flustered, “um, I don’t know, blue.” she said in an exasperated voice.
“Damn” Old Man Tucker said, “You got the sunroof” and he tossed her one set of the keys.
Mrs. Driscol rolled her eyes and stepped out of the way and Old Man Tucker headed for the car lot.
“They are both Highlander Hybrids” he said. “Look for inventory HH0114 and HH0121” he added.
They headed to the far side of the lot just past the pickups.
“Are they big enough?” Mrs. Driscol asked.
“They are supposed to seat 7, both have roof racks for storage and they both have on-demand 4 wheel drive. I think they are just the ticket.”
A few minutes later they found both of the vehicles. They both started right up but as they had anticipated neither had much gas, less than a quarter tank but they had more than enough to get home and get everyone packed before they started to look for fuel. The cars were comfortable and easy to drive and they pulled into the cul-de-sac in less than 10 minutes. They pulled both cars down by the house, load there first was the plan, then back to where everything had been removed from the other cars and lined up on the curb. For the first time Old Man Tucker remembered that Mrs. Caulfield had been killed in the accident but there had been no sign of the body. Old Man Tucker hoped that her husband had taken care of things rather than the crazies. He decided that he was not going to ask and he hoped that it wouldn’t come up.
Everyone came out of the house and started right away loading, Old Man Tucker put Billy on one roof and me on the other,
“Keep an eye out boys and let me know if you see anything or even if you just THINK you saw something.”
We nodded and Billy saluted and said “yes sir.”
Old Man Tucker smiled and said “get to it.”
It took a long time to load the vehicles and they even had to unload one of them just to rearrange everything. The SUVs were pulled down by the van and the other cars and we walked down by them. For the first time I was feeling very exposed and my stomach felt like it was full of butterflies. The bodies of the crazies that the police officer and Old Man Tucker had killed were all about, they had started to swell up and they smelled like a skunk on the side of the road. I think everyone was feeling the same as me because the equipment was loaded in record time. It only took a minute or two for Mr. Caulfield and Old Man Tucker to move the roof top carrier shell from Mom’s van to one of the SUVs. At last we began our pursuit of Mr. and Mrs. Franks.
It was decided that Mrs. Driscol would drive one and Mom would drive the other. Mr. Caulfield would ride with Billy and his Mom, Old Man Tucker with mine. To even things out a little Elaine offered to ride with the Driscols. I had kind of wanted to ride with Billy but I didn’t say anything right then, I figured this was going to take a while and there would be plenty of time for us to shuffle around. Old Man Tucker was sitting in the passenger seat, he laid his long Russian rifle between the seats and took Mom’s French one and kept it between his knees pointing at the ceiling. Lucy had been put in charge of the road atlas and armed with a yellow highlighter I helped her find where we were and we put a yellow circle around our destination. Mom asked us how far did it look like we had to go and Lucy considered it and finally said,
“From my elbow to the end of my little finger.”
Mom and Old Man Tucker chuckled quietly and Lucy said
“What?” absolutely unaware of what she had said.
Mom had me get a ruler from a little ‘Dora the Explorer’ back pack that she had prepared for entertaining Lucy. She had me measure how many inches it was from our start to our finish and then look in the corner where it said in teeny tiny letters “1 in = 30 mi” and I was able to figure out that since it was about 11 inches we had 330 miles or so to go.
“As a crow flies” Old Man Tucker added.
“What??” was
“Damn” Old Man Tucker said, “You got the sunroof” and he tossed her one set of the keys.
Mrs. Driscol rolled her eyes and stepped out of the way and Old Man Tucker headed for the car lot.
“They are both Highlander Hybrids” he said. “Look for inventory HH0114 and HH0121” he added.
They headed to the far side of the lot just past the pickups.
“Are they big enough?” Mrs. Driscol asked.
“They are supposed to seat 7, both have roof racks for storage and they both have on-demand 4 wheel drive. I think they are just the ticket.”
A few minutes later they found both of the vehicles. They both started right up but as they had anticipated neither had much gas, less than a quarter tank but they had more than enough to get home and get everyone packed before they started to look for fuel. The cars were comfortable and easy to drive and they pulled into the cul-de-sac in less than 10 minutes. They pulled both cars down by the house, load there first was the plan, then back to where everything had been removed from the other cars and lined up on the curb. For the first time Old Man Tucker remembered that Mrs. Caulfield had been killed in the accident but there had been no sign of the body. Old Man Tucker hoped that her husband had taken care of things rather than the crazies. He decided that he was not going to ask and he hoped that it wouldn’t come up.
Everyone came out of the house and started right away loading, Old Man Tucker put Billy on one roof and me on the other,
“Keep an eye out boys and let me know if you see anything or even if you just THINK you saw something.”
We nodded and Billy saluted and said “yes sir.”
Old Man Tucker smiled and said “get to it.”
It took a long time to load the vehicles and they even had to unload one of them just to rearrange everything. The SUVs were pulled down by the van and the other cars and we walked down by them. For the first time I was feeling very exposed and my stomach felt like it was full of butterflies. The bodies of the crazies that the police officer and Old Man Tucker had killed were all about, they had started to swell up and they smelled like a skunk on the side of the road. I think everyone was feeling the same as me because the equipment was loaded in record time. It only took a minute or two for Mr. Caulfield and Old Man Tucker to move the roof top carrier shell from Mom’s van to one of the SUVs. At last we began our pursuit of Mr. and Mrs. Franks.
It was decided that Mrs. Driscol would drive one and Mom would drive the other. Mr. Caulfield would ride with Billy and his Mom, Old Man Tucker with mine. To even things out a little Elaine offered to ride with the Driscols. I had kind of wanted to ride with Billy but I didn’t say anything right then, I figured this was going to take a while and there would be plenty of time for us to shuffle around. Old Man Tucker was sitting in the passenger seat, he laid his long Russian rifle between the seats and took Mom’s French one and kept it between his knees pointing at the ceiling. Lucy had been put in charge of the road atlas and armed with a yellow highlighter I helped her find where we were and we put a yellow circle around our destination. Mom asked us how far did it look like we had to go and Lucy considered it and finally said,
“From my elbow to the end of my little finger.”
Mom and Old Man Tucker chuckled quietly and Lucy said
“What?” absolutely unaware of what she had said.
Mom had me get a ruler from a little ‘Dora the Explorer’ back pack that she had prepared for entertaining Lucy. She had me measure how many inches it was from our start to our finish and then look in the corner where it said in teeny tiny letters “1 in = 30 mi” and I was able to figure out that since it was about 11 inches we had 330 miles or so to go.
“As a crow flies” Old Man Tucker added.
“What??” was
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