Salvaged: A Love Story

by Stefne Miller

“What else do I get to spend my money on? Let me spoil you a little.”

  “What kind is it?

  “It’s a Toyota Sequoia, and it seats eight people. I thought it would be good for driving all your friends around.”

  “Good grief, it’s huge!” Attie screamed.

  “Well, it can certainly withstand a pounding if it needs to,” Dad told her.

  “Go check her out!” Gramps ordered.

  Attie ran around and climbed into the driver’s side. She was in awe. Matt, Curt, and Chase all jumped into the row of seats in the back, the girls got in the middle row, and I got in the passenger seat.

  “Oh look, it has a butt warmer!” she gushed. “I’ve always wanted a butt warmer.”

  “I think the correct term is heated seats,” Chase corrected.

  “I don’t care what you call them; I just like my butt to be warm.”

  “Take her for a spin!” Dad yelled.

  Without thinking, I snapped my head around and looked at everyone else in the car. They all looked slightly afraid, and Attie noticed.

  “Hey, I’m a good driver!” she shouted.

  “Yes, I’m an excellent driver,” Tammy said in her best Rainman impression.

  “See, Charlie, even Tammy knows Rainman.”

  “I already told you I’d watch it, Riley,” she snapped back. “All right, everyone, you ready?”

  “Hold on!” Matt yelled as he clutched the seat in front of him.

  “Enough from the peanut gallery,” I yelled back. “You’ll make her nervous, and then we’ll really be in trouble.”

  We were all excited for Attie but a little nervous for ourselves. I could hear people snapping seatbelts in place and preparing for the ride. Chase passed me the camera, and I took pictures of everyone in the back. They posed and acted out various scenarios. In one particular pose, everyone acted like they were terrified. In another, everyone’s arms were raised in the air as if they were on a roller coaster. I couldn’t wait to get the pictures developed.

  “Let’s get the show on the road,” Tammy ordered.

  Everyone not going in the car with us walked around to the front of the house so they could see us as we drove by.

  Attie carefully put the car in drive and started toward the driveway.

  “I’m ruining your dad’s grass, Riley; he’s going to kill me.”

  “Hey, he’s the one that parked it there. What else can you do? Just go slow.”

  She did.

  “Okay, maybe not that slow,” I corrected.

  She sped up little.

  As we drove past the patio, everyone started cheering, and Chase snapped photos of the waving family members and friends. Attie slowly made her way down the driveway, turned on her blinker, and made her way onto the street. As soon as she officially exited out of the driveway, we all started clapping.

  Attie drove us around the neighborhood several times and honked at everyone on the patio every time we passed the house. Granted, she never drove over twenty miles an hour, but she did great.

  “Do you think you can handle a Sonic run?” I asked.

  She bit her thumbnail and then smiled over at me. “I think so.”

  We drove by the house so we could tell everyone where we were going and get money from Dad, and then Attie drove her new car down to the Sonic.

  Sitting in the car talking, we drank our Route 44s and planned our first road trip. Everyone agreed that we needed to float the Illinois River and go camping, so we put Chase and Tess in charge of planning the event.

  Once we made it back home, everyone took turns riding around the neighborhood, and then we sat on the patio and watched as everyone said good-bye and drove away.

  (Attie)

  “Wanna go to the drive-in?” Riley asked. “There’s a showing tonight.”

  “I thought you weren’t going to ask me out until I was out of your house? Wouldn’t that be considered a date?”

  “No,” he said quickly and firmly.

  “It wouldn’t?”

  “No, because there will be no touching involved.”

  “Oh?”

  “You sound disappointed.”

  I felt my face blush. “Do I?”

  “Yeah, I think you did. I love it. Come on, let’s go,” he begged.

  “You know as well as I do that I can’t say no to you.”

  “Really? Well then, maybe there will be some touching going on,” he taunted.

  I gave him a playful glare before punching his shoulder.

  “One can always hope,” he added.

  I waited on the patio while he grabbed a couple of blankets, pillows, bottled waters, and snacks, and although it wasn’t actually a date, I couldn’t wait to spend time with Riley alone.

  We got there early enough to park on the front row and get ourselves situated. Folding down the backseats, we lay on our backs and propped ourselves up with the pillows.

  “This is so comfy. If my Gramps had realized that this car gave me the ability to fold down the seats and lay down in the back with a boy, he wouldn’t have gotten it.”

  “He wouldn’t care if he knew it was me. He loves and trusts me.”

  “He doesn’t know you well enough.” I laughed. “Good thing he can’t read minds.”

  “That’s the truth.”

  As we waited for it to get dark, we watched as other cars filled the vacant spots and children ran around playing on the field below the movie screen. I remembered when Riley, Melody, and I were little and our parents used to bring us to the same drive-in. When very young, we would play in the field just like the kids did tonight, and the older we got, our parents let us lay on a blanket and watch the movie in the grass instead of in the car with the adults. We felt so grown-up and independent. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to drive my own car to the movie and leave my parents behind.

