The Long Road | ethma

1

When we finally reached the van it was hard not to go back to that nightmare a couple nights ago.

The image of my dad slumped over in the driver seat as I stay stunned in the passenger seat burned into my mind.

Or maybe it was just from the burning of sun beating down on me as the man who I learned was named Danny, took the van and connected it to his truck so he could tow it back to the shop.

I tried pushing the picture of my dead dad out my head so the tears wouldn't start to pour.

I waited in Danny's truck as the hot sun hit my face. Eventually he trailed back to the car and started to drive down the dirt paths with my van trailing behind.

He had parked my van in the shop so he could easily look and see what was wrong with it.

I was praying it wasn't anything serious, I certainly didn't have time for that. But unfortunately my prayers weren't answered.

I stood over Danny's shoulder as he checked out the engine of my van.

"It's not that bad right?" I asked

He turned to look at me and I was confused to see he looked stunned.

"You serious?"

"Sweetie the engine is literally pouring out oil and not to mention the engine is a piece of shit." He said roughly

"Well you can fix it right?" I said trying to stay calm

"Yeah..." he said his sentence trailing off

"What?"

"It's gonna cost a lot." He said giving me a slightly sympathetic look. The first one I have seen from him sense the hours of knowing him

"How much?"

"Let me get you an estimate." Danny said scratching his head.

He turned away and walked into the small office in the corner of the shop for what I assumed was a piece of paper to do some math.

I looked around as Danny came back with, you guessed it a piece of paper and a pencil to calculate the total cost of all of the repairs that needed to be done.

I again noticed the same boy from earlier standing in the same place but this time he had no earbuds in but was sitting against the fence that was behind him reading a book.

Somehow this "mystery man" had become even more intriguing to me now that he was reading a book.

Come to think of it... was there a library here? I'd have to ask Danny later.

"Alright." I heard Danny say and I turned my attention away from the boy and back on Danny.

"Whats the damage?"

He hesitated. That couldn't be good.

"Well because there's so much to fix it would be about... $5,000."

At first I thought I hadn't heard him right. $5,000!! I didn't have that kind of money I've never had that kind of money.

"I don't have $5,000." I said

He shrugged at me.

"Well then Emma I can't fix your van."

At this point I was desperate to do anything to fix this van.

"No... please let me work for you and I'll just work how many shifts I need to pay off what I need to fix the van."

"Sorry I'm not looking to hire anybody." Danny said turning his shoulder away from me to start working on a different car next to my van.

"Please Danny you gotta let me do this I don't have anything else... please."

He turned back towards me with sturdiness look in his eyes. He sighed.

"Fine... you can work here until you pay off the van money then you quite."

"Thank you so much."

"Yeah, we open and close at 6, and don't forgot to lock this before you clock out for the night."

He said pulling down one of the two large garage doors.

I just nodded.

"You start tomorrow morning. Got it?"

"Yes sir." I said

With that Danny told me he would bring my van out of the shop and onto the side of the road so I could continue to sleep in it until he could start working on it in the next couple of days.

I walked out of the shop noticing the boy was still sitting there reading. Even if it was dark outside and he probably couldn't even see the words on the pages.

He seemed so concentrated I wanted to go and ask him what book he was reading.

I did what my gut told me and crossed the now quite street over to where the boy was sitting.

He hadn't noticed me walk towards him due to how much he was into his book. So I sat down next to him.

He noticed the fence move and looked at me.

I now could get a good look at his beautiful features. His jawline was insane and his golden brown eyes seemed to hold some what of a sadness to them.

"What are you reading?" I asked him confidently

"I don't know." He answered

I looked at him confused.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know it's just the first book I saw at the library and checked it out."

So there is a library here. Good to know.

"Well it must be good, cause you've been sitting here for like 2 hours reading."

"You've been watching me?"

"Maybe a little." I said smirking

"Why's that?"

"I wanted to know why a random guy was reading on the sidewalk." I said

He laughed.

"Needed to get away from home." He said surprising me

"Oh."

That was the last thing he said to me before I decided to call it a night and head back to my van.

"Well I'm gonna go back to my van." I said standing up and started to walk back across the dark street.

"Wait what's your name?" He asked

I turned on my heal facing him.

"Emma."

"Well it was nice to talk to you Emma." He said and even though it was almost pitch black outside I could tell he was smirking.

"Yeah you too..." realizing I never learned his name

"Ethan." He said noticing my sentence trailing off.

"Ethan." I said

"See you around." I called to him walking to my van.

"Night." He said finally, calling into the darkness.