1-7
Fiero
"Mam, could you move your car? Mam?" The policeman called out as he knocked on the car window. The only answer he got were a few small movements from in the car. The cop rolled his eyes and tried again.
"I'm a police officer." Almost immediately the car started to rock back and forth, before an incredibly drowsy Bea moved the makeshift window curtain aside and looked up at the officer, who gave her a friendly smile and wave.
"They could have just asked." She uttered through the glass.
"You're a very heavy sleeper." He responded in a cheery tone.
"Give me a minute." She closed the blinds and quickly threw on some clothes, which just so happened to be her black Ankh dress with those meaty old boots, for some reason she was drawn to the outfit that day. She exited the car and stretched her body as the cop let out a chuckle.
"Well I can see why they called me down, you're downright terrifying!" He joked. Bea glared daggers at him as she crawled back into the car and turned it on. It groaned to life and pulled out of the lot as a group of employees stood near the building, watching the threat to their peaceful existence leave them in the dust. She didn't look back, her mind not dwelling on what was to come, she'd figure that out eventually. The reptile drove through the winding forest path that led to her work, and after several minutes she pulled to the side of the road and took a deep breath in. She reached into the back and grabbed her phone out of her work pants. She turned it on and was greeted by 3 missing calls, all from Mae, that old friend of hers who she had neglected to call her sense she skipped town. Without hesitation she called her back, and almost immediately got an answer.
"Hey Beebee!" Mae answered.
"Hey Mae." She greeted the cat about as spritefully as she could muster. "I'm sorry for not picking up last night."
"It's OK. I'm glad you called back, I have something important to tell you."
"What's wrong?" Her form stiffened up slightly.
"I'm serious when I say this, like, dead serious."
"Is everything OK?" She asked in a very concerned tone.
"Casey is back." Bea paused, her mind skipping a beat like a record on a turntable.
"What?" She asked, her head unintentionally cocking to the side.
"Casey Hartley is alive."
"You're fucking with me right?"
"I literally just said that I was dead serious." She exhaled
"Yeah, but no? He's dead."
"Do you wanna talk to him?" Mae countered. Beatrice's brow furrowed while she readjusted her seat.
"Yeah, actually, I would." There was some shuffling on the other end of the line before another voice spoke up.
"Hey Bean." A scratchy male voice greeted her warmly. The crocodile hadn't really been friends with Casey, yet for whatever reason he called her 'Bean'. Whether he was teasing or trying to flirt with her by channeling his autistic energy eluded her to this day.
"So you're really Casey?" She asked in a bewildered tone.
"Nope! It's Bill Clinton." The girl nearly let out a bark of laughter from how jarring the comment was if it wasn't for the fact that it wasn't even funny to begin with.
"How the fuck are you alive?" She questioned.
"It's… complicated. Gregg and Angus are coming over today, I can explain it to everyone there." Bea raised an eyebrow.
"This seems, like, really abrupt." She commented.
"Gregg was involved." Suddenly everything clicked into place, like a riddle that only makes sense if you're looking at it through a fun house mirror.
"Makes sense, when and where?" She asked.
"The Party Barn." Casey answered.
"It's still up?"
"Apparently yes." He shrugged. "Our band stuff is still there too."
"And the time?"
"In like 2 hours." Bea's eyes widened as she looked down at the time on the car's clock: 10:07 AM. "I'm sorry you didn't get to hear that yesterday." He continued.
"Uh shit." She muttered as she brought the phone back up to her head. "Can you put Mae back on?"
"Sure, I'll see you later Bean." There was another pause before the cat came back on. Before she could get a word out Bea would stop her.
"I don't know if I can make it." She said, "The drive is an hour and a half without traffic, and there's always traffic." In truth, something in her gut was telling her not to go, as much as she wanted to see her old friends again.
"It's OK if you're late, I just think you should come, it's important." Bea let out a sigh.
"Sure, I'll see you there." She rejected her instincts and said yes.
