The town sat empty despite the noon sun. All the stores were tidy, well kept, and freshly painted. Just Shuttered.
“Turn right at the intersection,” the computerized voice instructed.
Two men emerged, pushing their car around a corner, huffing and puffing in the heat.
They paused for a rest, sitting in the car, and drinking water. They bellowed their T shirts, and fanned their sandalled feet under their cargo pants.
One of them inhaled to speak, but the other raised his hand. “Enough, already. I won’t hear it. It’s like you’re trying to shoehorn in a plot point. Give it a rest.”
The stymied speaker frowned. “I wasn’t going to complain. Well, not about that. This town is eerie. There is no one here. I think whatever you saw on your app was wrong. Or out of date. Or the government is about to blow up a bomb, Indiana Jones style, and we’ve got to get into a fridge, ASAP.”
“Not sharing a fridge with you. Rather be flash boiled.”
Rest concluded, they got out and began to push the car again. A few more turns, and they were able to park the car in the large driveway of the repair shop.
One of the travellers knocked on the door, while the other called the number in the app. He frowned, as he pulled the phone from his head. “Strange, it says to call back during regular business hours, or leave a message. But when you look at the app, it says it’s opened seven to five.”
The other shrugged, as he came from the shuttered front door. “Told you, they’ve all fled. We’re about to be eaten by Zombies.”
“Wait – the app says – it’s open from seven pm to five am?” He raised his face, looking confused. “That can’t be right.”
“How far is the next garage?”
He swiped on the app a few times, until his shoulder sank. “Far,” he said,showing the screen to his friend.
“But isn’t it shorter in kilometers?”
It was met with a face palm. “I think we’ve done enough pushing for one day. Let’s wait until seven, and see what happens.”
They both climbed into the car, rooting around in the back seat, looking through their food.
They were awoken by gentle tapping on the window. “I’m very sorry,” the man outside their window said. “But I have a customer who needs to drive into the garage, and your car is blocking the way.”
Awoken from deep sleep, they took a moment to get their bearings. Night had fallen on the street, which was now bustling with activity. Dense traffic plied the road, and pedestrians thronged.
“We’re customers, too,” one of the sleepers blurted out. “Our car stopped and we had to push it here.”
“Terribly sorry,” the man out the window said, his English having no trace of a native accent. “I’ll get someone to help push it in, please put it into neutral, Sir.” He hopped to the door, and stuck his head inside. “Vihaan! Come out here, a customer needs help!”
“We can push it -” one of the tourists noted, but stopped when the worker waved his hand. “Nonsense, customer service is what this town is best known for!”
The two workers lined up, and pushed the car while the driver steered. After it was situated in the bay, they were led into the waiting room, while the car was lifted up on hydraulics.
“The internet said you guys are opened at night only. I thought it was a typo, but I guess I was wrong.” He chuckled nervously.
The worker smiled. “Very sorry for the confusion. This whole town only opens at night. You see -”
Vihaan shouted from the bay, and the worker excused himself, and left the waiting room.
The sounds of the traffic on the nearby street suffused into the room. “This is a vampire town, isn’t it?” His eyes began to grow wide, as he looked at the two exits of the room, and situated himself so he could watch both at the same time. “Like, a From Dusk Till Dawn situation? We are two fresh and pudgy humans who just wandered into a town of vampires, and we’ve just handed over our only way out.” He began to breathe faster.
The other tourist sighed. “That car wasn’t taking us anywhere anyway.” He shrugged. “Well, if it is full of vampires, maybe some sexy ones will try to seduce us before they drain us of our blood. That’ll be a better way to die than honestly I thought I was going to.”
The worker reappeared. “Vihaan is working on your car right now, we should have an estimate for you in a few minutes. Please excuse me, I have another customer I must attend to. But please, while you wait, enjoy some laddu my wife has made for customers!” He pointed to a table with a cake display with donut looking balls in cupcake papers arranged on it, before leaving.
