“Icely,” Patches said softly. She may as well have said ‘bath time’ it had cut so quickly through my sleep.
“What about him?” I asked, lifting my head up.
“He was on the side of the road.” Patches turned to look out the rear viewer.
I stood up quickly to share the same view.
“That wasn’t a long nap, Riley,” Jess said as she looked at me through the small reflective viewer. “What are you two so interested in?” she asked. “Oh, God, no.” We all watched Icely’s car pull onto the hard packed ground. “It can’t be.” Her earlier happiness had been completely obliterated. Fear swirled around the wheeler like a tangible force.
I got back down to make sure Zach was strapped into his funny seat. Ben-Ben had got back down to the floor. He was shivering and fear relieving. I did not yell at him. I wanted to do the same.
“He means to kill us,” Zach said to me.
“Figure that out all on your own, Baby-that-should-not-talk?” Patches mewled.
I would have berated her, but Zach hadn’t even seemed to take note of her words. Plus, I could tell she said it just because she was as scared as the rest of us.
“What’s he doing?” Jess asked, looking into the reflective rear viewer. We all figured it out as soon as the wheeler swung violently to the side from Icely’s impact. I fell to the floor and Zach ‘umphed’ loudly as the wind was knocked from him. Patches hadn’t moved an inch though. I figured she had those razor claws buried halfway into the seat she was on. Jess cried out in alarm as Zach began to wail.
“Are you alright?” I asked him as I got up off of Ben-Ben who didn’t seem to mind the company all that much.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled as my back paw pushed down on his muzzle.
“I meant the baby, but I’m glad to see you are alright as well.”
Zach sniffed, his bottom lip quivering as tears stained his face. “I’m okay,” he said.
“He’s coming back,” Patches said.
I braced for the next hit. Wheeler feet screeched on the hard pack ground. The sound of breaking things was louder this time. Our wheeler went side to side as it appeared Jess was fighting with the wheel.
“She’s going to drive us right off the road!” Patches yelled.
“Like to see you do better,” I said through gritted teeth as I strained to keep myself from once again falling over.
“I can’t lose him,” Jess said frantically. She kept looking in the rear viewer.
There was an explosion as the glass to the rear viewer sprayed into the backseat.
“Oh, my God! He’s shooting at us!” Jess cried. “Zach are you alright?” she asked as she turned around. There were some small pieces of the viewer in his lap and a small cut on his cheek, but other than that, he was fine. “You’re bleeding!”
“It’s just a scratch,” he told her, trying to calm his sister down.
Jess reached back and touched Zach. When she was confident he was fine, she steadied the wheeler and pressed down harder on the go-faster pedal. For the moment at least, she was able to pull away from Icely.
I shook my body and a bunch of the viewer pieces fell away. Ben-Ben was sparkling, he was coated in so much of it, but since he had his head buried under his paws, I figured he was alright as well.
“Cat down! Cat down!” Patches squealed.
I turned quickly around. She had fallen to her seat and was screaming bloody murder—had that same sound I’d heard before at home when the local Toms came to visit her. How she found that irritating sound flattering was beyond me. The noises Zach’s brother made out of his behind were much more entertaining than those wails. Yet she would strut around like Prince Charming himself had come to date her. (I used to really enjoy when Jess read Zach his bedtime stories.)
Patches was clawing at something in her side. I was convinced the metal bee had struck her. I could not imagine her small body being able to absorb such a shock. I’m ashamed to say this, but I was trying to figure out if I would miss her or not.
“Did the metal bee get you?” I asked her, panting from distress. Maybe that was my body’s way of telling me I would miss the fleabag.
“What gave it away?” she asked.
“Where?” I moved in closer. I didn’t see any blood.
“Right here.” She was pointing with her claw. She couldn’t turn her head enough to see it. “Oh, Riley, I’ll be with my ancestors soon.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, cat.”
“When you die you see all of your family members again, stupid dog.”
I turned to Zach. “Is that true?”
He nodded.
“I’ll see Santa again?” Ben-Ben whined from below.
He wasn’t technically family, but I saw no reason to make the little dog any sadder. “Sure, and he’ll have bacon.”
“That would be wonderful,” Ben-Ben said from under his paws.
I turned back to the cat. “Move your paw, let me see.”
“You touch me and I’ll stick this in your eye.”
“Move, Riley.” Jess pushed my head away. “Oh, you poor thing,” she said as she pulled a small piece of blood-coated viewer from Patches side. “All better?”
“Who’s the baby now?” Zach asked.
“That…that could have been deadly.” Patches stood back up.
Another bee struck the car as Icely had decided to hit us with something other than his own wheeler.
“There’s smoke coming up from his car,” Patches said, looking out the rear. She was careful to stay mostly hidden behind her seat.
“I-I think he screwed his radiator up,” Jess said triumphantly.
“He’s coming again.” Patches got down onto the seat.
Jess ducked down as Icely shot multiple bees. Near as I could tell, none of them were close. Then my side of the car dipped down and there was a loud flapping sound.
“Flat!” Jess yelled out. “Shit.”
“Flat?” I asked Patches.
“It’s like the car lost a shoe.”
