CHAPTER 1

Sunday 27th November 2011 (2 weeks ago)

Day 1

It was a cold and grey morning when the Airplane from New York landed on the runway of the airport in San Antonio, Texas.  The clouds looked heavy that Sunday morning and Nancy was in a particularly grumpy mood for she'd been flying for hours without a wink of sleep.  Why is it that airports' are always crowed? C'mon it's 7:36a.m and I'm fighting my way out of the airport, Nancy thought as she finally saw the airport's exit door.

But unknown to Nancy her best friend Phebie had been at the airport for the past 30mins waiting to surprise her friend. Phebie sensed there was something wrong when she spotted Nancy walking towards her and lifted her arms to wave, but Nancy brushed past her without even a glance of recognition in her direction. 

''Who're you off to meet in such a hurry? Saint Nick!?" Phebie joked as she grabbed Nancy's left elbow.  Once Nancy turned and saw who was in possession of her elbow she flashed her million-dollar trade mark smile in her friends direction.

"Who says I haven't met him already?" Nancy let go of her purple with black polka-dot trolley and hugged Phebie as 6 years of being apart melted in that single moment.  "You have no idea how good it is to finally see you again, live and in the flesh".

"Same here." Phebie answered as they finally separated. "C'mon I promised your mom I'll pick you up at the airport so as you don't stress yourself finding a cab." Then they launched into a stream of chatter as the two walked out of the airport and into the parking lot, Nancy relished in the feeling of the San Antonio morning breeze. I am home, Nancy chimed in her head.

"So how's Mama? And Dad? What's everyone doing? Has the street changed? How-"

"Calm down Nancy, everyone's great and healthy. You'll see for yourself soon enough." Phebie laughed at Nancy's stream of questions.

"I just wanna know so as not to be surprised when I get home." Nancy grabbed her bestfriend's arm. "Please Phebs just tell me if there's anyone in a coma or something."

"Coma!?" she looked at Nancy with a raised brow. "If I told right now that someone you knew was in a coma would you be happy?"

"Is that a trick question?" Nancy raised a finger at her in playful banter. "But seriously though is there?"

"Sadly no," Phebie's face was straight, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Nancy grabbed her trolley and practically ran for the exit, Phebie following a short distance behind at a leisurely pace, like an owner would with their dog sprinting through the park, they quickly reached the exit with little struggle. Nancy looked out at the parking lot with a massive smile, almost there, almost home, just a little while long.

As the two maneuvered their way through the parking lot, Nancy had to halt abortly to stop being run over by a blue Mercedes. A few seconds later Nancy had to stop again, not from avoiding being trampled by another car, but in horror as she saw the vehicle Phebie was walking towards, Nancy knew that Pheb's family was poor, but......this is too much.  The car looked like it was originally blue, but due to generations of being in the sun the car was nearly bleached to grey, the roof of the car, she was told, had been lost during World War II and was replaced with the roof of a red car. The hood of the car was absent, so the rusty, spider-web infested engine was exposed to the world and lastly the bumper was hanging lose, thereby scraping the road and leaving its- the demon car's -mark wherever it went.

"I know it's not much," Phebie said, bringing Nancy out of her trance.  "But it's the snazziest car my family could afford."

"When was that? 1874?" Nancy couldn't stop herself from saying. Phebie looked down at her feet, not wanting Nancy to see the anger and hurt in her eyes.

"Look I'm sorry" Nancy said, placing her right arm on Phebie's shoulder "It's just...well-em, I....err"

"You don't need to explain, most of our high school friends won't even look at me coz of I drive this car. Can you believe that they actually refer to it as 'graveyard on wheels'?" Phebie said making quotation signs with her hands.

''Don't mind them." Nancy said, opening the door to the passenger seat lifting it with care. Nancy carefully lifted her trolley to place it in the back seat (too afraid to leave it in the trunk for fears she couldn't explain), to find out there were no seat, only purple-green cushions on vibrating metal rods. Phebie had entered the drivers' seat and turned on the engine.

''I don't." Phebie replied to what Nancy had forgotten she'd said. Nancy finally sat down in her seat and scrunched down low, hoping no one she knew would see her as Phebie backed out of the parking lot. She would never admit it to Phebie but this car was a disgrace just to be seen around, and she couldn't believe that her mother had willing asked for to be picked up in this thing.

Phebie stomped down on the clutch, put the car in reverse, and maneuvered the car out of the parking spot. The motion of the car was far better than the cars' outer appearance let out to be.  When the car reached the airports' gates the security men let out a howl of laughter which Nancy was sure wasn't the first time they did so.

"Hey, Al!" One of the security men sitting in the one of the exit booth yelled to the man behind him. "That thing called a car is back!" A single strand of tear went down the guy's eye.  The man called Al ran forward as if to confirm what his friend was saying was true or false.

"Oh My God, and there's someone else in it, Bob!

Thank God I'm no coming back to the airport anytime soon, Nancy though gratefully and thank God I can't blush! She added as she looked at Phebie's crimson cheeks.  Phebie had been suffering ridicules like this since practically the day of her birth! Not that she couldn't handle herself, Phebie was tough when she wanted to be, but when she wasn't Nancy was almost always there to save her.

"What's it to you!?" Nancy burst out. Nancy pushed her head outside the car window and faced the man, glaring all the while. "At least she has the courage to go out and be seen in this car, beside, this car is a darn sight better to see then those things you call faces!" She then stuck her head back in the car and giggled with Phebie as they usually did years ago when they wanted to piss someone off.

They drove off without as much as a backward glance. The clouds that hung in the sky earlier were suddenly gone and the bright San Antonio sun shone brightly down on them, making Nancy feel ten times happier then humanly possible.

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Author's Note

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