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[eloquencejones]

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[borrowyourcoat]

The highways of America (and everywhere else, for that matter) are haunted. Tales of white ladies who seek rides only as cover for the brutal revenge they seek on those who abandoned them. The "homecomers" who only want to go home to one that no longer exists.

And then, there are the hitchers. The ghosts who can live for a day in a borrowed coat, who long only for a ride, the feeling of wind in their hair, and some greasy diner food. A small taste of the life they lost on the road, longing to have seen more, done more.

Some have their own stories. Some have many, many stories, with a grain of truth hidden under layers of sleepover ghost-stories and campfire tales.

Like the Girl in the Diner. The Phantom Prom Date. The Girl in the Green Dress. Professor Laura Moorehead has written a lot about this particular urban legend, one that seems to transcend the little township of Buckley, Michigan where Professor Moorehead has traced the most likely living name for the story. Rose Marshall, who was run off the road in 1953 at the age of 16, on the night of her prom.

-

Tonight finds Rose in a diner and truck stop at the outskirts of the boroughs, a little place at that boundary where the arteries that are highways and interstates feed into the smaller veins of streets, bringing in all the things a city needs to live that it can't produce itself.

She has a jacket, but there are only a few hours left until dawn. She'll either get herself a ride, or fall into the Twilight, the spirit realm, for lack of a better descriptor. One way or another, she won't be here too long.

Now. If she could just get someone to buy her a burger.

[newtoys]

There had been reports of ghostly activity all along the highway, nothing particularly dangerous it seemed, but they'd wanted to check it out just to be on the safe side. Holtzmann had volunteered to drive out and see what was what, wanting to stretch her legs and get out of the lab (read: she'd made some new playthings and wanted to be the one who got the chance to test them out if things turned south).

It took longer to get out of here than expected, and she'd spent half the night investigating without really finding anything. She was about to head out and use the last few hours of darkness to search some more, but who could ghostbust on an empty stomach? And there was a diner right there, it was almost fate.

She'd made herself comfortable at the counter and slapped her hand down on the surface.

"Your best burger, please, good sir, and quickly!"

and now that I've seen the movie, I can try to patch some... thing together.

[borrowyourcoat]

That portal in New York had torn the Twilight and Midnight Americas right apart. The ghost roads were still in the process of rebuilding themselves out of the sediment of history that was New York City. It was still difficult for even the benign types like Rose to resist the tide-like push-and-pull that everyone from the Twilight down could still feel.

Rose sure as hell knew she wasn't dropping down this close to the city.

"Uh, hey," she said, approaching the woman at the counter. She didn't get rides from women very often, but sometimes they were more generous with food. And even the ones who might be interested didn't try to bargain with her for backseat quickies. "The guy I was riding with kinda... stole all the cash I had on me. Any chance I could talk you in to doubling that order?"

She did her best to look underfed while not coming off like a junkie. "And maybe a ride out of the city? As far as you're going is fine, you can let me off at a rest stop or... anything." Lipbite. Doe eyes.

Rose doesn't see much TV. So there's absolutely no gleam of recognition in her eyes. Just a teenage girl running away from New York instead of to it for once.

And this woman doesn't carry that ashes-and-lilies or sugary rosemary that would signify an accident. Just the fading ash and ozone that everyone coming out of the city had these days. A little stronger on her, maybe, but it did seem to vary.

Re: and now that I've seen the movie, I can try to patch some... thing together.

[newtoys]

"Hey" Holtzmann turned to face the young woman who had approached her, leaning against the counter with distinctly flirtatious bodly language "Sure I can, no problem at all. And I'm not really going...anywhere... so wherever you want to go is fine." she shrugged.

"Make it two," she told the waitress, turning back to Rose and motioning for her to take the seat. "So," she said, a mischievous twinkle in her eye "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"

[borrowyourcoat]

Funny question for someone so often just called The Girl In The Diner.

"Mostly trying to get out of town. Really not much of a city girl. I've been here for hours trying to talk someone into a ride," she says. "I even fixed this one lady's car for her- well, okay, not so much fixed as... kludged a fix to get her as far as she needed to go," she said. She still had some engine grease under her nails, visible thanks to very chipped nail polish. The grease brought the air of authenticity to what would otherwise be a Brooklyn hipster's uniform, right down to a 50's-style (possibly actual vintage) men's mechanic uniform shirt. Gary, said the name tag. "She bought me a slice of pie, but wouldn't even take me to the next rest stop."
That woman had smelled of ashes and rosemary, until the car was fixed. One death on the road averted. Rose had saved her life, and gotten what she was pretty sure was reheated frozen pie in return.

"By the way, skip the pie here. There's a place half an hour north that still makes theirs from scratch."

[newtoys]

"Well, Gary," Holtzmann leaned in, grinning slightly "I like a girl who knows how to get her hands dirty. Stick with me and we'll go places, kid."

Ok so those 'places' were just a little further along the highway, but Holtzmann was in a good mood, it would be nice to have a bit of company while she ate, and while she drove, plus there was no way the girl wouldn't have questions when she saw the car, and Holtzmann loved explaining the tech.

[borrowyourcoat]

"It's Rose," said the girl, just before a waitress set their plates down in front of them. They were real generous with the fries here, and Rose looked at her plate like she hadn't eaten in days. Which, aside from that slice of pie, she hadn't, technically.

There was near-immediate face-stuffing and an afterthought of "can you pass me the ketchup and stuff?" which she hoped didn't seem weird when the condiments were in easy reach. She found that immediately making use of her hands made these things go over easier. If she'd simply grabbed them herself, they would taste of nothing but ashes for her. It was one of those pesky being-dead catches. Anything she took had to be freely given by the living. She was a hitchhiking ghost and not a stowaway or car-hijacking ghost for a reason.

Oh, sweet Persephone, these fries were good.

[newtoys]

"Sure thing Rosie," Holtzmann didn't seem particularly bothered by passing over the condiments when the girl could probably have reached them easily herself, though the fact that she accompanied the move with a flirtatious wink might explain her easy-going attitude.

She dug into her own food with enthusiasm, making little noises of appreciation as she chewed. It was a few minutes before she spoke again, swallowing down her latest mouthful and glancing sideways at her companion.

"So, Rose, what do you do?"