She heard her chuckle. She frowned. ''Why you laughing?!''
''Your nose is running on your shirt...''
Kelly's mouth tightened in a straight line and she swatted Sabrina's
shoulder, until they both burst out laughing loudly.
''Don't hit the driver!'' Sabrina protested. She reached for the glove
compartment and pulled out a small handkerchief. ''Are you gonna blow
your nose on my windows as well?!'' She threw it at Kelly. ''If you
do, wipe them at least!''
Kelly kept on laughing, feeling the tears dry on her cheeks, replaced
by different kinds of tears, those of joy and tears just so full of
the feeling that she had someone there. Between her laughs though, she
still noticed the slight shaking of Sabrina's hands around the wheel.
During the remaining time they had left to drive, both Bri and Kelly found
themselves joining voices and singing hysterically and terrifyingly off pitch,
with Kelly gustily and loudly trying Louis Armstrong's voice while yelling at her friend:
''And I think to myself... What a wonderful world!''
Kelly was starting to feel hungry when Sabrina finally stopped the car in
front of a large building.
''Why're we stopping here?'
''I want you to meet someone.'' Sabrina replied, while stretching her
neck in an impossible angle to look back.
Kelly poked her. ''You look like the little girl from "The Exorcist". ''
''Oh.''
''What the hell is this place anyway?''
''A school, if it isn't obvious...''
''And what are we doing here?!'' Kelly started to panic.
''Shhh!'' Sabrina opened her door, and bent down to Kelly, still in
the car. ''You stay here. Back in a minute.''
Kelly watched her friends taller figure jog away and then approach a much smaller form of
a little boy. She watched further as Bri knelt down next to him and show him some kind of paper.
He then appeared to hesitantly follow Sabrina back towards the car, where, as Kelly looked on in earnest, he was quietly ushered into the back of the vehicle.
Kelly slowly repeated the law code for under age abduction in her head. But she abruptly and somewhat shamefully corrected her thinking when Sabrina pulled her out of the car, and coerced her into the back seat beside the silent boy, gesturing her to stay quiet. The little boy sat quietly on her left now, head low,
hands resting on his lap. Something in Kelly recognised the posture directed towards herself of,
''You're old and weird and I don't like you.''
Bri started the engine and they got out on the highway. She cleared
her throat and sighed. ''Hey Tommy. This is Kelly, the girl I told you
about on the phone.''
''The one who fights the bad guys?'' he said, with a small smile.
''Uh huh!''
''Cool! Does she have a gun like you?''
''Um... I'm sure you got better things to discuss...We're gonna get to
a pizza place for food when you two are done, good?'' She turned left, following the road signs.
''And then we will take you home, and you will never say we met, to
anybody, like we agreed.''
This time the smile became real. ''Great!''
Kelly half smiled as well. ''So, what's your name?''
''Tommy.'' he shook her hand over excited. ''You're Kelly right?''
''Yep, I am.'' She looked down, on her shoes and sighed audibly. ''Me
and you, Tommy, we need to talk.'' She noticed his eyes go dark. ''No,
no you haven't done something, I just need to talk to you about
Harold, do you understand?''
''You...you know Harold?'' he said quietly.
''Yes, Tommy, I do.'' She swallowed hard and noticed Sabrina looking
at her through the rear-view mirror. ''And we really, really need to
talk.''
Sabrina kept on stepping on the gas pedal, while Kelly started
talking, with a voice that didn't seem hers, an alien voice that said
things Sabrina didn't want to hear, things she wanted to pretend that
they never escaped her friends mouth, a sound a little more louder
than a faint whisper. She heard Tommy's voice answer now and then as
well, but she just kept looking straight away, not back to the two
people in the back seat, but straight forward, hiding this way her own
tears, rolling down her cheeks.