Tuesday's Special
A story by Rachael Watson
Maria brushed her daughter’s hair, still wet from the bath, starting from the tips that fell down just below the shoulder blades and working her way to the knots at the base of Sophie’s head. The beige texture of the motel walls seemed to absorb all the light from the bedside lamp, making it hard to see what she was doing. Brushing Sophie’s hair in this room felt like driving in the dark with no headlights on. Maria didn’t mind. The last time she drove her car without the headlights on, it was when she backed the car out of their home’s driveway while Derek was asleep inside. She’d managed to get out without waking him.
“Mom, do you think unicorns are real?” Sophie asked, her eyes catching Maria’s in the mirror above the small desk across from the motel bed.
“Will you keep drawing them for me either way?” Maria finished brushing Sophie’s hair, straightening the part to run straight down the middle.
Sophie giggled, “Guess what kind I’m drawing you tonight?”
Maria set down the brush, pulling her daughter close. “A lemon-lime one?”
“No!” Sophie squirmed.
“A dalmatian unicorn?”
“No, Mommy!”
“Then what kind?”
“A pink one.” It’s the same color she always drew. Pink unicorns were scattered around the room.
“I would’ve never guessed!” Maria made sure to look shocked, putting her hands up against her cheeks. At home, Sophie didn’t draw. Here, she never stopped.
Sophie wasn’t the only one. Maria felt herself expanding in this small room too. It wasn’t much, but it kept them safe for now. With this new job, soon she’d be able to pay rent for an apartment. Maria checked her watch. Her shift would be starting soon. “All right sweet girl, time for bed.”
“Not until I draw a unicorn.”
“Let me tuck you in first. You can draw one after I leave.”
“Do you have to go to work?”
“Yes. Don’t you worry. If you get scared, open the curtains. Look across the street, and you’ll see me at Jack’s.” When Maria started at the diner a week earlier, she had asked to wait the tables on the side that faced the street. That way she could look across at Room 127, the one on the second floor to the right of the stairs.
Sophie crawled under a blue floral blanket. “Mom, can you draw me a dalmatian unicorn tomorrow? If unicorns are real, that’s the kind I want.”
“Of course I can.” Maria leaned down and hugged her. “If you get lonely tonight, look out and find me. Keep the light on and I’ll watch for you too.”
“Okay, Mommy. Love you.” Sophie gave her kisses in the same pattern every night: forehead, lips, each cheek. It felt like a holy blessing, the shape of the cross on Maria’s face.
“I love you too.” More than she’d ever know.
*****************************
Maria was one hour into her shift, clearing a recently vacated table, when a middle-aged man and woman walked in. The man was tall with flannel shirtsleeves neatly rolled up to his elbows. His shoulders slumped forward as he held the door open for the woman to walk through. She had short spiky hair and a turquoise necklace, and she walked at a faster pace than the man. Maria remembered them from last week when she was filling out the new employee form. She was trying to figure out what to put for her address when the manager pointed them out. “Those are the Freemans. They’re siblings. They come every Monday. If you get on Martha’s good side, she’ll tip well. Lazarus won’t say much to you besides please and thank you but he’s nice enough.” Maria double-checked her watch. It was Tuesday. Why were they here?
Martha walked straight to a booth near the window like it belonged to her. Lazarus took his hat off, nodding at Maria as he passed. Maria started restocking sugar packets, smiling as she glanced up at the pink unicorn Sophie had taped to the window across the parking lot. Sophie liked to do that before she went to sleep.
There was an art to approaching customers at the right time to take their order. Wait for a lull in the conversation, let them scan the menu, but don’t wait too long for the drinks order. People don’t like to be thirsty. Maria took her pen and writing pad out of her apron and walked towards them. “Welcome to Jack’s, I’m Maria. What can I get for you?”
“You new here?” The woman asked, looking Maria up and down.
Maria straightened up a bit. “Yes ma’am, I started last week.”
“I’m Martha.” She nodded across the table, lacing fingers on top of her closed menu. “That’s Lazarus, my brother. You’ll be seeing a lot of us on Tuesdays.”
