Sybil awoke to streams of light through the dusty windows. She rose and wiped away the dust from the panes to see if anyone else was around but found it deserted outside. While standing at the window sill, Sybil noticed there were no sounds coming from outside; no birds, no cars...nothing.

     Moving to the door, she listened for any sounds coming from the house, again only silence.

     Determined to find out exactly what was going on, she dressed, repacked her bag and left the room. As she walked down the hallway, Sybil was startled by what looked like the shadows of manikins on the livingroom wall.

     When she turned the corner, she found Patricia and Adam the source of the shadows. Upon closer examination Sybil saw they were wearing exactly the same clothes as the night before.

“There she is!” Adam said, joyfully. “Did you sleep well, Miss. Perth?”

“Sybil, just call me Sybil. And yes, I did. I really must have been overly tired. I really must thank the two of you again for your kind hospitality.”

“Don’t mention it! Would you like to join us for breakfast?” Adam asked, with Patricia maintaining her silence.

“Thank you, no. I’m going to hit the road, had I kept going last night I’d have been in Reno by now,” said Sybil, edging toward the front door.

     Adam and Patricia shared a look as they watched Sybil easing her way to the door.

“Are you sure, dear? It’s no trouble at all,” said Patricia, finally speaking up.

“No, you have been too kind. I have to go.”

     Without a backward glance, Sybil escaped the living room and hurried to the car. She tossed her bag in the back seat and was relieved when she turned the key in the ignition and the car started right up. She backed out of the driveway onto the street and took off in the opposite direction she had parked, looking for any street signs.

     She fumbled for her mobile phone and saw that there was no signal from any cell tower and the on-screen clock still showed all zeroes. With no signal she wouldn’t be able to rely on her Global Positioning app to lead her back to the highway.

     Speeding through the town Sybil noticed no one on the streets, no other cars and nothing that looked like any kind of business. After driving for about fifteen minutes near the outskirts of town, she saw what appeared to be a service station ahead. Upon reaching the driveway Sybil abruptly pulled in and stopped at the pump. After waiting for a few moments, she beeped the horn several times.

     Concerned, she got out of the car and went to the service station door, but suddenly stopped before she went inside.

     Sybil looked through the window and saw two manikins, both dressed in overalls. One was positioned at a cash register sitting on the counter and the other in the open doorway leading into the garage portion of the building.

     Bursting through the door when she looked to where the first manikin should have been, instead Sybil saw a man in his late forties or early fifties. It was then a younger  man between twenty-five or thirty walked in from the garage.

“Sorry there, ma’am. Didn’t hear you drive up. What can I do for you? Fill ‘er up?” the younger of the two asked.

     Sybil was shocked, unable to rationalize what had just happened.

“Ma’am, are you all right?” the younger one said, touching her elbow.

     Sybil pulled away, frightened. She simply couldn’t reach any rational conclusion reconciling what she saw through the window and what was clearly before her eyes.

     Struggling to pull herself together Sybil asked, “What’s going on here? When I looked in through the windows, neither of you were here.”

“I beg your pardon, Miss. And I apologize for not having washed the windows around here for a while, but as you can plainly see, we’re both here,” the older one said, coming from around the counter.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on around here, but something’s not right and as far as I’m concerned, you’re both part of it,” she said, backing away from both men.

     The younger of the two looked at the other man for a moment and then said, “She doesn’t deserve to be treated like some kind of mental patient. She really deserves to know the truth, perhaps she won’t have to go through what we’ve been subjected to all these years.”

“Shut up, are you trying to get us in trouble?” the older one said.

“Trouble? What kind of trouble,” Sybil said before she could think.

     The two men looked at each other, finally the older one shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

“You’re probably not going to believe this ma’am, but what you saw was real,” said the younger man. “My name’s Earl,” he said, carefully holding out his hand to Sybil. “It’s okay, I don’t bite,” he said with a wry chuckle.

     Sybil took the proffered hand and shook, then pulled back.

“You see, no one in our little subdivision here has any corporeal existence until absolutely necessary,” he began.

“Are you sure about this, Earl? You know what can happen,” the older man warned.

“Don’t mind him, that’s Tom and this is...well it’s supposed to be his place,” said Earl.

“Supposed to, what does that mean?” she asked.

“Come over here. Pick up one of these cans of oil. Come on, pick any one,” said Earl.

     When Sybil chose a can at random and picked it up it was empty. She chose another, and another; they were all empty!

“What is this? Some kind of joke?” Sybil asked.

     Bewildered, Sybil took a closer look at the soda machine and saw that the front panel showing the bottles inside was nothing more than a poster! It was the same with the candy machine. Her voice taking on a near hysterical edge Sybil asked, “What’s going on here? Where is this place? Is this all some sort of a sick joke?”

“See, I told you nothing good would come from this,” said Tom, wagging his finger in Earl’s direction.

**** 

To be continued....     Go to Part 2    Go to Part 4

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