Broken Mirrors

Chapter 5

Sophia walked down the road from where the bus dropped her off, the gravel crunching beneath her shoes. She didn’t know what time Minnie Mouse got off work at her probably thrilling job at the library, but she hoped it allowed her enough time to get out the house. With any luck she’d thumb a ride or two and be out of town before Minnie even had a clue that she was gone.

She wasn’t doing this s**t anymore. She hated going to these schools. It seemed like she’d had so many first days at school that she could hardly remember having anything else and the truth of the matter was that it sucked. No matter who her new “family” of the month was, it was the same old story.

The only thing worse than being a kid in the system was being a kid in the system and going to school with kids that didn’t know a damn thing about it. You were like an alien life form to them. Their questions were stupid and by now Sophia knew them like they were some kind of ridiculous litany.

Are you an orphan? Are your parents dead? What happened to them? What’s it like to live in an orphanage? Do you like your new parents? Aren’t you happy they brought you home?

And the absurdity continued. Sophia hardly made it through a week at any school without being targeted by some asshole that ended up making her have to roll with them and then, of course, she was the one that was in trouble because she was the “troubled youth” that her precious and wonderful foster parents were “saving”. The other kid…well that kid was never just seen as the asshole they were. Their parents ran to their rescue, because their kid wouldn’t do anything wrong. It was really just the kids like Sophia, the ones who didn’t have a single person giving a damn about them anyway, that caused the problems. She knew what the other parents were thinking…what the principals were thinking…and her foster parents…and the social workers even…she was obviously a f**k up or she wouldn’t be chugging through the damn system like she was anyway.

Sophia found the house, remembering it mostly because it looked rundown in comparison to the houses around it. As she started up the walkway she dug the key out of her pocket and went straight to the door, unlocking it. Minnie Mouse’s car wasn’t there which meant she was probably still at work and that gave Sophia enough time to be out of there.

Sophia tossed the half used legal pad and pen on the kitchen table on top of the pizza box. She thought about it a second and moved the pad, reaching into the box. There was a last piece of pizza there and she ate it as she made her way up the stairs and to the room she’d slept in the night before. Her suitcase was ready for her. It was always ready for her. The only difference was this time she wasn’t waiting for some dumb ass social worker to show up at the door downstairs and tell her it was time to move on, and she wasn’t waiting for another set of foster parents grinning like idiots because they hoped their brief time trying so damn hard to save her ass would earn them their pink faced prince or princess. This time Sophia was calling the shots and she was getting the hell out of there on her own.

She heaved up the bag. Maybe she’d go to Florida and work at Disneyland or Disneyworld or whatever the hell there was there. She could be some kind of princess or sell ice cream and balloons. She’d make her own money and she’d make her own way. She could do fine on her own, but she wasn’t going to just sit around here waiting for Minnie to get tired of her and call the social worker to pick her up and auction her off to the next bidder. Maybe with her gone, Minnie could get another kid once the heat died down from Sophia’s disappearance. Maybe she could get something a little more her speed…something she actually wanted.

Sophia stepped out of the house and locked the door back, shoving the key under the mat where eventually it would get found. She heaved up her suitcase and headed back to the road, walking as quickly as she could. She needed to put as much ground between her and this town as possible before anyone started looking.

She knew they’d start looking, of course. It was standard and she’d known a few kids that tried to make a break for it and got caught, but Sophia wasn’t getting caught. She could never understand why they bothered to look for them any damn way. It wasn’t like anyone cared where they were. It was better for everyone if they let them just go ahead and fade on out. It saved everyone from even having to pretend for a moment that they gave a s**t. Just let the ones who wanted to run, run, and everyone would be a lot happier

———————————————

Andrew finished washing the red Dodge that they’d fixed up because someone backed into a pole. He had been admiring his handiwork while he’d washed. The thing looked better now than it probably did coming off the lot.

When it was clean, he considered his options. He could either towel dry it off, which he didn’t feel much like doing and there weren’t any shop hands around that weren’t busy to do it for him, or he could just drive it down the road a piece and dry it off. He opted for the second and quickly stepped into the shop, picking the key up off the board by the door where he’d hung it after moving the car outside. All the keys went back there immediately after they were used. It was the only way they’d figured out to keep the damn things from getting lost in someone’s pockets and to make sure that someone didn’t go off to get parts for one car leaving the other stranded in a stall that needed to be used.

“Goin’ to blow that car off,” Andrew called to whoever was listening. He stepped out the stall door and got in the car, careful to beat his shoes off so he wouldn’t track so much dust and dirt inside. He wasn’t vacuuming the s**t, though. He’d make sure it was waxed and ready to go, shining so damn bright you could see yourself in it, but he wasn’t vacuuming it. It was the exterior of the vehicles that really interested him, and he was good enough to be bitchy about what he did around the shop without catching s**t from Richard.

Andrew cranked the car and pulled it down the drive to the shop. The road that ran right by the shop was a small road and Andrew had to drive easy around it because of the curves, but it led him out to one of the highways and there he could dare to open any of the cars up for a moment, blowing off the water and getting a feel for them.

