Silver Wings Part Wect (Six)

I'm not going to go through how Gladys ended up here other than to tell you to go back and read. Start with Silver Wings and work your way forward. It may or may not make sense. The events that have taken place are real and only the names have been changed to protect me. I write as the events happen so enjoy that which is my life.

Gladys arrived back at Dreary Lane much later in the day than she had planned. She realized she had not only missed lunch but hadn’t had supper either. Her stomach growled and churned and she looked down the little lane. Do I turn around and go find a diner or do I just tough it out she wondered. She looked out the dusty windows of the little car and saw the little girl’s face pressed against the window. She jumped and then laughed. “HI ANNIE” the tot called through the window.
Gladys gathered her belongings and drug them once again into the little house with the little girl tagging behind. “Whatcha doin Annie? Where you goin? Where you been? What are you doin now?” came the barrage from the little girl. “Nancy you get in here right now” Pearl called from the kitchen. The little girl stopped put her hands on her hips and said “I ain’t goin in der no mo!” Then she ran towards the back of the house away from her mother. Pearl came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel a scowl on her face. “Hello Ms Gladys. Did everything work out for you?” Gladys smiled and said “not exactly. Lurlene didn’t have the car she promised me so I have to go all the way back over there tomorrow. You know this is really messing up my schedule. I am supposed to be over at Nowhereville tomorrow and it looks like I’m going to have to reschedule. I just wish it wasn’t such a long drive in the opposite direction of the airport.” Pearl gave a little tsk and said “I’m so sorry. Hey if you have to go over to Itty Bitty City would you mind if Nancy and I rode with you? I need to drop off some papers at the bank and it’s on the same road as the airport.” Gladys sighed and said “I would love some company. You sure you don’t mind riding in that little rattle trap?” Pearl looked over Gladys shoulder at the little car and said “Nope not at all.”
Gladys made her way to her room realizing the lack of sleep and the jet lag was starting to take over. She laid down on the bed to rest. The sun was setting and the little room was very cold. She pulled the blanket over her feet and settled in to read. She heard a whir and a whush the screen on the computer popped on. She got up and looked at the screen. No cryptic message so she again tried to turn the computer off laid back down on the bed to read in peace and quiet. Sometime later she drifted off to sleep. She knew she had been asleep otherwise she could not have been awakened from her dream. She was in a boat on the water. She was rocking with the waves and what sounded like a storm was wailing and sloshing the boat about. She kept telling herself to push the accelerator down and release and it would be okay. She extended her foot and something grabbed it and was pulling and stabbing her foot. It hurt she tried to jerk it back but she couldn’t. It felt as if her toes were being bent backwards. She woke and looked around and yet there was no one there. Her foot was killing her and she realized she was having a Charlie horse. She got up and walked around trying to loosen it up. She looked at the clock and it was four in the morning. She stretched out her calf until she was able to relief the pain and crawled back into bed. “I just need to go back to sleep” she said to the night. She closed her eyes tight and willed herself to sleep. The more she tried the more it eluded her. Then she heard the whirr and the whush and the pop of the computer. She crawled deeper under the covers and tried to sleep. Sleep would not come and now her stomach was talking back to the computer whiz and whush with a grumble and a growl.
Gladys entered the room to find the same scene she had the morning before. The young man in front of the big screen television and Pearl in the kitchen. Gladys grabbed a cup of coffee and some fruit and went to watch the morning Hog Report with Bud.
“So Bud,” Gladys inquired “do you raise hogs?” Bud slurped his big glass of tea and said “nope.” Gladys thought well this guy is a real talker and ventured further “what do you raise?” Bud looked at Gladys and said “I’m not a farmer. I am a scientist and a professor. I am in the middle of a huge research project right now. I am in the process of refitting a tractor with a flux capacitator that uses ordinary household garbage and turns it into fuel.” Gladys blinked and swallowed back a laugh and said “isn’t that what Doc outfitted the Delorean with in Back to The Future Part 2?” Bud answered never taking his eyes from the giant television screen “that’s where I came up with the idea. You know sometimes I get my best ideas from science fiction movies.”
