Who: Jane and Alex When: Monday, September 25th, Mid Morning Where: Joyland Coffee Status: Complete
Jane had been keeping a somewhat low profile since Naomi and Nicole both went ‘missing’ a couple weeks back. She hadn’t bothered Neil, nor had she sought out any of the other AIR subjects that she knew to be residing in Point Pleasant. It was smart to keep her head down until things settled. She couldn’t resist venturing out into the fog, however. It was thick and ominous, settling over the town like a suffocating blanket. People in the inn talked about it quite a bit during meal times when they would all pile into the dining room. It seemed to be a rather irritating inconvenience for most. Jane didn’t really understand the annoyance. The fog was the perfect cover for whatever mischief someone would want to get into. She could probably get into a car and deliberately hit someone trying to cross the road and easily pass it off as an ‘accident’. It would be amusing, to say the least.
Today she took off on foot to get some coffee. It was difficult to see, yes, but Jane had been walking around Point Pleasant for a while now and she knew the area fairly well. Besides, it wasn’t like she was blind. She could see far enough ahead of her not to run into anyone, or anything. When she made it to Joyland, Jane walked inside, not at all surprised to find the coffee shop wasn’t terribly busy. She headed directly for the counter, although since there was no one in line behind her, she didn’t mind taking her time in figuring out what she wanted. Her gaze ticked briefly to the barista, who was familiar to her although he wouldn’t understand why or how. Or maybe he would, if he knew enough like she did. “Quiet day,” Jane said in lieu of a proper greeting. “Enjoying the silence?”
Alex’s morning had so far been a quiet but productive one. He had finally managed to organise somebody to come that afternoon after work to fix the broken windshield on his car. It had been easy to assume it was a vandal, especially since so many other cars at the apartments had suffered the same fate at the same time but when he had heard about it happening the exact same way elsewhere… How could you even explain that? He’d decided to chalk it up to just one more weird thing in this weird town but it left him feeling uncomfortable not to have a reasonable explanation.
The fog had kept Joyland quiet and now that the morning “rush” was over (if you could really call it that on a day everybody seemed to want to stay safely indoors) he was the only one in the store. People had drifted in and out but it was quiet enough that he looked up a little quicker than usual when the bell above the door jingled, eager for something to do. He had seen the girl who walked in before. He’d even served her once or twice but usually there were enough other customers that he’d never had time to stop and chat. She had seemed nice enough though, a little cheeky and friendly.
“Hmm, nah, I’m not a Depeche Mode kind of guy,” Alex replied with a teasing smile. He opened the menu on the register and hovered his finger over the screen. “But I did like the Lacuna Coil cover. What can I get you?”
Jane chuckled softly and reached into her bag to pull out her wallet. "Well, in terms of the song, I'd say Tori Amos has the best cover, but I haven't heard Lacuna Coil's take on it, so maybe I'm missing out. Can I get just a medium coffee with cream and sugar? Unless you want me to order something more complicated to keep you busy for a few minutes." Jane was sure there was plenty for him to do, but she wasn't terribly concerned about that. With no one else waiting behind her, Jane figured this was a prime opportunity to get to know Alex a little better.
“It's only Monday, you don't want to give me too many tricky things yet,” Alex responded as he rang up the order and took the payment. “How will I impress you by Friday?”
He was quiet for the next couple of minutes as he fetched her order. He worked quickly with the efficiency of somebody who knew what they were doing without needing to think about it too hard. He had only been at Joyland for a few months but he'd made enough coffees working through college. He'd needed to; his scholarships hadn't covered everything and any money his family had put aside for his education only went so far.
The store was still empty as Alex set the large takeaway cup in front of her. He winked as he did it, fully aware she'd only bought a medium. It was quiet, she was nice, why the hell not? “You know, I haven't heard the Amos version yet. You'll have to come back next time to hear my verdict.”
Jane rested her hip against the counter, watching Alex as he made her fairly simple order. Her lips quirked as he set the large cup in front of her and Jane picked it up, enjoying the heat as it seeped into her palm. "I'll give Lacuna Coil a listen too. We can compare notes," she said before taking a tentative sip. It burned her tongue a bit, which was just delightful. Jane wasn't quite ready to go yet. The fog was a pain in the ass and she figured it was beneficial to her to stay. "So what do you do when you're not stuck behind that counter? I'm not sure I've seen you anywhere else in town but here."