“You mean on Mondays,” Lazarus glanced up from the menu encased in soft plastic before looking back down.
“No, Tuesdays. We agreed it was time for something new, remember?” Martha grabbed Lazarus’s menu, snapping it shut and putting it on top of hers. “Two lasagnas and two unsweetened iced teas, please.” She lifted the menus up to Maria. “Make sure they don’t skimp on the side salad. Tell Carl it’s for me, he’ll know what to do.”
Tuesday’s special didn’t come with salad. Maria had memorized the specials last night. “I’m really sorry, but the lasagna doesn’t come with a side salad.”
“It doesn’t?” Martha pulled her head back in surprise, taking a menu back from Maria to verify.
“No ma’am.” Maria gripped her pen a little tighter. She needed them to like her so they would tip well.
Martha found the list of specials on the inside flap and frowned. “Well I’ll be, you’re right.” She returned the menu to Maria. “That doesn’t make any sense. A burger comes with a salad but the lasagna doesn’t? I’ll have to talk to Jack about that.”
“The garlic bread is good. My daughter loves it.” The cook let Maria take home leftovers at the end of her shift.
Martha ignored the endorsement. “Is there any way to swap the garlic bread for the salad?”
“I can do that.” Maria replied, although she wasn’t certain she could.
“Don’t switch mine, I’ll take the garlic bread,” Lazarus interjected.
All this time, Martha hadn’t looked at him.
She sure did now.
“Oh? I bet you want the sweet tea too, Lazarus, but you ain’t getting either. Switch his out for salad.” Martha said, focusing on Maria again.
Maria took in Martha’s raised eyebrows and Lazarus’ face as he shoveled out a big sigh. He shrugged his shoulders as if to signal his defeat to Maria.
“I’ll put that order in for you two.” She tore off the top page of her order pad as she walked away, burdened by the image of the older man bent down by someone else’s will. Maria was the type to let things slide too. That’s how she got into this whole mess with Derek. She passed the yellow paper across the counter to the kitchen, then walked over to the iced tea canisters.
The couple’s conversation wormed its way through the air to her ear.
“You know what tomorrow is, don’t you?” The woman asked, sniffing a bit.
“Course I do.” The man’s reply was soft. Maria stopped working with ice to hear him.
“It’s been 42 years, but sometimes it feels like yesterday.”
Maria pretended to need something under the counter so she could catch a glimpse of the two of them.
Lazarus stretched his legs out, crossing his feet beneath the table. “I still miss her.”
“I wish Mom and Dad had the money to bury her properly. A grave for us to lay flowers at instead of whatever the county did after cremating her.” Martha was checking the condiment bottles for dribbles. Maria started pouring unsweetened iced tea into one of the glasses.
“I know, me too.”
Maria finished filling the glass with unsweetened tea, then impulsively filled the second glass with sweetened tea. Lazarus didn’t seem like the type of man to call her out on it.
Maria’s mother passed away two months earlier. She should visit her grave next week on her day off. She started walking towards the table with the two drinks. She’d have to bring Sophie some garlic bread if there was any left over tonight. As Maria served Lazarus his sweet tea, she checked the window in Room 127.
The light was off.
Not only that, but the door was open.
At the base of the stairs to the second floor, a silver car was parked next to hers. It was Derek’s. “Sophie,” Maria gasped as she spilled iced tea on her customer’s lap.
*****************************
“Whoa,” Lazarus pushed back in the booth, trying to claw away from the iced tea being absorbed by his blue flannel shirt and denim jeans. “That’s cold!”
Martha’s arms started fluttering, standing halfway up as if she’d been spilled on too, “Lazarus, what did you do? I can’t take you anywhere. All I wanted was lasagna. Can’t a woman get a lasagna every now and again?”
“Sorry, Martha.” Lazarus nodded like a man who apologized a hundred times a day. He reached for napkins from the dispenser, pulling one after another, as if the flimsy squares could sop up the spill.
Maria’s gaze ping-ponged from the two cars across the street to the dark window and open door above them.
