Life is Like A Bowl Of Cherries
Chapter 2 PG-13 Serenity Sea (Serenity_Sea@yahoo.com)
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
The sound of plates being passed and the ceramic hitting the table was the only noise for some time. Then, cardboard scraping cardboard hit the air and the scent of pizza assailed their senses. For the next few minutes, each family member was engrossed in inhaling has much pizza as they could.
Finally, when they had broken for air at about the same time, Memphis looked across the table at his daughter. "How did school, go, honey?"
She looked up at her father, confused. "It went fine. Why? Did you think it wouldn't?"
"No. I never said that."
Her lips twisted in a bitter smile. "Yeah. That's what I thought." Her chair shoved back from the table and she jumped up and ran from the room. The sound of her door slammed and Memphis closed his eyes defeatedly. He pushed back his own chair-
"No." Kip said from his place at the table. "Eat your pizza. Give her a few minutes to cool off. Then I'll go talk to her."
Memphis looked at Tumbler for guidance, who nodded regretfully, agreeing with his best friend. He sighed and then moved back in closer to the table to his place.
Across from him, Kip continued to eat his pizza at a slow pace, alternating every few bites with a swing of beer. About 10 bites later, he stood up and grabbed his plate to put it in the sink. "Tumbler - it's your turn to wash the dishes for Sage."
Without another word to his brother, he left the room.
* * *
Three hours later, Kip came back emerged from Sage's room with red eyes. "God, Mem, I don't know what you did to piss her off.... but you sure did a good job off it."
Memphis watched the figures dance across the screen, registering Kip's words. "She's too much like her mother, Kip. Being around Sage... was like being around *her*. I couldn't take it."
"So you let her fade from your life?" Kip asked incredulously, and his tone was one of having had this conversation many times before.
"It hurt, Kip," He said tiredly. "And by the time it stopped hurting, it was too late. She was too used to you and Tumbler. She didn't need me in her life."
The younger brother thought of his own father, how he'd felt after he died, and shook his head. "You always need a father in your life."
Memphis sighed deeply. "I've tried to make it better, you know I have. But it's too late. The time for that has come and gone. She has got so many defensive walls when it comes to me, I wouldn't even know where to start. I don't know my own daughter," he turned to Kip with soulless eyes, "and she doesn't want to know me."
Kip bit his lip to keep from blurting out what would only get them into an even bigger argument and started to walk out of the room. He paused in the doorframe. "You need to call them."
Memphis closed his eyes painfully, acceptingly. "I know."
With that said, Kip left the room and Memphis to his thoughts and the muted TV set. Calling them or not wouldn't change the fact that his daughter was a stranger to him. It would only open up more of the past that he'd tried to hard to protect her from, and he didn't know if he-or she-was ready for that yet.
Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out.
* * *
Sage looked down at the text message on her phone and closed her eyes in resignation. It was from Kip and it said to get a ride home because he was in a meeting and wasn't going to make it.
That wouldn't have been too much of a problem - she'd made friends fast - except it was nearly an hour after dismissal and anyone she knew in detention didn't get out for another 45 minutes. Everyone else had left.
One saving grace was that she was wearing her leather boots and not a pair of strappy shoes as she tended to on occasion. With a sigh, she shifted her bag and started walking away from the school.
* * *
He slammed the phone down in frustration. "Unbelievable! She's had a cell phone since she was ten; you'd think by now that she'd pick it up when someone calls."
Kip Raines was upset. Actually, that was an understatement. He'd called home nearly an hour ago and Sage hadn't answered. She hadn't answered her cell phone either, and it was usually attached to her. Knowing his niece the way he did, she'd probably gotten the message late and was doing something stupid like trying to walk home. She wasn't that dumb, was she?
Groaning, he got up from his desk and called for Tumbler through the open door. They would have to sort this mess out themselves or Memphis would never forgive them. He was fiercely protective of his daughter, for all his not showing it.
Tumbler stopped in front of the Kip's slouched form, breathing heavily. "What's up?"
