Chapter 3
A car!
"I got a big surprise for you today Anna!" Joe's voice almost screamed in the telephone. "You might wanna hurry…"
The blond girl hung up and within ten seconds her bag was packed and she was gone through the door.
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It was in the beginning of a new week and it was Anna's first visit to the junk yard this week. She was still a bit shaken about the strange things that happened to her. The gigantic finger, the beeping alien and the attacking jet-plane, was still in her memory.
Joe met Anna by the gate. She jumped off her bike and tried to see if she could see anything that possible could be the surprise.
"Not so fast" Joe chuckled. "First you must close your eyes or it won't be a big surprise."
Anna closed her eyes but peeked a bit when she felt Joe's hand grabbed her arm and started to lead her.
"Ah, ah… No peeking."
Joe put his hands over her eyes and continued to lead her forwards. They continued forwards to Joe's house and around the corner.
"Okay when I remove my hand you can open your eyes, okay?"
He got a slight nod as an answer.
The old man removed his hands and Anna opened her eyes. She didn't believe her eyes. All the waiting had finally come to an end.
"Joe, it… it is a.. "
She really didn't believe her eyes when she saw a blue car in front of her. It was not ever rusty. Except from the few bumps on the side it was in perfect shape. It looked like it had been in a race and been hit by all the other cars and it was decorated with red flames on the sides and on the hood.
"Joe... it is… Thank you…"
It was almost that she got tears in her eyes when she turned to the old man. She did not know what to do or say. With the back of her hand she whipped away the small tears in the corner of her eyes.
The old man just smiled.
"I don't know how it got here. It just stood there this morning."
"Maybe someone pushed it over here because the engine is broken?"
Anna walked over to the car and put a hand on hood. A strange feeling, like a small jolt, tingled up in her arm down her back and through her body. Quickly she pulled her hand back and took a few steps back.
"… but there are no tire tracks on the ground. I didn't hear a car or a tractor that could have towed it here. Either it had flown over here or someone picked it up and carried it.
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Anna didn't know that Joe was strong, but after he helped her to push the car in to what she always had though was a doomed storage, she changed her mind.
"I didn't even know you had a garage… but thanks for letting me use your garage for some repairing on my new project!" Anna smiled at Joe and leaned against the car to catch her breath. "Phew, I didn't know cars were this… heavy!" But she quickly straightened up and kept a small distance from the car. It was only a car, why would it be more strange then any other car around?
Joe chuckled "Well, I had it to store some junk before, but… I got bored one day and cleaned it all away… amazing don't you think? Me, cleaning up a junk mess?
Anna laughed and nodded. It was truly amazing. With all his But she was thankful that he did clean the garage up, or she'd been the one doing it and then start the repairing. It would have taken weeks!
A car horn was heard outside.
"It seems like I got a delivery," Joe chuckled. "Well then, I'm gonna leave you with the car. I come back later to see how it's going."
With that the old man was gone and Anna looked at the car.
"Okay then… where to start?"
She picked up her bag and walked over to a table she'd found under all the junk. She opened the bag and turned it up side down so all her tools fell over the table with a loud noise.
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The time went fast when she started. In a blink of an eye it was evening. The sun had gone to
rest and the moon took its place on the early night sky.
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Anna took a few steps back from the car to get and eye of her work. Walking around it to see if there was something she'd missed or wanted to change.
"Heh… okay that wasn't so bad, now all the bumps are gone and I think I call it a day."
The girl walked over to the side and sat down on the table, stretching her arms up in to the air, leaning her head to the side.
"The flames... I think it needs to be re-coloured," she nodded to herself and rubbed her eyes.
"Ah, I see you got very far on the work."
Anna flinched and jumped down to the ground and saw Joe walked in to the garage. Being in her own world while working on project really stopped her from listening or paying attention to other things then what she was working with. So being scared by people when she was finished working was nothing new for her.
"It is almost like new. You have got a very good start on it."
The old man gave the car a pat on the roof.
