Dreamstate

13-Coming Home

The rest of the car wash was quiet and awkward. I couldn't look him in the eye. The confident I once held being taller than him, dispersed as soon as the soaping, waxing, and rinsing action took place. His car was pristine and looked practically brand new. The large rags he bought came in handy when we were sanitizing the inside, and now. He's driving me home.

A high pitch sneeze comes out in the dead of silence that filled the car once we started heading out. I tried holding it in, not wanting to break the solid solitude but that only resulted in it coming out like a hamster coughed. "What the hell was that?"

I sniffle and rub my nose from an itch. "I sneezed."

The AC is turned up because of the hot air outside, but the vent is facing me and I'm starting to shiver. It doesn't help that I'm still damp from our fiasco earlier. I move the vent so it blows in between us instead of directly at my face, and scoot closer to the window that inhaled the heat outside into its being. I softly sigh at the feeling of its warmth touching my skin, and press my head against the window hoping to spread the warmth onto me even more. I close my eyes to fully sense all my pores filled.

I hear Dillon shift around some and peek out of my left eye to see him turn down the AC. A little embarrassed for becoming so comfortable in his car. I sit myself to a proper sitting position and turn the vent back to me once the heat starts to pour out. "Thank you."

I wait for his reply, but no "you're welcome" comes my way. Deciding it would be best to just keep quiet, I stick to only speaking when he has to turn. Would it kill the guy to speak a little bit? Probably. Out of boredom of watching familiar businesses pass us by, I glance at the clock in the dashboard. It's seven p.m. already?!?! "Oh no, PaJa and Sarah.."

"Who?"

I whip towards Dillon with a small amount of fear. "Sarah and going to give me an earful." The one thing I absolutely hate when you get in trouble with either PaJa or Sarah is that they have strange ideas about how parenting should be dealt out. I've heard cruel and unusual, but their punishments take out the cruel and put in waaay more unusual. One time I had to change the pipe under the sink with PaJa watching and a mechanic's help. He wouldn't even let the mechanic do his job! I had to work for hours under the sink, listening to directions and trying to figure out what those strange terms the man used. Of course that's not the most unusual discipline I've ever gotten but it's definitely one of the ones that stand out because at one point I somehow got pipe water to pour inside my shirt. I laugh today about the situation only because at least nothing made a grand entrance into my mouth.

"Who are they?" Dillon asks. He takes a turn that I warned him about earlier. We're getting closer to my home than I thought we would.

"My caretakers. A family of sorts." I look out to see familiar town homes and small business with lofts above them, and look for the famous local bakery for the foster kids and I, Valdo, a famous landmark that Sarah taught us at a young age for if we ever get lost.

"Of sorts?"

I spot the bakery and look on Dillon's side, opposite of the white lighted sign in curvy font, where the first two floors of my Haven is lighted and the upper ones are shut off. Now would be the time when the younger ones would start sleeping. The preferred brown exterior by city rules and the slanted roof has never seemed as daunting as my first day to the four story shelter; this instance right here might just come close to second though. "That's it right there." I point to the shelter, he nods, and drives a little further to make a u-turn and park by the curb.