Kip looked furtively for any sign of Memphis and then explained the situation.
Tumbler's eyes got bigger and bigger until they were the size of dinner plates. He cursed angrily and then looked at Kip. "She's not that stupid, right?"
He shot him a slanted look. "Let's hope not."
* * *
Now she was in some seedy part of town and had to face the fact that she'd taken a wrong turn somewhere. After two weeks of having Kip drive her to school, she knew the route with her eyes closed. Which didn't account for her current status of being lost without a clue, but the way things were in her life these days - *Dad* - it didn't surprise her.
Streetlights flickered on above her as the sun continued its slow descent and shadows became longer. Sage looked around and recognized the Quik-Mart as the one in the center of town. She suddenly felt a bit more confident and sure of her surroundings.
A pair of bright high beams settled on her and then moved as the car turned down the street. She was aware of it following her at a slow pace until she stopped - a stupid, *stupid* thing to do, one thing Kip and Tumbler had beaten into her head after a bad incident in Manhattan - and turned to face the car with her hands on her hips.
"Are you following me for a reason, or just cause you have a seriously perverted mind?"
The driver in the sleek sports car leaned over the passenger's seat, remaining hidden from view. "I just like to cruise the boulevard. You sorta remind me of someone I used to know."
Knowing what she was about to do was something she was never, ever supposed to do, under any circumstances whatsoever, Sage closed the distance between herself and the car until her legs brushed the polished silver exterior and she could see the black leather seats. Leaning with her arms resting on the open window, with her head peering inside, she asked, "Oh yeah? Who's that?"
Up until this time, she didn't know the African American race could lose the color in their face as easily as she did, with her startlingly pale skin. The young man with reflective sunglasses on - she could easily see him now - fumbled with the handle and the door fell open.
"Get in the car," he said, his voice shaky.
Sage's eyes widened incredulously. "No way!"
"Get. In. The Car." She started to move away and he said firmly, "*Now.*"
She looked heavenward for strength and prayed he wouldn't kill her, then slid her bag higher onto her shoulder and got into the car, wondering what in the world was possessing her to get into the car with a stranger.
* * *
Memphis strolled into Kip's office with a smile on his face. "Kip! I just got a call from Ms. Nichols, Sage's homeroom and English teacher," he took off his jacket and hung it on the coat rack, "and she said Sage is doing excellent in her classes." When there was no answer, he turned around, "Kip?"
His brother wasn't at his desk.
Ten minutes later revealed that he was not in the cafeteria, the gym or the parking lots. He had to be, as he walked away from the office that now belonged to Tumbler - which was not surprisingly empty - *with* Tumbler. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered him.
Except it was nearly 4:30, Kip and Tumbler were both gone. They didn't leave their offices unless one of them had to pick up Sage or run an errand of some kind; they believed in staying until closing.
Bu they didn't close until 6. And he was worried.
* * *
The ride was silent and it was all Sage could do not to grab the wheel herself and pull them over to the side of the road, demanding where the hell he was taking her. Of course, that would be bad, because she wasn't too great at evasive maneuvers, and for all she knew he could have a lead pipe in the back and was just waiting for the right time to use it.
'That's not likely,' her ever-logical mind reasoned. 'After all, why would he go through all the trouble of making you get in the car if all he wanted to do was knock you out? He's older than you; he could have easily chased you down if it was necessary. Besides. People who dress in neon yellow FUBU outfits aren't usually serial killers. Serial killers try to blend in with the crowd and this guy obviously wants to stand out in a big way.'
The signs on the road that she recognized became fewer and farther in between and she started to worry. "Where are you taking me?"
He seemed hesitant to look at her again, and she wondered what exactly had him so shook up. "Somewhere safe."
Her eyebrows arched high. "Are we in danger or something?"
"More than you could possibly imagine," he answered her seriously and she felt a chill skitter down her spine.
