”Oh hi, you must be Skip? How can I help you?” I greeted the man I recognized from Sam’s description. ”I’m sorry but you are about a month late because Sam did pass away. But he did tell me that you might stop by at some point and he really waited to see you so it’s a shame that he missed the day.”

“Well, no one didn’t know to expect his passing so we were all in shock when it happened as he was like a father to many of us and he was ready to help if you just showed some respect to him and were ready to listen and take in his lessons,” I told the man as he was leaning on the front desk and looking around our grim living space.

“Did he told you about the key?” Skip asked as he turned his gaze back to me. “He mentioned it in a couple of our latest chats but he wasn’t too keen on talking about himself or his past so I don’t know a lot about it,” I replied honestly as I was sweeping the counter just to keep my hands busy as I was kind of intimidated by the man standing on the other side of the counter.

“And he also told me where it is in the case of something happened to him before you were able to come to meet him,” I told him whilst trying to keep my cool under Skip’s pressing stare.

Skip didn’t say anything but he kept staring me so badly that I just wawed him to follow me and started to make my way towards the basement where was the apartment for the Innkeeper although no one had lived there after Sam. I had to pause for a second before I pushed the door open as everything in the apartment was on its way a reminder of him although there wasn’t much furniture etc.

When we were standing at the apartment I swat that Skip was taking a quick look around the place that looked as grim and unloved as the whole town which wasn’t too hard to see but no one had any interest to do anything about anything even there would have been resources and money to fix places.

I walked to a small back room that was big enough for a bed and I lifted it and move it so that I was able to see the floorboards underneath to see what I was looking for even it wasn’t a hard task at all as the right board looked like crap and it just screamed a secret compartment. I kneeled down next to it and lifted the board out so that I was able to stick my hand under neat the floor and feel the box that I had been told to look for if this day would come.

After a couple of sweeps I finally felt it and after reposessing myself I got a grab of the box and pulled it out. It was covered in dirt and dust so I swept most of them off from the lid before I opened the box so that I was able to find a smaller wooden box that I was supposed to give to Skip who was staring me with a kill look during this whole process.

After I found the second box on the base I tooked it out and handed it to Skip before closing the first box and putting it back to where it belonged as I didn’t wanted to go through of it whilst the man was staring to me even there wasn’t no way of him ratting me out to Sam anymore. And Sam had told me that the box didn’t store anything important, but just some memories that he wanted to keep near him from the last fifteen years that he spent on the road and didn’t wanted to keep them in the deposit box that he had mentioned owning once in some drunken conversation that we had few months after I had originally arrived to Slugsley.

Skip had opened the smaller box whilst I had putted the first one back to where it was hidden and he was staring at the content with a look that was hard to read. “Everything okay?” I asked whilst getting up again and starting to lowering the bed back to it’s place. “Yeah. It’s just that now it starts to really feal true that Sam is gone and I won’t see him anymore. I mean we weren’t the best buddies but he somehow seemed to get more and more wiser on the road compared to what an ass he was when I met him.” Skip said before turning around and walking to the next room and I followed him few steps behind.

“So you knew him during all the time he spent on the road and in here?” I asked and satted across Skip who had collapsed on the couch. “Yeah. Well actually I knew him even before he started his life on the road. I think that I’m the only one who knew that he was even alive anymore as he did cut all the ties to his life when he dropped off grid.” “Wow, I did not know that. But I guess that there is a lot of things that I or any one doesn’t know a lot about him as he didn’t spoke a lot of himself. Well no-one is speaking about themselves here so it’s no real surprise that no one knows no one.” “In that case he didn’t changed at all as he didn’t talk a lot about anything that was going on in his life even when he was waisted as heck and it happened a lot especially in the last couple of years before he decided that it was best for everyone if he would just be gone and not anyone’s trouble.” “Could you tell me something about him?” I asked even I wasn’t sure if Skip wanted to tell me anything of the man who I had know these past couple of years.

“Well I guess that it’s not gonna harm anyone anymore if I tell something now as he as passed and he can’t beat me because I told this to you.” Skip said and corrected his position. He was silent for a bit before he spoke again. “We met the first time in high school and we weren’t the best mates but we came along and hanged out every now and again and gotted into some troubles with our parents and couple of time even with the law. It wasn’t anythign bad but just the usual what kids that age got in their heads to do.”

“It sounds like you did fall apart at some point?” I asked even with the knowledge that the question might kill the story that Skip was starting to tell me. “Yeah. After we graduated he did went to building a career working here and there and I kept studying and we didn’t really see each other for a few years before we bumbed into each other by accident in one new year eve party where one of our old mate from school invited bunch of us and I happened to be visiting my parents during that time so I decided to went to the party and meet everyone again as I really hadn’t met anyone in years as we spreaded all over the country.” “We were all pleasantly surprised to see each other as we really didn’t have any clue that who were at the party as the invitations had been bit quick for all of us. But when we got over the exitement of seeing each other again we were able to ask what everyone had been doing and how the life had treated us. In that time there was already some signs of him losing the grip of his life but I didn’t knew at that point that the downhill would be so steep and fast as it ended up being and that everything would go wrong as fast as it ended up going in the end.”

I wanted to say or ask something from the man but for some reason it felt the wrong thing to do so I just knotted and waited for him to continue his story. After a while of silence Skip just rose up and walked outside of the small apartment and straight to the front desk.

I followed him few steps behind and made sure that the door was locked even there was no need anymore but it had became more than a habit for me to stop now. When I met with him again he was watching outside the sad sight that was Slugsley and he looked like he was lost in his toughts so I just picked up my rag again and started to sweep the front desk again as I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.

“If they want to know about his life, can I tell them how to get here?” Skip suddenly turned around. “Umm… Yeah? I mean I’m not sure if they will get any great answers here but if they feel like it’s what they need it’s their decicion and I’ll be here.” I replied and rolled the rag to a ball, before I stuffed it hanging on the back pocket of my jeans. “Ok. Well it was nice to meet and please do someting else with your life.” Skip said before he stepped outside and walked to his car.