Picture provided as Prompt for the Flash, Origin Unknown

The sign struggled with its messaging like the last autumn leaf clinging to an oak branch. “SuMmer IS heRe.” Merideth read the various sized letters on the ancient broken marquee below the faded blue paint and blinking neon motel sign. “I guess?”

“The autumnal equinox isn’t until tomorrow so we can roll with it,” Sabine said. She always knew things like when the moon cycle was and what zodiac sign went with which, and assured Merry that they would remain best friends forever with their Capricorn and Scorpio mix. “Although I think that sign hasn’t been changed in three years.”

“So, stop here?” The white compact had slowed as far as it could without actually stopping or turning into the gravel parking lot.

“You can’t drive any further, and I can’t drive after I take my meds.”

“Thank you.” Merideth’s gratitude was heartfelt. “I don’t think there is another motel for fifty miles and the mountain fog is getting bad now that the sun has completely set.” She angled Sabine’s car into the parking lot moving around two semis parked at the edge to get to the door marked office. “The semis are promising.”

“Nah, I can hear their engines running. The guys are sleeping in the trucks, not the motel.”

Once parked in the otherwise empty lot, they both fell out of the car, using it for support as they stretched in the rapidly darkening twilight. The gravel crunched under their feet once they regained their balance enough to make their way into the office for check-in.

Merry tapped the sign right under the office sign. “Newly remodeled.” She looked around at the two wings of the motel painted a sad mix of blue and peach visibly chipping and peeling in the blinking fluorescent lights. The sign itself had faded to barely visible gray lettering. “This one I don’t think I can stretch to any form of the truth.”

“If we go with remodeled this century, it might work. We are only twenty-five years into the new millennium.”

Merry nailed Sabine with a look of overdramatic disbelief, then they both laughed as they entered the office, the door jingling as it hit a bell above the entrance. Inside smelled of air conditioning mildew, forgotten cigarettes from when people smoked indoors, and bleach. Behind what looked like bulletproof glass with a small passthrough underneath sat a largish woman knitting a brown something. The space on the customer side was chipped tiled floor, a plastic tree with more leaves on the tile than the outside autumn leaves had dropped for tomorrow’s beginning of fall, and two chairs with their pretend leather seats cracked from age.

“Welcome to The Grand Sleeps Motor Lodge. How can I help you girls?” the woman asked as she set aside her knitting needles.

“Room for two. Separate beds if possible.” Sabine said, moving her purse to pull out her wallet. “Just for the one night. You take Visa, right?”

“Sure thing. We accept all major credit cards. I will also need a driver’s license.” The woman tapped the pass-through in front of her. The white linoleum had been worn down to wood in the valley.

Sabine shoved the two requested pieces of plastic through the dip.

Pulling out the computer tray from under the computer desk covered with yarn, the woman tapped a couple of keys and then ran the back of Sabine’s driver’s license under the red beam of a scanner after which she knocked the credit card against a second machine in the typical tap to pay manner before returning them. “All set,” she said before passing an actual set of keys through the passthrough with a large faded blue plastic number attached. “I set you up for room nine, just four doors down on your left. That one got freshened today so you should be all good.”

“That was fast, thanks.”

“Yep, we are all modernized here. Enjoy your stay. Put the keys into the key drop in the morning and we should be square.”

(words 672; first published 3/11/2026)

Created for a writer’s guild meeting off a visual prompt of a landscape picture.