Latest / October Country Presents / S1 E1: Arrival

Transcript

S1 E1: Arrival · October Country Presents

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: She's not here.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: She was supposed to be here, but all that's left is this.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: My God.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: October Country presents The Diner.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: Episode One Arrival.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think this is on.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Let me check.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, Jan, it's me, Emily.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry I didn't start sending you my audio diary sooner.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: I promised I'd be in close touch as we ended the regular therapy sessions.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be better.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: I just needed to get my bearings first.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: You won't believe where I am.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: I just woke up in a little guest cottage with the oddest, most overgrown back garden I've ever seen.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: In one of the weirdest small American towns you can possibly imagine.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: When I told you I had booked a random flight to New York, you probably imagined me finding some charming West Village apartment and living it up.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a city girl, after all.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I did hang around for a few days, but eventually it was just all wrong, you know?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Too many people.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: It felt too much like home.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Claustrophobic.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Not to mention my money would have run out pretty quickly there.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, I took a Greyhound bus out to New Jersey somewhere, and after staying in a somewhat horrifying motel, I went to a car lot nearby and pulled out enough cash for an old Chevrolet.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: So American, right?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: I thought, why not go on a bit of a road trip?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't it the thing to do?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've ever taken a road trip in America, but a lot of it is a good deal less romantic than it appears.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: So much traffic all the way from New Jersey to Washington, D.C.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: By the time I'd catapulted around that horrible road there that they call the Beltway, I was ready to go mad.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Once you get that far, you can leave the major highways and drive west or south and escape all the urban craziness.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Something about the winding roads and the last flaming orange and red and yellow trees just drew me into the countryside.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's really quite extraordinary to see it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: There are all these rolling green hills with little white churches and old general stores.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Some of the stores seem to just be limping along while others are literally abandoned.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: You'll come to a town that has just a cluster of little buildings.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Say, a convenience store and a petrol station that has only two pumps.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe there'll be a motel that has seen better days, and something random like a beauty salon or a gun shop.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: But there's no pub, and there are no sidewalks or schools, and you just think, Where are the people?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And in between these towns are long roads with houses set back, hidden in overgrown trees or falling down from neglect.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then you pass one that is kept up so perfectly that it's like its owner has no other interest in life.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty as you please.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Out in the middle of nowhere, a single-level mid-century house with two stone lions at the front door.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I kept driving because there was a relief about it.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: To feel like all other people and their voices and their problems were gone.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: It was just me.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Driving through this landscape that didn't seem real or like it was part of me in any way.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: There was some comfort in that.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: I will say, even though you'd think autumn would be a glorious season for driving the back roads of Virginia, the scenery made me feel a bit melancholy.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: I kept waiting for my spirits to lift, like, yay, I'm having a new experience on a refreshing solo road trip.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: But instead it was just this vaguely eerie sense that everything was going to be bare and chilly soon, and that the colours around me were fading with every passing moment.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: I had a sort of gut feeling of sadness about it all.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: But as you know, that's normal for me.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Soldier on, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Seek joy and all that.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: At a certain point, I came upon a town that seemed a bit more substantial.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the petrol station and the convenience store and the gun shop, of course.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: But there was also a rundown school and a diner, thank goodness.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: I realized all of a sudden that I was incredibly tired and also starving.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I pulled into the car park, what they call the parking lot here, and here I was at this diner, which looked like something out of a 1950s movie.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't in one of those silver trailers you always think of, but the building looked really old and well worn, and the sign was one of those white boards with the removable letters.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: It said breakfast all day and open late, and I thought, wonderful.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: That place was a godsend.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: I went into the diner, and there was almost nobody there.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: One elderly looking man was reading a newspaper, a real newspaper, at the end of the counter.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: But all the booths were empty.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: I felt a little awkward, like maybe it was about to close and I shouldn't be there.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: But just when I was about to panic and leave, a waitress came out of some swinging doors from the kitchen.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: She was wearing a drab brown polyester uniform that looked like it had been around forever, and her hair was blonde, but with really dark roots.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: It was pulled up in a ponytail, and she had a name tag that said Linda.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: She looked right at me, like seeing me there was the most natural thing in the world, and she told me to sit anywhere I wanted.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: I picked a booth, not too close to the door, but not too far.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oddly neutral, I guess.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And she walked over, dropped a mug on the table, and filled it with coffee without even asking me.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: She pointed out the menus that were standing behind a miniature jukebox at the end of the table and told me to let her know if I wanted any food.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: Then, before I could respond, she disappeared again.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: God, I can't even tell you how my exhaustion hit me at this point.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: I downed half the coffee, hoping it might keep me awake until I could eat something.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, I was thinking where the hell am I going to sleep tonight?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was really kicking myself for not having planned things better.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Was I going to end up in my car?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: But I didn't have time to dwell on it much because the waitress reappeared a moment later, and I was able to order some pancakes.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: I felt it was the proper thing to get in a diner, after all.