Still, she wasn't going to take this vague reply for an answer and shifted in her seat to look more closely at him. He was about Kip's age, she guessed, and rather slim. Judging from how he sat in the bucket seats, he was also a bit on the short side, though you really couldn't tell since he more than compensated that with his choice in clothing. The sunglasses were still on, despite the sun having gone down 20 minutes ago, and she wondered what color eyes he had and how he could still see the road in front of them.
He drove very well, with an ease that she standard with the men in her family and she knew that regardless of the make or model, he could have driven a 20-year-old Volkswagen the same involved way.
"Do you at least have a name?" Sage demanded in a tone thinly laced with impatience.
* * *
He cast a glance over at her again, daring to rest his eyes a second longer than necessary, wanting to reassure himself that it truly wasn't *her*, as he had foolishly believed her to be, but someone else - someone who he'd seen in picture that had been sent in a forgotten Christmas card several years back. The card hadn't been sent to him, it had been sent to the person they were going to see and he wondered what he was going to say to make this entire situation make sense. The least of his problems was what name to give her; it had been so long since he'd met someone he didn't know, or didn't know of him, and he doubted that she would take anything less than his Christian name for an answer. Trouble was, it had been so long, he'd nearly forgotten what his Christian name was.
He settled on the name he'd used for the past two decades. "Mirror."
A 'get real' look set in her features and she smirked. "Yeah right. And my name is Glass."
He lifted one hand off the steering wheel and merely pointed at his sunglasses. Understanding dawned in her eyes. "I get it." She paused. "I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. My unc-I have some friends with stranger names."
"It's actually Mirror Man, on account of my being a man and." He saw the smirk on her face and it took him flying back more then ten years; but it still had the power to humble him. "Never mind."
They drove on in silence, and she let her eyes take in all the details of the car - something she could report back to Kip later, if she made it out of this alive. This was obviously the car with the extra package, an 8-disc CD changer, BOSE speakers that were strategically placed around the travelers to make the sound fuller, cherry lacquered trim around the dash and door handles, and of course, the ever-present blinking red light on the corner of the stereo that she knew was merely a decoy for the monster security system woven throughout the car.
At this point in her conversation with her uncle, he and Tumbler would share a wistful gaze or if he was by himself, a ghost of a smile would appear on his lips, leaving her like she was missing the end of some running joke that had been in their past.
Mirror noticed her drinking in the car and all the features with a practiced eye and had to shake his head. If he'd been questioning it before, it was blatantly obvious now. She was made to sit behind the wheel of a red sports car, just like her mother, and drive the hell out of it until she just couldn't drive anymore. The cool assessment of the vehicle came from her father, and partly her uncle - his former best friend, with whom he'd had little to no contact with in the past years - but would help her discern whether or not the risk was necessary.
It didn't occur to him that she knew nothing about her mother, the same as they did, or that her father had long since retired fully from the 'business,' taking his younger brother and best friend with him.
He only knew that the thrill of boosting cars was in her blood.
And as soon as someone opened her eyes to that thrill, and she could handle them as expertly as her parents once had, she was going to tear this complacent town of Long Beach apart.
And he was going to help her.
* * *
Sage never took her eyes off the road, for all her checking out the car and asking questions. It came to mind that she might have to make the trip back home by herself, and she didn't want to get lost. So while it appeared that she was looking at all inches of the car, she really kept one eye on the road and stored away the information in her mind.
The car finally slowed some, and she saw a high, chain-link fence that parted slowly to let them through. Ahead of them lay an old wooden building with a faded sign on it that she couldn't make out in the darkness. The only other distinguishable element to add up was the large graveyard of cars that surrounded them.
All sorts of cars, from the expensive ones, like the very car she was in right now, to older, classic cars that she barely recognized. There was one shadowed form to her far right, that was draped over tightly with a black tarp and before she could stop the words from tumbling out, she asked, "What kind of car is that?"
Mirror turned to her with a smile that she couldn't yet decipher; though she got the impression he was almost proud of her for some reason. He didn't answer her, though, merely turned the car off and unlocked the door for her to get out.
