Chapter 49
Driving Arrangements
(Frank Grimes)
Honestly, Frank couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or not to be asked to drive Misha, his girlfriend’s daughter’s car to the game. At first, he was hesitant to drive the vehicle, as getting into a car owned and operated by a teenager was always asking for trouble.
Frank remembered his youth, where his car was filled with food wrappers, random stains, and of course it had its own quirks. Quirks derived from improper driving, not allowing the engine enough time to accurately switch between gears, not allowing enough time for the engine to rev up to the needed gear before switching, all minor things that would grind and break a vehicle.
Thus when Frank was given the chance to drive the Mustang GT, he felt that there was going to be something to the car that would cause an inexperienced driver to falter.
Yet, the car was smooth.
The gears shifted cleanly, even though it had a clutch, it was open and forgiving. In fact, if Frank didn’t know any better, he would have assumed that the car was shifting and driving on his own, and only letting Frank pretend to remember how to drive a manual transmission.
Andrea, his girlfriend, drove behind him in Frank’s car.
Now that he was actually on the road and seeing how a well maintained vehicle worked and operated, he felt more concern about Andrea’s driving than his own. In fact, he felt he almost needed to bring in the vehicle to Misha’s shop again. If only to gauge her acceptance of him, as two weeks without power, let him realize just how important Andrea had become to him.
At first, he was drawn here by the unexpected nature of a case that he couldn’t mentally close. A case that kept calling to him, speaking of aliens and extra-terrestrial magic.
Of course, he knew then just as he knew now that it was not actually going to happen. That such occurrences didn’t happen, but he still felt compelled to solve the case.
Now almost ten years later, he was certain that he had solved the case, as the girl Misha, had to be the girl from the reports. The one that mysteriously disappeared all those years ago.
While this story lacked all the glitz and glamor of alien encounters, and possible supernatural elements, Frank was happy that he followed the case. Even happier as he has begun to think that the true reason this case was so appealing to him all those years ago, was that he was meant to meet Andrea.
Andrea, where to begin with her. She is definitely not going to be nominated for mother of the year. Nor daughter of the year, as the death of her mother hit her so hard that she almost broke down entirely. Added to that was the fact that Andrea showed all the signs of an addict. Classic co-dependency, classic signs that she would and could become an alcoholic or worse to mask her suffering.
Frank had kept a close eye on her, trying to keep her from doing something stupid. Something that Frank would himself not be able to forgive as a former cop. Then the day that he was certain that Andrea would break, the day when he knew that Andrea would try to find illegal substances to help mask her overwhelming pain, that is the day that a miracle happened.
Andrea had left early in the morning, no letter, no notice of where she went. She was just gone.
Then the world went dark.
That’s when Frank waited in the apartment. Well at first he tried to go around searching the city in his car. He looked for her in all the usual haunts, the salon, the food market, anywhere he could think of, but she was not there.
Then after the world went dark, he went back to his apartment and just waited. There after a few long agonizing hours, he finally heard the rustling of keys scraping against a hole.
When Andrea came stumbling into the apartment, hair disheveled and clothes clearly covered in grime Frank was the happiest he had ever been to see her.
“I’m so sorry,” was all Andrea got out, before Frank was to her and covering her in his embrace.
“Did you?” Frank asked, and there was a lot in that question. There were a lot of things that could have been covered in that question, everything from infidelity to drug use, to worse.
“No,” Andrea said shaking her head. Then slightly trembling she added, “I was about to. I was about to make the worst mistakes of my life. But then as I was walking to the spot, the power went out. I should have turned back, right then. In fact, I wanted to, but I was already so close that I decided to try anyways. I went to the spot, but apparently they were gone when I got there.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Hearing that Frank let out a sigh of relief.
“It was only after an hour of being there that I realized how low my life was. How I was this close to losing everything. Here I had the best man in the world, and I was about to lose him. I, I don’t know if you believe in the supernatural, but I have to believe that my mother was there looking out for me. Causing the statewide blackout, otherwise I would never be able to return to you. Here.”
She was almost incoherent by the end, just mindless ramblings, as tears filled her.
Frank cradled her close, then gently searched her arms. Stroking them for warmth, but really, he was checking her for any puncture wounds. Having not felt any, Frank let out the last tension that was filling him.
It had been close, too close. His morals and ethics would have all but forced him to stay with Andrea long enough for her to get sober, but he would never be able to stay with a user. But fortunately, the end of the world came, and he and Andrea were that much stronger for having survived it together.
Two weeks of foraging in a post-apocalyptic world showed him that Andrea was someone he wouldn’t mind staying with. For him, those two weeks felt like two months at the very least for most relationships he had ever been in, as he was forced to be by her side that entire time. And despite the random eccentricity that she had, now Frank couldn’t imagine spending his time with anyone else.
The fact that her daughter came the next day with Phil to fix their car, and help work the electricity in their stuffy apartment building was also a plus. Once again seeing the entire housing unit go from not having any power or electricity to being one of the first buildings up and operational was alarming for Frank, but he just chalked it up to Misha’s mechanical genius.
That was when Frank made another astonishing revelation about himself. While he knew that Misha already had a great male role model in her life with her grandfather Phil, he realized then and there that he would be proud if one day Misha could call him dad.
At first, he thought that Misha all but hated him. Only to then find out that she had asked him specifically to drive her vehicle to the basketball game, as Misha and her other teammates had to ride the team bus to her game. Though they would then be free to get alternate modes of travel from the game.
