Beast and Dog-Boy

Chapter Two - The Pickup

She did not see Drew for the rest of the day. Then the first bus bell rang, and as she made her way to her bus, she felt a taunt mixture of nervousness and excitement knot inside her.

When she climbed aboard her bus, her heart leapt when she saw Drew, sitting in the seat behind her front seat. She tried to say, “Hi” to him, but it caught in her throat. So she just gave him a little wave.

He nodded his head to her and she sat down in front of him. She couldn’t bring herself to even turn around and talk to him. Her face burned and burned. She felt all warm inside.

More students filed onto the bus. Almost all of them looked peculiarly at Drew as they got on, but none said anything to him as they passed.

She saw the driver occasionally peering at Drew through his backwards bus mirror. She was shocked when she realized he was watching Drew with begrudging respect.

She herself couldn’t look at him. And she was nervous about the ride home. The bus rides in the morning were bad. The return afternoon rides home were hellish, wild, free-for-alls, as far as trash talk and bullying went.

She cringed as Alex and Jason got on. They were eleventh graders, decently sized, sometimes nasty, and the alpha dogs of the back of the bus. They liked to work in tandem for maximum chaotic effect.

And she knew they were pretty crafty too. So when they stopped in front of Drew’s seat, she could see a recipe for disaster brewing.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Alex asked Drew as he stood over him.

She didn’t even bother looking up to the driver, Alex and Jason were in charge on this bus now. She felt sick from fear.

She couldn’t see Drew, and he was quiet behind her.

“Everyone’s calling him Dog-Boy,” said Jason as he smiled.

At these words she felt like her heart had been stabbed. Then she did something she had never done before in school, or on the bus. She stood up for herself by saying, “Leave him alone, Jason.”

“Nobody was talking to you, Val,” Jason said.

She turned around in her seat to view Drew. He looked placid and calm.

But Jason continued, getting a little closer to Drew’s face. He said, “I mean we were just asking him his name? No harm in that?”

Alex, meanwhile, looked at Drew curiously. He squinted at him as his forehead creased. She knew he was a little nicer than Jason, which wasn’t saying much. She knew he’d be the tipping point.

She took a deep breath when Alex said, “C’mon Jason, let’s go.” He went to the back of the bus. And then she blew a sigh of relief when Jason went there too.

She looked at Drew and he seemed completely unfazed.

She whispered to him, “That was awesome...and perfect. I was so nervous. Weren’t you?”

“No,” Drew said. And then he smiled at her.


The bus ride home was raucous and loud. That was the usual.

But nothing crazy happened. And when the bus driver pulled to a stop at their the beginning of their dirt road, she got off, then Drew exited behind her. Then the bus pulled away.

Drew just stood there, looking off into the distance.

She looked at him. His expression was unreadable.

“Drew, I’d like to ask you some questions,” she said.

He turned to look at her, but he said nothing.

He was just standing there, by the road’s T. He had made no move to try and walk home. Good, she thought, I’ll get more questions in this way.

“You weren’t born here, in America, were you?” she asked.

Drew just stared at her mildly as he nodded his head no.

“Where were you born?” she asked him.

He was silent at this. He turned from her and stared off in the distance. And just when she thought he wasn’t going to answer, he said something very gruff and unintelligible to her.

And very loud too. She jumped a little as he said this.

“Where?” she asked after she recovered enough to ask again.

Again he barked the same thing, and again she was frightened by this, as his voice was so harsh.

Her body was tense and tingled. Finally she managed, “Never heard of it.”

Drew said nothing to this and he just stared off more into the distance.

“And I got an A in geography, of course,” she said.

He said nothing to this as well.

Suddenly she was very tired. Everything that had happened today had been so draining. She didn’t want to ask any more questions of him. She wanted to go home.

She said, “You’ve been so nice to me today. Drew, thank you so much. Do you want to finish your perfect job and walk me home?”

Drew’s eyes left whatever he was looking at and they returned to her. Then he said in the softest voice she had heard from him yet, “Of course.”


They walked down the road together, side by side. And tired as she was, she loved every second of it.

When they got to her house, she said, “This is my castle.”

Drew nodded his head.

“Do you want to come inside?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

She felt a little wounded by this. “Well, you can’t blame a girl for trying,” she joked.

