The trip

Chapter 1: Breakdown

“Damn it , I'm lost!”

I was on my way to my grandparents' place for the golden week. It was my first trip on my own. Yes I know, I was already twenty years-old and I had never driven alone before. The fact is that I grew up with the Thorns, which was a pretty strict family: my mother was a lawyer and my father was a maths teacher. So yes, it was hard for me to even go to my friends' place for the night.

Here we are: it was the first time that I was allowed to take my father's car on a trip. Indeed, I was a genuine young adult who had no sense of direction or memory for useless things like my history classes and I could kill you if you had the misfortune to get me lost-even in a conversation. My mother had told me to be careful not to get lost and to stay on the highlighted roads and I totally understood her feelings about it. But as a young adult with a teenager's brain, I trusted technology to get me there and relied on the GPS of the car not to get me lost. Big mistake.

After 80 miles of driving in the rain, the car's GPS could not get the right directions. Excellent! The technology was letting me down! I carried on the highway but I did not know which exit I should have taken. Instead of going West, I was heading South. And I did not know it yet.

I was pretty excited about this trip. I really wanted to see my grandparents. I had not seen them in four years. I would see them every summer when I was younger, but because of college and my part-time job at the hospital I could not join my parents to go and see my grandparents on the coast I really wanted to see them because they would treat me like a princess, would give me whatever I wanted and  would comfort me when I wasn't feeling good .“Let's stop in a motel for the night, I cannot find my way around. Maybe I'll be luckier tomorrow.” I sighed.

So I ended up in a motel, asked for a quiet room to spend the night. The room reminded me of my old bedroom in college: there were ugly sheets on the bed, a  dirty floor and old fashioned walls. Well, it was cozy enough for one night. I had a shower and slumped onto the bed.

At some point during the night, a noise woke me up. Someone was knocking at the door urgently. Who was it? “A weirdo again? I thought I got rid of them in College!” I put on some clothes and went to open the door that was already shaking.

“Yeah! Yeah! Comin'!” I answered. “What's the matter?” I asked when I opened the door.

“Was the Shelby yours?” An old man replied. Well, it was not exactly my car - even if I hadn't stolen it - it was a gift that my father had received from his parents after his return from Iraq. And I knew he would give it to me one day.  So, saying that it was mine wasn't a lie.

“Yes, but what's the matter? And why are you using past tense?”

“The thing is that your car has been stolen. I have heard someone break a window earlier and have noticed that the alarm of the motel was no longer working. So I went out to see what was going on and I saw your car far away.”

“You gotta be kidding me!”

“Well, I just wanted to let you know, have a great night despite that.” He said as he left.

“Wait! Aren't you going to call the cops?”

“What would that be for? The car's gone. No witnesses and this kind of things often happens around here.”

And he finally left. He was right though, there was nothing I could do to bring the car back. “What could I say to my father?  Hey! Your car is gone! Have a nice day! Yeah, I'm sure he would agree with me saying that... Or I could say: Father I was robbed by two tall guys at the motel, they took your car and my wallet!... Yeah, it would be fine. I knew that he would disagree with that, but what else could I say?