New Mexico

15 years earlier...
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"There was an evil in the air".
--
The sign flickered in neon pink letters: "vacant." We stepped in off the dusted sidewalk during the middle of their conversation. A light pink, but still nervous glow streamed in through the window. The green carpet had lazy stains every 5 or so feet. After standing on the train all day, I could feel the cramped muscles in my feet tightening and releasing. Pa stepped in first, and immediately removed his hat so that the yellow light of the dim lit lobby reflected of the top of his bald head. He desperately tried to appear as sober-faced and calm as possible.

"Troy, I don't like this," Ma hissed.
"Hush now" he shot back in a whispered tone. We stood back so as not to interrupt their conversation.
"One minute, Doctor," the white woman said to the other black man already waiting patiently at the desk. Ma's ears perked up when she heard the word "doctor." We didn't know any black doctors back in Pittsburgh.
The white woman disappeared behind a creaky, orange-stained door from where we all heard a muffled: "They'd know we let him stay here."
The white woman reappeared, this time with another white man also in his mid fifties. The creases on her forehead deepened as her eyebrows lifted uncomfortably, eyes widening. I could tell she felt sorry for us.
"We're from Illinois," they said. But so what they were from Illinois. They were exactly like the rest of them. Like all 7 of them with their neon signs nervously flickering as if to say "we have space... m-m-most of the time."
The four of us, Ma, Pa, the other man, and me, stepped back out, down the steps into the cool and evil night air.
"I'm Robert," the other man said.

And soon we were off again, this time cruising down the black, straight roads in Robert's car. Me and Ma in the back, a cigarette dangling from her dainty fingers out the window. It glowed lazily under the Big Dipper. Luckily Robert was no longer alone. He had us now. But like the dark and helpless cacti we passed, I still felt more alone than ever. And soon, we disappeared behind our own creaky door. The only difference was, ours was much, much darker.