18. Sparrow
The one downside to living in the middle of nowhere is that you have to drive at least thirty minutes to get to any store. Other than that one small downside, I love living in Chapel Falls. Driving back to town from doing some clothes shopping for the kids, I see the sign at Ace’s motel. I roll my eyes as I think of the man I once considered a brother. It’s been two weeks since the confrontation, and I haven’t seen him since. King and I have been staying at my rental with the kids.
Looking in the rearview mirror, I spot a car quickly gaining speed on me. I have the kids in the back seat. Looking down, I see that I’m going exactly the speed limit, so I push the gas pedal down a little bit more.
“Mom…this car is really close to us,” Telle calls out from the backseat.
Glancing in the mirror again, my stomach bottoms out. The car is now right behind me; even though it’s a clear road, they haven’t passed me. The next second, my car is jostled when we are hit from behind.
“Mom!” both kids call out. My fingers are now white from the death grip I have on the steering wheel. We are hit again, this time with more force, and despite my best efforts to keep us on the road, we careen into the ditch. My face smacks against the steering wheel as the car stops at the bottom.
“Loch, Telle. Are you okay?” The best I can, I turn in my seat to look at the kids.
“Mommy, I want Daddy,” Loch cries out. I can’t help but notice the kids holding hands, both with tears streaming down their faces.
“I know, baby. Me too.” Feeling around for my phone, I start to get frustrated when I can’t find it. Trying to think how to get out of this, I look across the street and see the motel. I just have to get us out of this damn car, across the street, and then we will be okay.
“Do you guys hurt anywhere? Can you move your arms and legs?” I ask the kids.
“We’re okay,” Telle informs me.
“Okay, here’s what we are going to do. I’m going to get us out of the car, and we are going to walk across the street to Uncle Ace,” I try to say calmly, when on the inside, I’m trying to keep a panic attack at bay.
Easing myself out of the car, I move around to the back door and pull it open. The kids come scrambling out, where I immediately grab a hold of their hands. “Okay, guys. Let’s go.”
Breathing in a sigh of relief when I spot the motel office. I’m starting to feel slightly woozy, and need to sit down, but I need to get the kids to safety. Ace is being a stupid asshole, but I know he will protect us.
“What the fuck happened?” I look up at Ace charging out of the office and running up to us. “Sparrow? What happened?”
“Can…can we go inside? I need to sit down.” Ace ushers us inside where he directs us to sit down on the vinyl chairs.
“Someone hit us from behind twice, Uncle Ace. And then we went into the ditch!” Loch exclaims. His eyes shoot to mine with his brows furrowed.
Ace moves over to me, crouching down, he grabs ahold of my hand. “Have you called King?”
Shaking my head, and blowing out a breath, I respond, “I couldn’t find my phone. The car is across the street in the ditch.”
Standing up, Ace pulls out his phone and brings it to his ear. “Hey, you need to get to the motel. Sparrow and the kids are here. They were hit.” He pulls the phone away from his face, King’s voice is heard from where I’m sitting. “Yeah. Okay. See ya in a few.” Once he hangs up the phone, Ace comes and sits next to me.
“I’m sorry…so fucking sorry, Sparrow,” he softly says. I don’t know if he’s talking about today, or when he held an impromptu party with half naked women, but I just nod my head in response.
“You know King is losing his mind and he is going to come in here like a bull in a china shop, right?” Ace asks.
“Yep.”
The sound of gravel spraying in the lot outside alerts me to King’s arrival just a few minutes later. Loch fell asleep while sitting in Ace’s lap. The door bangs open as King runs inside. River is right behind him as King runs up to my chair and lifts me out of it. He maneuvers me so he is holding me bridal style, as he runs a hand down my face.
“What happened, Bird?”
“I don’t know. We were coming back from clothes shopping, and a car flew up behind us. He was just riding my ass but then we got rammed twice. The second time, we went into the ditch.”
He sets me back down in my chair and moves over to the kids. I cringe when I hear sirens in the distance, Cam is almost here. I know these guys; they are going to make a big deal out of this. It was scary, but it was just someone with road rage. I have always driven slowly and followed every rule of the road with the kids in the car.
King comes back with a wet washcloth, dabbing it on my forehead. “You’re bleeding, Bird. This person better hope I never find them, because if I do, I’ll kill them.”
I don’t doubt that if King finds the person, at minimum, they will be in some pain. I just want to lay down and forget the last…I don’t know how long, an hour maybe, has happened.
“You’ve been threatening to unalive people a lot lately, big brother. We may need to get you in some anger management classes,” Ace chimes in from across the room.
“Shut up, Ace. You’re still on my shit list,” King growls over his shoulder.
Cam walks in looking around, taking in the scene. “Alright, what happened?” I slowly stand, King at my side.
“River, do you have a client?” I ask while looking at the kids.
“No, Spare. I’m off today.”
“Do you mind taking the kids to your house, so they don’t have to sit around and wait for me?”
River looks between me and King, and down to the kids. “Yeah, no problem. But…umm…your house, or our house?” he finally responds.
Looking around between the men and my kids, I zero in on Ace. He’s hanging his head, waiting for my response. I know at some point he and I are going to have a conversation, but now is not the time.
“Your house, please,” I finally respond.
Once River and the kids are gone, I turn towards Cam. “A dark blue car came flying up behind us. I thought I was just driving too slowly, so I picked up speed a little. But then we were rammed. A moment later we were hit again, and we went into the ditch.”
“Could you make out the person?” Cam asks as he writes in his notebook.
“No. I could tell that whoever it was, was wearing a hat. I’m sure it was just someone with road rage.”
“Okay, I’m going to go check out the car, take some pictures. I’ll call the tow company too. Do you need to go get checked out at the hospital? It looks like your wound is still bleeding.”
Rolling my eyes, I shake my head no. King kisses me on the temple before speaking. “I’m going to go check out the car. Get your guys’ stuff out of it. I’ll be back in a few minutes." Turning to Ace, he continues speaking, “Stay with her, get some ice.”
Once Ace nods his head, Cam and King walk outside, leaving me with him. I finally take in the office, and I’m shocked at what I find. This place looks like it hasn’t been updated since the seventies; most of the tile floor is cracked, the desk looks like if you lean on it, it will fall over, and the puke green color on the walls is dirty and scuffed.
Why does this place look like this?
I don’t know how much time passes, but King comes back inside with a scowl on his face. Something must be wrong with me, because even this version of King is attractive. “Let’s go home, Bird.”
Slowly, I stand and grab ahold of his arm. I’m still feeling a little woozy, but I’m not about to tell King that. He’ll have me in the emergency room as soon as the word woozy is out of my mouth. Ever since the attack, I have a phobia of hospitals, doctors, anything to do with healthcare.
Once back at King’s, he gets me and the kids set up in the media room, and the rest of the day is spent with him waiting on us. I don’t like the reason, but I don’t hate this treatment. I can tell that King is a ball of nerves, he hasn't been able to sit down for an extended period of time. The kids seem to be doing fine after all the excitement of the day, but I keep double checking.
It was just a random accident. No reason to cause alarm.