Drew looked like he didn’t get this.

She grew serious and asked, “Another day?” as she pointed to her house.

He nodded his head as he stared at her house. He smiled a little and said, “Yes.”

“Awesome,” she said. “It’s a date.”

He nodded his head and smiled more.

She said, “Listen Drew. Can I come over and meet your parents later today?”

His smile vanished and he said, “No want.”

She was surprised that she was hurt a little by this as well.

Drew just looked at her and he said, “Another day.”

She smiled a little at this and she said, “OK.” For some reason she didn’t believe him.

Then he smiled big and wide, and she was surprised by this. He just stood there smiling at her. He said, “Another day. Soon.”

She smiled wide at this too. This warmed her as a girl. She giggled like an idiot and she couldn’t control herself.

Drew smiled more at her as she did so, and she could feel herself blushing like a smitten moron.

“All right, Sir Galahad,” she said, giggling some more. “You certainly know how to string a girl along, don’t you?”

Then his face fell and he looked saddened. She froze because this was the first time she had seen him looking dejected.

“No,” he said to her as his face became grim.

She did not know what to say to this. So after a while she asked, “I’ll see you tomorrow at our bus stop?”

He looked off into the distance. A small smile returned to his face. He said, “Yes.”

She smiled at this as well. And then she walked up her walkway and into her house.


The next morning when she awoke she felt great. She rushed through her morning routine and then hurriedly threw a bunch of junky food in her bag for lunch.

She broke up her routine by spending some time trying to make herself look prettier in front of her mirror above her sink. She failed miserably, and the make-up only transformed her from looking like a hag, into looking like a slatternly hag. She stared at her face with sadness for a time.

Soon she brightened. What am I thinking? He doesn’t seem to care in the least!

So she washed all her makeup off, grabbed her half-assed lunch, said bye to her grandparents, and left out the door.

She didn’t see Drew on the dirt road. She assumed he was already up at the stop. But when she made the last turn that allowed her to view it, he wasn’t there.

Her heart sunk for a moment. She walked up to the stop. She was fifteen minutes early. Maybe he was on his way.

Those fifteen minutes were perhaps the longest in her life. But they passed. Soon she heard the bus approaching, and then she saw it. She turned around to look down her dirt road. No Drew.

And just a second before she turned her gaze from the road, she saw Mr. Wezell’s beat-up, old, red, pick-up truck appearing around the bend. Her heart leapt.

The bus pulled to a stop and its doors opened. Mr Wezell’s pickup truck drew nearer.

The bus driver looked at her, and then he looked down the dirt road at the approaching pickup.

“That isn’t Dog-Boy driving that, is it?” he asked with genuine curiosity.

Her face went red with anger. “Drew!” she all but screeched. “His name is Drew, Bus-Driver-Dick! And I don’t know...”

The bus driver took no offense at Valerie’s first insult to anyone, ever. Actually, he merely nodded his head, as he was caught up in the drama of it all as well.

But as the pickup neared, she saw it was Drew driving it, and extremely badly, as the pickup bucked and swerved about the bumpy road.

“Jesus, he sucks at driving,” said the bus driver. She nodded her head in agreement.

But Drew managed to put the pickup to a stop just before the bus. He ground the gears for a time before he finally put it in park.

Valerie stood frozen before the bus’s open doors. Drew leaned over and opened the passenger’s side door for her. And for a moment, there was only silence.

“Hey girl! What’s it going to be? The tease machine?” the bus driver asked while motioning to the inside of his bus. “Or death-ride by lover-boy.”

She instantly realized this was a no brainer. She said, “Death-ride by lover-boy.”

Then the bus driver did something that shocked her. “Bold call!” he said. Then he slammed the doors shut and moved his bus along.

She walked over to Mr. Wezell’s pick-up and she got in the passenger’s side. She closed the door. The engine was revving crazily, so she turned the key and shut it off.

“Hi,” she said to Drew.

“Hi,” he said back.

She gathered herself for time. Then she enjoyed this quiet moment. First time in a vehicle with a boy, she ticked off in her head. This has been a banner two days for me.

“Why are you driving Mr. Wezell’s truck?” she asked.

Drew just looked at her as if he didn’t understand.

“Is Mr. Wezell living with you? Are you related to him?” she asked.

“No,” said Drew as he looked at nothing.

