The Otherkind Book One:Heart

~*~ 37 ~*~

~*~ 37 ~*~

He amazed me, still shaking my head I headed down the steps towards her. I still hadn't seen her pickup. She must have parked a short distance away and then walked to the sidewalk to meet me.

She was smiling brightly. "How was it?"

"Overwhelming and boring at the same time. Did you know a Mr. Richards?"

She laughed. "Oh surely yes. I went to school with him. Real stick in the mud but he's not bad. Give him a chance. I know your dad and uncle gave him a bull ride of a time. He's probably worried about the next generation of Crofter's."

"He implied as much, but after school he came up and said hi and winked at me!"

"You don't say?" she looked at me. "Must have taken a shine to you after all, despite your historic name."

"Where's the truck?"

"I didn't bring my beast." her voice was enigmatic.

Before I could ask, she held out a key chain dangling it back and forth, three keys suspended from it.

"What's that?"

"Well," she pointed "this is your house key."

"The other two?"

"See for yourself!" grinning she pointed to a shiny yellow jeep parked at the curb with a smart black vinyl roof. "Early Christmas present to keep forever no matter where you call home."

I stood there staring it my mouth hanging open. I didn't know what to say or do. Tears welled up in my eyes. I hastily scrubbed them from my face.

"It's okay Rowan." She pulled me into a hug.

"Thank you!" I managed as gracefully as I could. Part of me wanted to bounce around it laughing!

"Glad you like it."

"Like it? I adore it!"

"Two things. The color. It was the only one on the lot."

"I absolutely love the color!" Only then did I notice the new vehicle stickers on the driver's side passenger window and looked up at her my mouth hanging open. Grams continued on as if not noticing "And two, its manual. Can you drive a stick?"

"I can learn!"

"I thought that might be the case. Hence the reason I parked way back here. This way you can learn here in the lot. Once you get the hang of how to use the clutch and find where the friction point is, it's a piece of cake. You'll love it and won't want to go back to an automatic."

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Running over to her I hugged her tightly almost knocking her off her feet. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! You shouldn't have done this!"

"I also did the liberty of doing some shopping for you. You can take back anything you don't like. Have a look inside!" She was grinning like it was Christmas morning!

I opened the driver's door flabbergasted beyond belief. Inside in the back seat was an army of bags from a store name I didn't recognize. "Some shopping?"

Grams shrugged, still grinning she got in on the passenger side. "Just a bit. You needed this hon."

I wanted to laugh, cry, and scream all at the same time, but instead I got in carefully and examined the dashboard and looked down at the three pedals on the floor and the gear shifter between Grams and I.

"Standard 'H' pattern for the gear shifter and reverse is push down and move to the left and up. Fifth or over drive is to the center over to the right and up. Sounds confusing now but you'll get it."