A guide to spotting fair folk at rest stops

estrangeloedessa:

and other liminal spaces:

1. Real humans will not wear high heels on road trips. Watch for shoes that should not be able to make their way over desert sand, over dried up pet area grass, across puddley restroom floors.
2. If a woman sits down with her child and a bag full of watermelon and they don’t say a word to you, they’re probably safe. If you don’t recognize the fruit in the ziploc bag, it is time to run. Do not let them offer you a piece.
3. The little plump girl with her two too-friendly dogs is trying to distract you from the strangeness of her eyes.
4. He is the seventh person you asked for jump cables after your battery died. Help is hard to find at 3 a.m. You spill your entire story to him — where you were, why you fell asleep with your headlights on, the names of your children sleeping in the backseat — and he nods and listens with a smile that you trust. He’s tall and thin and clutches a box in his long fingers. His voice is kind. He doesn’t ask for payment. He doesn’t have to. 
5. After he climbs back up into his mountain of a truck, you find a frog hopping across the parking lot. You are nowhere near a lake.