Even though Alex had his usual list of chores to complete on his shift, he was in no rush to get started on them. With the store so quiet thanks to the terrible weather, they'd take no time at all and he'd be left with nothing to do but wait for the fog to clear. “I guess it depends where you've been looking,” he answered. Though, truthfully, she wasn't too wrong about that. There was also the library but he hadn't been back since that weird incident with the librarian. “Sometimes I get a drink at Books and Beer after work.”
"Books and Beer," Jane repeated with a thoughtful look. "I've only been there twice since coming back home. Whenever I want a book I hit the library, and then stop into the Back Porch Pub for the beer. I hope you're not drinking alone." Jane smiled a bit and sipped her coffee. She wasn't outright flirting, but it never hurt to test the waters a bit. Sometimes guys were a bit easier to 'get to know' when there was flirtation involved. If that didn't work, she fell back on dreamwalking just to get the answers she really wanted.
“Are you ever drinking alone with a bartender?” Alex asked, the corners of his mouth twitching at the hint of a smile. It had been a long time since he'd flirted with anyone and it felt nice to have a little attention again. “I use the library too. Mostly for local history, stuff like that…” He trailed off for a moment as he considered if he wanted to share any of that. ”So ‘back home’? Where were you before?”
"I guess technically you're not drinking alone with a bartender, but it's a bit depressing to realize he or she is being paid to be there and talk to you," Jane pointed out with a grin. "I think I would rather drink alone in that case." She wondered if he had the pleasure of running into Neil. Jane was guessing he had, because it wasn't like the library had a ton of employees. She decided to hold off on that question, sipping her coffee again before answering his. "Virginia. I grew up here, but my parents moved when I was about fourteen. I've been back for a few weeks, just to visit. This place really hadn't changed much. Are you a native?"
“Not really,” Alex answered with a shrug. “My family were but I'm from Portland. I moved here so I could do some research on the local history here, my family, that kind of thing.” He considered how much detail was safe to go into and realised that her next question would probably be why. Previous times that question had come up, he'd stumbled over an answer that changed to what he could think of at the time. Lately, he'd finally found a solid go-to one that always seemed to explain without further questions he couldn't answer. “I'm working on a book. What about you, are you visiting family or maybe a long lost love?”
Local history. That would take him an awfully long time to research. But he wasn't talking about Point Pleasant's general history, was he? Jane listened intently, sipping her coffee before she smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no. No long lost loves for me. I have some extended family in town... no one I'm terribly close to. I guess I have my own history here and it felt like the right time to come back." She had left when she was fourteen and a lot of people didn't recognize her now, being a grown woman. Some remembered her name, however. It was hard not to considering she was one of the few children to go missing and actually return alive. "So your book... fiction or non-fiction? This place has so many bizarre stories..."
“Uh, non-fiction,” Alex finally answered after a moment’s pause. He had never been really much of a reader and for a second, he had to think about which was which. She was right about the endless bizarre stories available and it was easy to get caught up chasing what he thought was a lead only to find it was some unconnected coincidence. It had happened a couple of times which he guessed was to be expected in a place like this. “I really wanted to focus on my family’s history but you’re right. This place is crazy. Do you know how many people go missing each year? It’s impossible to track down any one specific case.”
Jane arched a brow curiously, but sipped more of her coffee, her gaze on Alex. He was a decent liar. Not the best, but she wondered how many people actually questioned him on his book. "I know," she said with a small, sympathetic nod. "It's quite unusual, the statistics, and yet, they seem so normal to the people who have lived here all their lives. But, you know, sometimes the missing show up again, and sometimes they're actually alive. Maybe you just need the right connection to track them down and get some answers." Whether those answers were truthful or not was not of Jane's concern.
The town had a way of making the weird seem so normal that even Alex, who hadn't lived there long, didn't even question some things he'd seen. His smashed car windows had been frustrating and he doubted the official story of vandals but what could you do? Nobody wanted to talk about it. He considered that for a moment then nodded, understanding what Jane was saying all too well. “The problem is finding the right people to talk to though. If they're inclined to kidnap children, you can't exactly waltz up to the front desk and ask to speak to the evil guys behind it all.” Alex gave a slight smile at the thought of it. “It'd be easier if you could.”
Jane chuckled softly and nodded. "Yes, I supposed it would be easier, wouldn't it. But maybe instead of talking to the evil guys behind it all--" Interesting that choice of phrase. Evil guys. Plural. It had her wondering what he actually knew. Or what Alex thought he knew. "-- you should try and talk to someone who might have gone through it. Have you been able to track any of them down? People who had disappeared in their youth and made it back alive? Their insight might prove to be more valuable... and maybe more forthcoming and truthful."