Of course this car wasn’t a beast, and it wasn’t impressive in the slightest. It wasn’t the same feeling as some of the steel horses he’d had galloping beneath him before. Still, gunning a car was a good feeling, whether it was really a remarkable piece of machinery or not.

When Andrew did hit the highway he gunned the car as he’d intended. He frowned a little at the lack of enthusiasm the machine showed at its chance to run free and took his foot off the accelerator, letting it drop down to a reasonable speed. He would do the same round he did with most cars, driving just a piece up the highway and hanging a right on the road that would circle back and take him back around the shop’s location.

As Andrew drove along the road at a speed that made the law enforcement of the area comfortable, he noticed ahead of him a girl standing on the side of the road, her skinny arm stuck out and her thumb out like she was some kind of old style hitchhiker.

The side of the highway weren’t no place for a skinny ass kid with a suitcase, and hitchhiking these days weren’t what it was when even Andrew had been younger. He wanted to leave the kid there simply for being an i***t, but Andrew was more than aware of the kind of douchebags that inhabited the world and he knew that leaving the kid on the side of the road to take her chances would be a pretty shitty thing to do. The least he could do was take her ass back to wherever the hell she’d come from.

Andrew checked behind him, threw on the blinker, and coasted the car to a stop near the girl. She stood, hesitating a moment, and then grabbed her suitcase, dragging it toward the passenger side of the Dodge. She opened the door.

“Gimme a ride?” She asked.

“Where ya think ya goin’?” Andrew asked.

“I’m headed to Florida,” the girl said, “but I’ll go just as far as you’re going.”

“Fine,” Andrew said. “Toss ya s**t in the backseat an’ let’s get outta here. Ain’t safe to be pulled over here an’ I ain’t gettin’ rear ended here.”

The girl nodded slightly and slung her bag into the backseat of the car. She crawled in, pulling the door shut and buckling her seatbelt. Andrew didn’t say anything else to her for the moment, but he glanced over, taking in the figure that occupied the passenger seat of the car.

She was just a kid. All knobby kneed and her elbows looked like they were put on backwards. She sat in the seat staring straight ahead, her arms folded tightly over her chest and her lips pressed together so hard that they’d almost disappeared. He didn’t know how the kid ended up on the side of the highway supposedly headed to Florida, but he could smell bad news all over the situation.

Andrew pulled the car back onto the highway and slowly made his way back to the shop. The girl kept glancing out the window, but it wasn’t until he pulled into the driveway of the shop that she started to protest.

“Where the hell is this?” She asked.

“It’s where I’m goin’,” Andrew said. He pulled the car up and parked it, noticing that one of the shop hands that hung around there picking up a few bucks after school was already waiting for him so he could finish cleaning the thing up. Andrew decided he’d let the hand worry about waxing the car while he figured out what the hell to do with this damn girl he’d plucked off the side of the road. He hoped to hell there was no way he could go to jail just for having the little b***h with him. “Get outta the car,” Andrew said, opening the passenger side door. The girl reluctantly got out, dragging her suitcase after her.

“This wasn’t the deal,” the girl said.

Andrew rolled his eyes. He didn’t like women. They were too damn much to deal with. He didn’t like kids either because they were noisy and bratty and bitchy all the damn time. He certainly didn’t think he was going to like the creature in front of him which was essentially what happened when women and children morphed together. He just needed to get rid of her.

Ya said you was goin’ as far as I was goin’, an’ we here. Now where tha hell ya live?” Andrew asked.

“I’m not saying,” the girl said, crossing her arms. “You should have just left me where I was if you were going to drag me here. Now you’ve gone and backtracked me and that’s going to cost me time.”

She picked up the suitcase and started down the driveway from the shop. Andrew growled a little under his breath and half jogged after her, catching the suitcase and ripping it from her grip. She spun around.

“That’s mine!” She yelled at him. She looked like she was damn near boiling in that instant and Andrew almost laughed. He believe the girl might very well have thrown a punch at him for a second there.

“ What is is your name?” Andrew asked.

“That’s none of your business,” the girl said. “Give me back my s**t!”

Andrew turned, walking away with the suitcase still in his hand. He heard the footsteps of the girl and knew that she was following him. He didn’t know what was in the bag, but it was a good bet that if she was a runaway every single thing she really gave a s**t about was in the bag, and she wasn’t likely to leave it. Andrew knew all about that…he’d done his share of running before. What he didn’t know was why the hell the girl was running away or what she was running from.

“Hey!” The girl called, her pace picking up by the sound of her shoes. Andrew tightened his grip on the handle of the bag in case she tried to use his own trick and snatch it from him. “Hey! Asshole! Give me that back!”

When Andrew reached the shop again, he realized they’d drawn the attention of Richard who was leaning against one of the doorframes to a stall.

“Problem, Andrew?” Richard asked, shifting the toothpick in his mouth a little.

“Nope,” Andrew said. He turned back to face the girl.

“What’s ya name?” He asked.

The girl stopped, squaring off with him. She wore a sulky look and crossed her arms across her chest. He wondered if she might cry, but she looked like the kind that would rather be struck by lightning than give into her desire to cry.

“Sophia,” she snarled. “Now give me back my bag.”