"Yeah… Maybe I have my future work in this?" Anna smiled and started to packed down her tools in her bag. "Or, I will work in the storage in a grosser store. But there are still a few things to fix…
There it was again. The sound from the jet plane. It was still around and probably it had been that for hours when she was working. It was very close and that gave Anna an uncomfortable feeling.
Biting her lip and thinking of when she had been attacked by the jet, she put the last of her tools on the table and turned to Joe, with a big smile.
"Joe, do you mind if I work here all night?"
The old man scratched his chin and looked up.
"Yeah, sure I go catch you the sleeping bag. You just tell your old grandfather that you're staying or he might get really worried."
Anna nodded and looked after Joe when he went to get her the sleeping bag she'd kept at the junk yard. It was not the first time she'd spent a night there. But this night it was not for working. She really didn't wanna go out. What if that jet attacked again?
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Anna woke up when she herd a large crash from the other side of the garage. With a jerk she sat up and looked out over the big room.
"Who's there?"
It was all quiet again, but the sound of something, with steal boots, sneaking over the floor was still heard.
The girl reached out for her bag and picked up the flash light and let its light run over the room. Nothing.
The light ran over the car. Nothing there either.
The quiet footsteps were still moving and they seemed to get closer to her every second. But where ever she pointed the flash light she saw nothing. It was moving fast.
"Who are you?"
Anna reached out for her bag again and grabbed the first tool she felt and slowly got up from the sleeping bag.
"If you don't show yourself it is your own fault if you get hurt!"
The steps didn't stop but it was now moving in another direction and she started to walk after them.
Her heart beating faster for every step she took. There! She saw a shadow just a few meters in front of her. It must be standing with the back against her because it didn't seem to notice the flash light. The shadow was a little taller then her and had a slight square outline.
"Oh my God" she thought and stopped. "It's some kind of freak!" with small steps she walked up to it and raised her hand with the tool and was just about to hit the shadow when the shadow turned around. With wide eyes she froze…
"The yellow eyes…" was the only thing she got in mind of when she was pushed away by the shadow and stumbled backwards and fell to the floor, droping the tool and just sat on the floor.
"I… It… it is you!" with a quick move she aimed the flash light to the shadow and when she saw what she had been pushed away by she didn't manage to let out the scream she so badly wanted to scream.
In font of her in the flash light stood a robot. It seemed to be in the same kind of shock since it did like Anna, it didn't move a limb.
While staring at the robot, the flash light slipped from her grip and before it had reached the floor the robot reached out and catched it, just before it hit the ground.
The robot was now kneeling in front of Anna pointing the flash light right in her face and for its first time it saw her face and gave up beeps.
Anna shocked her head slightly.
"I don't understand…" and she reached out and lowered the flash light. "And I can't see anything while you are blinding me with the light."
On shaking legs, Anna got up and walked over to the power switch and turned the lights on. Now the whole robot was visible, it was white and blue, mostly blue and now she saw that it had a big, flat iron plate on each arm and leg, like it could become a box if it curled up.
Last night it had said it wasn't going to hurt her and she believed that still was that way so she walked over to it again and sat down beside it.
The robot turned the flash light off and handed it to Anna who took it at put it down beside her.
"You said or… nodded, that you understand what I'm saying last night, I ask you questions and you nodded one time for yes and nodded two times for no."
The robot gave up a beep and nodded once. It seemed that it was happy when she tried to communicate with it.
"Okay good, now I'm gonna ask you things and you might have to do gesticulations, okay?"
The robot nodded once again.
This was going well this far Anna thought and took a deep breath and scratched her cheek.
"Where did you come from?" The one standard question in all conversations between strangers, right after the "Who are you" question?
The robot looked like it was thinking and then it first pointed at the car and then up at the ceiling and beeped three times and looked at Anna to see if she understood him.
The following seconds Anna just blinked. When she got back to reality she started to laugh.
"You don't say that you are from space, don't you?
The robot nodded once more…
To be continued…
