know we have to rent for cheap, but was this really the best you could find?"

    "Well, uh.." Gerda began before setting her foot on the rusty staircase "..it uh.. it's probably not that bad, and it has a very uh.. central location.. kind of.."

"Yeah, central location for rats, hoboes and homeless people, probably..."

 

Sam was already pretty disgusted by the state of the building, but a little relieved he wasn't the only one who could mess up... The place smelled bad, the floor felt strangely soft in spots as of it was about to give way and collapse, and everything looked like it was just.. clad in filth and dirt and watcher knows what...

 

..and the apartment inside wans't much better. How do walls even get to look like that? They had the appearance of having belonged to a heavy chain smoker on steroids running a slaughter house at the same time. The entire building gave the impression of having been built by, and furnished with, pieces and furniture found on the nearest landfill! Never in his life had he seen or imagined such a filthy, downright disgusting place...

..and that couch! He would probably need to buy a new pair of pants just from thinking about sitting on it.. gross!

 

He had agreed to join for a chat with his friends back home as soon as they had arrived in the city, and once signed up, he just had to let them know what a whole they had just moved into.. The best thing about this place was that after they had spent a couple of nights here and played their show they would leave and never to return.. atleast he wouldn't..

Gerda wasn't feeling to proud now that she had witnessed first hand the state of the building, but it was to late in the day now to find something better as they were all pretty much dead tired.. She tried to cheer herself up a little bit with the fact that atleast the rooms had bunk beds in them.. rusty old bunk beds that were probably left overs from the nearest prison.. or asylum or something.. well, as long as the house didn't prove to be haunted too, she could atleast convince herself that she had found somewhat of a bargain..

Merete was following just behind her to pick the top bunk, thinking it might have the benefit of being free from cockroaches and other insects.. and she didn't see any spider webs, so it had to be.. not good, but alright.. somewhat..

 

Kajsa went in to inspect the room.. She thought it might have been some kids room or something once given the hideous art on the wall, but it looked like it hadn't been in use in decades..

She didn't want to go to sleep in that room, so she went into the open kitchen and living room to brave sitting down on the chair to watch the news on tv before checking out the master bedroom to see if it was any better.. She knew how everyone in the band like bunk beds, so she told Sam that he could have the remaining one in Gerda and Meretes room..

Not much to cheer about she thought, but Sam was still Sam, and sometimes that was all it took for him to feel like he was living in a party, despite the grim appearance of the circumstances..

"Heey, top bunk! Maybe this place isn't so bad afterall.." Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Sam. ;)

 

After having made sure that everyone else were now allocated to the kids beds, the only real adult of the band (atleast that's how she saw it right now) went for the master bedroom, hoping to find something that looked a tiny bit better than everything else, but... instantly regretted her choice.. She didn't want to think about the slobs that had to have lived here before, and she could only hope that the bedsheets weren't as dirty as they looked and that she would surive the night without getting lice or being bitten by something nasty...

 

"Uggh.. do I really want to do this? Maybe it would be better to just sleep on the floor..."

 

Ah well, I hope you can still get a good nights sleep somehow.. don't let them bite to hard.. ;)

 

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