She left her bag on the seat and waited for him to lead wherever they were going. He moved with purposeful strides to the front of the building and opened up a huge door with a jaunty flourish. It was anti-climatically dark inside and she couldn't make out a thing, but he was halfway across the room when he called, "Wait here," and she wasn't about to take her chances just yet.
Suddenly, the lights above her flickered on, almost reluctant to reveal the secret of her location and something slammed into her as she looked around at what had all the makings of a body shop.
'*She had been here before. And she knew this place as much as she was certain the sun rose in the east every morning and Earth was round.*'
Two chalkboards, covered in cobwebs and a thick layer of dust stood proudly, if somewhat out of place, in the back of the room, and while she itched, for some reason, to get over there and read them, her attention was taken up by the rest of the room. Cars rested on lifts and tools lay scattered about on every surface possible, while the place reeked faintly of gasoline and anti-freeze. Paint splatters of varying color decorated multiple spots on the cement flooring and some even reached the walls.
Echoing footsteps sounded from behind her and she whirled around to see Mirror coming down a steep metal staircase that led up to a loft of sorts. Face hidden from view, she could make out another man close on his heels and watched with a detached interest as they made their way over to her, deftly walking around the cars and plentiful tools that were strewn across the floor.
Finally, they got close and Mirror stepped aside to reveal his companion.
The man looked old. He was obviously much older than her father, and judging by the lines etched around his eyes and mouth that only added to the effect, life hadn't been easy for him. A pair of faded navy overalls rested on his still-trim form and with his slightly slicked-back hair, he looked as though he belonged in another time, though he plainly fit in here. The clear blue eyes threw her for a loop, though, and made her take a closer look at their new company. Identification hit her like a sucker- punch to the gut and she sucked in an audible breath.
"*Uncle Otto*?"
* * *
End chapter two.
Sorry it took so long to get out; I've been working on half a dozen things at once and this was sort of sitting on my computer, waiting to be read through and proofed before it could be sent out. Because you all love me SO very much and that is going to be demonstrated with all the reviews you leave, I have a present for you:
Chapter three is also posted.
Now all you have to do is wait a bajillion years for chapter 4.
Chapter 2 PG-13 Serenity Sea (Serenity_Sea@yahoo.com)
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
The sound of plates being passed and the ceramic hitting the table was the only noise for some time. Then, cardboard scraping cardboard hit the air and the scent of pizza assailed their senses. For the next few minutes, each family member was engrossed in inhaling has much pizza as they could.
Finally, when they had broken for air at about the same time, Memphis looked across the table at his daughter. "How did school, go, honey?"
She looked up at her father, confused. "It went fine. Why? Did you think it wouldn't?"
"No. I never said that."
Her lips twisted in a bitter smile. "Yeah. That's what I thought." Her chair shoved back from the table and she jumped up and ran from the room. The sound of her door slammed and Memphis closed his eyes defeatedly. He pushed back his own chair-
"No." Kip said from his place at the table. "Eat your pizza. Give her a few minutes to cool off. Then I'll go talk to her."
Memphis looked at Tumbler for guidance, who nodded regretfully, agreeing with his best friend. He sighed and then moved back in closer to the table to his place.
Across from him, Kip continued to eat his pizza at a slow pace, alternating every few bites with a swing of beer. About 10 bites later, he stood up and grabbed his plate to put it in the sink. "Tumbler - it's your turn to wash the dishes for Sage."
Without another word to his brother, he left the room.
* * *
Three hours later, Kip came back emerged from Sage's room with red eyes. "God, Mem, I don't know what you did to piss her off.... but you sure did a good job off it."
Memphis watched the figures dance across the screen, registering Kip's words. "She's too much like her mother, Kip. Being around Sage... was like being around *her*. I couldn't take it."
"So you let her fade from your life?" Kip asked incredulously, and his tone was one of having had this conversation many times before.
"It hurt, Kip," He said tiredly. "And by the time it stopped hurting, it was too late. She was too used to you and Tumbler. She didn't need me in her life."
The younger brother thought of his own father, how he'd felt after he died, and shook his head. "You always need a father in your life."