Gladys sipped her coffee and thought either this guy is a genius or an idiot or maybe a bit of both. “Where is Nancy this morning?” Gladys asked. Bud grudgingly took his eyes off the screen looked around the room and said “She was here a minute ago or maybe that was yesterday.” Gladys made herself shut her gaping mouth and said “well you have a real blessed day.” She wandered into the kitchen where she heard Pearl banging pans “I don’t know about that girl she flits around here and in and out. I can’t get her to settle down and eat her breakfast. She is driving me out of my mind” Gladys knocked to make her presence known and Pearl immediately pasted a smile on her face and said “is everything ok? Do you need some more fruit or some biscuits?” Gladys smiled and said “no thank you. I was just wondering where Nancy went.” Pearl sighed and said “I wish I knew. That child is like a little wild animal. She is here and there and somewhere all together different within seconds. Would you send her in here if you see her?” Gladys patted Pearl on the back and said “she is just adventurous. She will be all grown up before you know it.” Pearl looked at Gladys with tears in her eyes and said “not soon enough” and went back to stirring her gravy.
Gladys started walking back toward her room when she heard giggling coming from the closet. Gladys stood outside the door and said “I wonder where Nancy went. I wonder if she went fishing.” With that the door flew open and Nancy yelled “I don’t wanna go fishin no moe.” Gladys laughed and said “you don’t? What about going for a car ride? Do you want to go for a ride in my car today?” Nancy put her hands on her hips, rolled her eyes and said “I don’t wanna go in your car no moe. I go wit you Annie but not in yo cah.” Gladys patted the little girl and said “I don’t want to go in that car no more either but I have to turn it back in to the rental agency. You want to go with me to get a different car?” Nancy looked up at Gladys and said “Yeah, I go wit chew.” Gladys knelt down and looked Nancy in the eyes and said “okay, but right now you have to go in the kitchen and see your mother. She wanted me to tell you to go see her. I think she has a biscuit for you. Are you hungry?” Nancy shook her head yes and then there was just a streak of blond hair and a lingering scent of baby lotion.
Gladys entered the little room and noticed that things weren’t where she had left them. She went into the bathroom and began putting her anti-wrinkle creams into her satchel along with her anti-sagging, anti-puckering and anti-plumping creams next to her extra plumping creams. You see when you are a woman of a certain age there are things you want to be plumped and things you don’t and they make a cream for both. She reached for her engagement ring that she had left sitting next to her wedding band and her antique pave ring. Her heart went to her stomach it was missing. Her engagement ring was not there with its family of rings. She went through every bag and box on the counter. She emptied out her bag and searched the floor. She tore back the shower curtain and even reached into the toilet. OH NO! She cried not my ring. She extended her search into the bedroom. She tore the room apart. She searched the drawers, the closet and even went through the bedding piece by piece. She searched her suitcase and her purse. She checked pockets and bags. This was so unlike her. She lost things but never her engagement ring. The engagement ring that Kahuna had given her on the windy ridge of Pali Lookout in Oahu; where the Japanese tourist all clicked pictures and applauded when he proposed. It couldn’t be missing. Where would it have gone. If someone had broken into her room and taken it why didn’t they take her other jewelry? Why would they just take the one ring? She sat on the floor and began to cry.
