One

The sequel to The Snow Storm by Morgan Dawson

September 17, 2007

“Am I speaking to a mister Owen Matthews?”

“Yes, that would be me.. Can I help you?” He does not recognize the female voice on the other end of the line but he has to admit, it is a beautiful voice. He would know how to spot a lovely voice, considering her heard random voices all day long.

“Hello, Mr. Matthews, my name is Marnie Jameson. I am a reporter for a national magazine. I would really like to do an intrview with you-” She begins.

“No, thank you. I am not interested.”

“Just listen for a moment. I really think that there is a story to be heard here-” She says frantically, knowing that the disconnect is imminent.

“There is no story here. So please just leave me alone.” Owen gets these calls all of the time. In recent years, they had calmed down but now that it is nearing the ten year anniversary of the infamous killing of his family.

“Owen-”

He hangs up the phone, putting an end to the call. He wishes that he could just rip the phone from the wall, but this is his place of business and he needs the phone to receive calls. But he does get tired of all the magazine, newspaper and website journalists trying to get interviews. He is fed up with the podcasters and the bloggers trying to make documentaries about him.

Why can these people not just leave him alone? That is all that he asks. Is to be left alone to run his business, without all the people who still want to capitalize on his father and brother's story.

Ring. Ring.

Owen glances at the phone on the counter and considers for a moment not anwering it, but he knows that he can not do that. With a sigh of annoyance, he lifts the receiver to his ear. “The Sleepy Oak Motel.. How can I help you?”

“You could start by answering your cell phone every now and then. I have tried calling you on the dang thing twice already.” Comes a familiar, laughing voice. Owen smiles at the sound.

“You know I never have that thing with me. I can not even remember the last time that I saw it.”

"Huh. Mine is practically glued to my hand at all times.” He says in return and Owen laughs. Doesn't he know it.

“Yeah, your mother has mentioned that a time or two..” Owen tells him. “So, how have you been? What have you been up to?”

“I have been great! That is actually why I was calling you. I wanted to tell you my good news! I got accepted to like eight schools! Our teacher had us apply to at least ten schools.. like big named, ivy league school because she wanted us to set our bars high or something like that. She said some crap about shooting for the moon ad landing among the stars. Whatever. But I got accepted to Baylor, John Hopkins, Perelman, the Mayo Clinic and a couple of local schools.”

“Jack, man, that is amazing! I am so proud of you! I know how much you have wanted this and how hard you have worked for it. I am so happy for you.” Owen tells the kid, smiling widely.

“Thanks Owen. We just opened them a few hours ago. I saved all of the envelopes to open at one time, in case they were all rejections, I could get manically depressed all at one time, rather than drag it out over a long period of time.”

Owen hears the smile in his voice and the humor in Jack's words, making him chuckle. “As if you wouldn't get in. You are so smart and so dedicated. I never doubted for a second that every school would want you. Man, I am so proud of you. Seriously.”

He swallows down the lump in his throat and he hears Jack do the same. In the hopes of not making the conversation too emotional, he asks Jack. “So have you decided on a school? I know that you have been talking about Baylor College of Medicine and Perelman School of Medicine for years now. Is it a tough decision, choosing between the two of them?”

“It would be.. But I have decided to stay local and go to school here in Montana so that I am close to home.” Jack tells him. Owen gets the impression that there is so much more to that sentence that the boy left unsaid.

“Oh.. is everything okay?” Owen asks, concerned.

“Yeah, uh, you know.. Mom's anxiety has just gotten pretty bad lately. The medicine that she was one for like five years worked so well for her. She had no side effects and it really kept her calm without making her an emotionless zombie. She really liked it but sadly, they discontinued it so her doctor started her on another medicine. The side effects have been rough and it has not helped her. In the last three months her nightmares have come back and she freaks out just going to the grocery store sometimes.” Jack tells him.

“Damn. I didn't know that things were that bad. She sounded fine when I talked to her last week.” Owen comments, feeling guilty that all of this is happening to them.

“She has been hiding it. She didn't want to worry anyone, especially you.” Jack sighs. “Dad just doesn't know if it is a good idea for her to come down there next month. He is afraid that seeing the motel will trigger an episode or a psychotic break of some sort..”

“It's that bad?” Owen asks, concerned about Lacey. She has become the biggest part of his life in these last few years and the thought of her going through this breaks his heart.

“It's getting there. She has done fine for years. She had managed to put it all behind her and she was happy, healthy and thriving. But now..”

“Seeing the motel, and even probably me, could most likely set her off.” Owen surmises sadly. It hurts knowing that just the sight of him could cause her distress, but he understands it. 

“Dad, Sunny and I are still coming there though. We can not wait to see you-”

“Jack, is that Owen?”

Owen hears the voice and he smiles, before the gnawing worry begins to eat at him. What if she does not want them to talk to him anymore? He hears her demand, “Give me the phone.” Owen braces himself for the end of the only family he has. 

Honestly, he has surprised that it has not happened before. He was surprised at first when they had taken him into the fold and treated him as one of them, but a part of him had waited for the other shoe to drop. For them to remember that he was the son and the brother of the psychopaths that caused them such trauma.

When they realized that he was a part of that mess, they wouldn't want him around anymore. But when year had passed and they had not turned their back on him, he had lowered his guard. Now, he wondered if the moment wa finally here.

“Owen, honey? How are you?” Lacey asks him.

“I'm doing okay. How about you?” Owen asks her, even though he knows the answer.

