On the Run

Chapter Three: Car Thieves

        Sunlight broke through the grease-stained windows, waking me up. I shook my head and suddenly remembered where I was. I sat up and Ty was in the front seat, opening a pack of Twinkies.

        "Hey, did you get me something?" I asked.

        "I got you these," Ty replied, shaking a Twinkie in the air. I made a face. He knew how much I despised those things. He tossed it at me, and I dodged it, chucking it back at his head. "Seriously, did you get anything else?" I asked. He was still indulging in his cavity-in-a-wrapper cake when he blindly threw a box of Poptarts behind him to me. "Ugh thank God! I'm starving." I dove into my box of blueberry pastry when I heard voices getting louder. Someone was approching the car.

        "Hide!" I hissed as I dove under the seats. Ty fell from his reclined position, hitting the steering wheel on the way down. I restrained a laugh as Ty grunted in pain.

        The voice of a man came closer, energetically discussing car prices and "hot" deals. There was another man who was obviously interested in buying the car we were in. I wished that it was just the dealer walking by. It would be easier to take down one guy, plus there'd be no witnesses. But this also gave us an advantage. The guy might have the car keys in his pocket already. We could easily just snatch it.

        "I'll do it," Ty said.

        "No, I want to!" I protested. "You always get to do the fun stuff."

        "Too bad you can't be a wolf," he said simply, opening his door a crack and disppearing in a slip of grey fur. I pouted and peeked out the window to watch. Ty crept behind the salesman and sniffed him. That canine nose of his could detect anything-- including brass keys. His ears flicked, which showed that he detected them. He crept by once more, trying not to be seen and nipped at the inside pocket of the man's coat pocket. The salesman patted out his coat, not noticing Ty as he stayed low and padded to the other side of the car. Opening the door quietly, I smiled estatically and moved so he could slip in. He shifted back into his human form and ducked out of sight of the window. The men were still there, talking.

        "That was awesome," I told Ty. He grinned, shaking the keys in his hand, and said, "Thanks."

        "Ugh," I said, glancing out the window. "Why won't they go away?"

        "Seems like that guy is pretty interested in this car," Ty said.

        "Well that's not good," I said. Maybe I was wrong. Right as I said that, the salesperson reached into his pocket where the keys had been and froze. He looked around and said, "Hold on one sec, I swear I had them with me." He searched all of his pockets and went back to the building to look for them. The other man went with him.

        "Yes!" I said. "Finally!"

        I took the keys from Ty and climed into the driver's seat. I fit them into the ignition and the car came to life. Before Ty could protest about me driving, I stepped on the pedal. We drove out of the parking lot and sped down the road. Our stealing-a-car plan probably wasn't the best idea, and we would probably get caught with the vehicle in a day or two. All we could do was cover as many miles as we could before something happened.

        All I saw when we were about to pass the dealership was a glance of the same salesman looking very less enthusiastic and a quite angry customer.