“So, he’s really gone,” she asked.

“Yes,” said Drew.

“Did he give you his truck?”

“Yes,” said Drew, nodding his head.

“Are you two friends?” she asked and she turned a little so she could face him squarely and watch him.

Drew opened his mouth as if to answer this, but then he paused. He thought for a while, and then he smiled a little. He said, “Yes.”

She asked, “Where did he go?”

Drew looked confused by this for a moment, but then his eyes lit up. He barked the same strange word he said when she asked him where he was born. She still could not understand what he said.

“Beautiful, love it,” she said. She thought more, then she said, “You can’t possibly have a driver’s license, with that terrible driving...”

He reached into his jean’s pocket and pulled out a driver’s license which he handed to her. She practically drooled as he did so, cause this meant info time.

The name on the license said, “Andrew Wezell.”

She practically screeched, “So you are related to Mr. Wezell!”

“No,” he said.

She waved the license in front of his face and she said, “Look, Drew! It says so right here! Same last name! You’re related to him in some way…”

“No,” he said.

“You’re lying,’ she said, as this was the only possible explanation left she could think of.

Then Drew turned to her and he looked her in the eyes. His look was intense and it riveted her attention, and maybe even her heart a little. He said to her, as he waved his finger back and forth between them, “No lying.”

Somehow she believed him, but that only perplexed her more. What was she missing? His license said, “Andrew Wezell.” It was right there in black and white, and right in her hot, little hand. And there was his picture on it. All this certainly wasn’t a coincidence. Then she struck onto another possible shocking explanation.

“Wezell’s not your last name!” she gasped.

“Yes,” he said, nodding his head.

She sat stunned for a moment. Then she said, “Whoa, whoa. whoa! Are you saying this is a fake license?!”

“Yes,” he said

“C’mon!” she cried as she held it up to the sun to look at it better. “This thing looks too good. It has to be real. ”

Drew said, “License fake.” Then he waved his finger back and forth between them and he said, “No lying. No lying, no time.”

She tingled at this. Then she asked softly, “Wait, are you saying you can’t lie to me?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding his head.

“But you can lie to other people?” she asked.

Drew smiled and he pointed to the driver’s license in her hand.

She laughed like crazy at the ridiculousness of this. All this had to be Mr. Wezell’s doing. It was all a prank. Or an elaborate scheme to make her feel good about herself. But that notion was completely absurd, as she couldn’t imagine Mr. Wezell having the resources, much more the desire, for all that.

She just could not put this together. She threw up her hands in defeat.

She looked over at Drew. Now he was staring out the front windshield, at nothing. She took this opportunity to really look at him. He looked pretty damn all right

She thought if this was an elaborate scheme by Mr. Wezell to make her feel better about herself, it was really working well.

Then she thought about her current situation. She said, “You can’t drive us to school illegally.”

Drew said, “No school.”

She laughed and laughed at this. “Are you suggesting we skip school?” she asked

Drew almost looked mad. His eyebrows knitted and he said, “No school...today. Tomorrow school.”

“So you’re proposing we skip just for today? We might get in trouble...” she said.

He said nothing to this.

Two days ago she would have been frightened to be truant from school. Even for just a day. Now, she was seriously considering it.

“All right, if we aren’t going to school, what will we do?” she asked.

“Help drive,” he said.

She sat in nervous silence for a time. Then she said, “I only have my learner’s permit, and I can only drive a little better than you. How in the world are you going to learn how to drive from me today?”

“Drive,” he said as he got out of the pick-up. He walked around the front of it until he got around to her door. He opened it, then he motioned that she should get out and get in the driver’s seat.

She laughed at him in disbelief. She said, “We can’t pull that off!”

Drew pointed to his driver’s license in her hand. She froze. Then she held it up to the sunlight again and she looked at it some more. It looked really good to her, but what did she know?

“Where did you get this?” she asked.

“Wezell,” he said.

“I had no idea he was so criminally talented,” she said. “I mean, you think you know a person…”

Drew said nothing to this.

She was scared. She said, “If we get pulled over by the cops, or if someone from school sees us, or lots of other people for that matter, we’ll get in trouble…”

He said, “So?”

She looked away from his license to look at him. He looked calm. And unafraid.