One of them licked his lips, and walked over to the display, only to be blocked by the other.
“What – what if it’s not vampires? But we’ve crossed over into a fairy realm. You know you can’t eat fairy food! You’ll be trapped here forever!”
His friend faked going one way around his obstruction, only to weave the other way, snatching a laddu, to his friend’s horror. “Oh no!” He cried in mock panic, before taking a bite of the confection. “I’m forever trapped in a place that prides itself on customer service.” He chewed with an open mouth, and talked with his mouth full. “Whatever shall I do?”
His friend narrowed his eyes. “What if you have to Do the customer service? FOREVER?”
He paused, mid-chew, and looked aghast at the sweet he had cradled in his hand.
Suddenly, Vihaan stepped in, wiping oily hands on a rag, before putting it in his back pocket.
The masticated bite of laddu was swallowed hard, as they both turned to Vihaan.
Vihaan went over the malfunction of their car, reassuring them that they had all the necessary parts in stock, and it should be ready in a few hours. He laid out a price for them.
Half eaten laddu still in hand, the tourist breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad I didn’t have to haggle. You have no clue how bad I am at that.”
VIhaan smiled, and then passed them a business card. “Go to my brother-in-law’s cafe while you wait. I’ll call him, you’ll get a discount.”
“Oh no!” He cried in mock panic, before taking a bite of the confection. “I’m forever trapped in a place that prides itself on customer service.”
They walked the bustling streets, bellies full with a generous and delicious breakfast, even if they could not have recognized half the items without the assistance of a menu.
“The way you tore into that, I was worried you’d turn into a pig. You know, like from Spirited Away.”
The other shook his head. “Nope. There was a menu. With prices on it. In Rupees, not equivocating fairy nonsense. If they tell you the price you have to pay up front, they can’t extract a steep price later.”
“Those were yokai in Spirited Away, not fairies.”
He scoffed. “Same phenomenon, different languages.”
As they aimlessly followed the streets, they were led by the push of pedestrians towards the center of town. They could even see it from blocks away: A campus of sleek looking modern buildings.
“Do you think that’s where the town holds their awful secret? Why they have to be awake only at night?”
The other shrugged. “Like some kind of weird government experiment?”
A nod in response.
“I’m honestly more concerned about why the houses don’t seem to have windows. I mean really tiny ones up in the top, but you can’t see through those.” He turned to his friend, making a scary face. “Like they have something frightening that they don’t want outsiders to know about!”
Not paying adequate attention to where they were going, they nearly trampled a young girl and her little brother, both in school uniforms.
The men squealed a little in surprise, but the girl looks over her brother, and then turns to the men. “I’m so very sorry for being in your way, Sirs.” She then turns to the little boy, who seems perpetually about to fall over due to the weight of his backpack, who has been overcome by a sudden bout of shyness. “What do we say, Manpreet?” The girls coaxes.
“Is there anything else we can do to help you, Sirs?”
“Very good, Manpreet. Your teacher will be very proud of you.”
“Actually …” one of the men started, as the children moved to walk away. “What are those buildings over there?”
“Oh, that is The Call Center. The entire town is based around them. We provide customer service and technical support to the United States and Canada.” She beamed with pride. “It is eleven am in New York City right now!”
“And, uh, why do your houses have no windows?”
She laughed. “So the Sun does not wake us while we sleep!”
She and her brother disappeared into the throg, leaving the two travellers alone in a river of pedestrians flowing around them.
“Kind of anticlimactic, huh?”
The other raised an eyebrow. “So you WANTED it to be vampires?”
He shrugged. “Would have been a cool post on social.”
“Ahhh!” the first pantomimed himself in a panic, before holding up an imaginary phone. “Can you picture the vamps briefly posing for the pic, and the upload, before they tear us to shreds?”
“Would they even be visible in the picture?”
His friend groaned. “Don’t even start!”
They began to head back to the waiting garage.
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