Chapter 32: Benjamin, Part 1

(You can find Benjamin in the Amaranthine saga. This particular story takes place in a small New Hampshire town in 1972.)

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The Rookwood Inn was a roadside motel. The town around it had once been vibrant, but now looked forward to its demise. Somehow, the occupants hadn't caught on yet. Even with its slowly dying amusement park, restaurants closing one after another, and the closure of the swim park, they still thought they had a corner on the tourist market. Even Benjamin seemed to think so.

The motel office was newly retiled, though no one had bothered to repaint. Behind the counter stood a doorway, closed off by a tatty blanket that served as a curtain. The smell of whisky and stale cigar smoke oozed out around the edges and left the office ceiling stained a permanent brown.