Her daughter. Her sweet girl.
“No, no, no,” she moaned. “He’s here. He’s gonna…”
Maria’s throat closed. She couldn’t speak. She turned towards the door, steadying herself with the booths and stools along the way. She should’ve never left Sophie alone. What kind of mother does that? Sobs shook her. The whole diner watched like she was a squirming insect pinned down for observation. Even her coworkers. She hadn’t even been here long enough to collect a paycheck. She pushed the diner door open and the cool night air rushed towards her.
She’d been playing pretend, as if she and Sophie were normal people whom God had given permission to live a safe life. She’d grown too soft in one week. She should’ve gone farther than two towns over.
Maria focused on the window of Room 127 across the street. Still dark, and the pink unicorn in the window was gone. She started running. “Sophie!”
Halfway across the parking lot, she tripped. The loose gravel cut into her bare knees. She scrambled, arms and legs angling back and forth as she tried to stand, “Sophie, I’m coming!”
She managed to get a knee underneath her. Pressing palms on the ground to stand, she kept her eyes fixed on the empty motel room.
Someone tried to help lift her up from behind.
Derek.
She thought of the night before they left and the bruises she still had from it. The morning after, she dug out his skin from underneath her fingernails. As the cool water rinsed her shaking hands, she promised herself to never let him touch her again.
She threw her elbows out to release herself from his grip and screamed, “Let go of me!”
Tearing herself away, she spun around. Blue flannel, wet jeans. It was that man from the diner, Lazarus. Palms open, stepping back with eyes down towards the ground. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. My sister thinks you could use some help.”
“It’s Sophie, my daughter, I think her father has her.” There wasn’t time to explain. Blood streamed down her knees as she started limping towards the street. “He’s dangerous.”
“Shouldn’t we wait and call the police?” Lazarus asked, coming alongside her.
Maria didn’t want to accept help from someone like him. The type of man who was used to ordering warm apple pie topped with ice cream after the weekly special. “There isn’t any time.”
“Okay, okay, let’s see what we can do.”
“I don’t need your help.” She needed to get to Sophie. She made it to the edge of the diner parking lot. Commuter cars and farmer trucks wove their red brake lights and white headlights into the night air. A drizzling rain started. The adrenaline coursing through her made it hard to focus on traffic. She kept looking straight over at Derek’s car instead.
“Here, there’s a break in traffic, get ready.” Lazarus came up from behind. His head turned left and right as he calculated the speed of traffic. “Go!”
She ran when he did. “Sophie, Sophie-girl, I’m coming!”
*****************************
Maria checked Derek’s car first. The inside was empty. She ran up the stairs, great huge bounding steps like the world would cave out from under her feet if she didn’t go fast enough. She flung the motel door all the way open, flicking the lights on.
No Sophie.
All the pink unicorn drawings that had littered the room were gone.
“Sophie? It’s Mommy, sweetie, where are you?” She checked the bathroom. The shower stall. Under the beds.
Nothing.
Sophie was gone. All traces of her vanished except for her light-up sneakers lined up to the side of the door.
Maria ran out, panic ripping her chest apart. She didn’t know where to go next. Derek’s car had been empty when she went past it earlier.
Lazarus came to the top of the stairs right as she left the motel room. He must’ve figured out Sophie wasn’t in there by the look on her face. He paused, hand on the worn staircase railing. “You want me to take upstairs or downstairs?”
“This is exactly why I never tried to leave. I can’t lose her.”
Lazarus took one more step, “Let’s focus on finding her. The way I see it, I doubt he took her anywhere up here. There’s only two exits. This staircase, and the one over there.” He used his head to nod towards a twin white staircase at the far end of the outside hall. “Let’s go downstairs. Any ideas about where they’d be?”
Maria started back down the stairs she’d just raced up, using the rail to steady her. “If Derek is happy, he might take her to the lounge with the snack machine. Or the outdoor pool in the back. If he isn’t happy, I would’ve thought they’d still be in the motel room. Maybe it’s good that they’re gone, but not in the car? There still might be time.”