"You too, it'll be good to see you again!" Mae smiled through the phone.
"I missed you too, goodbye." The crocodile hung up and put it back into her pocket before pulling off the shoulder like a bat out of hell. The car weakly roared as she sped through the trees, then through the gridded streets of Bright Harbor and its suburbs, before finally breaking free and escaping to the endless fields of tall grasses and dotted trees.
Bea relaxed as her car sauntered down the open road, she rolled down her windows and let her face get whipped by the cool autumn wind. She reached down and put a lit cigarette against her lips whilst flicking on the radio, which quite conveniently began to play "I Believe I Can Fly", and for the first time in a long time she felt at ease. Bea was abruptly jerked away when what could only be described as the ear shattering crack of a suspension bridge's cable snapping erupted from the engine bay, and the engine began to scream as something scraped against the pavement. The car nearly came to a complete stop from this alone, causing the crocodile's face to get plenty intimate with the steering wheel. The girl panicked and quickly slammed the brakes and brought the car to a screeching halt.
Everything came to an end, yet she still couldn't hear a thing over her heart pumping in her ears, like someone had put a gun next to her head and pulled the trigger. Palpitations ran up and down Bea's body as she unbuckled herself and stepped outside, the sun beating down on her and turning her into an oversized slab of jerky. The engine steamed and groaned in agony as she lifted the hood, and the crocodile was hit by a plume of dark smoke that glided past her and up into space. She waved what remained away and looked down at the engine, which had somehow fallen through the bottom of the car and scraped along the road below it.
Both her jaw and the hood dropped simultaneously, and her cigarette hit the floor. Bea didn't even begin to understand how to process what was in front of her. Her eyes went wide as her face contorted into a mix of confusion and dread.
"You're fucking kidding me…" She muttered. The whole world began to spin and her legs turned into noodles. Bea collapsed onto the hood of the car before colliding with the pavement below, her head throbbing and aching. Her throat was shut tight and she had to use all of her might just to breathe, her eyes bulged and she felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest. She grabbed it with both hands and gritted her teeth while she violently shook and spasmed across the floor. The whole world felt fuzzy, her vision began to close in and her stomach churned while 1,000 bells chimed in her ears.
'I'm gonna die here aren't I?' Her mind screamed, her terrified thoughts rattling around her mind like an echo chamber. Seconds turned to minutes which became hours which transformed into days and years. Time was irrelevant, it didn't matter how long it took, she was convinced this was the end. A memory began to play in her head, one day when she was 8 years old her mother and her were driving home from school when her mom instead went to the food donkey and let the young Bea sit on her lap as she drove. She was cheering her on like a racecar driver as she pretended to drive through the empty parking lot, driving never felt as good as it did at that moment.
Bea was abruptly turned onto her back, and she saw a large, dark figure standing over her that began to speak to her, she couldn't understand it however. It was strange, she thought that angels were white. They then grabbed her hands and repeated what they had said, now it was clearer to her.
"Breathe in, breathe out…" They calmly chanted as they crouched over her.
"A-am I dead?" She asked in a weak voice.
"No, you are alive. Now, breathe in, breathe out…" They continued to chant. Her body began to relax and her breaths became slower and calmer, until finally her throat opened fully and she took a deep breath. Her vision cleared and she saw who was standing above her. The face of a grey goat hovered high above her and blocked the sun from her face. He wore a magenta batik shirt and dark blue chino pants, this coupled with his hot pink aviators would make him at home in a kid's cartoon if it weren't for the fact that he looked like he could crush her skull with his bare hands.
"Can you hear me?" He asked.
"Yeah…" The goat took his glasses off and put them on the ground next to him. He had bright yellow eyes that beamed like flashlights
"What is your name, do you remember your name?"
"I-it's… uhhh…" Bea's mind went blank, she didn't know what to say.
