ILLUSION, ELI HALE

one | nadia the super spy

2024

It was cute to think of thirteen-year-old Nadia Porter as a super spy. Her hair was donned in two long braids and she wore an old tee shirt she'd found in her mother's closet, super y2k with lace on the bottom and the bootcut jeans she loved wearing because of the flares on the bottom. Not to mention the dark sunglasses perched atop her head on this November afternoon. There was no need for it, but she suggested to Nathan that it gave her a sweet sense of anonymity. Almost as if she hadn't been in Eli Hale's eighth-grade English and Math class since the middle of August.

Brother and Sister raked the parking lot of Hale Auto. Cars filled the space, most needing fixing. In the time that Nadia and her older brother had been there, two residents of their town had gotten their cars back speedily.

"How can one man do what we hire five men to do in half the time?" Nathan spoke, mainly to himself as he rubbed the dust off of an old Ford Fusion. In the window of the car, there was a sign with numbers on them, listing off the parts of this car that he was giving away. "And he's selling parts! Nadia, we need to take this man down."

Inside the shop, there was Derek Hale. Bent over the hood of the Porter family's Kia. Nathan shuddered at the idea of another man changing the oil of their precious Carla, something their father named it, but it was their one-way ticket into the lion's den.

Porter's Car Care was too busy to take their own automobile was Nathan's excuse. It seemed as though Derek Hale didn't believe him, and he had much sense not to. Their lot was twice the size of Hale Auto and they didn't have half the amount of cars in there. Ever since the Hale family opened up their shop, the Porter's customers have begun to leave, dwindling down to only their most loyal customers.

"Maybe he's just quick. Like Mama when she braids my hair."

"Inhumanely quick." Nathan scoffed.

"Why don't we just start selling parts?" Nadia questioned her brother.

"Because we don't have the funds. Ever since Baba died, the business has begun losing more profits than we've earned. Somehow, we've got to turn this around."

"By sabotaging the Hales?"

"Exactly."

"Has Mama agreed to this?" The look on Nathan's face gave Nadia the answer that she needed. She shook her head and wagged her finger at her older brother. "You know it's bad when your troublemaker thirteen-year-old sister is condoning your actions."

Nathan whipped his head around as if Derek could hear him, then when he figured the coast was clear, he turned his voice into a whisper. "You go find out anything you can about the family. I'll poke the bear over there. Try the kid first."

"You know, when you told me I was going to be a superspy, I didn't think it would feel this icky." Nadia pouted at her brother before letting out a dramatic sigh. "Fine. But don't leave me alone too long. I'm hungry."

Nathan gave his sister a thumbs up before walking over to the garage where Derek was, playfully slapping the man on the shoulder with a big, "How's it going?". Nadia was sure there was a hint of evil lying dormant in her brother.

There was a lot she already knew about the Hales. School had taught her a lot. A long, long time ago, there were a bunch of Hales, but most of them died in a house fire. Now there were a few left: Derek and Eli, the sole inhabitants of their huge house in the middle of town. There wasn't a mother that she knew of. On bring your parents to school day in third grade, there was a rumor of Eli crying in the bathroom because too many students questioned him about where his mother was. Malia Tate, their cousin, lived in the room connected to the Auto Shop. That was evident because as Nadia leaned against the row of Fords, she spotted the woman coming home with a grocery bag of food in pajama pants.