She looked up at him some more and she said, “Well, if we do get pulled over, and your license fools them, and it somehow passes a check, the worst that can happen to us is a punishment for skipping school. And I can drive with my permit, with you as a licensed driver, I think, although the rules about hours and age vary by state, and I’m not sure what our…”

Then Drew did a funny thing. As he stared off in the distance, he raised his hand a little, made a mouth with his fingers and began to open and close it quickly. Then he stopped doing this and he said, “Help drive.”

She laughed. She got out of her seat and went around to the front of the pick-up and got into the driver’s side. As she did so she said, “My, my, aren’t you just the bossy Neanderthal all of the sudden. Maybe that’s the answer to this all. You’re from a past time. And you’ve come here to keep me company because you are the only one my age who seems cool and normal with my cave woman appearance.”

By now she had put her hand on the key in the ignition. She looked over at Drew. He was looking at her very curiously. Then he nodded his head in encouragement.

She turned the ignition key and the engine coughed to a start. She told Drew to put his seatbelt on as she buckled hers on.

He looked confused by this. She said, “You really, really, shouldn’t have a driver’s license.”

She unbuckled her seat belt, leaned over across him, grabbed his belt, pulled it over him and clipped it closed. Then she rebuckled her belt.

Then she ground the gears for a bit until she found first. “Ready?” she asked Drew.

“Yes,” he said.

Then she bucked and jerked the pick-up onto the oil and stone road.


Three hours later Drew pulled into Mark’s Fish Fry stand by the lake. He turned the engine off.

A frazzled Valerie blew a sigh of relief. She said, “OK, we made it. We’ve both gone from being dangerous drivers, to being slightly less dangerous drivers.” She scanned the parking lot for cops, or anyone she might know. She saw two pairs of old couples eating at two of the fish fry’s picnic tables. She didn’t recognize them.

“All right,” she said, “You aren’t getting out because it will attract too much attention. I’ll run out, grab a bunch of stuff for us, and we’ll eat in the truck.”

Drew pointed to an empty picnic table.

“Not a chance,” she said. “In the truck is the best you’ll get.”

He nodded his head.

She was going to use the money she still had from yesterday and still had not remembered to give back to him as yet. But before she could pull that money out, Drew pulled out another fifty dollar bill from his pocket.

She looked at him in surprise. “Are you rich?” she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders, and she did not know if this meant he wasn’t sure if he was, or that he didn’t understand her.

She asked him suspiciously, “Where are you getting your money?”

“Wezell.” said Drew.

“I didn’t know he had so much,” she said.

Drew said nothing to this.

She said, “You keep that. I’ll use yesterday’s money.” And then she made to get out.

“No,” said Drew as he grabbed her wrist. He opened her hand, put the fifty in it, and then he closed her hand shut over it.

“You’re getting awful grabby, that is not cool,” she said.

He looked at her with what she thought was concern, but he said nothing.

“Alright, whatever,” she said. “Just stay in the truck, all right?”

He nodded his head.


Sometime later, as she was returning to the truck carrying two bags of food and a couple of drinks, a sheriff’s car pulled into the parking lot.

She opened the door and put the drinks and the bags on the seat. “Fuck,” she said under her breath.

Then she squeezed into her seat, and put her seatbelt on.

“We can’t eat here,” she said to Drew quietly. “Listen, you’ve got to try to get us out of here without attracting his attention. Your driving has to be good. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he said.

He started the pick-up and backed out. He switched into first gear, got it going forward, switched into second, and drove the pickup through the lot. Just then, the sheriff got out of his car and he looked at Drew and her, as they approached.

Drew waved to him. The sheriff waved while giving them a smile. Then Drew drove past him, stopped at the exit, flicked the turn indicator on, looked both ways, and then he smoothly pulled out into the road.

“That was awesome!” she said as she swiveled around to watch the sheriff wander up to the fry stand. “Listen, just keep going for about a half a mile here, and then you’ll pull off to the right where it’s remote and we can eat.”

Drew nodded his head.

She looked at him with admiration. “You just became my hero,” she said.

He nodded his head again.


A little later, Drew eased the truck into a secluded spot where Valerie knew they couldn’t be seen from the road. He turned the key off, stopping the engine.

She looked around. All was quiet and the coast was clear.