Maria paused at the bottom of the stairs and looked at Derek’s silver car. She’d been so frantic on the way up, she hadn’t really examined his car. As she came around from the staircase to the front of his car, she noticed the front right tire had jumped the parking curb. Her fingers brushed the top of the hood - still warm. His parking job told her everything she needed to know. “He’s drunk.”
“Does that make him mean?” Lazarus finished the last few steps.
“Usually. Mostly towards me, not Sophie. But there’s been a few times.” She choked, “Oh God, how could I do this to her?”
“I’ll check the pool out back,” said Lazarus. “You stick to the public places like the motel lobby. He’s less likely to hurt you there.” Lazarus started walking through a hallway that had POOL written in white on a faded blue plaque. He was lanky, his head almost brushing the narrow hallway’s ceiling. Maria headed down the hallway that ran the length of the ground floor motel rooms towards the motel lobby. “Sophie! Sophie!”
*****************************
On Maria’s way down the outdoor hallway from the snack machines to the motel lobby, she walked past the laundromat. She decided to check it. When she opened the door, the stale smell of alcohol, sweat, and urine mingled with the fresh scent of detergent and dryer sheets. Derek. He was in the corner, passed out on a blue plastic chair. His feet were spread out a little too far from each other on the white floor tiles. His grey sweatpants were stained and his coat was buttoned crookedly. His head rested on his left arm while his hand stretched out over the table used for folding laundry. His fingers curled over car keys.
“Mommy!” Sophie perked up as Maria walked in. She was seated in the chair opposite him. Still in her pajamas, her ankles were crossed since her feet didn’t touch the ground. She smiled at Maria as she hugged her pink backpack. A pile of unicorn drawings were stacked neatly on the table beside her.
“Sophie,” She whispered. She walked past Derek, being careful not to wake him. She crouched down, took the backpack off Sophie’s lap, and brought her close. Maria inhaled the fruity smell of Sophie’s shampoo and buried her face in the softness of her daughter’s hair. “You okay, honey?”
“Daddy’s here.” She answered, her eyes a little puffy.
Maria smoothed Sophie’s hair on both sides of her face and checked for any bruises, cuts, or marks. None. Good. Maybe Derek had been too drunk to do anything. There was a sweet spot, after the drinking had stopped and the rage had died down, where Derek became predictably and pathetically useless. He’d stay that way until he woke up. He’d feel sorry before the cycle started all over again. Maria forced herself to look at him. She had hoped to never see his face again. He was bleeding slightly from a gash on his forehead. Maybe his car hit the curb harder than she had thought. “What happened?”
“He told me to come with him. He said I could take anything with me if I did it fast. I didn’t want to go, but he made me. I took my drawings.” Sophie’s eyes turned to the washing machines. Three had been humming when Maria came in. One of them finished the cycle and beeped. Sophie kept talking. “We made it down the stairs, then Daddy said he needed a nap.”
“Shh honey, whisper.” Maria could tell by the way Derek was breathing he wasn’t waking anytime soon, but she still wanted to be careful.
Sophie started again, quieter this time. “He wanted to sit down on the bottom step, but I took him here instead. It’s warmer.”
“You’re so smart, this is a great place for a nap.”
Sophie leaned forward, her warm breath tickling Maria’s ear, “He asked where you were. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him.”
The second washing machine chimed, finishing its cycle. Dryers tumbled, the low rumble giving voice to everything inside of Maria.
Derek snorted. He rearranged himself. His keys fell from his open palm onto the table.
Maria started picking up the piles of drawings and Sophie’s backpack. “Let’s go, honey.”
The door opened and Lazarus poked his head in. His eyes went to all the same places Maria’s had when she walked in.
“Is this your laundry?” Sophie asked him. “We can make space for you.”
Maria picked up Sophie’s backpack in one hand and the drawings in the other before scooping her up. Sophie’s bare toes dangled behind Maria’s back.
“Oh nobody is in anyone’s way.” Lazarus stayed in the doorway.
