10 Going Out

Arnold hadn't been out of the house on his own before. He had always been driven somewhere and had company of some kind. He didn't know why that was and he never questioned it. He still didn't. He wasn't nervous about being alone and walking around, either. He didn't consider why it was that he was always accompanied when going outside, not even when he went to the bus stop and several people gave him odd looks.

He had no real experience reading people's faces, especially people he didn't know, so he ignored everyone around him. He was lucky that this time the people observing him weren't bothered about being ignored. He stepped onto the bus when it arrived and politely asked how to get to a specific address.

The bus driver was a little perturbed with the question and about how Arnold was holding up the people behind him from getting onto the bus and asked him to step aside. Arnold did so and the others climbed on and paid the fare and sat down.

“You need to take the fifty-one line on the next street and then get off at Central Street.” The bus driver said. “Wait for twenty minutes and take the eighteen line until you get to the Plaza. The place you want is near there.”

“Thank you.” Arnold said and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. He knew you needed to pay to ride the bus; but, he didn't know how much it was and was about to ask when the bus driver laughed at him.

The man pointed to the sign below the coin return. “You need exact change or you won't get a ride.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Arnold said and stepped off.

The bus driver gave him a little wave. “Good luck, kid.” He said and shut the door, then the bus pulled away.

Arnold still didn't know how much a bus ride was; but, he did confirm that his mother was right. Even when you had money, people won't take it if it's not the right kind. He let a small smile out and walked down the street, turned the corner and walked down the block, then took another corner to see where the next bus stop was. He didn't see it, so he walked around for several minutes and found a store.

Arnold went inside and waited in line to get to the counter, then pulled out a twenty dollar bill. “I need change for the bus.”

“Change isn't free.” The woman said a little crossly. “You need to buy something first.”

Arnold looked at the things around him and grabbed the first thing he saw. The woman gave him an odd look at the purchase, made change, and gave it to him. Happy that he now had the right kind of money to ride the bus, he gave her a smile.

The woman reacted when his blank face became lively and smiled back. “The bus stop is about ten minutes down the street that way.” She said and pointed.

“Thank you.” Arnold said and left to go find the bus stop. Like the lady had said, he found it about ten minutes later and people were there waiting. The bus pulled up and he waited for everyone else to get on and counted the change needed and put it in the slot. A piece of paper popped out and he looked at it.

“Haven't you seen a transfer slip before?” The bus driver asked with a chuckle.

“This is my first ride on the bus.” Arnold responded.

“Ha!” The bus driver said. “Well, for the next half an hour, you can use that to hop on any bus and even the subway.”

“There's a subway?” Arnold asked with wide eyes and the bus driver burst out laughing.

“Hurry up... and sit.” The bus driver said between laughs. “We need to go.”

Arnold nodded and sat in the very front seat. “Can you tell me when we get to Central Street? I need to take the eighteen line to the Plaza.”

The bus pulled away from the curb and the driver pointed up above the windshield to an electronic sign that Arnold hadn't seen. “The stops appear there when we approach them.”

Arnold watched as the sign flicked from Franklin Street and showed Alexander Street instead. The bus pulled over and came to a stop a moment later. One person got on and they showed a transfer slip, and the bus driver nodded and drove away. It took a little while for the sign to change and show Central Street. When it did, Arnold prepared to get up and leave.

The bus driver saw him and chuckled at the eagerness. “Here you go.” He said and pulled over. “Have fun.”

Arnold nodded and waited for six passengers to get on before he left the bus. He walked over to the bench and sat down to wait the twenty minutes for the next bus. He was going to ask the old man sitting on the ground in the corner of the bus stop how to tell what number the bus had, then the bus in question showed up with a big eighteen painted on the front.

The bus stopped and Arnold showed the transfer paper and sat down. The bus pulled away and he watched the electronic sign until it said Plaza. No one got on and nearly everyone got off with him. Now that he was there, he wasn't sure where to go.

“You look confused.” A nice older lady said from about ten feet away. She was about fifty years old and it showed on her haggard face and frumpy clothes.

“I need to get to an address and I don't know where to go.” Arnold said.

“Perhaps I can help.” She said and Arnold told her the address, then she described exactly how to get there from the Plaza and how long it would take.

“Thank you.” Arnold said and started to walk away.

