I bring you the fourth installment. Enjoy.
Don't own.
~~Totaled~~
Get in. Get them. Get out.
Get in. Get them. Get out.
The auto repair office was cold and Alvin sat shivering in one of the several provided metal framed seats. His damp shirt stuck slick to his fur, chilling him, and his left leg bounced his mantra into the small murky puddle his shoes had made.
Get in. Get them. Get out.
It had started to thunder as soon as he had left the school and it hadn't taken long before the sky opened up completely, unleashing heavy sheets of rain and sending black swollen clouds to gallop across the atmosphere and swallow the sun.
It was when he was off the storm battered streets and on a downtown city bus that it even occurred to him to wonder why exactly he was doing all this.
He thought now what he had thought then, hunched into himself as the bus's ac stiffened his jeans.
Perhaps, it was the rain.
Alvin stared out of the wide Plexiglas window closest to the shop's wide oak desk, watching leagues of water droplets race each other down misted glass. The sheer enormity of the black rumbling clouds and the haphazard billows of water stirred something deep inside him. Caused the deafening peal s of thunder to pound within him as if its source were his own chest.
It had been raining that night too...
"Theo!" he roared from the house doorstep. Just seconds later, an earsplitting crack of lightening shook the earth and lit up the grey churning evening sky. "Hurry the hell up! I'm getting soaked!"
And he was.
Dressed in his performances best, Alvin waited impatiently for the youngest Seville to come down stairs and join him outside. He had shocked the entire household by getting ready and leaving the house first but now, with the rain beating over his head and soaking his crimson dress shirt through, Alvin was beginning to regret making both Dave and Theodore eat their words.
And to top it all off, they were going to be late.
"Ahh!" he stamped his foot, his up raised elbows offering his hair absolutely no protection against the tremendous downpour. He'd been outside not ten seconds and all ready he was drenched!
"Theodore!" Alvin yelled again and was just about to run back inside when the other chipmunk poked his head from behind the foyer wall, his beige shirt untucked and green bow-tie askew. His brother said something, an apology forming in his emerald eyes, but an ill-timed boom of thunder drowned the other out.
"What?" Alvin called out. His frustration mounted and he seriously contemplated joining Theodore beneath the dry comfort of their roof.
" I cant go with you!" the other chipmunks voice filtered through. "My vest! I cant find it!" Through the pelting sheets of rain, Alvin saw his stouter brother motion frantically past him. "Go ahead and go! I'll catch a ride later! Can you wait for an umbrella or are you gonna make a run for it?"
Dammit.
Alvin looked toward back toward the black 2010 Audi A8 waiting in front of the house and decided to make a run for it.
Giving a dismissive wave, Alvin sprinted, sliding dangerously over the puddles forming in their grass and making it just in time to hear his car monitor beep before slamming the passenger door behind him.
Call waiting.
A small red light flashed above the call button just right of the cars embedded GPS and Alvin pushed it hurriedly, using his other hand to fling hair and rainwater from his eyes. God, he hoped they had enough time to go to makeup.
"Yea?" he called out. Releasing the knob he maneuvered his water laden body over the storage medium and into the drivers seat. Inwardly, he willed the person the other end make it quick. He had to get going!
Finally, a voice crackled trough. "Alvin! Don't leave yet!"
Alvin paused after jamming his seat belt into its black holder, straining to hear over the rain threatening to pound in his windows. It was Dave..
"Alvin, do you hear me? Don't leave! I have something!"
He hesitated only a split second before slowly pushing in the call button once more, offering a short "K!" Before letting go again.
Now, what could he want? He pondered while attempting to fix his limp auburn tresses in the review mirror.
It had already dawned on him that, of course, perhaps the songwriter meant to venerate him. The Chipmunks had reached they're 29th hit in only two years- an impressive feat that they were now about to be awarded for- and Alvin knew, deep down, that it was all do to him.
He gave up on his hair then, re-positioning the review mirror with both hands until he saw the startling blue of his eyes.
Yes. It was his face, posted on both magazines and event posters that drew fans to their concerts and, before they'd undergone a title change, it had been his name plastered on all of the album the album covers. Alvin and the chipmunks!