“Lunch time!” she announced in a sing-songy voice as she opened one of the bags. She handed him a fish fry and some napkins. Then she handed him a cup of fries. She flattened the bag they had been in, and laid it across his lap. “That’s your table, get it?” she asked

He looked unsure for a moment, then he put his fries and fish fry on the flattened bag on his lap.

“Grab yourself a drink.” she said as she handed him a straw.

He looked confused by this, so she said, “Take one of those two big old cups,” as she pointed to the sodas in the cardboard cup container.

He removed one from the cardboard holder.

“Put your straw in there,” she said absentmindedly as she began to open the other bag.

She pulled out her fish fry and some catsup packets from her bag. But when she took a moment to view him, she saw he had put the straw into his cup without taking the paper off first.

She looked at him in awe, and there was something sad about all this. She asked him quietly, “You’ve never seen a straw before?”

“No,” he said.

She set her fish fry aside. She took his straw out of his drink, took the wet paper off, and put it back in his cup. She looked at the dashboard and saw a retractable cup holder. She pulled it out.

She said quietly, “Take a sip of your drink through your straw…”

He did so.

“Now put it in the cup holder I just pulled out,” she said.

He did so.

“Try a french fry,” she said softly.

He pulled out a fry from his cup and he ate it.

“How is it? Yummy, right?” she asked as she went back to pulling her fries and other condiment packets out of her bag.

“Good,” he said.

She opened a packet of catsup and squirted it onto his bag-table. “Most people think fries are better with that on them. That’s catsup. Dip a fry in it and try,” she said.

He did so.

She asked, “Even more delicious, right?”

“More yummy,” he said.

She smiled warmly at him. “You ain’t tasted nothing yet,” she said. “Just wait until we get to the fish fries and the tartar sauce. They’re the best.”

Drew nodded his head at this. Then he reached over, grabbed his cup, and took a sip of soda through his straw. Then he put it back into the cupholder.

“Soda good,” he said to her.

She froze as he said this. She asked him quietly, “You’ve never had soda before?”

“No,” he said as he dipped another fry in catsup and ate it..

She felt a wave of sadness wash over her at this. How could that be possible? She just stared at Drew for a while. He felt her eyes on him, so he looked back at her. She couldn’t tell how he felt from his neutral expression.

“Well, now you have,” she said in a whisper.

To this he nodded his head.


After they had eaten their Mark’s food, she became overwhelmed by drowsiness. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as; skipping school, dodging the law, white knuckling it while Drew practiced his driving, and not to mention the stress of when she drove herself, was all action-adventure stuff that she was not used to.

Plus it had taken quite a while for her to get to sleep last night, as Drew was on her mind for hours, and thoughts of him kept her awake until late into the night.

And so, as she sat in the pickup with him, listening to the birds chirp and sing, and with the warm sun falling upon her through the window, she fell asleep.

When she awoke it was a couple of hours later. She picked up her head off of Drew’s shoulder. Apparently, she had slumped over on him after it was lights out.

She saw a small wet spot on his shirt where she had drooled on him a little. She grew mortified.

She looked out the window, they were still in the same secluded spot.

She asked in shame, “Did I snore?”

He said, “Yes.”

She shook her head in disgust. “I’m like Sleeping Beauty, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

She got a very eerie feeling from this. Nothing about Drew was making any sense to her and figuring out puzzles had always come quite easily for her. She decided, right then and there, she was going to get down to business and get to the bottom of the puzzle of Drew.

She sat up straight and she asked, “Drew, what are your parents’ names?”

“No parents,” he said.

“Yeah, I get that. My parents were never in the picture either, but what are your biological parents’ names, and where are they now?” she asked.

“No where, no parents,” he said.

“So you don’t know,” she said.

“Yes know, no parents,” he said.

This made no sense at all to her. What was he talking about? She tried, “So who raised you? Did your grandparents raise you, like mine did for me?”

“No grandparents,” he said.

Her heart broke a little at this. She said, “I’m so sorry, so was it like a foster home to foster home type thing? Please say, it wasn’t.”

He said, “It wasn’t.”

She smiled at this, and she didn’t know if he wasn’t making a joke, or telling the truth. Either way, it was extremely adorable.

Stay focused girl, she thought. He’s not wiggling away from answers with his dumb charm act again! And she also thought this because now she knew for certain that Drew wasn’t dumb at all. Not in the least.