Then she heard “what wrong Annie?” She looked up and saw Nancy standing there licking jelly from her fingers. “My ring is missing. It is a ring my husband gave me” Gladys cried to the toddler. The little girl put her hand on her shoulder and leaned her head over on Gladys’ head “it’s otay Annie. I find it fo you.” Gladys looked into the child’s blue eyes and said “Oh Nancy I wish you would. My heart is broken.” Nancy smacked another glob of jelly from her knuckle and said “I know where it is. I put it in dee yaundry room.” Gladys grabbed the little girl by the shoulders and yelled “NANCY DID YOU TAKE MY RING?” The little girl’s eyes grew wide and she said “I go get it fer you.” Gladys hugged the little girl and said “yes go get it. PLEASE.” The child ran out of the room and Gladys got to her feet and began putting her room back in order. She picked up her make-up bag and took it into the bathroom where there on the counter sat her engagement ring. She looked around but did not see Nancy anywhere. She looked out in the bedroom but still no sign of the child. Gladys shook her head put her ring on her finger and swore to never remove it again.
Pearl knocked on the door “Gladys if you’re gonna be to the Lanes by ten we best get goin.” Gladys grabbed her purse and her keys and headed out the door, careful to lock it behind her. She walked out to the little car and there already buckled in the big car seat was Nancy. Pearl was standing next to the car saying “Nancy how did this seat get in the car? Did you put it in here?” Nancy shook her head yes and said “I put it in there no moe.” Pearl checked the straps and declared it good. They got the little car started and rolled out of the drive lurching and swaying. “Annie, you makin me dizzy” Nancy cried as they crunched out the drive and down the lane. “Sorry, Nancy but if I don’t massage the pedal when I turn right it will die.”
They arrived at the Itty Bitty City International Airport and Bowling Alley just on time. They parked in the lot and Pearl dismantled the car seat while Nancy and Gladys walked in the roll up door. They made their way to the kiosk and found the boy who had driven the Yugo the day before manning the counter. “Is Lurlene here?” Gladys asked. The boy looked up from his comic book and said “nope, she ain’t here. She ain’t gonna be here today.” Gladys took a deep breath and repeated in her head “breath in, breath out, breath in” then she swallowed hard and said “did she leave a car for me?” The boy put the comic book down and said “well, I had one but it’s done gone. Now I jest got a car from Springfield but it ain’t been warshed yet.” Gladys shot laser daggers at the boy and said “does it die when you turn right?” The boy blew a bubble and said “nope.” Gladys thought a moment then said “does it die when you turn right?” The boy popped the bubble and shook his head no. Gladys finally said “does it run and is it roadable?” He shook his head yes and said “it’s actually a pretty sweet ride. I went over it with a fine tooth comb when it came in. She is a honey of a hoopty.” Gladys took another deep breath and said “fine. I’ll take it. What is it?” The boy scribbled some things on a paper and said “75 Camero. Metallic black.” Gladys blew out the breath and said “Do you people have anything newer than the last ice age?” The boy looked at Gladys and the three eyes she had just grown. “Do you want it or nawt?” Gladys figured anything was better than the Yugo so she acquiesced.
Gladys took the keys signed the paper and thanked the young man. He smiled and said “Lurlene wanted me to up-sale you to the baby-bus but I figured you were more of a Camero type woman. Sides I didn’t figure you wanted to pay for the Aerostar.” Gladys smiled at the boy and said “well bless your heart, I appreciate that.” Now for those of you not from the south the phrase “Bless Your Heart” can be taken several ways. It can mean “you sorry son of a you know what” or it can mean “screw you” or it can mean “that was nice”. Gladys meant it in “that was nice” vernacular. She reached down and grabbed Nancy’s hand and walked out into the hot muggy summer day.
“Pearl, we are in the black Camero.” Gladys shouted. Nancy ran to her mother and said “I can do it me self.” She grabbed the car seat and before Pearl or I could get to the car once again she had it strapped in and was awaiting the ride. They both just stood in disbelief and starred. Gladys walked around the car noting the dents and scratches. Pearl stood looking at the car and mumbled “sweet ride”. Gladys rolled her eyes and crawled in the oven of a car. She turned the ignition and the 350 roared to life. She revved the engine and then the engine purred then from somewhere deep inside of Gladys came her sixteen year old self and it said “Far OUT”. They left the parking lot in a whirl of inertia and the scent of High Karate. The radio on loud and “Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting” was radiating through the cockpit.