Friday Five — Meet Boo

It’s Friday, so it must be time for The Friday Five writing prompt! Five different words each week to get the creative juices flowing. To visit the other participants, click here.
This week’s words are: central, quarter, medal, lawyer, gossip
This week, I’ve rewritten the opening to one of my eighty-gabillion WIPs (the one that is my current fave) to include the words from the challenge.

Boo

Back and forth, back and forth…even now, after so many years, wiping down the front counter with a damp rag was a pretty Zen experience. Beth—called Boo by most of the population of the town of Outa—knew every ridge, every burn, and every scuff of that old bar. The café was really the central hub of the town. They even had a “state’s best mac and cheese” medal hanging prominently over the counter. Their claim to fame. She loved it, and the café, and even loved the day-to-day work that would bore most folks to the bone. She’d had enough excitement in her life, and welcomed the boring, barely acknowledging the usual hum of conversation as she went about her daily routine.
Until it stopped.
The café was never completely quiet, so the lack of noise was more startling than if a bomb had gone off. She lifted her head to find all eyes on her.
“Hey, Boo.” Aunt Sophie touched her hand and then pointed at the television above the counter which had been paused. “You need to see this.” She pressed play and the program resumed, a tidbit from a national entertainment gossip show.
“…nearly ten years since the teen powerhouse Graciana disappeared from the T.V. and music scene without a whisper of her whereabouts, and even her lawyer claimed to be left in the dark.”
The man on the screen was handsome, if you liked your men tall, dark-haired, polished and tidy, and he looked earnestly into the camera as he spoke. Boo gulped at the sound of the name he uttered, and apprehension made a slow climb up her spine.
“After two years of searching, I’ve narrowed down my search to a tiny town in the foothills of California and I’m heading there today. Tune in next week to Where Are They Now? for the rest of the story.”
In the half second before the scene changed to a scantily dressed woman hawking the latest erectile dysfunction pill, Boo’s eyes took in the background of the shot. She knew those rock formations, that road…he was only a quarter mile away.