  Now I’d have given anything to stay with them in the car a little bit longer and not been in such a rush to spend time away from them. Had I known then what I knew now …

  “I haven’t gotten to congratulate you on your success today,” Riley said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “You haven’t?”

  “No.” He reached into a bag and pulled out a gift. “Congratulations,” he said, handing it to me.

  “I get another gift!” I snatched the box out of his hands. “Oh, Riley, you didn’t have to get me a gift.”

  He sat up. “It’s not much, trust me.”

  I carefully peeled the wrapping off and opened the box. “Key rings!”

  “Okay, now I need to explain why there are two.” He gently took the box away from me.

  “All right.”

  Pulling the first one out, he showed it to me. It was a circle made out of silver.

  “This one has your initials on it. See?”

  “Yes, it’s beautiful.” I took it from his hand, placed it in my palm, and looked at it closely. I traced the engraved initials with my finger and then looked back at him.

  “I love it. So what’s the other one?” I asked, trying to peek into the box.

  He grinned at me and then pulled out the second keychain. It was a silver heart. “This one has your initials on one side,”—he turned it over—“and mine on the other. You don’t get to use this one until we’re officially dating.”

  For some reason I was surprised that he was still interested in dating me.

  “What?”

  “Good grief, Riley, you still want to go out with me after all this time? I thought for sure you’d be sick of me by now.”

  I lay down on my side and looked over at him.

  He turned to face me. “Yes, I still wann
a go out with you. I’m not anywhere near sick of you. Why is that so hard for you to believe? I don’t think I’ll ever understand why you constantly doubt how special you are.”

  “I don’t know; I just do.”

  “You’re a keeper, Charlie. You might not realize it, but I sure do.”

  “We’ll see, Riley Bennett. The summer isn’t over yet.”

  “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “No?”

  “Not even close.”

  chapter 25

  “All right, let’s get this road trip started!” Tammy yelled.

  “You’re driving, right, Riley?” I asked.

  “Do you want me to?”

  “Yes. I don’t trust myself pulling that trailer thing behind us.”

  He laughed as I handed him the car keys. “I think I drive your car more than you do.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Gramps said that you were covered on his insurance. You can drive, and I’ll be in charge of the entertainment.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Entertainment?”

  “The music. You can’t have a road trip without good music. Isn’t that part of the fun?”

  “It depends on the music,” Tammy interjected.

  “I brought all kinds. Hopefully everyone will be pleased.”

  We said our good-byes to Riley’s parents and piled into the car. Anne, Curt, and Matt sat in the back row, and Tess, Tammy, and Chase sat in the middle. Riley apparently didn’t trust my ability to give good directions because he asked Chase to sit directly behind him and handed him the directions.

  I pushed out my bottom lip and tried to make sad eyes. “I don’t get to give you directions?”

  “I didn’t figure you could do entertainment and directions at once.”

  “Hmm, good call. You know me well,” I admitted.

  “I know.” He gave me a large grin. “Shall we go?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  As Riley started the car, I began the entertainment portion of our trip. “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince was the first song that I chose to play.

  Chase screamed at Riley over the music. “Take I-35 south. We’re gonna go past Tinker Air Force Base and then stay on I-40 east until we get to 69 north.”

  “Gotcha.” Riley had already settled in and was heading toward the highway as the rest of us bobbed our heads to the music. Curt and Matt played air guitar as the song came to an end. I followed up the awesome pop song with a classic country hit, “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” by Kenny Chesney.

  We spent the first half of the drive listening to songs from all different decades and genres. “Bad Medicine” by Bon Jovi got the best reaction from the crowd, so we played it three times in a row, and in general, hair bands from the eighties got the most requests.

  After about an hour and a half of driving, Anne decided to start a game of “Let’s Get to Know Each Other.”

  “Okay, first question. Is everyone ready?” she asked.

  Riley and I rolled our eyes at each other. “Yes,” we answered not so eagerly.

  “Just answer if you want to. No pressure or anything. Okay, here goes. What’s your favorite thing to do?”

  Curt spoke first. “Playing basketball with my friends and kissing.”

  “Kissing the boys you play basketball with or kissing in general?” Tammy asked.

  “Kissing hot girls. Any hot girl,” Curt answered, laughing. “It’s fun.”

  “I like to mow the yard,” Tess added, “and work in the flowerbeds.”

  “You have got to be kidding?” Tammy asked with a look of disgust on her face.

  “Be nice, Tammy,” Anne ordered. “Okay, next question. What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever done?”

  “I wear black on the anniversary of Elvis’s death,” Tess admitted.

  “You do or you did once?” Anne asked.

  “I do, every year,” Tess clarified.

  “Good grief. I’ve never heard of such a thing. He died way before we were alive. Why would you do that?” I asked.

  “My grandmother is a big fan. We listen to him all the time. I was kind of raised to be obsessed with him.”

