My car died- A Gas Monkey Fanfic

Dads house

We pulled onto my Dad's driveway, it seemed weird to be here knowing that he wasn't there and everything that he owned was left behind, 20 years of his life just forgotten about in seconds.

A chill ran down my spine, as if my dad was still here in spirit following us as we walked up towards the house, there were things littering the garden, mainly rubbish.
In all the photos my dad had sent, the front garden was always neat as that's what customers saw when they came to his garage.

In a way, it's horrible that it took my dad dying for me to come to Dallas, I wish I had come when he was alive, a chance to watch the Cowboys play at home, we had watched them play but only away matches when they were in Seattle.

I pulled the house keys out of my jacket, the key chain photo of me and my dad was visible as I held them in my hand and Richard twisted his head to look at it.

"Y'all have your Dad's eyes"
He smiled softly as we looked at each other.

I wiped a small tear away and gave a small smile, I had always been close to my dad and it was hard on me when my parents split up, the court decided that I had to live with my mum as she had a stable income.

Richard held my hand as it trembled slightly when I went to unlock the front door.
He took the keys out of my hand and opened the door for me.

Because I had never been to my dads house I had no idea what the inside really looked like, some of his friends and my mom said he was a hoarder but stepping into his house you would have no idea.
Normally hoarders house's were filled with as much stuff as physically possible but dads was the opposite, there wasn't in the little hallway that you first step into, then into the living room, it was tidier then mine and Richard's, my dad definitely was not a hoarder.

I walked over to the window seat, he had a couple photos of the both of us when he used to take me to a rally cross track in the summer.
I picked up one of the photos, he was smiling and I was pulling a funny face, I had one of his jumpers on and it was down to my knees, I must have been about 9 in that photo.
I smiled as I remembered that day, we rented a camper and drove from Seattle to Montana and stayed for the week.
I put the photo back where I had found it and turned around to see Richard looking at me with a soft smile.

"Y'all were close with your dad"
He said as I walked towards him.

"Yeah, I was always a daddy's girl, my love of cars and mechanics came from him, when my parents divorced it broke my heart because I had to stay with my mom. I mean yeah I love her but she was never very supportive, the court decided that I had to stay with my mom because she had a stable job and income whereas Dads wasn't because he was a self-employed mechanic and sometimes would only make $100 a week. I never got to visit him here, he had to come to Seattle and when he did it was for less then a week"

Richard pulled me into his arms and planted a kiss on my head.

"He's proud of you, how far you've come, getting a job at GMG and the fact that you are gonna raise a perfect daughter. Bandit won't get to meet her Gramps but she will be told stories and she'll get his love through you"

The was one of the most sweetest, heartwarming things Richard has ever said and it meant so much to me.

We stayed in each other's arms for a couple of minutes when we heard a rustling noise coming from the kitchen, I looked up at Richard and I could see that he was trying to figure out what the noise was and if someone else aside from us was in the house.

He grabbed the fire poker and motioned for me to stay in the living room, then he slowly crept towards the kitchen.

I made sure I had my phone in my hand in case I needed to call for help, I could hear my heart beat in my ears.
I was the type of person in a horror movie that was always paranoid and would get scared by the smallest sound.

The silence was cut by Richard's laugh followed by him calling my name.

"Sof, it's ok to come in, you're gonna wanna See this"

I let out a deep breath, calming myself, at least there was no one in the house.

I slid my phone back into my jacket pocket and made my way to the kitchen.

In the middle of the kitchen table was a family of Raccoons and Possums eating away at the rotting food, the smell was bad and I have no idea how they could eat a moody 4 month old Chinese takeaway but they were.

"It's kinda cute but horrible, I mean have you seen how moody that shit is?!"
I swatted the Raccoons and Possums off the table, they just scattered away from the food.
One of the Raccoons grabbed my hand, it didn't try to bite me it just held my fingers.

"Great, now I'm Snow White, friend of the animals"
We both laughed as this Raccoon held my hand.

Some of the Raccoons scattered out of the room but one stayed holding onto my fingers, it was smaller then the rest so I guessed it was younger then the others.
It held onto my hand with a tight grip, almost scared to let go.

In a past life I would have run to the hills if I saw a Raccoon, none the less one holding my hand but we used to have one living in our little garden in Seattle and I got used to it, he let me feed him small scraps of food when he couldn't find any himself.

He lived in our garden, morning his own businessman never causing harm for 5 years before he was poisoned by our next door neighbour.
She said that he was eating her cats food but he never went near her house and her cat had been dead for half a year when he was killed.

Looking at the Raccoon that was holding my hand reminded me of the garden Raccoon.

"I'll ring the pest control guy tomorrow and get him to clear the place before we start to properly clear it out"
Richard said as he managed to shoo the rest of the possums and Raccoons our of the house, except the one that was holding my hand.

"It looks like this little guy doesn't want to let go, do you think we should get him checked out?"
I have the raccoon a scratch in the head and he grabbed at my jacket and climbed into my arms.

"Y'all see if you can get him out of the house and I'll lock up"
I handed Richard the house key and gently picked up the raccoon, he almost snuggled into my arms.

I carefully walked out of the house and down the porch steps without dropping the raccoon. I stood by the truck and waited for Richard to come out of the house.

When he did he opened the truck door for me and helped me in making sure the raccoon was ok.
Then we set off to the vets.