Commemorating all of them in tonight's award ceremony was a joke. They all knew who they really came to see. The crowd knew who they really adored.
Alvin lifted his head, practicing his 'award smile' in the fogging glass.
Perhaps now Dave knew that too..
Suddenly, there came the rapping of knuckles against glass and Alvin could barely make out the songwriter's dark figure through the heavy streams of water. Quickly, he rolled the passenger window down, reveling the relief on Dave's face.
"Thanks for not leaving, Alvin. I've got something…"
His guardians voice trailed off and Alvin held out his hand expectantly while the brown haired man shifted his umbrella and dug into his pockets.
This was it.
Alvin felt something small and light weight fall into his hand.
"I know how important they are to him."
What? Dismayed, Alvin brought his palm to his face.
Small silver cuff links.
Simon's cuff links.
"He called me just a minute ago, I didn't think I'd reach you in time!"
Alvin felt his breathing slow and his chest tighten. Dave had ran through the rain, with a cruddy umbrella that barely kept him dry, and was standing soaked by his window -just to bring him Simon's cuff links.
"For when you'll pick him up. You'll make sure he gets them, wont you? "
Alvin looked up into the gentle earth brown eyes that pleaded with him. Pleaded with him to just be obedient for once and do this one thing...
"Yeah," he heard himself say. "Yeah, I'll make sure he gets them."
He felt Dave's hand on his shoulder, heard the steady drip drip of water on leather. "Thank you, Alvin. Knock 'em dead tonight, ok?"
And then he was gone.
Alvin watched the dark retreating figure cut through their front yard and run to the front of the house where Theodore stood, holding the door open against the pounding wind. Watched through the Heavens giant tears. Watched until the tiny cuff links felt like fire in his hand.
Wrenching open the dashboard, Alvin flung the objects of his scorn in it with all the force he could muster before violently yanking the Drivers stick into reverse.
He'd make sure that he got them, alright…
"Mr. Seville? I'm sorry for the wait!"
Alvin snapped out of his recollection and rose stiffly to meet the blond haired receptionist bounding toward him. It occurred to him that she probably thought him funny for coming all this way in the rain personally, but something had told him that he alone had to be here.
He'd felt the same guttural fear on the bus ride here. Fear that he might miss something.
If the receptionist thought him odd, she didn't show it and Alvin held out his sodden clammy hands for the keys,
And received an envelope.
"What's this?" He demanded tearing at the blue parchments seal with his thumb. He heard the young lady take a step back and her next words stopped him cold. Turned his blood to ice.
"It your insurance appraisal.." He heard her stammer, her soft voice like a spring bubbling over. "I thought that's what you came for... though, I suspect that we could have just mailed it..."
Alvin's vision swam, and suddenly he couldn't feel the cold, inside him or otherwise. His thoughts came slowly, as if trudging in ankle deep mud.
An Insurance appraisal was what Ms. Miller got when, last year, her old car had slipped out of park ,backed into a tree, and bent its fender.
An Insurance appraisal was what shops handed you when the price to fix your car was deemed more costly than what your car was worth.
Alvin remembered that the ancient fuchsia Thunderbird had been at least fifty years old. His Audi A8, however, had just been released off the shelves. His car had been worth well over seventy thousand dollars...
Alvin felt his torso jerk forward on its own accord. Jerk forward as though he'd been kicked. Placing two steadying hands on his knees, Alvin felt ill.
"Mr. Seville?" the receptionist's soprano was high. Alarmed.
"Where is it?" He gasped, struggling to pull air back into his lungs. "Where's my car now?" Though , inside, Alvin already knew the answer. It rumbled within him like a violent storm.
" M-Mr. Seville, you're car was totaled beyond repair. It was towed away…Mr. Seville!"
He didn't hear the rest.
Alvin didn't hear the rest because at that moment he dashed out the shop door into the bucketing rain
and when he looked down at the soggy cobalt envelope still crushed in his hand, he bent over and retched.
That's it for now. We're getting close to solving this, cant you feel it?
I'm curious, however, to see how close you've gotten..
Review and tell what you've summed up so far?