  Tammy leaned up and looked over at her. “So you up and decided to wear black on the day he died?”

  “Uh-huh. It’s a respect thing. I like to honor his memory.” Tess nodded. “You wanted something strange about me; you got it.”

  “Well, that’ll do it,” Anne admitted. “Attie, can you think of anything?”

  I responded without thinking through my answer. “I ran away to New York City for two weeks.”

  “What?” Riley practically screamed. “You ran away? When?”

  “In March.” I realized I’d opened a can of worms I hadn’t intended. “Watch the road, Riley.”

  “Where did you stay while you were there?” Tammy asked.

  “I slept on some guy’s couch. I think he was the big brother of some girl in one of my classes or something like that. I didn’t really know him; he just let me sleep there.”

  “You lived with a complete stranger?” Curt yelled from the back row. “How cool is that?”

  Riley looked at him through the rearview mirror. “Not cool at all.” He shook his head in disgust.

  “It wasn’t a big deal, Riley. I wasn’t in any danger.”

  “What did you do with all of your time?” Tammy asked.

  “I mostly wandered around the city. It was a learning experience if nothing else. Next person, please.”

  “Who can beat that story?” Matt complained.

  “Okay, then here is the next question,” Anne said. “Which do you prefer, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or Velveeta Shells and Cheese?”

  Everyone answered Kraft except for Tess, who preferred Velveeta.

  “Okay, Tess, why the Velveeta?” I asked.

  “The cheese is creamy in Velveeta, and Kraft is that yucky powder stuff that you have to stir and stir to dissolve. It’s not even real cheese. I can’t believe I even have to explain it to all of you people.”

  “Velveeta’s not real either,” Anne added.

  “Well, it looks more real than Kraft.”

  “Okay then, Tess, what’s your favorite book?” Anne prodded.

  “Any of the Twilight books,” she answered.

  “Are those the vampire books I’ve heard so much about?” Tammy asked.

  “Yes, they’re awesome!”

  “All the girls at school in New York were into them,” I said. “At first I tried to figure out who this Edward guy was that everyone was talking about. I thought he was a student at the school. Someone finally told me that Edward was a vampire in the books.”

  “My mom won’t let me read those,” Anne said. “She doesn’t like that they’re about vampires.”

  Tess looked stumped. “Oh?”

  “Yeah. She’s afraid that they glamorize evil or something like that.”

  “Um, I guess I can sorta see that,” Tess considered. “But these vampires are good. They don’t kill people or anything.”

  “Are there such things as good vampires?” Anne asked.

  “In this story there are,” Tess clarified. “But I guess I can see your mom’s point a little bit.”

  “I’d like to read the books to see what all the excitement is about,” I added. “I hear they’re good.”

  “I read them to you,” Riley informed me.

  “When?”

  “When you were asleep in the hospital.”

  “You did? You visited me in the hospital?”

  “Yeah, they’re pretty good books. I mean, for girls’ stuff they’re not bad. You should read them now th
at you’re awake.”

  “I will. I didn’t know you were at the hospital with me. How did I not know that?” Riley and I were now having a private conversation as the others continued the game.

  “You were asleep. How could you have known?”

  “Asleep is a funny way of saying ‘in a coma.’ A little less disturbing?”

  “Personally, I choose to say you were sleeping.” He briefly looked my direction and gave me a wink. “One of my parents or I were always there until they moved you to New York. We didn’t want you to be alone.”

  “I thought I was all alone the entire time.”

  “Nope.”

  “Maybe that’s where I got accustomed to having you near me when I slept.”

  “Maybe.” He nodded slightly. “I hadn’t thought about it.”

  “No wonder your voice was so familiar to me.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I mean, the night of my first nightmare here. Without even opening my eyes, I knew it was you who was talking to me. I recognized your voice, but I wasn’t sure why.”

  “Well, those books are about five hundred pages each, so you heard my voice a lot.”

  “I can’t believe you did that. No normal teenage boy would sit in a hospital room with some dumb girl in a coma and read to her.”

  “Sure they would.” He shrugged. “I didn’t mind.”

  “Other than football practice, we never saw Riley last summer,” Matt added from the backseat. “He was either heading to or coming back from the hospital.”

  Tess sat in a trance. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “It’s sweet.” Anne cried. She was a crier like me.

  “Everybody shush,” Riley ordered. “It’s not a big deal; any of you would have done the same freakin’ thing.”

  “No,” Matt admitted. “I hate to say it, but I don’t know that I would.”

  “I hope we all would if we were in that situation.” Tammy became serious. “That’s a big deal, guys. Here Attie thought she’d been left all alone, but Riley’s family was there the entire time. It’s amazing.”

  “Oh, Charlie, please don’t cry; it isn’t that big of a deal.”

  “It is a big deal. I can’t even tell you what it means to me to know you guys were there.” I looked out the window trying to hide my tears. “I wish my dad would have left me here. Whether I was awake or not, he didn’t visit me once.” I talked more to myself than to Riley.