“Goodbye, young man!” The nice lady said.

Arnold heard the cue and turned back to her, then to her utter shock, he put a hand behind her head and kissed her like Heather had taught him. One... two... three. He counted in his head and broke the kiss. “Goodbye.” He said and walked away. He needed to hurry if he was going to do what needed to be done and get home in time.

*

The nice old lady had dropped her bag and stared at the handsome young man as he walked away.

“Thanks for waiting, Ethel.” Her friend said as she came over. “What a pain in the butt that stupid elevator is!” She looked at her silent friend and saw the shock on her face. “Ethel? Are you okay?”

Ethel moved her lips to speak and raised a shaking hand to point in the direction Arnold had gone. “K-k-k-kissed!” She managed to get out. “H-he kissed me!”

Her friend turned to look where she pointed and didn't see anyone. “Who did what?”

Ethel didn't say anything else when she realized her friend didn't believe her. She looked at her hand and realized she had let go of her bag. She bent down and was glad that it hadn't tipped over and spilled.

“I think that's the last time I go and get a bottle of water and leave you alone in the Plaza.” Her friend said with a laugh and took her arm. “We have enough time before lunch to get in line at that food truck that serves the best hamburgers in the city.”

Ethel shook off some of her shock and looked at her friend. “It's a fast food truck. We shouldn't have to stand in line.”

Her friend laughed, because if they didn't get there before lunch, they would have to stand in line and wait twenty minutes to get a hamburger. They arrived and there were only two people in front of them. Her friend discussed the menu and Ethel's thoughts were not on food. All she could think about was that handsome young man and how he had kissed her.

*

“Finally!” Gerald said as lunch arrived and he grabbed his suit coat and entered a late meeting lunch into his business calendar and left the office. He waved and said hello to several people, then entered the elevator and went to the ground floor. He was relieved when he stepped out into the fresh air and quickly walked over to his car. He climbed in and drove out of the parking lot to head to his favorite daytime drinking hole.

It was a good ten minute drive away from work, that way Gerald had enough time to sober up before going back after his long lunch break. Or so he thought. Everyone knew he went out to drink and he always came back a little drunk. He did his work without being affected by it, so no one called him out on it. He never drank at work, so he wasn't technically breaking company policy.

Gerald arrived at the bar and spent an hour knocking back several drinks to try and forget about his anxiety over his wife discovering what he had been doing with their finances. He successfully drowned out the little voice in the back of his head that was telling him to smarten up and to apologize. With that important task completed, he stood up and stumbled out of the bar.

Both the bartender and the bouncer shook their heads as their regular customer left the establishment quite a bit drunker than he had entered it. They didn't try to stop him from leaving, even though it was their responsibility.

Gerald went to his car and got in on the passenger side and reached for the steering wheel, then laughed when he realized he was on the wrong side of the car. He got out and loudly slammed the passenger door, to a few witness' surprise, then they saw him stumble around the car and climb into the driver's side. A concerned citizen came over to the car and looked at him through the driver's side window.

“Hey, buddy.” The man said. “You're too drunk to drive.”

“Fuck off!” Gerald said loudly. “Do I look like I'm driving right now?”

The man frowned and couldn't argue about it.

“Mind your own business.” Gerald said and checked his cell phone and set an alarm, then closed his eyes as he reclined his seat to take a nap.

The man sighed and walked away.

Gerald chuckled at the man's idiocy. I would never drive while drunk. He thought and fell asleep.

Twenty minutes later the alarm went off and Gerald cursed in his sleep. It took him a few minutes to wake up and turn off the alarm, then he grumbled about needing to get back to work. He hit the release on his seat to sit up straight and the seat flung him forward with such force that he slammed the bridge of his nose into the top of the steering wheel and it knocked him out.

*

Arnold pulled the seat back into position with his rubber-glove covered hands and Gerald slumped down in the seat. He eased his unconscious father to the side and slid into the front as low as possible, then took his father's place in the driver's seat. He had watched both his mother and father do this hundreds of times and copied their movements. He turned the key and started the car, grabbed the stick on the steering wheel and tried to put it into the 'R' spot.

