Children From A Lesser God
Chapter Three: Ignition
Drive.
That was the only instruction his father had left him with. Drive. His body is rigid in a sickly cool-heat, arms trepid, firmly outstretched in front of him. Drive. Slick hands fighting to grip. Drive. Nails trying to dig for comfort into the un-supple plastic of the steering wheel. Drive. Drive. Drive. Fox's heart is still, beating a hundred miles an hour. He must be driving the same, he guesses, as the moonlit scenery whiplashes past him. Drive. But where is he driving? His father did not specify, just drive. He is in control, he assures himself. But then all of a sudden, his car zigzags across the scenery, spins and then just stops.
Fox can feel the beat of his heart now. The sweat dripping off his brow. It soaks the underarms of his t-shirt.
The engine stopped.
He frowns incredulously at the dials in front of him. Why did the engine stop? The milage on zero, the tank on full.
His ears prick as he registers the short desperate breaths coming from behind him. His gaze shoot up into the eyes of his rear view mirror, but all he sees is darkness. Shakily, a hand disengages from the steering wheel to look for the switch to the back light he knows must be somewhere above his head. But his hand blindly searches. Fox's frustration at himself increasing every second. He can't see it. He cannot feel it. Only darkness. It was foolish of his father to trust him. Foolish of him to buy him this god-damn car that has no automatic inside lights. That has no back light switch!
He curses, and the breathing in the back stops.
"I'm just trying to find the light switch", he mutters. He hadn't meant to scare her. "This car is a piece of junk", his other hand still firmly gripped on the steering wheel, he searches the switches near the steering wheel. He also only just registers the throbbing pain up his left leg, peering down at it in the darkness. It's slammed down on the break peddle.
He wants to cry. He has an overwhelming urge to cry. He can already feel the tears brimming.
He curses again, loudly. Slamming his head on the steering wheel so that the horn makes a loud noise, and the feeling of given himself concussion.
He's an idiot. Which makes his father a bigger idiot. He comes from a long line of idiots that only get worse as the generations continue.
He moves his head to the side to try and release some of the pain, but it only makes it worse. His mother was right. This girl is forbidded trouble. And why? What is she to them? What is she to him? He is his finals, basketball, college applications and Sarah. Not an underaged girl that got knocked up by her idiot boyfriend.
She is still silent in the back.
Fox re-adjusts his head again. Just how long does his father want him to keep drivi-
car.
His thought process stops at the sound of her voice. Angelic.
Car.
It sounds again.
Car! Car! Car!
It shrills, and Fox snaps his head up to the impeding full beam car headlights. Horn blazing. But its like he has forgotten how to function. His foot has lifted off the break and the car is rolling backwards.
The approaching car lights are getting closer, but his hands are no longer anywhere near the steering wheel or the ignition keys. They are in front of his body in surrender. Surrender to his inability.
He screws his eyes shut, but the light still blinds him, until it's gone and the car jostles semi-violently as the back hits something. And then he is back in his silent dark scenery, with the short desperate breaths coming behind him.
Air. He needs air. He tries the driver door and it opens for him. Only in jeans and a t-shirt he darts out into the cool night and into the heavy foliage that greets him.
…
Fox purposefully scuffs his shoes as he runs down the dirt track. Greenfield National Park. Not even five miles away from his house. That's how far he had driven before he had lost control. His head violently shakes in disgust at himself. And whats worse, it's his local stomping ground. He knows this place like the back of his hand. If anyone who remotely knew him or any teenager around his age that had gone missing, this would definitely be the first place anyone would look after their own house. He was running out of insults for himself, but had seen the shimmering light of the lake reflecting the moon and knew that there was nothing he wanted more. His body was stiflingly hot but at the same time bone chillingly cool. His body was still but also shaking. And his mind, his mind didn't know who or what it was.
…
Rushing back through the trees to where he had left the car. His body was energised from the cold water that drenched his body, his sneakers squelched as they hopped eagerly over rocks and twists of roots. He had decided he was going to call his father and call this whole escapade off. That his father would have to find another son to do his dirty work because it wasn't him. He was basketball, finals -
He stopped dead at the other car parked near his abandoned one. Police car. The headlights were full and showed the shimmering silhouette of the officer, his torch trying to peer into the back of the car.
Something tugged in the bottom of his stomach. His father had also told him to keep her safe. He didn't like how the officer prowled at the back passenger window, trying to prise his gaze through the blacked out window. He watched the officer do a 360 before his hand moved towards the door handle. Fox's body lurched even though the door must have been locked because the office was now starting to move towards the driver door.
"Hey!" Fox shouted, running erratically to the clearing towards the car.
Before the torch could be shone on him, he could see that he had driven his car into the back of a tree.
"Son", the officer regarded him.
Fox's chest was heaving with un-warrented rage. So much he couldn't speak. He didn't want the officer to see her. He didn't want an eye to look upon her and her bump.