“I have had better days, I will admit that. But I am not as crazy or as fragile as my family likes to think that I am. So, I will be coming to see you in twenty six days. We will celebrate our boy here getting accepted into all those fancy medical schools. We will also celebrate the fact that he is going to Baylor.” She says pointedly and Owen knows that he is right there beside her, feeling the full wrath of her glare.

“If you don't feel like coming here, or seeing the-.. if you don't want to come, I understand.” Owen tells her to let her off of the hook. It will absolutely suck not eeing her, but he understands. He only ever wants what is best for her, no matter how it makes him feel.

“Owen, of course I am coming out there to see you. I have not gotten to see you since Sunny's birthday in May. That has been nearly four months. That is such a long time.” Lacey tells him.

Owen laughs. “It is. But I can come there to see you and save you the trip.”

“No, it is our turn to come to you. You have come here the last two times and that is not fair. I know how hard it is for you to leave the place for a while and I don't want you to have to do that again. We have to put in just as much effort. So, we will be coming there to see you. I am so excited, I can not wait!” Lacey says happily and Owen smiles, feeling relieved that she still cares about him. “Now tell me everything that has been going on with you. Since you are always so busy that we only get to talk once a week, that means there are days that go by without me knowing what is up with you.”

Owen chuckles, filling her in on everything that she thinks she has missed. He tells her how business is booming and how he always has a high level of occupancy. He fills her in on how he had just finished a renovation on the uptairs of the main house. She tells him to send her pictures and he obliges, promising to email them to her that night. He asks about Marnie and she tells him all about the nine year old girl. 

They talk for thirty more minutes and he speaks to the rest of the family until someone coming into the office to check in interrupts them. He promises Lacey that he will call her back soon and tells her that he loves her too before he hangs up the phone.

Once he has gotten the couple checked in and he is once again alone in the office, that is when the worry sets in. Lacey hasn't been to the motel since January. She and the family usually come once or twice a year. Owen also goes to visit them in Montana a couple of times a year.

Sometimes it strikes him how odd their dynamic is, this being one of those times, but it does not bother him. He is actually thankful to have that family in his life. No matter how oddly things began for them.

It had all started when Owen's brother Nate had tried to run their car off of the road as they were driving through an ice storm. When that attempt failed, he had followed them to a service station and acted as if the reckless driver had caused him to crash, in order to garner sympathy from them.

Andy had fallen for the sob story and they had given him a ride, against Lacey's wishes. But she knew something was up for him and she did not like him, so she made Andy drop him off at a diner. They continued on until the weather forced them off the road and sent them to our motel, seeking shelter for the night.

Once there, Lacey began to put together that something was not right, but it was too late. Nate took her and locked her up in a room. When Andy had gone looking for her, Nate had knocked him out and beaten him badly.

When Owen heard what Dave was doing to Lacey as he came down the stairs, he had finally had enough. He pretended there was an emergency outside to draw his father from the room before he had let the woman free. He had helped her and her husband get back to their children but Lacey would not leave without him.

But Nate and Dave had caught them, shooting out their tires. When they were running to the woods for cover and to try to escape them, they had shot Andy in the thigh and Owen in the chest, as he had turned to check on Andy. Lacey and the kids had managed to get everyone to a ditch, where Lacey had left them.

Jack held pressure on Owen's wounds and had kept him from bleeding out. Lacey had taken on Dave and Nate, shooting them both. After that she had gone back to the motel and called the police.

When Andy, Owen and the children had been taken to the hospital, she had gone with them, refusing to be checked out. She had taken the kids to her parents for Christmas, but she had turned right around and she had come back. Lacey had stayed with Owen until he was released from the hospital. She spent over a week beside his bed, caring for him.

Once he was released, she had taken him with them to Montana to stay with them, since his only place to stay was an active crime scene and under investigation. He was not allowed to go near it. He had stayed with them at their home for almost a year before he had come back to the motel.

From then on, she has treated him as if he were her child. They whole family had embraced him, including Lacey and Andy's parents. He had become a Williamson and that had not changed over the year. Lacey made a large effort to stay in his life and Owen has done the same.

Owen assumed that they would not want anything to do with him considering that it was his family that had attacked them. He had feared that he would only serve as a reminder to a horrible time in their lives, but they did not see it that way. They figured that it was just as horrible for him and that he was just as much a victim.

He spent weeks telling Lacey about his youth and she helped him come to term with his trauma. Together as a family they had over come the ordeal, to move on to live happy lives. Owen knew that it was all because of Lacey and how wonderful she was. Andy had told him many a time that Lacey was the most perfect woman in the in the world. Owen had to say that he agreed whole heartedly.

The ringing of the phone catches his attention once again and he answers it. “Hello and thank you for calling the Sleepy Oak Motel. How can I help you?”

“Is this the Murder Motel?” Asks a deep, artificial voice. It sounds as if they are talking through one of those voice distorter toys that you can buy at a super market.

“This is the Sleepy Oak Motel.” Owen answers, growing annoyed by that constant question. He gets calls like this a million and ten times a day it seems. “Before you ask your next question, yes it was the motel with all the kidnappings and killings. No, the motel is not haunted. No, I do not give interviews. It is just a motel now. Does that clear anything up for you?”

“Hmm.. just a motel.. without the murder? Where is the fun in that?” The voice asks before giving a sinister cackle.

Okay, then.. weird.

“Look, did you want to make a reservation or what?” Owen finally asks. He was tired of all the back and forth, wanting the person to say what the want or to hang the phone up. He was too tired for all of the games.

“No, but don't worry about it, Owen. But you will be seeing me very soon..”