The Winter Project

44. Minoru

Minoru watched Isabel intently as the police officer came around to the window and asked her to exit the vehicle. He watched her body shaking and her eyes fill with tears that then fell uncontrollably down her face. He listened to the conversation and was curious as to why she was reacting so immediately when the police officer had said nothing of substance to her yet. For some reason she seemed petrified of the officer simply for being an officer. He wondered if it had anything to do with her parents death, and then silently called himself stupid for not realising earlier.

"This van, it is stolen," said the police officer, writing down notes and not looking either of them in the eye. He looked stern and irritated at Isabel's inability to communicate effectively. "It was reported stolen last night from a Cleo Blakeley. This car is registered to a Cleo. Are you Cleo? Do you have license?"

Minoru himself admitted that the language barrier made the tone of the officer seem far more abrasive than usual, and he felt sorry for Isabel as she struggled to respond to him through her tears and her evident fear.

"Cleo is my friend, we bought the van together but she is not here anymore," Isabel said, her voice growing louder as she pleaded. "This is my van too! I can show you photos, I can call her and she can explain!"

Her hands were shaking violently and as she tried to pull her phone out of her bag, she dropped it upon the road and the screen smashed instantly. She stared down at it in disbelief.

"The van is not registered to you. The van is registered to Ms. Blakeley. It is stolen property, and we have an order to return it."

"No, no, no, please don't take my van, please don't take my van!"

She broke down into the most haunting screams as the police officer removed the key from the keychain and called in for a tow truck to take the van away. Within less than twenty minutes, the van was gone, towed back down the road they had just been happily travelling on and leaving them on the side of the road with no way back.

"Hey, hey it's okay," Minoru said in a weak attempt to comfort her. She sunk down to the floor and he sat alongside her, rubbing her shoulder gently. "It's okay, it's only a van."

"No...it's not only a van," she cried. "That's my only way home! I can't fly, I can't...that's my van. That's my home."

Minoru had not planned for his first date with her to go this way, and he felt awkward for not knowing her well enough to know how to comfort her effectively. Her reactions to the situation, however, did not scare him in the slightest, and he simply sat beside her on the side of the road as she cried. Minoru did not get scared of intense emotions, even though he had rarely felt any himself. When she began to hyperventilate, he said nothing except for instructions on how to breathe deeply until she was simply back to crying. He felt relief that he was able to stop her from panicking but he wished deeply that he knew how to make the tears stop falling from her eyes.

He thought about how much she must have loved the van and how passionately she talked about the way Steven fixed it up for her and called it his Winter Project, and he felt painful levels empathy for her. He could tell that her past had troubled her for years and that she had probably not opened up to anyone about it for a long time, and for that he felt respected that she had opened up to him so freely. It made him question again his skepticism around love, for he felt it inside of him and he couldn't control it.

After an hour or so of sitting by the side of the road, she composed herself enough that she was able to call Steven who came to pick the both of them up in his car. At first, he had glared at Minoru as if he had something to do with it, but after hearing the story, he thanked him quietly for supporting his granddaughter. On the journey back to the hotel, she sat in the back and simply stared out of the window, a look of pure anger on her face. Minoru guessed that when tested, she would not be one he wanted to argue with. He sat quietly and nervously in the passenger seat, wondering what he could do or say to make things better.