Andrew shook his head.

“Andrew,” he said. “An’ I ain’t givin’ your back the bag ‘til ya tell me where tha hell ya live an’ who ya parents are.”

“Joke’s on you, asshole,” Sophia said. “I don’t got any parents.”

Andrew frowned. Sophia, as the girl was called, didn’t have parents but she had to have somebody. Andrew knew well enough that they wouldn’t just let kids her age go about trumping up and down highways. Authorities were f****d up most of the time, but they were serious about that kid s**t.

“Where ya live?” He asked. He wasn’t really in the mood to deal with all this and he was beginning to really regret that he’d stopped at all for the kid. Time was wasting away and he had work to do. Whatever he didn’t get done before everyone clocked out was s**t that he’d have to do when the shop closed and that would eat into his planned quality time with the Coupe sitting out back.

Sophia shrugged.

“Don’t live nowhere. Going to Florida. My bag?” She reached her hand toward him.

“I ain’t fuckin’ ‘round with ya no more. Tell me where ya live or I’m callin’ tha cops. Have it ya own damn way,” Andrew said.

Sophia kicked at the ground in frustration. Again the look crossed her face like she was considering scratching Andrew’s eyeballs out. He had the bag, though, and whatever was in it was something she wanted. Now he was beginning to wonder if it was every damn thing the kid owned.

Sophia didn’t say anything. She walked slowly past Andrew and started walking around the outside of the shop a little, craning her head and looking in the stalls. Andrew turned around, the bag still in his hand, growing even more frustrated. For as bad as she might want to scratch his eyes out at the moment, he had half a mind to wring her scrawny neck and be done with this.

Sophia stopped, looking in the final stall. She turned on her heels.

“It doesn’t matter if you take me back,” she said. “I’m just leaving again as soon as you get out of sight.”

“Figured ya might say that,” Andrew said. “Cops it is, I reckon.”

Andrew turned and started through the first stall of the shop where there was a yellow wall phone hanging that he figured the shop had been using since Richard first opened it. He reached toward the receiver and Sophia yelped at him. He knew she didn’t want him calling the cops. Whatever her situation was, the cops weren’t going to make it better. Any i***t who’d ever dealt with the cops knew that very seldom did they make anything any better than it was. Still, he was losing his patience and he wanted some answers soon. He glanced toward the clock, making note of how much time was ticking away while he was playing games with this stupid little girl.

“Don’t!” Sophia called. Andrew didn’t touch the receiver. He looked at Sophia. She was very obviously sulking, the fire still burning right behind her eyes. “Fine, I’ll give you the address, just don’t call the cops.”

Andrew glanced back at the clock again. Either the people that she lived with were passed out drunk or on some s**t and didn’t notice her slip out, or they were at work and she took advantage of that. One meant that he was possibly delivering her back into some kind of personal hell, the other could mean the same thing or could just mean that she was trying to outrun some other s**t on the side of the highway. Andrew didn’t have time to figure out which was which. She’d sure as s**t run away again, but at least if he took her back his conscience was clean and good f*****g luck to her the next time she struck out for Florida.

“Gimme the damn address,” Andrew said.

Sophia reached in her pocket and pulled out a wadded up piece of paper. She held it out to Andrew , making a quick swipe for the bag when she did. He simultaneously snatched the paper and pulled the bag farther out of her reach, chuckling a little. He didn’t give a s**t that Richard was watching the whole damn thing with great interest.

“Gotta be faster than that, sweetheart,” Andrew said. He frowned at the fact that the paper was damp, probably from ass sweat, and smoothed it out as best he could against his chest without having to use the hand clutching her prized possessions. He knew the address. He’d never personally been there, but he knew the area. He glanced at the clock again. “Make yourself’ comfortable, princess,” Andrew said. “We’ll be rollin’ out in ‘bout an hour.”

Sophia looked confused and looked at the clock.

“Why are we leaving in an hour?” She asked.

Andrew chewed his lip and shook his head. He didn’t intend to tell her that he was keeping her there until closing time for the shop, which meant it was about an hour after most normal people got off of work. He figured that would give whoever she was staying with time to get home, and it would be a bit more of a guarantee that she wasn’t going to fly the coop as soon as he let her out of his truck.

“Just get comfortable,” he said. “I got some work ta do, but I’ll see ya in about an hour.”

Andrew started to walk toward one of the back stalls where a car was taped up and waiting for him to prime it. He held the bag up and shoved the address into his pants pocket.

“I got this for safe keepin’,” he said. “Get’cha self a Coke out tha machine if ya thirsty.”

He left the girl standing there, her arms across her chest, and took the bag inside the booth with him to sit in the corner while he sprayed the car. Richard was out in the shop and he wouldn’t let the girl leave without alerting Andrew.

In an hour, Andrew could take the little b***h back to wherever she came from and wish her and her bag of s**t all the luck in the world. She’d be out of his hair and be right back to being the problem of whoever it was that owned her. Whatever happened from there was her own damn business, but he could know he hadn’t left her to get r***d or killed on the side of some Georgia road.

He sighed and put his mask on, testing the spray on the can of primer that Richard had brought back there for him.