The Blue Car

Gravel crunching, metal creaking, the sound of an engine grunting with effort. Then the sound of a car door and the tinkling beep of a lock. It called my attention from my general lazing about. My heart jumped into the bones on my ribcage, eagerly trying to peek past my skin. In contrast to my heart, my brain, who remembers disappointment, moves my body up slowly. The curtains obscure my view just enough that I have to push them out of the way to see through my window. 

Across the street, the sun bounced off of blue paint and shadows turned the blue into black. The rear lights weren’t on, but they blazed like two giant rubies. Dust muted the polished chrome into a grumpy grey the rainclouds would agree with. Most of all about the car, it was across the street. 

My heart gave up, disappointed yet again and my brain, ever the stupid organ, tried to comfort it with hopes that it wasnt what it looked like. The neighbor then climbed out of the car and took the groceries out of the trunk. 

It wasn’t him.

I growled in disappointment and set the curtains back in their original position. I settled back into my bed and grumped to myself yet again. Somehow it was always like this. I am never able to catch him when he comes home, only the neighbors. I always get my hopes up when that stupid blue car parks itself across the street. Somehow when it came to the cars, I could not tell which one was farther away. I am starting to think maybe the universe thinks its funny, the stupid birds outside are actually laughing at me. 

I can still see the neighbors outside the window, the curtains are only to mitigate the morning light only slightly. Their children hop out of the car and run around the back of it, screaming about something or other. Their skinny mother scolds them, or encourages them to keep kicking each other’s heels, I don’t know, their voices are too far away. I never know what they are saying, one of the universes mean tricks. 

Running with them looked like fun. I had to admit. Maybe I could go outside just this once and…

No, I need to be here, right here for when dad gets home. He will be worried if I don’t greet him as usual when his car comes driving up the gravel in front of our house.

“Another day, another blue car”, I sigh to myself on my bed. The children get out as usual and go running around the street. So far I have resisted going outside and starting a game of ball with them or to play tag. I bet dad is proud of me, that I have become so mature I don’t run across the street. 

Our driveway is still empty right now, empty as it always seems to be. It really isn’t fair. The neighbor’s driveway is always full with that blue car, their kids.

I notice the children tend not to stay out for long. I have missed many opportunities to say hi because the house they live in eats them. I have no idea what they get up to in there. Maybe forever playing without me or on their television or phones. I only think about them when I am REALLY bored though. I bet by all the food their mother makes them lug out of the car they mostly eat. I’m a little jealous. But maybe Dad will come back with lunch, a turkey sandwich with white bread, mayo and cheese. I love those sandwiches. Or maybe he will bring back a new toy to cure my boredom with him gone all the time. 

I am wondering which one I prefer when a face presses against the glass. I jump back with surprise, my eyes wide. I had never seen the neighbor girl up close before. Her round nose, her mess of brown curly hair, her gaptoothed grin. 

“Hello”, she said through the screen. 

I am too surprised to respond properly. 

“HELLO”, she calls again and waves her arm so it reaches halfway up the window. She is too small for the window, her chin stays out of view. A smile takes up most of her face and her eyes bulge at me, trying to see me better.

I blink back at her and lean towards her curiously. She lets out a little giggle. The wind makes her hair and my curtains flutter it is so I am able to see her brother running up to her. 

“What are you looking at”, he asks. 

“Look”, she points at me. 

He is slightly taller than her and is able to peek in without standing on his tiptoes. His smile widens when he sees me. 

“Hello, what’s your name”, he asks. 

I answer him. 

“Cool”, He laughs. 

I notice he shares his sister’s nose, the only similarity I see in the two. His skin is darker than hers and his hair is black. His eyes are blue, unlike her black ones and his teeth are not missing. 

“What are you two doing”, An intense voice startles all of us, “Don’t peek in on the neighbors, its rude”. 

Their mother appeared over them, her shadow falling over the window. From afar I imagined her as a smaller person, but in reality she towered over her children. She might have been even bigger than my dad. She was obviously scarier. 

“Look, there is someone living in this house mom”, the little girl pointed to me. 

The woman narrowed her eyes at me, then at my bed. 

“Yeah mom. I told you someone lived here”, the boy said. 

She leaned into my window and looked past me at the room around. It wasn’t much, there used to be furniture, but now there isn’t. I always wondered why he would take his furniture with him when he left. Maybe it was an adult thing. I didn't really see the point. 

“Looks empty to me. Maybe she is all alone”, the woman pondered. 

“That’s so sad. Mom, can I give her turkey sandwich”? The boy asked. 

“No, you shouldn’t waste food like that”, the mother scolded. 

“But I HATE mayonaise”, the boy whined. 

“Fine, but she might not like it”, the mother informed. 

“Of course I would like it! Please I’m hungry”, I begged. 

