"Aquila the Eagle"

Echoes From The Past (Part III)
(A Ghost Story)

Five minutes later, as I cleared the crest of the final rise in the road, I knew that I had reached Pioneertown. I pulled the car off to the side, set the emergency brake, and got out to look around.

It had been excessively hot in the car, but now a fairly strong wind was blowing, and although it was a hot wind, it did a pretty good job of cooling me down. As I stood and surveyed the landscape, I shouted out loud, "I'm at the top of the world". I put my arms out like a bird and spun around where I stood, my face to the sky as the hot wind dried my perspiring body. In every direction I looked, I saw nothing but wide open spaces.
"This is what I've been looking for". I thought to myself. "Peace and quiet, and plenty of room for the Eagle to fly."

I had long since finished the third can of warm Coke, and as I headed back to the car, I was, as the saying goes, "spitting cotton". I had to find something to drink. But not quite yet. The left front tire was as flat as the proverbial pancake. I opened the trunk.
Spare tire, but no jack.
"Damn cheap rental cars", I cursed. "I guess this means I walk to town".

A half mile later, the first place I saw looked like it might be some sort of restaurant. I approached the building and started across the street toward Pappy and Harriet's"Pioneertown Palace".

Just my luck. The door was locked and there was a small sign in the window that said "Closed". Peering through the dirty glass, I could see that the "Palace" had been long deserted. Overturned tables, broken chairs, and a layer of dust an inch thick. I turned to go, and noticed a Pacific Bell telephone booth just outside, and in it, a half empty can of Pepsi. I sniffed it to see if, indeed, it was soda, and sure enough, it was. But the strange thing is, it wasn't hot, not even warm, but slightly cool, as if it had just been brought home from a store and hadn't yet been refrigerated. I didn't give it a second thought, and finished the can in one breath. As I drank, I thought I heard the sounds of people talking and laughing and music from a honky tonk piano, the kind you see in the bar scenes in the old western movies. I finished the soda and as I did, the talking and the laughing and the music stopped, as quickly as it had started.
"I've gotta' find someplace to get that flat fixed and then get out of here", I mumbled to myself. "This is getting to be like some kind of a bad dream".