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Also, I was honestly dying for some carbs.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: After I gave her my order, the waitress didn't leave right away.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: She looked at me sort of like she was aware of my sorry state, and she asked me where I was headed.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: The question, as you can imagine, made me laugh in a really stupid way.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: It must have been the stress of everything.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I babbled something like, I'm from England and I don't really know where I'm going.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Got any suggestions?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: She was really nice and sympathetic, though, and she pointed out that most people who stopped at the diner were just passing through, but that I looked like I wasn't going to get much further tonight.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: I had to admit to her that she wasn't wrong about that, and I asked her if she had any recommendations for decent hotels nearby.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, she had a good laugh at that.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: She had this raspy, warm sound to her laugh that reminded me of my aunt Karen.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the one that runs that weird gift shop.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, she said there were absolutely no decent hotels anywhere near.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Then she laughed again like I told her the best joke she'd heard all day.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, to be fair, anyone passing through town could have seen with their own eyes that there were no good hotels to be had.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: I tried to smile back, but I must have looked pathetic because she suddenly appeared very sympathetic.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: She leaned in, like she was telling me a secret, and said, Honey, I'm going to get your pancakes, and while you're eating I'll make a phone call.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: I might know a place.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I did feel a bit apprehensive about this, but also, what else was I going to do?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I sort of mumbled my thanks and went back to drinking my coffee and she vanished into the kitchen again.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: It was so dark outside that I couldn't really even see out there.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: The window just reflected the diner back at me, and my own image.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: And also the image of that guy at the end of the counter.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: I felt weirdly like he was staring at me, but when I snuck a glimpse over my shoulder, he was still looking at his newspaper.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: I suppose I was being paranoid.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I had this odd moment of feeling like I was watching myself in a movie on TV.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: In my tired mind, I started thinking of names for this ridiculous film I was living in, like Emily Takes a Road Trip or Emily Lost in America, and it made me slap happy and I started laughing almost into my coffee.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, goodness, Jan.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: I was beyond reason at that point.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the waitress returned just in time to save me from myself.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: She had the most heavenly steaming stack of pancakes, like so thick, with a huge scoop of butter on top.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then she set them down along with a little pitcher absolutely full of maple syrup.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Then she refilled my coffee and winked at me.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: She really winked at me, and then she hurried off and disappeared again.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely destroyed those pancakes, and I swear they might have been the best thing I ever tasted.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know what they say about feeling depressed when you've got low blood sugar?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I felt so much better after inhaling that plate of pancakes.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I was actually almost happy for a minute.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then the waitress came back and tore a piece of paper off the notepad she used for her orders.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: She placed it on the table and slid it towards me.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: I noticed her nails.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: They were long and painted pink.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: I think they might have been fake.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, the paper.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: It had an address on it fifteen Dogwood Lane, and she told me that she hadn't been able to reach her friend, but just to go and knock on his door and ask about his guest's cottage.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: She said to tell him that a friend had sent me and that I needed a place to stay.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: Then she cautioned me that he was kind of rude and crotchety, but not to be bothered by him because he could use the money and he wouldn't say no.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Then before I could protest, she gave me some directions, pointing out that there wasn't much mobile service in the area, and that my navigation in the car probably wouldn't load.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well she wasn't wrong about that part.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I listened to her instructions and she made some more notes on the paper for me.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: Jan, you can imagine all this made me a bit nervous.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: I know what you're thinking, but on the other hand, I didn't like the idea of sleeping in this strange lonely place in my car either.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I simply couldn't go on.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: I was too tired.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I thanked her, paid my tab, and left.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: And as I was pushing the door open to leave, I looked at the bar.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: And what do you know?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: That man was gone.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: He'd slipped by without me even noticing.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: How very odd.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: I can't believe I missed him leaving.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: The night outside was colder than I had anticipated.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if the temperature had actually dropped, or if the warmth of the diner had just made me too comfortable, but I started shivering right away, and I thought about the warm jumper that was buried in my suitcase.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Still, the car park felt really creepy and empty.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Even Linda didn't seem to have a car there, and I didn't relish the idea of digging around in my suitcase with the car door open.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I just tried to rub some warmth into my arms and got in the driver's side.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: And in case you're wondering, I'm already used to the American driver's side.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: I turned the key in the ignition.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I told you it was an old car, and the motor sprang to life.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: I was nervous for a second because the check engine light flickered on the dash, but then it stopped.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thankfully.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: I could hardly make sense of the climate controls, but finally the cold air blowing out of it turned to warm air.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: I flicked on the overhead light and looked at the piece of paper Linda had used to write down my instructions.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Chanting them in my mind a few times, I took a deep breath, turned off the overhead light, and pulled out of the empty car park into the deserted road through the middle of town.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: I had to drive kind of slowly, which didn't seem to matter at all, as there wasn't another soul in sight.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: But really, you don't think about how extremely dark it can be out in the country at that hour.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Once I'd left behind the little cluster of buildings downtown, it was pretty hard to see any turns or roadside signs.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: But Linda had given me a few key milestones to look for.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: A rusty mailbox, a huge wooden cross someone had erected in their front yard, an overgrown ruin of a petrol station that had been mostly reclaimed by nature.