"Is this your car?" the officer spoke for him.
Fox nodded, "…yes! … Sir"
"Well Son, it's been driven into the back of the tree", he said, and Fox could detect humour in his voice.
"I know", is all Fox replied.
The torch searched him up and down.
"Do you have a licence?" the officer asked and Fox nodded. It was true. He had. But he also remembered his father telling him to keep a low profile.
"Well, can I see it?"
Fox nodded and sighed. He walked round to the other side of the car and opened the back passenger door. The light from outside flooded into the back of the car and he was met by her wide alarmed azul eyes. Her chest was puffing as the short desperate breaths escaped her small mouth. A stab of guilt hit Fox's heart, and he put his finger to his lips, telling her to be quite. Closing the door, he pulled out his wallet to show the officer his ID. He had screwed up keeping a low profile of himself but he wasn't about to expose her. Did she even have ID … he didn't know.
The officer studied his identification for a long time, before he sighed in defeat. He flipped the card over and over in his hand before he spoke. "How do you explain the car? Have you been drinking?"
"No Sir, this other car was going too fast and ran me off the road-"
"-Smoking"
"No Sir… like I told you-"
"Where are you driving?"
"Home"
"Your home is that a way", he pointed in the opposite direction.
"Like I told you officer, I was-"
"Yeah you were run off the road", the officer finishes and then sighs. "What is a kid your age out this late in the evening. It's close to three in the morning. You've got school tomorrow. Do your parents know? You selling pot?"
"No Sir I'm not selling pot, and yes my parents do know I am out"
The officer shakes his head, "I'm gonna search your car"
"Please Sir-", but the office stopped him with a stare that told him he had better do what he said.
"Who's this?" the officer asked as he shone the light on the girl's face.
Fox stared at her incredulously, he didn't know who she was. And by the way she stared dependently up at him, it seemed like she didn't either.
"Is this your girlfriend?"
"No", Fox answered too quickly, although it would have made more sense if he had said yes. The officer's torch zeroed in on her pregnant stomach, until both teenagers gazes dropped. The officer shone the light back into his eyes.
"Are you sure she isn't your girlfriend?" he interrogated.
"Yes". Sarah was his girlfriend. Sarah who came with basketball, finals and college applications. "She's my … cousin. She is staying with us".
"Does your cousin have a name?" the officer drawled.
Fox tried to laugh, "of course she does, she's just really shaken up from the accident, we both are"
"Why are you wet?" the officer's torch inspected him again.
"Ex-excuse me Sir?"
"Why are you wet?"
"I, I, I was in the lake?"
"You were in the lake?" the officer repeated.
…
They sit in the local police station. The officer is trying to contact Fox's parents but it seems no one is picking up. Although this does worry Fox what worries him more is what his father said. Drive, keep a low profile, keep her safe. And as the phone rings longer and the officer's eyes become more impatient at them; without knowing exactly why, Fox realises more and more, that he needs to do those three things.
His hand absently finds hers and holds it. She accepts it by a fraction, and when he squeezes, she grips, not letting it go. He gets his cell phone out with his other hand and the officer raises his eyebrows.
"I'm going to try my dad's cell", he lies as he dials the number of a taxi service, pressing the option of the cab picking it up from the cell's current location.
"Don't worry", Fox whispers, "I'm going to get you out of here".
"Nothing", he shrugs to the officer and the officer rolls his eyes.
…
The vibrations coming from Fox's pocket to say that the taxi was waiting for them could not have come at a better time. The officer's and the other staffs' attention currently taken up by the drunk's nosebleed and fire to strike Fox where he sat. Because the drunk had tried to touch Her, making inappropriate and crude comments about what he would like to do to her. Jaw already clenched and teeth already grinding at his un-salubrious words, Fox had tripped the drunks footing, landing him face front, with a pool of blood seeping from his nose and broken tooth.
Her eyes were wide and horrified as they continued to stare at the blood that still pooled near their feet. But her hand continued to latch on to his like it was a life line, and this filled Fox's heart and lungs with something he couldn't quite name but it was threatening to combust. Detaching his gaze from her expression, he stared at their linked hands before giving it an encouraging squeeze. Her eyes blinked at him, full of unshed fear and tears. He cocked his head in the direction of the door, and with one more look over his shoulder, he slung their bags over it, and escorted her towards the waiting taxi.
Settled back in his car, and using his only twenty to pay for the taxi. Fox didn't know what he was going to do if the car didn't ignite.
A/N I'm sort of back, sorry for my absence and thank-you for your patience. Decided to start small with COALG as to ease myself into writing again.
In another note, this was brought to my attention last chapter, but for those of you who perhaps think The Nanny Files has been lost, it is still going! It's just I had to change the rating to M, so it isn't in the default search engine. If you click on my pen name it will show you the link :)