The Last Genie: A Novella

Chapter 22

The next afternoon, when Grace walked to her bus stop, despite her plans, she couldn't stop herself from feeling excited. However, Ithel never showed, and he didn't show the next day or the next.

Grace had come to the conclusion that she had scared Ithel off for good, and she tried to tell herself that was a good thing and that that was what she wanted. Even though deep down it really wasn't.

On Friday, Grace was running late and forgot to check the weather, so she didn't grab an umbrella or a raincoat before she left for work. And, as our friend fate would have it, shortly after she got to work it started to rain, and as the day went on the rain got harder and harder and the wind got stronger and stronger.

So, when her shift was over, Grace was absolutely dreading the walk to her bus stop, but as she walked out of her office, a black Honda CRV pulled up in front of her that looked exactly like her CRV that was wrecked in her accident with Ithel.

Then, the passenger window rolled down, and Ithel asked, "You need a ride?" Surprisingly, she heard herself say, "Yes," and without thinking anymore about it, she dashed the short distance to Ithel's car through the rain and hopped in.

After she pushed her wet hair away from her face, Ithel said, "A little wet out there, huh?"

For some reason, Grace found this incredibly funny. Maybe it was because she was so tired or maybe it was because of the emotional roller coaster she had been on for the past week, but for whatever reason, she laughed and laughed, much to Ithel's delight.

When she finally stopped laughing, Ithel asked, "Where do you want me to take you?"

"Take a right out of here then go to the first street light and take a left."

"Ok."

After he pulled out of the office park, Ithel took a deep breath and launched into the apology he had been agonizing over for the last few days, "I'm sorry about yelling at you. I was mad at Kari, and I let it out on you."

"That's ok. I was pretty mad at Kari too."

Ithel didn't let Grace's comments knock him off his planned apology and continued with, "I'm also sorry that I made you waste your last wish, and I want to make it up to you."

"I'm not going to let you give me this car."

"I didn't think you would."

"And speaking of my car. Did you intentionally get a car that looked just like my car?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I drove around until a found a dealer that had one and would swap the R.V. for it."

"I didn't mean how did you get the car. I meant how did you know what type of car I was driving? You must've only seen it for a few seconds before the wreck and because of all the fog I doubt you got a very good look."

"In your living room, in one of the pictures of you and Kari your car was in the background."

Grace was stunned that Ithel would remember such a small detail. But, then another question formed in her mind. "But if you knew I wouldn't take the car, why did you make sure you got a car that looked just like my car?"

"Because I thought you'd like it."

"Because you thought I'd like it?"

"You didn't want to get in my RV, so I wanted to make sure I got a car you would want to get in."

Grace was stunned by the simplicity of Ithel's logic, but she had to admit his plan had worked. So, she decided to get back to the point.

"I don't need you to do anything for me. My life was perfectly fine before you showed up."