The problem with Jane's suggestion was that there were too many disappearances per year that even if he could find somebody who survived a kidnapping, chances were that they weren't connected to that AIR place. He immediately thought of that squirrely guy at the library who knew more than he was willing to admit. Alex considered his answer carefully, not wanting to reveal too much and yet wanting to share the whole story with somebody. “I could, I guess, but I'm looking for a specific case, not just any old kidnapping. It's kind of a needle in a haystack to get any info about it. It's like the newspaper just stopped reporting them, maybe there were too many. I don't know.”
Jane wasn't entirely sure how much information Alex was willing to give her. She visited Joyland often, sure, but she was still a stranger to him. This was the most they had spoken since Jane began buying coffee from him, and that was only because the place was deserted but for the two of them. "Can I ask what kidnapping you're looking into? If it's not too personal." It probably was. It was always personal. "Maybe I've heard about it." Jane had been gone from this place for years, but that didn't mean anything. Knowing what she knew, Jane was probably more in tune with Point Pleasant than the lifers were.
“It’s okay, it was a long time ago,” Alex said. He considered how much he should tell, especially now that he was aware of just who was behind his mother’s kidnapping. A huge corporation was much different to somebody looking to do horrible things or doing it for a ransom. He briefly thought of the guy at the library and suddenly understood his reaction. He'd have to go see him again… “My mother went missing for a few years when she was a kid,” he said as he considered his words carefully. ”She was returned but there's not a lot of information about it.”
Jane sipped more of her coffee, wishing it was still hot enough to burn her tongue a bit. She arched her brow in the expected surprise and interest, but his story was not an uncommon one. She was sure Alex knew that. "It's a familiar story," Jane said after a moment. "Kids disappearing around here. Some come back, some don't. Those who come back never seem to know where they had been or what they had gone through. That, or they don't want to tell anyone the truth. Your mother couldn't remember?"
Alex shrugged. “Not really. Sometimes a little, a flash here and there but what I know, I pieced together myself.” He paused, unsure of where to go from there. There was only so much he could talk about without sounding crazy. Point Pleasant was weird and the residents seemed to accept a minimal amount of weirdness as normal but a dreamwalker? Probably not. He straightened up a little and forced a small smile. “How's the coffee?”
Jane wondered if that was the truth, or if Alex's mother lied to him about her past. There were some things Jane couldn't remember from her time with AIR, but they never wiped her memory. Then again, they couldn't. The fire happened. "The coffee is great," Jane told him with a small smile. "And thanks for humoring me. And hey, if you need any help tracking down information about your mom, let me know. I'm a pretty decent sleuth. Jane Randolph. I'm staying at the Juniper." Jane pushed away from the counter, thinking it was maybe time to go. He knew her name now. If he wanted to figure shit out, he would.
“I'll definitely have to practice my sleuthing and track you down. I'm Alex, by the way. Alex Woodard,” Alex said as he mentally filed away her details for later use. Even if he never needed her assistance to find information, it couldn't hurt to have a friend. That was something which he was sorely lacking in Point Pleasant.
He was about to let her walk away and get on with her day when one last question popped into his mind. “Hey, uh… Did you ever know anyone? Who came back, I mean. It's such a common thing so…” He shrugged. He wasn't sure himself where he was going with this. “I'm just wondering what they were like when they got back. Were they… different?”
She knew who he was, but Jane nodded anyway, a small smile playing at her lips. "It's nice to officially meet you, Alex." Jane started to move away when Alex spoke again, and maybe a little part of her knew the question was coming. Jane turned back toward him, but didn't approach the counter again. She considered his question before nodding. "I did. They were different, yes. They were young, but grown up in a way they shouldn't have been for their age. They harbored a lot of secrets that they couldn't tell anyone. People had a lot of unanswered questions, but... I think maybe they were just asking the wrong ones."
“That's not really…” Alex stopped. As much as he wanted to press for more details, the cafe wasn't the place to do it. He had her name, he knew where the Juniper was, it wasn't urgent. He could wait. He forced a small smile and nodded. ”Nevermind. Thanks. It was nice to meet you properly, Jane.”
Jane knew what he wanted to hear, but no, this wasn't the place for it. And... well, like she said, sometimes people didn't ask the right questions. She lifted her coffee in a subtle salute. "It was nice to meet you too, Alex. I'm sure we'll talk again." Jane smiled and turned away to head for the door. It was really up to him how curious he was, and if he truly wanted answers. Jane supposed she would find out eventually.