There was a small space in the window. Dad had always been annoyed that it never entirely closed. He would included it in his tirade about how much he hated this house. The boy slipped the sandwich past the sharp window edges. I grabbed it at the other side and dragged it inside where I started devouring it with gusto. 

“Look she’s eating it”, the girl shrieked. 

“Poor thing. I wonder how long she has been here”. The mother mused. I ignored her and just enjoyed my sandwich. It wasn’t Dad’s but maybe this one was better.

The weeds grew tall in the driveway. They grew taller every day. Every day the children played across the street without me, that blue car would drive into its driveway and I would miss Dad. At least I wasn’t hungry anymore. The boy came over with sandwiches whenever he could and would slip one to me. 

I waited in my bed at the window when finally tires crunched on gravel. I looked up and to my excitement, it was a black car on our driveway. It crunched the weeds down under its tires and mowed them over. It came to a stop and the door opened. 

I jumped up and slipped past the curtains. I shouted loud enough for him to hear me past the glass. I made sounds of glee. 

Except… dad didn’t climb out. Instead a lady in a fancy shirt came out and behind her a bunch of people. 

“So this is the property, been on the market for about a month. Here is the front yard, the driveway is gravel as you can see. It needs to be weeded, but nothing a good bottle of raid couldn’t handle”, she announced. Her smile was wide and fake. 

I stopped and stared at her. What was she doing in the driveway? She wasn’t Dad. She shouldn’t drive up there.

The people moved towards the front door and for the first time in an entire month the door creaked open. I watched the car to see if he would pop out, but behind the tinted windows I saw nothing, but stillness. The people inside were dead or not coming out. I know those people, they never move. They always confused me. 

I shouted again and jumped off of my bed. I ran into the hallway and nearly got stepped on by the big man. I ran and hid in the bathroom before the girl with the sharp heels could come down on my foot. Breathing heavy and heart breaking, I watched them from behind the door. 

“And here is the living room! About two hundred square feet of room. Some nice carpet and an electric fire place. Plus it leads right into the kitchen this way. It was just recently given a new granite countertop and new cupboards”, the woman shouted. It was the first time a voice was heard by the walls in a while. It echoed eerily, startling the dust and the dead below.

I followed them silently, slipping behind doors and corners. I glared at the woman, glared at the strangers in my house. I was so angry, but I didn’t know what to do. 

Why did this happen? Where was Dad? Why was he letting this happen? Then the thoughts I had pushed away for a long time came rolling in. How it was weird that he took ALL of the furniture with him. How his car hadn’t pulled up in the driveway for a month. How he looked at me from the window of his car, just like how I looked for him in mine. 

He left me here. He wasn’t coming back. And these people knew it. 

“And here is another small room. It can be a bedroom or an office. Oh! Its a little musty in here”, announced the woman, “Lets open the window”. 

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. I had been abandoned. That new people were going to move into this house. That I would never see Dad again. 

I sat down and looked at my feet. My eyes stung and I blinked over and over as my vision clouded. I wondered what I had done wrong? If I was a bad girl at some point. Maybe I didn’t mind my manners at the table. Maybe I had broken something bad. I had to have done something bad. Why would he leave me if I was a good girl?

I peeked around the corner again, breathing heavy. 

The woman flung the window open with a startling bang. The curtains opened up like pigeons wings and sun streamed in, unobstructed by glass. Just pure sunlight and fresh air. Beyond it was outside. Beyond it was the blue car and the family that came out from it. 

There was nothing left for me in this house. No more sandwiches, no more Dad, no more car in the driveway. This place was no longer my home. It was empty and would be filled with these people instead. Dad won’t come back, but my world isn’t over yet. There are still some turkey sandwiches out there. 

I ran as fast as I could. Jumped onto the shelf under the window and outside. There were gasps and yelps of surprise as I flew past the people. My feet hit the ground where dirt and bugs and wood chips crackled and protested. I ran, kicking them up behind me. Dirt switched to really tall grass and then to gravel. It was sharp under my feet. The car was much bigger than I expected. The wheels were bigger than me. 

I ran past it and across the street. Then up another gravel driveway to the blue car I had seen many times before.

“Hey are you there”, I shouted and circled the wheels. The car didn’t respond to my voice. The people inside were obviously the ones that never moved. The car moved no more than a piece of furniture today. 

I turned towards the house and the tall door. There were lights on inside and I could hear the voices of the children I knew. I ran up to it, jumped over the steps and came to the door. 

I hit it as hard as I could and shouted, “Hey, hello! Do you have any turkey sandwiches. I’m hungry”. 

For a while nothing happened. No one came. It was like I was talking to a wall. When I was about to give up hope and wander away, the wall became a door and opened. It was the young boy. His blue eyes were big and bright and he blinked at me in surprise. 

“Hello”, I said to him. 

“What is it”? The mother called to him, her voice echoed from far away in the house. It didn’t feel unnatural like in my house. 

“Its the kitten from next door”, The boy called.