“Is that important?” I asked back. I was really hoping it wasn’t. I’d seen all of the kids play around the yard without them on, even after they would occasionally step in Ben-Ben’s droppings. Alpha-female had a special secluded spot for us to go in the back of the yard. Ben-Ben didn’t care or couldn’t remember; he would go wherever and whenever the mood struck.
Patches nodded back to me in response. “He’s got worse problems, though. There’s heavy black smoke coming from his car.”
“That’s good right?” I asked.
“Yes, except we’ll all be walking soon.”
Icely could move faster than Jess, especially since she was going to have to carry Zach. Plus, he had a fire-arm. This was bad.
“He’s slowing down!” Jess said with excitement. “What was that?” she added as we all heard a loud sound come from the rear of the wheeler.
“Big piece of tire just came off,” Patches said.
A couple of more bees buzzed by the car and then…nothing. I stuck my head to look up, by the time I did, Icely was standing beside his car, melting away into the distance.
“We’re going to lose him,” Jess said happily. “Now I just need to change this flat.”
She was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. “I’ll just go a little further before I do though.”
As the smell of burning wheeler shoe got real strong within the car, Zach began to cough. I was concerned that he was not getting enough clean air. And then, luckily, the smell stopped. It was quickly replaced by a grating sound and a shower of fire behind the car.
“She’s driving on her rim,” Patches said.
How does she know all this stuff? I thought. As long as the wheeler was still moving I was okay with the loud sound and the small fires.
“That’s as far as I can go.” Jess pulled the wheeler over to the side of the hard path. “I hope they have a spare.”
“Spare what?” Ben-Ben asked. “Food packet? Because that would be nice. I get hungry when I’m nervous.”
“Who knew you were always nervous?” Patches asked. “And she means tire. Spare tire.”
“How far back is Icely?” I asked.
“Not far enough,” Patches replied.
Jess got out and opened the side door to get a better look at her brother. “Oh you poor thing.” She kissed his cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault, sis,” he gurgled.
Jess went to the rear of the car and opened it up, I followed. “I don’t even know what I’m looking for,” she said as she pulled stuff out. “Why didn’t I pay more attention when Dad tried to show me how to do this? Seemed like something I’d never have to worry about. Oh, Dad. I miss you and Mom…and even Daniel.”
Patches had come up beside me; she kept looking from Jess to back down the path we had just come.
“Uh-huh! The jack! Now what do I do with it?” Jess asked.
She placed the ‘jack’ under the car and did something to it that made the wheeler start to rise up into the air. I backed away as did Patches. Ben-Ben was staring at us from the rising doorway.
“This is fun!” he yipped.
“Okay, the car is in the air. Now what?” Jess asked.
No idea who she was asking, even the cat had a blank expression on her face.
“I’ve got to take the wheel off, that’s right.” Jess grabbed a heavy stick made from metal and went over to the flat. “Rightie-tightie, leftie-loosie.”
I shrugged my shoulders; it was funny because Patches did the same. Jess was grunting and groaning. The wheel began to turn, although from her tone I could tell that was not what she wanted it to do.
“He always made this look so easy,” she cried out.
I noticed that the wheeler was moving slightly forward every time she tried to do whatever ‘leftie-loosie’ meant.
“The jack is moving!” she cried in alarm.
“The jack isn’t moving, the car is,” Patches clarified.
The wheeler rode forward a little bit as the jack fell over; there was a crinkling of metal underneath the wheeler as it came down.
“Are you guys alright?” Jess asked, sticking her head into the back of the wheeler.
“That wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be,” Ben-Ben said, jumping out.
“Maybe that’s a good idea.” Jess pulled Zach’s seat with him in it out of the wheeler. She put him down a few feet away from the back end. I went over and gave him a kiss. He looked like he could use one.
“Oh…that makes sense. I should loosen the lug nuts before I jack the car up.”
Ben-Ben was in the middle of the road taking care of some business.
“What?” he asked when he saw Patches and me looking at him. “I have to go when I’m nervous.”
“What don’t you have to do when you’re nervous?” Patches asked.
Ben-Ben grunted out, “Sleep.”
“Too bad. I’d almost never have to deal with you if that were the case.” Patches started to walk away from us. “I’m going to keep a look out for Icely.”
“I got one loose!”
It was some time later when she announced that she had finally got the last one loose. She started to tug on what she called ‘the rim’.
“Sometimes, Jess, you really do let your blonde shine through.” She laughed. “NOW, I need to jack the car up.”
The wheeler went back up into the air. Jess once again started pulling on the rim. Nothing happened. She even feebly kicked it a couple of times.
“It won’t come off!” she screamed.
She smacked it a couple of times with the metal stick and still nothing. She went back into the back of the wheeler and came back with a heavy ended stick.
“This ought to do the trick,” she said to herself.
The loud gonging sound had me concerned that Icely might be able to hear it and would come running. I could see Patches sitting far up the pathway and she had yet to turn our way. I figured she’d come running if he was.
The wheeler was swaying back and forth as Jess tugged, pushed, banged and kicked the rim. On her last kick she slipped and landed hard on her backside where she began to cry uncontrollably. I went over to her and licked one of the hands that were covering her face.
“Oh, Riley, I can’t even change a flat. How am I going to protect us?” she wailed.
“I thought you were protecting us?” Ben-Ben asked of me.
I shushed the small dog.
“We should go,” Patches said as she trotted up.