Memphis sighed deeply. "I've tried to make it better, you know I have. But it's too late. The time for that has come and gone. She has got so many defensive walls when it comes to me, I wouldn't even know where to start. I don't know my own daughter," he turned to Kip with soulless eyes, "and she doesn't want to know me."
Kip bit his lip to keep from blurting out what would only get them into an even bigger argument and started to walk out of the room. He paused in the doorframe. "You need to call them."
Memphis closed his eyes painfully, acceptingly. "I know."
With that said, Kip left the room and Memphis to his thoughts and the muted TV set. Calling them or not wouldn't change the fact that his daughter was a stranger to him. It would only open up more of the past that he'd tried to hard to protect her from, and he didn't know if he-or she-was ready for that yet.
Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out.
* * *
Sage looked down at the text message on her phone and closed her eyes in resignation. It was from Kip and it said to get a ride home because he was in a meeting and wasn't going to make it.
That wouldn't have been too much of a problem - she'd made friends fast - except it was nearly an hour after dismissal and anyone she knew in detention didn't get out for another 45 minutes. Everyone else had left.
One saving grace was that she was wearing her leather boots and not a pair of strappy shoes as she tended to on occasion. With a sigh, she shifted her bag and started walking away from the school.
* * *
He slammed the phone down in frustration. "Unbelievable! She's had a cell phone since she was ten; you'd think by now that she'd pick it up when someone calls."
Kip Raines was upset. Actually, that was an understatement. He'd called home nearly an hour ago and Sage hadn't answered. She hadn't answered her cell phone either, and it was usually attached to her. Knowing his niece the way he did, she'd probably gotten the message late and was doing something stupid like trying to walk home. She wasn't that dumb, was she?
Groaning, he got up from his desk and called for Tumbler through the open door. They would have to sort this mess out themselves or Memphis would never forgive them. He was fiercely protective of his daughter, for all his not showing it.
Tumbler stopped in front of the Kip's slouched form, breathing heavily. "What's up?"
Kip looked furtively for any sign of Memphis and then explained the situation.
Tumbler's eyes got bigger and bigger until they were the size of dinner plates. He cursed angrily and then looked at Kip. "She's not that stupid, right?"
He shot him a slanted look. "Let's hope not."
* * *
Now she was in some seedy part of town and had to face the fact that she'd taken a wrong turn somewhere. After two weeks of having Kip drive her to school, she knew the route with her eyes closed. Which didn't account for her current status of being lost without a clue, but the way things were in her life these days - *Dad* - it didn't surprise her.
Streetlights flickered on above her as the sun continued its slow descent and shadows became longer. Sage looked around and recognized the Quik-Mart as the one in the center of town. She suddenly felt a bit more confident and sure of her surroundings.
A pair of bright high beams settled on her and then moved as the car turned down the street. She was aware of it following her at a slow pace until she stopped - a stupid, *stupid* thing to do, one thing Kip and Tumbler had beaten into her head after a bad incident in Manhattan - and turned to face the car with her hands on her hips.
"Are you following me for a reason, or just cause you have a seriously perverted mind?"
The driver in the sleek sports car leaned over the passenger's seat, remaining hidden from view. "I just like to cruise the boulevard. You sorta remind me of someone I used to know."
Knowing what she was about to do was something she was never, ever supposed to do, under any circumstances whatsoever, Sage closed the distance between herself and the car until her legs brushed the polished silver exterior and she could see the black leather seats. Leaning with her arms resting on the open window, with her head peering inside, she asked, "Oh yeah? Who's that?"
Up until this time, she didn't know the African American race could lose the color in their face as easily as she did, with her startlingly pale skin. The young man with reflective sunglasses on - she could easily see him now - fumbled with the handle and the door fell open.
"Get in the car," he said, his voice shaky.
Sage's eyes widened incredulously. "No way!"
"Get. In. The Car." She started to move away and he said firmly, "*Now.*"
She looked heavenward for strength and prayed he wouldn't kill her, then slid her bag higher onto her shoulder and got into the car, wondering what in the world was possessing her to get into the car with a stranger.