"It is OK." He said in a calm voice. The man used his mitt-like hands to lift the girl up and lean her against the Saturn while he sat down in front of her.
"What is your name?" He asked again through his thick Russian accent.
"It's Beatrice… Bea." She answered.
"You have a beautiful name Beatrice, I am Dima." He softly reached out a hand to her. She slowly lifted one of hers and shook his, the Russian's meaty hands almost twice the size of hers.
"You were having a panic attack, has this happened before?" She shook her head no. "What happened to you last?"
"The-the engine fell through the fucking floor, how does that even happen?" She groaned. "I'm alright…" Bea attempted to stand but her legs gave way and she collapsed, but the goat caught her before she hit the ground.
"You need to rest for now." Dima said as he propped her up against the car.
And a cig…" She reached down with a trembling hand and pulled out a box of cigarettes.
"You should wait." He warned as she took one out. Bea didn't say anything as she lit the cigarette, hands still trembling while she took a puff. Her body relaxed as a huge plume of smoke erupted from her mouth, and for a moment she looked like a dragon ready to spew fire. Suddenly she felt her throat open up and she scrambled to the side of the road to vomit. Stomach acid was spit from her mouth like fire all across the grass below.
"It is OK, let it out." Dima consoled the crocodile as she heaved. He placed a hand onto her back and patted and rubbed it until she was done. "I will get you water and napkins, stay." He stood up and ran back to his car as took deep raspy breaths in between coughing fits. She had genuinely believed that she was going to die there, abandoned in the middle of nowhere and left to slowly rot away, the thought was terrifying.
"Here." He handed her a folded stack of napkins and a water bottle. "Wipe yourself off and take small drinks, not too much." She nodded while she cleaned her face and took a small sip of water and cringed.
"Shoulda spit that out…" She groaned. "Thanks." Bea said as she looked the goat in the eyes, with the Russian giving her a warm smile in return.
"You are welcome, now let me take look at c-the car, OK? You rest." He said as he stood up and opened the hood.
"I see. Looks like engine- the engine mounts brea-broke, made it fall onto road. Uhhh should be a easy fix I think, long as eng-the engine is not too fucked. It is fixable." He explained. He spoke quickly, and his speech was stuttery and hard to follow, as nearly every grammatical error he made he forced himself to correct.
"How much does it cost to fix?" Was all that was on her mind.
"Uhhh, depends. This is… Saturn SL2 I think, sh-it should be cheap if you do you-it yourself, maybe." He answered.
"Great." She sighed. Dima closed the lid and sat back down next to her.
"What is wrong?" He asked. Bea shook her head.
"Nothing, I'll be fine."
"I imagine it has been rou-a rough day for you, do you want to-"
"I'm fine, really, thank you. I don't mean to insult you or anything but you're just, like, a random guy I just met." Dima began to laugh, like she had told him a joke.
"I just help-helped you clean up from puking, we are way past random guy point." The two looked at each other in silence, before Dima picked his glasses up and handed them to her.
"For your eyes, it is bright out today, no?" She slid them onto her face and the world was covered in a magenta blanket.
"How do you wear these all day?" She asked.
"Simple, I put them on fac-my face and I leave them there." He joked. Bea smirked before she cleared her throat and took a moment to thin.
"There's… been a lot going on recently, for a while. I don't want to go too into it, but yesterday I was laid off, and today I found out that there's something I'm supposed to do in like…" she looked down at her phone's clock. "...an hour."
"An hour? That is soon, do you want me to drive you?" He asked.
"I can call a tow truck, you've helped me plenty."
"OK, do you want me to call you it? I mean, call it for you?" He asked as he stood up and stretched. Bea lifted her phone to her face and sighed, no signal. She knew with her luck she shouldn't be taking chances with strangers, but it was either this or walk there. And besides, he was somewhat right: They were already past the point of being just strangers.
"Your name is Dima right?" She asked.
"Yes, it is Dima."
"Guess I'm riding with you then, Dima." She shrugged.