“This is Lazarus.” Maria whispered into Sophie’s ear as she walked towards the entrance.
Derek turned his head, mumbling to himself as they crept past him. Everyone stopped moving for a moment. The third washing machine started its last spin cycle. Derek’s deep breathing resumed. Sophie turned her face into Maria’s neck.
Lazarus opened the door all the way and motioned for Maria to go through.
Sophie lifted her head as Maria walked past Lazarus. “I learned a Bible story about a man named Lazarus,” she said, “He had sisters.”
“That’s right.” Lazarus nodded as he followed behind them.
“Do you have sisters?” Sophie was always talking to Maria about how fun it would be to have sisters.
“I’ve got two of them, just like the other Lazarus did.” Lazarus clicked the laundromat door shut behind them. “Well, one now. My youngest isn’t here anymore.”
“Where is she?”
“Heaven.” Lazarus gave the short answer.
“That’s where Grandma is too.” Sophie said. Maria’s heart ached at the answer.
The songs of crickets and cicadas greeted them as they stepped out of the laundry room. The rain had stopped and humidity lingered in the air.
The third washing machine finished. Its loud signal could be heard outside. There was a stirring followed by the scraping noise of chair legs from inside the laundry room. Then there was a loud thump on the floor.
Lazarus and Maria found each other’s eyes.
Derek called out. “Sophie?”
Lazarus put his right hand on the doorhandle to keep it shut then jerked his head towards the parking lot. “Maria, go find Martha. She’s bringing her car over.”
Something dragged across the tiled floor on the other side of the wall. Derek must be making his way to the door.
Maria’s body began to tremble. A shaking started in her stomach and spread to her forearms and her thighs. She gripped Sophie tighter. Derek’s muffled voice called again, slurring. “Sophie? Maria? I think I’m bleeding. Help!”
Lazarus took the doorknob in both his hands like a cowboy gripping the saddle before being let out into the rodeo arena. “Y’all need to go; I got this.”
“I can’t leave you with him.” But even as she protested, Maria was backing away to put distance between her and whatever was happening inside the laundry room.
Derek started pounding on the door. It was low, like he was still on the floor. He started sobbing. “Maria? Sophie? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Maria recognized the pattern. After the rage, there was always remorse. Rinse, repeat.
“I called the police,” said Lazarus. “They’ll be here soon, it’ll be fine.” His voice was soft, but his eyes were hard. “I’m not letting him out of here. Go on.”
Martha’s station wagon lit up the three of them with its headlights. Martha got halfway out. She shielded her eyes and took in the situation. “Y’all need a ride?”
It was hard to make her legs work, but somehow Maria left Lazarus and made her way towards Martha. Martha met her halfway. She grabbed Sophie’s backpack and drawings. “Who’s this?” She smiled as she brought them back to her car.
“This is Sophie,” Maria said as Martha opened the back door and motioned for them to get in.
The noises from the laundry room grew loud. A small crowd was forming. A man in a green polo shirt and khakis was talking to Lazarus. It was the motel manager. Maria remembered him from when she checked in.
Maria wanted to put Sophie in the car, but she couldn’t quite make her arms move. Sophie’s eyes were on the scene outside the laundry room. Martha knelt down at Sophie’s level, the turquoise necklace around her neck swaying as she did. “Sophie, I had a dog named Sophie once. She loved watermelon. Do you like watermelon?”
The question pulled Sophie out of her stare. She looked up at Martha. “I like watermelon.”
“Good, because I never trust anyone who doesn’t like watermelon. As a matter of fact,” Martha stood up and reached for her purse in the front passenger seat. Maria ducked into the car with Sophie as Martha rummaged around. Martha pulled a hard candy shaped like a watermelon. “I always carry these with me. Have you had them? They’re hard on the outside but soft when you get to the middle.” Martha leaned close, a twinkle in her eye, as she handed the candy to Sophie.
“Daddy doesn’t like watermelons.” Sophie said. It was true, Derek said they were too sticky.