It wouldn't move and Arnold had to think about what he was missing. He looked down and saw the pedals on the floor and pushed the farthest one. The engine revved up and he quickly moved his foot off of it. He pushed the other one and felt the resistance, then held it and tried to move the stick again. It slid from the 'P' to the 'R' and the car lurched slightly.

Arnold let a small smile out and slowly took his foot off the brake and the car rolled backwards slowly. He didn't touch the gas at all and let the car drift on its own. When it was out far enough, he hit the brake again and moved the stick down to 'D'. The car didn't move, so he gripped the steering wheel and touched the gas. The car moved slowly and he kept the smile and turned the wheel to get it to the pavement.

Once he had the car on the road, he gave it a little more gas and the car swerved. He tried to turn it to straighten it out and over-corrected and the car lurched the other way. He stomped on the brake and took a breath, then tried again. He got the car going and held the steering wheel stiffly and managed to stay on the road and drove away.

The concerned man that had seen Gerald was drunk, picked up his cell phone and called 911 to report a very drunk driver was endangering a lot of people with his erratic driving.

If Arnold had heard the man's description, he would have been happy, because his inexperienced driving looked like the car was being operated by his drunk father. He drove for quite a ways, until he came to a spot that looked good. He was sure there were much better spots; but, he didn't have a lot of time to do what he wanted, so he settled for doing something quick. He pulled off the road and put the stick into 'P', then opened the driver's side door.

When Arnold had surprised his father by pushing on the seat and knocked him out, it had given him an idea. He put his unconscious father into the driver's seat and went to the trunk. He opened it to see a pile of junk and didn't bother moving it aside and took out the spare tire. The junk filled in the empty space and he closed the trunk and put the tire in the back seat right behind the driver side. He climbed in and put his feet on the tire and pushed.

It was surprisingly simple to break the seat tilt lock, then the seat and his father flew forward. There was a small crunch sound as his father's face bounced off the top of the steering wheel like it had before to knock him out, then the seat back and tire were heavy enough to press into the man's neck to make a sickening crunch sound.

Arnold got out of the car and shut the back door, then he looked into the driver's side door and his father was gurgling blood out onto the steering wheel. He bent down to put his father's foot on the gas just enough to get the engine going and reached up to put the car back into gear.

“I warned you not to hurt my mother.” Arnold said, pulled the gear shift, then shut the door as the car lurched forward and drove towards the side of the road. He had lined it up as best as he could with his limited skills, and with his father jammed against the steering wheel, it held it steady as the car disappeared over the side and rolled down the embankment. The car sped up and Arnold didn't stay around to see what actually happened when it reached the bottom of the ravine.

Arnold started to jog back down the road, until he reached a pay phone. He was tempted to call Heather and see if she would come and pick him up, then realized that he didn't want her near there, especially when someone found his father and she would know he was nearby at the time of the 'accident'. He picked up the phone and hit the number the phone said was for information.

“I need a taxi.” Arnold said when the operator picked up.

The operator had received several calls from that location, because it was so close to a popular bar, and she didn't think anything of it and gave him the number. Arnold called and the taxi arrived a few minutes later. It had been waiting by the bar for just such a call and sped over to his second fare of the day. Popular bars were the best sources of income for him and they were usually locals and didn't have to go far. This fare was the same and he only drove the young man back to the Plaza.

Arnold paid the fare without questioning it, because he didn't know that it was a bit more than it should have been, and he walked across the Plaza and hopped on the bus. He showed his transfer ticket and the bus driver shook his head.

“Sorry, kid. You're an hour too late.” The bus driver said. “You need to buy another ticket.”

“Okay.” Arnold said and put the money in the machine and it gave him another stub. “What do I do with the old one?”

“Crumple it up and toss it in the garbage.” The driver said and pointed to a can behind the driver's seat.

Arnold did so and sat down on the front seat and rode the bus back to the stop near the store, walked all the way back to where he could get the first bus, then rode that for free with the transfer paper until it stopped a couple of streets from his house. He crumpled the paper up and tossed it into the trash can behind the driver, which seemed to be why it was there, and stepped off the bus and walked back over to his home.

Arnold saw that the driveway was empty and he hurried his pace. He had blown his time estimate by nearly half an hour and he knew that he was on borrowed time. His mother could come home at any moment and he needed to be in the house when she did. If he wasn't, then he would have some difficult explanations to deliver.