Taking a plunge into the darkness at that rainy night I drove my car. I was cursing myself for the decision to move out at that evening instead of waiting for the next morning. It was very dark and I could not see anything, so a thought crossed my mind. I decided to pass the night at some motel along the highway and in the morning when the weather would be normal or at least a bit more convenient than this, I would continue my journey. After driving for about fifteen minutes I came across a motel. It looked quite dangerous but was interesting. There was an old house behind the cabins.
As I went near, in the window of that house behind the motel I saw a silhouette of an old woman.
The moment my car reached the entrance of the motel, a young man in his early twenties came down to open the door for me, he took my bags and smiled. He said 'Welcome to the Bates Motel, I am Norman Bates.'
I felt some good vibes for this guy. He was too young to be taking care of this entire motel all by himself.
Norman said 'Oh, we have 12 vacancies. 12 cabins, 12 vacancies.'
He took a key and led me to my room. I felt something strange about the atmosphere inside the motel.
'Are you alone over here all the time?', I asked him.
'No, my mother stays with me. We live behind.'
I understood that the silhouette in the window must be his mother.
'Would you like to have dinner?', he asked judging my tiredness.
'Yes, thank you. How about in half an hour, because I need to freshen up', I said.
'Ok sir, I will knock your door when it will be ready', He smiled as he left.
I freshened up and waited for Norman but he didn't show up. I came out of my room just to have a walk as the rain had stopped and I was getting bored alone. I went behind the motel and then I could hear some voices from the house of Norman Bates, I could clearly make out Norman's voice and the other voice of some old lady, his mother I guessed instantly.
They were arguing on some point, I saw the door opening after sometime and I had to turn my back at once to go. Norman called out for me.
I just smiled and tried my best to avoid my embarrassment of getting caught for peeping. He came and smiled at me, he didn't get angry or hold any grudge against me for my shameful act.
'My mother is angry with me, lets dine at the office.'
In minutes we were at his office eating and talking about our lives and experiences.
He said a lot about his life and about his dream to get out of here and be big someday. From his views and his talks I could make out that Norman had a lot of potential to be big someday.
'Why do you stay here and get abused by your mother daily?','Don't you want to leave this place?', 'What about your dreams, Norman?', I fired one question after another and withing a moment I realised that I was crossing my limit.
Norman stayed calmed and without any anger or resent explained me the whole fact, about how he cares for his mother, and the point that there is no one to look after her other than him and many other things.
Norman said 'I don't hate my mother, I hate at what she's become, I hate her illness.'
After a long time he said calmly 'It's not like my mother is maniac or raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?'
I understood his love for his mother and I started to respect this man even more now.
I went back to my room. I had been sleeping for about a couple of hours then, when I heard someone's footsteps outside my cabin, I wondered what was Norman doing so late at night. I waited for him to knock the door but he didn't, so I ignored and slept again.
I got up early in the morning and took a shower. Then I dressed up, packed my stuff and went out to the reception desk to check out. While going I saw a foot print outside my door, I remembered maybe it was from the last night when I heard the steps. But then the print was of a lady's shoe, I thought maybe Norman's mother would have come around for a walk. Norman was there in the office, and we had a nice chat again over the tea.
'It was good to have you here, Sir. Hope you would come again soon.', Norman said as I was leaving.
'Yeah, Norman. Next time for sure. Would then surely meet your mother too.'
'Thank you. She is very ill and can't even walk. Else I would have asked her to come down to bid you goodbye.'
After shaking hands and exchanging smiles, I left. The weather was clear and I drove off to my home by the evening.
Coming home, while talking to my mother, I realised the greatness of Norman. I made it a point to be as loving and caring towards her as was Norman towards his mother. But at once in flash, it striked me what Norman had said while leaving about his mother, that she was ill and cannot move from her place.
Now my restless mind began to ponder upon the event of the previous night, whose steps had I heard or whose shoe prints where those?
It was not long before than a week that I read in the newspaper about the strange killing of Marion Crane. And wait, did I read it was at the Bates Motel by Norman Bates?
In that article Norman claimed that she was killed by his mother but the police said that his mother had died ten years ago. The strange thing was, that the police found her decayed dead body which was kept by Norman at his house. It meant the silhouette that I had seen on that night was actually the dead body of Norman's mother. Norman's face started to come before my eyes, now it was scaring me. I can never forget that incident and consider myself very lucky to come out alive from the Bates Motel that night.
Psycho is a 1960 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch.
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