“Is that so?” Martha pulled her mouth tight, but didn’t say anything else. Instead, she shut the car door. Maria looked over at the laundry room. Lazarus’s hands were still on the doorknob.
Martha sat down in the driver’s seat and started the car. “I’m going to drive us over to the other side of the parking lot. Sophie, how do you feel about tic-tac-toe? I can play a mean game.”
“I can’t draw the squares, but I know how to play it.”
Martha smiled at Sophie through the rear-view mirror.“Good. Once we’re parked, I’ll turn on the lights inside the car so we can play.”
The last time Maria’s mother visited, she’d dropped off her special chocolate chip cookies and taught Sophie tic-tac-toe. Sophie snuggled up to Maria. Maria kissed the top of her head.
As Martha drove them across the parking lot, they passed two police cars heading towards where they’d just been. Red and blue washed across Maria’s face.
One of Maria’s hands found Sophie’s. “I can help you draw the square.”
**********************************************
Fifteen minutes later, Lazarus came and knocked on Maria’s car window. Sophie was playing tic-tac-toe with Martha and barely waved goodbye when Maria stepped out.
Lazarus tilted his head, checking behind Maria to make sure the car door was closed. “Derek is in an ambulance on the way to the hospital to get checked out. You don’t have to worry about him. The police want to talk to you. They’re going to want a statement.”
They turned to start walking towards the police cars on the opposite side of the parking lot. Maria sighed. “You should’ve seen him when we first met. We were 15. He sketched my face in biology class. My dad had just left us.” She started crying, “Talking to the police while he’s in the hospital doesn’t feel right. It would be easier if he had his hands around my throat like the night before we left.”
Lazarus walked beside her, his long legs keeping step with hers. “He’s dug his own grave. You can’t be the one to raise him out of it.”
Maria crossed her arms, searching for the right words to explain. “It’s complicated, that’s all.”
Lazarus took his time responding. They passed Derek’s car up on the curb and Maria’s parked straight. Finally, he spoke. “I’m from a long line of wife-beaters. That stopped with me, but the drinking didn’t. I put Martha through a lot. Trust me, it can’t be you.”
They passed a woman with an overflowing basket of clothes heading into the now-empty laundry room. Maria looked up at clouds being pulled by an invisible current across the night sky. “My mom raised me better than this. I should’ve left him earlier, before she died.”
“You’re listening now. That means something.” Lazarus pulled out his phone from his pocket and showed her the image on the lockscreen. It was a blue butterfly resting on the hood of a truck with its wings spread out. “When my little sister was still alive, she would point out every butterfly she saw, so I take a photo whenever I see one. ”
Maria looked at the gentle man across from her, the glow from his phone highlighting the stubble on his cheeks and the bags under his eyes. “What happened to her?”
Lazarus returned the phone to his pocket. “My father didn’t think she came in fast enough when he called us inside one night. She’d found a butterfly she was trying to catch. He’s still serving time for what he did.”
They were almost to the police cars. The motel manager was talking to two police officers as they jotted down notes. Maria stopped. She bent forward and put her hands on her knees. She felt like she was going to be sick. “What if they take Sophie away? I left her alone in the room. They’ve probably already called CPS. I can’t lose her.”
“You’ve got Martha on your side. Believe me, she can lift you out of anything.”
Maria waited until the nausea passed, then straightened up. A police officer started approaching them. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Focus on your little girl.” Lazarus took a few steps back as the police officer reached them. “The rest will fall in place.”
“Hi, are you Maria?” The police officer stuck out his hand to shake Maria’s.
Maria lifted her head. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward. “Yes, that’s me. I’m Maria.”
Rachael Watson is a multi-genre writer who follows a story wherever it takes her. Her debut middle grade novel, ELIZABRIE, will be published by Bandersnatch Books in 2027. Her longlisted story was published in CrimeBits With Lee Child. Rachael holds a Diploma in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford. Her work has appeared in Calla Press, Havok Publishing, and been converted into a short film.
I loved this story. Great tension, palpable love, and all the right sorts of surprises.
So good, Rachael! I was locked in for this.