Apparently, Misha and her friends were going to leave directly from the game and drive to Pittsburgh in order to try to see a Hasty concert.
When Frank first heard this, he almost stepped in as a fill in parent. Misha was too young, at least that was his first thought. Even Andrea thought so, but then Andrea was one of the first to submit, when Phil told her his thoughts on the whole issue.
“Misha is far more mature than you or I could ever hope to be. The fact that she has this chance, to go out and make memories with new friends is exactly what we hoped for when we let her go to public schools. She needs this, in fact we need her to do this, for even if she fails she will still need the experience of knowing what trouble is in the future. Had this been you, or some other teen I would completely shut this down and not hear of it. But again, this is Misha, and she has earned this chance to see what being an adult is truly like.” Phil’s sharp words cut through Andrea, causing her to wince.
No doubt Andrea had flashbacks of a few weeks ago, when she herself almost failed at being an adult, while being of age, showing that age was not a determining factor in terms of success.
Normally Frank would steer well away from such topics, but it was clear that Phil thought Andrea should not have a say in this particular topic, especially with how she had all but abandoned Misha over the past few weeks.
This was when Frank tried to add his own thoughts to the process, “for what its worth, I agree with this.”
With that Andrea glared at Frank, tears forming in her eyes as Frank could almost read the betrayal clearly etched in her features. Seeing her, Frank instantly raised his hands up in a defensive gesture.
“Hear me out. Misha has been through just as much as you have. From what I can tell your mother was just as much of an influence on her as she was on you.” Frank began, and as he spoke, he could see his words having an impact on Andrea, as her features began to relax ever so slightly. This was good, and gave Frank the courage to continue with his thoughts.
“Honestly, from everything I’ve heard about Misha, she likely needs this chance to get out and away from everything as much as us, if not more than we do. I mean she is almost too perfect as a teenager, no drama, no moping around, no bad attitudes. And that was before the death of her grandmother, after which you mostly abandoned her.” At that Andrea really crumpled in, as the weight of his words hit her. It was a low blow, but one that needed to be said, if Frank was going to help Andrea avoid causing an even greater rift between her and Misha.
“That’s why she likely needs this chance to go out and experience the real world. Her friend apparently has the tickets to the concert, all Misha is doing is driving. Honestly, I don’t see a reason why she shouldn’t go. The more I think about it, the more forcing her to stay at home away from everyone will only cause her to be surrounded by bad memories. Particularly if she knows that here friends are out experiencing the world without her.” Frank said.
Vroom.
Those were Frank’s thoughts as he drove Misha’s car to the game. Odd how so many memories would come to him as he drove.
Fortunately, his words struck home, as Andrea eventually relented in her protests. Given that she was the only one protesting the outing, Frank could only see it going poorly for their relationship. Something that Andrea reluctantly agreed to later on, though he was hoping that eventually their nightlife would continue to where it was during the apocalypse.
***
As Frank finally arrived at the venue, he was surprised to see that the event was almost sold out. Apparently being one of the first post-apocalyptic school sporting events caused the school to host a Female Basketball game at the same time that the school hosted a Football game. This caused a slight overflow of parking, forcing Frank to park on a grass field off the parking lot.
Holding the keys, Frank remembered the instructions, but then wondered if they were real. Just lock the doors and hide the key under the seat as if this were some form of car rental return place.
Yet, Frank did as expected, placing the keys under the seat. Trying to make it seem like he was just adjusting the seat to be further back.
Getting out, Frank tested the two doors, finding them both locked and hoped that Misha remembered to take her spare key with her.
Then Frank left and joined Andrea as he went to see his first high school basketball game that he had attended since he left high school.
Joining Andrea, he felt a slight bulge in his breast pocket over his heart.
It was too fast, he knew it, in fact everything about his relationship with Andrea told him he needed to slow down, but he was at that point and stage in his life when he knew a good thing when he saw it.
The adversity and strength that Andrea showed since her mother’s death, the kindness and humility she bestowed him, a stranger, all spoke to how amazing of a person that Andrea was.
Frank had always had the ring with him, ready to give to the one.
In fact, Frank was sort of surprised he kept it for his journey to this point. Then when he found it amongst his things that he started to unpack in his new apartment, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was also fate that showed it to him.
He found it, on the night that Andrea came back to him, on the night when she almost succumbed to temptation.
At the time Andrea swore she heard her mother’s ghost talking to her, telling her to turn back. Having heard it, Frank was almost going to comment that there is no such thing as ghosts, but then realized that he too had his own quirks with looking for aliens. By comparison ghosts were not too far of a stretch.
Thus, he kept the ring with him, wondering if it was fate that he found the old engagement ring for his now ex, on the same night that Andrea turned away from temptation.
Regardless, he was certain of one thing, that he truly wanted Andrea to be by his side for the foreseeable future.
“You got everything?” Andrea asked.
Quickly patting his pocket for extra reassurance, Frank replied “yes, now that I have you. I have everything I need.”
“Careful with talk like that, we might not make it to the game.” Andrea replied, a sharp smile filling her lips.
Then Frank felt pressure in a new way he never thought possible. As he entered a girls basketball game to cheer on his girlfriend’s teenage daughter. With the expectation that he now wanted to impress her to help this transition go smoothly. The fact that he managed to drive her car here safely was a good step, though he knew it was just one of many that would come.