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: And the whole time, my nerves were getting worse.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: What in the world was I doing?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: Going into the depths of rural Virginia in search of a bad-tempered old man so I could stay in his godforsaken cottage.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: I knew it.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I honestly couldn't think of a more comforting alternative.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, I spotted the turn Dinda had told me about.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: There was a chain-link fence on either side of the drive.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Even in the dark, I could see it was choked with weeds.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: But the gate was long gone, leaving a worn path into the darkness.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: As I turned onto it, a gust of wind sent a flurry of leaves through the beams from my headlights.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: I rolled really slowly up the driveway, between trees that tangled thickly, just letting a little moonlight through.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: Then, all of a sudden, there was a garage door in front of me with peeling paint.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Off to the side, a truck.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not very knowledgeable about such things, but it seemed like it might have been from the 1980s, and it had definitely seen better days.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: When I turned off the car, the silence only made my panic rise.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was all alone out there, I thought.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: I looked at my mobile phone.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: One bar.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: One bar was enough to make a call, I thought.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Reluctantly, I opened the car door and quietly shut it.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: I remember thinking to myself not to make any noise that would alert the inhabitant of my presence.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: But what an odd notion.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was about to go knock on his door.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Was I hoping for the element of surprise?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know anymore.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: I was dog tired and aware that I'd already made so many bad choices, it couldn't get much worse.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: The walk up to his house was dark, and I tripped on a couple of bricks that would have moved out of place over time.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Concentrating on the pain of my stump toe almost gave me focus, though.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: I took a deep breath, rang the doorbell, and stepped back.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: I felt weirdly like it would be less threatening.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: I swear, it felt like ten years between the time I pushed the button and the moment that the dirty light on the front porch flipped on.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, I had a rushed series of thoughts during that time.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: I went from being afraid he'd open the door to being afraid he wouldn't.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because what then?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: By the time the heavy front door swung open, I had decided it was the preferable option.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't see him clearly with the porch light shining in my eyes.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: But he was a tall man.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: Stooped.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: An aroma of smoke drifted out of the long rectangle of light that appeared at the door.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: I felt a little sick, probably from the combination of the smoke and the adrenaline coursing through my body.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: He said nothing.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: I shook myself into action.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: Ever so politely, like a child selling chocolates, I told him I was passing through, and that a friend of his had suggested that he might have a guest cottage he could rent me for the night.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: He said nothing still.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: I've never been good at awkward silences, so I started to babble.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: I made a hysterical little laugh and said how very poorly I'd prepared, and that I was planning to leave in the morning, and that I couldn't go any further that night, and I was happy to pay whatever he normally charged.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: Silence.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans and thought how cold it was standing there.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: Fifty bucks, he said, his voice gruff and indifferent.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Then he added, Cash.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: A feeling of relief flooded through me as I nodded, muttering my awkward thanks.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: But he was clearly not interested in hearing anything else.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: He vanished into the interior of his smoky house and reappeared with a key.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: Holding out his hand he offered it to me.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Just follow the walk around the back.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's dark, but you'll find it shortly if you stick to the path, he said.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: I studied that I'd get my money from the car, but with a bark he said, I'll get it in the morning.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: And with that, he loudly shut the door right in my face.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, Jan, the relief that flooded through me at that moment.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't even care that I was about to walk around the back of his dark, creepy house.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: I was just glad I had a key and a place to sleep.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: I would be on my way in the morning.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: I promised myself.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: I walked quickly back to the car.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was really hustling, as fast as I could.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: I pulled my luggage from the back, locked it, and started around the side of the house on the uneven path he had mentioned.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: My bag was awkwardly jogging over the stones, but I was on a mission, just looking ahead at where I needed to go.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: It seemed like a long way into the trees, but finally the cottage appeared before me.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: The path led right to it.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: The door was blue.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Taking another deep breath, I stuck the key in the lock and opened it with a click.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I am.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Except it's morning now.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, there's more to this story, of course, but I'll have to finish it later because I really need to get on the road.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: I am a bit peckish, so I might stop and get some more of those delicious pancakes for breakfast.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: But after that, I'm out.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not interested in hanging around this strange town any longer than I need to.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just getting a sort of funny feeling about it, you know?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: See you, Jan.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening to The Diner, a production of October Country Presents.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: It was entirely made by humans without the use of AI.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: It was written by Shady Grove Oliver and Alicia Stefan, and narrated by Chloe De Berg and Heather Foster, with help from Thomas Jones.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Audio production was by Martizak.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: If you are enjoying the diner, please rate us and give us a like and a comment wherever you get your podcasts.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: It helps us bring more original stories to listeners like you.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Be sure to follow us on social media at Octobercountry Presents.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: If you'd like to buy us a coffee and support our creative work, visit our website, octobercountrypresents.com.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Next time on the diner.