Both of their dark eyes looked at mine as they said in unison, “Don’t!”
I felt as if I’d had a grand plan in the space of two seconds. “I could stay here with you?”
I said to Teresa and she nodded her head like a bobbing doll.
“Yes. Yes!”
The driver walked up to me, and, as if he’d brought me back to reality the fact that I’d made a promise to Aunt Rose came back like a flash of lightening.
“Ms. Harris we need to get going. Otherwise, you’ll miss your flight,” the driver said, the one that turned up at the house to pick me up to drive me to the airport. I didn’t get it. I was going to the academy, one that I’d never heard off and Mom had no money when she died, yet she’d managed to arrange for a driver, the academy and my flight to Boston?
I should have asked more questions, but I was scared about what I’d find out.
Did I have some secret relative that no one knew about?
Maybe?
Secrets and lies, that seemed to be the theme of our family. I used to think that we were an open book that I knew everything that was going on in my little family’s lives. But it seemed that I knew nothing and that was why I had to say bye to my friends and get on that flight.
I had to find out about the academy and the mystery behind it. Some part of me felt that Mom had faked her death and maybe she was alive and taking care of me somehow. But I’d seen her body in the coffin, she was dead for real and I’d been watching too many movies and reading too many romance suspense novels.
Mom was dead and this was her last gift for me. I just had to figure out why?
Chapter Nine
I’d practically slept the whole flight. I hadn’t slept yesterday with the girls as we talked about old times and tried to act as if nothing was going to change. It was nice to think that we would always be friends.
But how was that possible if we didn’t see each other anymore? What would we be? Long distance friends? Sure, I knew that people had long distance relationships but long distance friends, was that even a thing?
I knew that as soon as I got off the plane, there would be another driver waiting for me. Anyone else would have loved the idea of having drivers picking them up and taking them places.
Mom would have loved it, for sure.
God, she loved the idea of being rich. I remember one time we got on a flight and were upgraded. She said that she would rather drive back home then get on a flight and go economy. Once you go up, it’s so hard to come back down´. I never understood Mom’s motto, not until now. She said it and we laughed, but it meant nothing to me. I’d never been up or never really realized that I’d been until now.
I mean my life before now was Mom, Gran and spending weekends with my friends and then holidays with my Gran. My life was so perfect, and I didn’t even know it. I used to sit and wonder about my dad. Wonder what kind of man he was, because Mom said that he died and that I never got to know him. She had no photos of him, she said that it was too painful, and I respected that, but always thought that there was more to the story. And one day when she was ready she would share it.
But knowing that both my parents are dead, and I’m an orphan? That stung. My aunt had the burden of making me come to this academy and now I had no friends. I had friends, but not near-by.
I hoped that I would have friends at the academy, but there was a 99% chance they were all friends there and I’d be the new girl. The new girl that desperately needed to fit in, because if I didn’t then I would be going to New York or maybe Aunt Rose just said that to me.
She could have done, just to make herself feel better.
So many emotions were running through my head that as I grabbed my bags, instead of going out to the arrival area with my head held high to look out for the sign with my name, I sunk lower. My shoulders slumped and a frown on my face, as excited arrivals rushed out to meet their loved ones. Family, friends, lovers and then there was me, I had nothing to look forward to. Just a driver with my name on a sign.
“One year,” Teresa said as I left and I knew that she wanted me to keep that in my mind. One year and that was all I had to do, to get to my dream of going on to a university. I had to look out for me and stop wallowing in my sadness.
Her words and voice of encouragement made me lift my head up high. As I did, an elderly man that looked as if he was an Alfred in one of the Batman movies stood in front of me and asked, “Ms. Vicki can I take your bag? I’m Albert and I’ll be driving you to Hawk Academy."
I handed him my bag and followed him, curious about how he knew it was me and why he wasn’t carrying a sign. This was freaking me out at the same time, I wanted answers and once we got in the car, I hoped that he could answer a few of them.
****
“Have you ever been to Boston?” Albert asked.
I shook my head as I admired his British accent. I wanted to ask him if he was British, but then felt silly for doing so. And if he said yes, then so what? I wanted to start the conversation light and then move it on a bit. The art of polite conversation, something that teenagers have lost a long time ago, so Teresa’s dad would say whenever we would be talking on WhatsApp, Snapchat or even Twitter while we sat in the same room.
It was as if I was in this robotic frame of mind as he opened the car door and I stepped into the Range Rover. He opened the back door to stow my luggage, and I nervousness began to feel tense. Back home when the other driver picked me up, that was ok. I was in my town, but now I was in a place so damn unfamiliar it just made me feel even more alone.
“Do you do this often?” I asked as he started the car and we started to leave the airport parking lot.
He laughed, “Ms. Vicki, this is my job.”
“Of course, I was just trying to think of something to say. Conversation. Interaction… I’ve never been driven anywhere before.”
“Never?”
I shrugged as I thought about what he was asking, “Of course, my mom drove me places and my aunt too, and my Gran when I went to visit her and my best friend Ava. The only one of us three to have a car.”
I was thinking about who else had taken me places, when he replied, “See. Never say never.”
This time, he made me laugh and I thought about him making me feel as if maybe things wouldn’t be so bad in a short space of time.
“This is my job and I’ve been a driver for the Hawk family for the last forty years and some.”
“Wow, you’ve had the same job for that long.”
He turned to face me, “Yes.”
I chuckled, “You must really love it.”
He didn’t answer and I knew that something was wrong, because his face went all serious so quickly.
Shit!
“Yes and no. If I’m honest Ms. Vicki, it’s not a job that was of choice. It was more of a case of it’s something that my father did and …”
“Ah a tradition.”
He nodded and I thought about seeing a couple of people in town that lived that way. Little Johnny whose dad had a ranch and his grandfather before him came to school just to get his diploma just to take over the same farm that had been in his family for so long. He was proud about it, but I always wondered what it would be like to have a choice. Like me. Would they be so willing to do it? Or hate having their fate decide for them.