Everything is hard before it gets easy. Autumn Wright is the living proof of that. Her troubled upbringing has shaped and molded her into the woman she is today. All the hurt and pain she's learned to overcome in Cruel Tenderness with the help of Do...
As I approached Lance's black Tesla 2020 Model X., I came to a halt, unlocking the doors, watching the back doors fly up.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Lance was a simple man, but he didn't mind spending his money when it came to cars. Cars are his guilty pleasure. He collected them. It made him feel connected to his father in a way. He told me when growing up. His father use to have his own mechanic shop, up until his death. When he was younger, he used to lend his father a hand fixing cars battered, sick, and bruised up. He used to hate it. While he spent his weekends at the shop. His friends spent their weekends macking honey's, watching movies, playing ball, having a blast, being teenagers. At the same time, he was staining his clothes, face, and fingernails with car oil.
"What you do for a living, Mr. Lance ?" Ciara blurted out, getting straight to the point. I stopped my journey to the passenger side and turned around, and watched as Ciara stood there frozen in place. With her mouth wide open in Aw as she looked at the doors that were now in the air. I couldn't blame her; this was the same reaction I had when I walked into Lance's garage. In saw the million-dollar car collection.
"I'm a doctor. I fix brains." He said, coming up behind her, tapping the top of her head, which caused her to chuckle and look up at him.
"Well, if fixing brains, have you paid like this. I know what I wanna do when I grow up." This earned a chuckle from Lance and me. Man, this little girl was something else. "This some back to the future type stuff." She said, taking her attention off him and back on the Tesla with a look of amazement.
Her comment made Lance and I look at each other. Back to the future was a classic movie way before her time. So, how did she know anything about it?
"What you know about back to the future?" I said, looking straight at her waiting to hear the words she let fall from her mouth.
"It's a classic and my favorite movie." Ciara said, taking her attention off the car for a second in on to me.
"Mine too." Lance said, making her snap her head up, now giving him her attention. I knew this was Lance's favorite movie. He made me watch it so much. It was starting to grow on me. He told me his mom would watch it every Sunday because it was her favorite movie. In when every they dropped a new one. His mom would drag him and his father to the movies to see it. Like me, it started to grow on him.
"My dad's as well." She said, voice laced with hurt as she broke her gaze from Lance in back to the car.
Anybody with eyes could see that Ciara has been through some traumatizing things. No child at her age should be going through. Her father killing her mother was a lot to take in—the two people you're supposed to love and care about the most. Up until the day you build your own family were gone and never coming back to her, and I know that had to hurt. I didn't know the whole back story behind the situation but knew when she was comfortable. She would let us in. I could see she was, little by little. For the simple fact, we learned about this tragic event. All she needed is support, love, and somebody to talk to. I didn't mind being that for the time being, and I knew Lance didn't either.
