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Chapter 18

Alice's father somehow didn't believe her. As he went around to check the writing. Alice scraped the ice away from the window that had the message. The only bits of frost left on the window were near the top of the window. You would have to lean on one side of the ice scarper to get rid of the excess amounts on the top side. Alice didn't bother to scrape the small area of ice away as her father came to look at her window. He was amazed that the words that were written among the window ice was gone. "What did the words spell out?" He asked. He squinted at the window. He was hoping that there would be traces of the traced letters on the window. Sadly for him, there was no trace of anybody trying to scrape away parts of frost from the windshield to make a message. "I don't know what the message the words were trying to tell dad. Either way, the message that was on the car is freaking me out." Alice reasoned. "You didn't see the message when you were trying to scrape the ice off?" The father questioned. "No." Alice answered innocently. She didn't like lying to her parents. As this made her feel dishonest and guilty. "Maybe a stranger came along and decided to do something creepy to our car window?" The father felt that was a strange thing to do for somebody to walk do the sidewalk.

"What's going on honey?" The mother queried. "Somebody has written a message on our car window. Now Alice has scraped it off." The mother rolled down the window and asked Alice what was written on the window. Alice told her mother that she didn't know. She was busy scraping that she didn't noticed the letters. The mother was a little worried. "I think somebody might have done something bad with our car window. I mean, there might be somebody who is crazy enough to write on other people's car windows." Alice pleaded with a serene sounding voice. The father looked at her, then at the mother. "Well, I think we should get the rest of the windows cleaned off from the frost." The father told them. Alice felt guilty inside to make her parents believe her lie. She helped her dad to clean off the rest of the car windows. She then went inside the car. It was her only chance to get warm from the frigid air. Alice rested in the car. Her mother was careful to drive the car out onto the road. She then took the same route that they normally take to go to drop Alice off. Just as the parents were pulling up to the school. They saw a construction pickup truck dropping Amelia off. This pickup truck had the Citywide Construction logo on it. The truck drove away as soon as Amelia was only a few steps away from the school. Alice was ready to climb out of the car to walk to the school entrance as well. Her mother drove the car in front of the walkway that led into the school. There she parked the car. "Alright Alice, have a nice day at school." Her father spoke to her. "Have a great day too." Alice said as she was ready to open the car door to take the first step onto the concrete walkway. "Do well at school." Her mother told her. "I will Mom." Alice replied warmly as she brought her backpack out of the car and put it on her back.

Her parents car drove away soon after. Alice got inside the school. The cold air was starting to warm up by the minute. She got into the hallway when she saw Amelia talking to some students. Suddenly, there was a small explosion outside. It came from behind Alice. She turned around and saw the Citywide Construction truck was parked next to the exit of the driveway. Smoke came from under the hood. There was a lady that came out of the pickup truck. She seemed upset. Alice watched as her two parents came to help her. Alice remembered her face as the one she saw in the council members picture. Alice could feel somebody pushing her aside. Amelia came rushing up to the door. She was shocked to see that truck was stuck near the exit of the school driveway. "Oh no. Not my mom's truck. Now am I supposed to get to school now?" Amelia complained. She gave a distant stare to Alice. "Do you know who that truck belongs to?" Amelia asked her. "You said that it's your mother's truck." Alice responded using a casual tone of voice. "That's right. She is also part of a council board at the Citywide Construction company. She gets to help the company to advise what projects should be done for the city. And she also the supervisor at a few construction sites in the past." Amelia added. Alice could tell that she is proud about her mother. "Maybe she could do something about that abandoned construction site that I walk past when I go home." Alice suggested. "There's an abandoned construction site on your way home?" Alice nodded her head. "Well, I remember that my mom did help to supervise that construction project. But that project was a disaster." Amelia commented. "Well, there wasn't any money left to be used for the construction. That's what I heard about it anyway." Alice told her. Amelia had an angry look on her face. "I mean, I heard from the news that the construction site was cancelled because there was no more money to be used in it." Alice added. She could tell that Amelia was not happy about the news. "Yeah, it's a shame. Maybe my mom would want to turn that lot into a playground." Amelia said with a grin. "Actually, I think that the community wanted a small mall there." Alice spoke in disagreement.