Ertifferrah Written By: Elay Understood CHAPTER 16 JUNK CAR...Elay TV Content Creator

 “Erica, honey, wake up, don’t be late for school,” a woman’s voice said.  Erica assumed that was her mother, but to be sure, she concocted a question: “Mom, what’s for breakfast?”

“Honey, you never eat breakfast.”

“Uh oh…”  Erica said to herself. 

“Ah…, Erica, are you alright?” The woman looked puzzled. “Are you coming down with something?  You do look a little exhausted.”  Walking over to feel her forehead, she exclaimed “Oh, you’re burning up!  Sweetheart, you’re definitely not going to school today! Her mom forcefully stated, searching through her blazer pocket to answer the cell phone.

Erica’s jaw dropped. “What?”

Excusing herself from the phone call, “Why, if I wasn’t in my right mind, but indeed I AM, I believe you want to go to school?!  Okay, what’s really going on?  Are you failing classes or anything of that nature to make you want to not miss school? You’re not going to fail eleventh grade, are you?” She groaned with parent-like worry. 

“NO, it’s not that…” Erica had to come up with something to keep the woman from going batty.  “No, there’s a test today, and for once, it’s on a subject that I like, that’s all, and it would have been nice to get a decent grade, that’s all. She said trying to gain sympathy and somehow convincing herself as well.

“Ooh, honey, I’m sorry to hear that, really I am, but you can’t go to school today, you’re simply burning alive.”

Those last words came out slower than molasses and stung in her chest like dry ice.  

Before the woman walked out the door, she rambled off things to remember, but two that stood out most to Erica was that the woman would be home late, as in “after midnight” late, and not to use her brother’s junk car. Hopefully, the other things she said to here weren’t important.

“My new office numbers are on the fridge!” her mom shouted as she backed recklessly out of the driveway.

Soon as the car drove down the street, and out of view, Erica darted to the closet, slipped on some clothes, and grabbed her books and two oranges out of the refrigerator, hoping the vitamin C would reduce her fever. 

At the corner, she anxiously waited for the bus to arrive, but it was taking forever. There was something pulling her to go to school and she couldn’t relax until she made it there. Only on certain occasions would the spirit of motivation probe at Erica into going to school: pep rallies and Government class, but even then, If both were held on the same day, her drive to get there wouldn’t come close to amounting to the anticipation she felt today.

Waiting for “ol’ faithful”, the school bus, which never came on time, was just too much to bear this time around. 

Repercussions of her mother, brother, or both, finding out she drove the junk car anywhere, would more than likely put an end to her summer vacation even before it started!

The way the house was made, she had to walk towards the back, to the other garage, which was separate from the house. 

The garage door went up, and there, parked inside, was the most hideous sight on four wheels. The worst she’d ever seen in her entire existence. She had totally forgotten how horrendous the junk car looked. –Like some kind of maimed “Back to the Future” kind of car.

Backing out of the old garage was a job within itself. Holding her breath as the wobbling car rolled over the freshly mowed lawn. Cutting the wheel to the left, in hopes of avoiding the newly added garage, where her mom parks the ‘good car’, she gently patted the gas and drove on past.

On the drive to school, she thought about how, when dreaming, sometimes there were things she seemed to know automatically and other times, like, this morning, she wasn’t sure if that really was her mother talking to her.

She did feel a little weird as if she had experienced some type of out-of-body stuff last night while sleeping. And why did she feel so compelled to get to class today? There wasn’t anything good happening. Her mom was right, it’s so unlike her to want to go to school. Perhaps if she didn’t have to get up so early, then maybe, going to school would be okay…naah!