What the Outlaw Craves by Samantha Leal Page A

couldn’t believe it had all happened…the whole thing was so crazy. And the more she thought about it the more bizarre and crazily coincidental it seemed that the giant dog, or whatever it was, had appeared at just that moment. Maybe it had been a wolf she mused.
    Whatever , she thought, as she moved on to wondering what her rescuer had done with the men he had found assaulting her.
    After she showered, she got dressed and went down to the reception area of the hotel. She found that the water had helped wash away some of the less than positive aspects of the previous night’s events. She also felt mildly renewed by the rest as well as she surveyed the comings and goings in the lobby. Considering how dead the town had been at three AM, it was pretty busy down there now. A lot of people seemed to be there on vacation, just like she had been when she was younger. But Laurie and her family had never stayed in a hotel there. They had always rented a lovely little log cabin just outside of a camping park near one of the lakes. She wandered into the restaurant and was shown to a table by the hostess. As she sat down she wondered if the cabin would still be there. It was a shame she wasn’t going to stick around to find out. After last night she just wanted “out of Dodge”, as they say.
    “What can I get you?” the waitress bounced over with a big cheery smile.
    “Coffee please,” Laurie replied, “The biggest one you’ve got.”
    She looked up at the TV they had on in the corner. The channel was turned to the news and some small town reporter appeared to be droning on about some equally small town story. She couldn’t hear what was being said because the sound was off, which she figured absently was just as well. She was just about to look away when the camera panned to a pre-recorded video featuring a familiar truck. It was the same black truck with mud sprayed all up the side from the night before. The one that belonged to the men that had attacked her. Laurie’s heart thumped in her chest. Her eyes were wide as she stood up and walked closer to the television. All along the bottom ran the tag line that went with the news story;
    Local men found under suspicious circumstances .
    Laurie asked the waitress to turn up the volume so she could listen to the report, while at the same time photographs appeared on the screen of the two men. She winced and her blood ran cold as she instantly recognized them.
    “ … in the early hours of this morning discovered unconscious in the middle of  Main Street,” the reporter was saying as the sound came up, “Both men are refusing to cooperate with police questioning and are being held on bail. Police ask for anyone with any information to please come forward …”
    The reporter turned to the side and a new camera angle, as he shifted gears to another story having to do with some local sports rivalry or other.
    Laurie was stunned. Seeing it on the news brought the reality of the night before rushing back into her mind. She turned on her heel and went back to her table. When she sat down she put her head in her hands. She had to get out of there. Even though she felt safer knowing that those men were behind bars, the place felt forever tarnished for her. She felt dejected at the loss of the purity of one of her happiest childhood memories. Now whenever she thought of that summer it would be clouded with what had just happened the night before. The waitress came to the table and poured her a large mug of coffee.
    As she drank it she looked out of the window and saw again for the first time in years what the town looked like when it was alive. It was exactly how she remembered it and she wished she could just erase everything from the night before. She knew she had to leave, but she also had a nagging at the back of her mind that she had to find the stranger and at least say thank you properly now that her mind was a little clearer. She was vaguely aware of a tiny silver lining