"Alright then, let me help you up." He said as approached her. He crouched beside her and locked an arm under hers and helped lift the crocodile up, her legs still somewhat wobbly. Even when she was standing he had a foot or so of height on her, and his chest was twice as wide as her entire body. The feeling of having his meaty arm wrapped around hers made her feel… weird inside, cozy almost. They both took a few steps together and soon Bea had managed to stabilize herself.
"Want me to let go?" He asked.
"Mhm." Dima slowly unlocked his arm and let the crocodile walk on her own. She took a few steps forward and looked back. "I'm good."
"Excellent, I will meet you at c-the car, you can call tow truck for… the car when you are in town." The crocodile nodded as she approached her mom's car. She grabbed her handbag and covered the windows before locking the doors. It felt wrong to leave her mother's car out here all alone, but she didn't really have any other options. Dima was already waiting by his car, which was some kind of European sports car.
"What is that?" She queried.
"Pontiac Fiero. European style, American power!" The Russian grinned with glee.
"Oh."
"So, where are you going?" He asked as he opened the door for her.
"Possum Springs." She answered as she took his glasses off. "Here." She handed them back to the goat as she sat down. Dima stuffed the glasses into his pocket and shut the door for her. Even for her the car was cramped, she couldn't imagine how it was for him. She looked over and unsurprisingly he'd removed the driver's seat and cut into the car itself to make a new one.
"Funny, that's where I live." The oversized goat commented as he clambered into the driver's seat and turned the key. The engine roared to life like an angry lion.
"I used to live there a while ago." She added.
"Ah! What coi- a coincidence, like we are… suzhdeno vstretit'sya- destined to meet!" Dima commented as he pushed the accelerator, causing Bea to be shoved back into her seat.
"Maybe you can show me around some time?" He asked. "I just arrived few-a few months ago. My English is… bad you can see, I cannot read either."
"Maybe. How long have you been learning English for?" Bea asked.
"I start- started when I got here. I am very proud of myself, it is hard when you are old as I am." The goat answered.
"How old are you?"
"Ugh, 32. I feel like old man." He groaned.
"You're 32?" She replied.
"Oh you are flattering me, how old do I look?"
"I'd say… 25ish? 32 isn't that old."
"Thank you!" The flattered goat smiled. "And it really is that old, you could run top speed into wa-a wall and be fine, I do that and I am in a hospital for next months. Sorry, next few months." The crocodile raised an eyebrow.
"It's not that bad is it?" She asked.
"It is, enjoy youth while you have it, my hair is already turning gray." The two of them drove in silence for a while longer before Bea spoked up again.
"...I'm 21, if you're wondering." She mentioned in a coy tone.
"Ah, I see. I did not ask because my mama told me it is rude to ask lad-a lady her age." The goat explained.
"Oh, uh, thanks?" She thanked him, her face turning a slight shade of red from the comment. "That's a good piece of advice."
"Yes, she was a smart woman, smarter than everyone in fam-the family." He smiled. "What about your mother?" There was a long and awkward pause shared between them.
"She was… awesome." Was all she could muster up.
"Ah." The goat said. "Do you mind if I put some music on?"
"Sure." Dima hit the play button on the cassette player in the car and a calming guitar melody began to play.
"What song is this?" She asked.
"No Surprises by Radiohead, I grew up on this album." He grinned like a kid in a candy shop.
"It's pretty." She uttered. They drove in silence for some time, the calming music easing both their nerves. After some time the song ended and the Russian exhaled.
"What did you think…" He asked as he looked over at the crocodile. Bea was fast asleep, her face leaned up against the glass of the car. Dima couldn't help but crack a smile, she was so out of it that she was starting to drool a little. He reached into the back of the car and pulled out an old plaid blanket and threw it over her sleeping form.
"Sleep well, malyshka." He whispered as he brought his eyes back to the road and got back to the drive to Possum Springs.
End