* * *
Memphis strolled into Kip's office with a smile on his face. "Kip! I just got a call from Ms. Nichols, Sage's homeroom and English teacher," he took off his jacket and hung it on the coat rack, "and she said Sage is doing excellent in her classes." When there was no answer, he turned around, "Kip?"
His brother wasn't at his desk.
Ten minutes later revealed that he was not in the cafeteria, the gym or the parking lots. He had to be, as he walked away from the office that now belonged to Tumbler - which was not surprisingly empty - *with* Tumbler. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered him.
Except it was nearly 4:30, Kip and Tumbler were both gone. They didn't leave their offices unless one of them had to pick up Sage or run an errand of some kind; they believed in staying until closing.
Bu they didn't close until 6. And he was worried.
* * *
The ride was silent and it was all Sage could do not to grab the wheel herself and pull them over to the side of the road, demanding where the hell he was taking her. Of course, that would be bad, because she wasn't too great at evasive maneuvers, and for all she knew he could have a lead pipe in the back and was just waiting for the right time to use it.
'That's not likely,' her ever-logical mind reasoned. 'After all, why would he go through all the trouble of making you get in the car if all he wanted to do was knock you out? He's older than you; he could have easily chased you down if it was necessary. Besides. People who dress in neon yellow FUBU outfits aren't usually serial killers. Serial killers try to blend in with the crowd and this guy obviously wants to stand out in a big way.'
The signs on the road that she recognized became fewer and farther in between and she started to worry. "Where are you taking me?"
He seemed hesitant to look at her again, and she wondered what exactly had him so shook up. "Somewhere safe."
Her eyebrows arched high. "Are we in danger or something?"
"More than you could possibly imagine," he answered her seriously and she felt a chill skitter down her spine.
Still, she wasn't going to take this vague reply for an answer and shifted in her seat to look more closely at him. He was about Kip's age, she guessed, and rather slim. Judging from how he sat in the bucket seats, he was also a bit on the short side, though you really couldn't tell since he more than compensated that with his choice in clothing. The sunglasses were still on, despite the sun having gone down 20 minutes ago, and she wondered what color eyes he had and how he could still see the road in front of them.
He drove very well, with an ease that she standard with the men in her family and she knew that regardless of the make or model, he could have driven a 20-year-old Volkswagen the same involved way.
"Do you at least have a name?" Sage demanded in a tone thinly laced with impatience.
* * *
He cast a glance over at her again, daring to rest his eyes a second longer than necessary, wanting to reassure himself that it truly wasn't *her*, as he had foolishly believed her to be, but someone else - someone who he'd seen in picture that had been sent in a forgotten Christmas card several years back. The card hadn't been sent to him, it had been sent to the person they were going to see and he wondered what he was going to say to make this entire situation make sense. The least of his problems was what name to give her; it had been so long since he'd met someone he didn't know, or didn't know of him, and he doubted that she would take anything less than his Christian name for an answer. Trouble was, it had been so long, he'd nearly forgotten what his Christian name was.
He settled on the name he'd used for the past two decades. "Mirror."
A 'get real' look set in her features and she smirked. "Yeah right. And my name is Glass."
He lifted one hand off the steering wheel and merely pointed at his sunglasses. Understanding dawned in her eyes. "I get it." She paused. "I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. My unc-I have some friends with stranger names."
"It's actually Mirror Man, on account of my being a man and." He saw the smirk on her face and it took him flying back more then ten years; but it still had the power to humble him. "Never mind."
They drove on in silence, and she let her eyes take in all the details of the car - something she could report back to Kip later, if she made it out of this alive. This was obviously the car with the extra package, an 8-disc CD changer, BOSE speakers that were strategically placed around the travelers to make the sound fuller, cherry lacquered trim around the dash and door handles, and of course, the ever-present blinking red light on the corner of the stereo that she knew was merely a decoy for the monster security system woven throughout the car.
