Story 3: Mysterious Calls

After looking around the houses of Lakeview Circle, the family piled up once again into the Cadillac. This time, Susan did not even pay attention to the exasperating babble of Mr. Sanders’s voice. Susan Johnson was tired of looking around the town of Wiley. Mr. Sanders was clearly a salesman, who was telling half-truths about the town. Even the girls seemed to sense that something was wrong because they were not even quarreling with each other.

Mr. Sanders piped in, “We are headed to your new business. Your husband is a very fortunate man to have been extended such a prominent job.”

Susan smiled politely. In her mind, though, she was thinking that this job was not as much of an opportunity as her husband, Ray, had made it out to be. Ray had initially persuaded her to even consider the move only because of the money the new hotel promised for the future. In reality, Susan was very worried about some of the creepy stories her friends had mentioned to her about Wiley. She had not told Ray these tales yet because she thought they sounded like urban legends. After being in Wiley for the day, she was beginning to see how these stories could possibly be true. Wiley was a place of many dark secrets; even a visitor could see that.

They pulled up to a one-story motel. It looked like one long log cabin with many different compartments. There were thirty rooms, with fifteen on each side. The outside had once been red but the paint was chipping badly. Also, the roof needed replacing, as did the rusty sign that read ‘Wiley Motel’ out in front. The place was a mess and needed a ton of work, which Ray had failed to mention. The look on his face said that he had not even seen the motel yet himself.

Mr. Sanders hurriedly began explaining, “We just had a very bad hail storm about a month ago. The previous owners actually had to shut it down due to the damage. All the electricity and water works though. The paint just needs to be touched up and a few patches on the roof. Typical finishing touches in any new business.” He smiled sheepishly showing off his gold tooth again. Susan felt sick.

“Well, let’s take a look inside,” said Ray skeptically. He could tell his wife did not like what she saw. The girls appeared very frightened as well.

Mr. Sanders led the way to the tiny office that extended forward a bit further than all of the rooms in the center of the building. As they walked in, Susan immediately smelled a musty odor. Her skin also felt slightly damp. Everything appeared otherwise normal except that there was no telephone. Ray and Mr. Sanders were talking about some technicalities, so Susan thought she would take the girls around to look at a few of the rooms. She grabbed the master key and took Sarah and Ashley by the hand.

Susan looked directly at Ray, “We are going to go look around a bit. We will be right back.”

The three walked from door to door and glanced over the rooms. They all had a musty smell and were oddly missing a telephone. This puzzled Susan deeply. Something just was not right. Then, when they came to Room Fifteen at the very end, Ashley spotted a piece of paper sitting on the nightstand. Susan walked over and picked up the small newspaper clipping. She read it aloud. It said:

A young man staying at the ‘Wiley Motel’ was brutally killed by the local train. He had been heard by nearby hotel occupants fighting with his wife. He was spotted drinking liquor in the parking lot when he decided to walk down the road towards town to grab a bite to eat. He mistook the train tracks as the road, which ended horribly for the young man. Even more to the story, the wife of the man received a phone call from her husband’s cell phone five minutes after the train had already mangled him. She was very confused because she heard no words, just a raspy breathing noise. Then another call would come again and again with the same noise. She told the police that he had called at least twenty times. Police investigators on the scene interviewed other hotel tenants who claimed that they had received random calls of breathing around the same time as the incident as well. The remains of the young man were found half a mile south of the motel the next day. The anguished widow was in disbelief when the officer told her the news. The police have ruled the case as accidental death. As far as the calls are concerned, they have no explanation.

“Vrooooom. Vroom!” sounded the horn of a nearby train. Ashley and Sarah jumped. Susan Johnson gasped in horror.

“Mom, Ashley and I need to tell you about a few things we saw today,” exclaimed Sarah. She proceeded to tell her mother about the graveyard skeleton and the poisonous lake. Ashley added a few comments here and there. Susan was certain that Ray had to hear about this stuff. Mr. Sanders was a very good liar and was possibly dangerous. Susan would have to be sneaky.

She huddled with her daughters and said, “We need to be careful what we say around Mr. Sanders. I’m going to need your help in distracting him so I can tell your father. We need to get out of here soon!”

The girls nodded their heads in agreement. They heard footsteps coming toward them so they exited Room Fifteen. Susan had tucked the newspaper article safely away in her jean pocket.

Author's Note: I based this story off of a true event that took place very recently. The incident occurred on September 12, 2008 in California and is known as the Chatsworth crash. It was a massive train wreck, which left twenty five people dead and over one hundred wounded. A fiancee heard of the crash on the radio on the way to pick up her soon-to-be husband from the train station. Unfortunately he was one of the deceased passengers. His body was uncovered twelve hours after the crash and he was confirmed killed by the impact of the crash. The peculiar thing about the incident is that the dead man's cell phone placed over thirty calls to family members before his body was found. The report also stated that the cell phone was never actually found. Even more ironic, the police report said that the entire crash may have been due to the engineer's failure to pay attention because he was text messaging.

I chose the story itself because when I initially read it, I was extremely creeped out. I could not even imagine a dead person calling me. It makes me shudder.

I based the description of the 'Wiley Motel' off of the ones shown in the movie Joy Ride and Vacancy. Both movies are very suspenseful and I thought the image fit very well with my theme. I have actually stayed in a motel similar to these in a small town before. I am sure that it was a very safe place in reality, but I felt very uneasy and could hardly sleep. I think this was probably due to all of the scary movies I have watched. They have definitely affected my imagination.

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