At this point in her conversation with her uncle, he and Tumbler would share a wistful gaze or if he was by himself, a ghost of a smile would appear on his lips, leaving her like she was missing the end of some running joke that had been in their past.
Mirror noticed her drinking in the car and all the features with a practiced eye and had to shake his head. If he'd been questioning it before, it was blatantly obvious now. She was made to sit behind the wheel of a red sports car, just like her mother, and drive the hell out of it until she just couldn't drive anymore. The cool assessment of the vehicle came from her father, and partly her uncle - his former best friend, with whom he'd had little to no contact with in the past years - but would help her discern whether or not the risk was necessary.
It didn't occur to him that she knew nothing about her mother, the same as they did, or that her father had long since retired fully from the 'business,' taking his younger brother and best friend with him.
He only knew that the thrill of boosting cars was in her blood.
And as soon as someone opened her eyes to that thrill, and she could handle them as expertly as her parents once had, she was going to tear this complacent town of Long Beach apart.
And he was going to help her.
* * *
Sage never took her eyes off the road, for all her checking out the car and asking questions. It came to mind that she might have to make the trip back home by herself, and she didn't want to get lost. So while it appeared that she was looking at all inches of the car, she really kept one eye on the road and stored away the information in her mind.
The car finally slowed some, and she saw a high, chain-link fence that parted slowly to let them through. Ahead of them lay an old wooden building with a faded sign on it that she couldn't make out in the darkness. The only other distinguishable element to add up was the large graveyard of cars that surrounded them.
All sorts of cars, from the expensive ones, like the very car she was in right now, to older, classic cars that she barely recognized. There was one shadowed form to her far right, that was draped over tightly with a black tarp and before she could stop the words from tumbling out, she asked, "What kind of car is that?"
Mirror turned to her with a smile that she couldn't yet decipher; though she got the impression he was almost proud of her for some reason. He didn't answer her, though, merely turned the car off and unlocked the door for her to get out.
She left her bag on the seat and waited for him to lead wherever they were going. He moved with purposeful strides to the front of the building and opened up a huge door with a jaunty flourish. It was anti-climatically dark inside and she couldn't make out a thing, but he was halfway across the room when he called, "Wait here," and she wasn't about to take her chances just yet.
Suddenly, the lights above her flickered on, almost reluctant to reveal the secret of her location and something slammed into her as she looked around at what had all the makings of a body shop.
'*She had been here before. And she knew this place as much as she was certain the sun rose in the east every morning and Earth was round.*'
Two chalkboards, covered in cobwebs and a thick layer of dust stood proudly, if somewhat out of place, in the back of the room, and while she itched, for some reason, to get over there and read them, her attention was taken up by the rest of the room. Cars rested on lifts and tools lay scattered about on every surface possible, while the place reeked faintly of gasoline and anti-freeze. Paint splatters of varying color decorated multiple spots on the cement flooring and some even reached the walls.
Echoing footsteps sounded from behind her and she whirled around to see Mirror coming down a steep metal staircase that led up to a loft of sorts. Face hidden from view, she could make out another man close on his heels and watched with a detached interest as they made their way over to her, deftly walking around the cars and plentiful tools that were strewn across the floor.
Finally, they got close and Mirror stepped aside to reveal his companion.
The man looked old. He was obviously much older than her father, and judging by the lines etched around his eyes and mouth that only added to the effect, life hadn't been easy for him. A pair of faded navy overalls rested on his still-trim form and with his slightly slicked-back hair, he looked as though he belonged in another time, though he plainly fit in here. The clear blue eyes threw her for a loop, though, and made her take a closer look at their new company. Identification hit her like a sucker- punch to the gut and she sucked in an audible breath.
"*Uncle Otto*?"
* * *
End chapter two.
Sorry it took so long to get out; I've been working on half a dozen things at once and this was sort of sitting on my computer, waiting to be read through and proofed before it could be sent out. Because you all love me SO very much and that is going to be demonstrated with all the reviews you leave, I have a present for you:
Chapter three is also posted.
Now all you have to do is wait a bajillion years for chapter 4.