“So who raised you?” she asked.

“Everyone,” he said.

She giggled at this. Two seconds after firmly vowing in her mind that Drew wasn’t distracting her with his charm, he did again.

“So it was an ‘it takes a village to raise a child type thing’? Is that what you’re saying?” she asked.

He was quiet at this. To her, he seemed to be mulling this over. His forehead creased. Then he smiled a little and he said, “Yes.”

“But who raised you, when you were a baby?” she asked.

“No baby,” he said.

She laughed at this and she said, “That’s funny, for a second there, I thought you said you were never a baby!”

He said, “Yes, never a baby.”

And then she went cold at this, and she became afraid. She asked in fear, “You were never a baby.”

“Yes,” he said.

“And you never had any parents?” she barely managed to get out.

“Yes,” he said.

She whispered, “Drew, that’s impossible.”

“No impossible,” he said.

She froze in complete and gripping fear. And then she said, “Are you saying you aren’t human.”

He stopped looking out the front windshield to look at her. His light water blue eyes met hers, and he said, “Yes.”

Her heart raced and her mind raced too. “I think it’s time for us to go home now,” she said in complete fear, and she prayed that psychopathy wasn’t part of whatever mental illness he had.

“OK,” he said as he went to start the engine.

Very tentatively she asked, “Do you mind if I drive?” Now, she was afraid to let him drive because Lord only knew where he might take her.

“No mind,” he said. He got out of the pick-up and slowly walked around its front to switch spots with her.

She got out of the passenger’s side and she almost buckled and fell as she took her first step out the pickup. Her legs felt like jello.

She grew terrified when she passed him in front of the truck, and she pictured herself being dragged by him off into a woods or a field, and being raped, or, much more likely, killed by him.

But that didn’t happen and he simply passed her and got into the passenger’s seat.

She got into the driver’s seat, and her hands shook like crazy as she buckled her seatbelt shut.

She hoped he didn’t notice this as he stared through the front windshield.

She couldn’t get her hands to stop shaking as she started the truck up. And now she had another problem besides her shaking, the farmer’s tractor’s road they parked on was too narrow for a three point turn.

She looked through the rear view mirror and she nixed trying to back that far down the narrow road as well. And there was no way in hell she was going to drive further out on this tractor’s road to see if there was a turn around spot up ahead.

So she put the pick up in reverse and started backing it out off the road and into the tall grass next to a field.

Immediately the truck’s front end went up at a forty five degree angle, and at the same time it lurched so hard sideways that, for a breathless moment, she thought the pickup would flip completely over.

But it didn’t. Nevertheless it came pretty close, and she was thrown sideways toward Drew. He caught her as he braced himself against the passenger door.

She knew instantly what happened. The tall grass she backed into covered and hid a ditch that must have been about the size of the Grand Canyon.

“Sorry,” said Drew as he held her safely in front of him.

“Why in the world are you sorry?” she gasped in fear of him, and her ditching of the truck.

“Sorry, grabby. Not cool,” he said.

For a second she didn’t know what he was talking about. Then her eyes went wide when she remembered her reprimanding him for grabbing her at the fish fry stand.

“It’s OK,” she whispered as she looked into his eyes.


It took some time for them to get out of the pickup because Drew’s door was blocked by the ground due to the truck’s severe tilt. He had to help Valerie get out through her door, which was hard to do, as it went somewhat up in the air, and needless to say, she wasn’t that nimble a girl.

When he did finally help her to get out, and while he was beginning to climb out himself, she contemplated running down the tractor’s trail to the main road and ditching him, literally.

But she was so chicken-shit, she didn’t even have the guts to do that.

Too late now anyway, she thought, as his feet hit the ground.

“Sorry,” she said stupidly. And then she started to cry like a baby

“It OK,” he said.

She froze as she said this. It sounded like he meant it, although she still cried and shook.

“We’re going to have to call a tow truck. We are going to get in such trouble,” she said through her tears.

Then she watched with bated breath as he put his hands on his thighs and bent down to look under the leaning truck. She watched as he slowly looked from where the truck’s front bumper pointed upward, and then slowly looked down its length to where his eyes rested at the end of its bed.

He remained crouched there looking for a time more. Then he stood. “No tow truck,” he said.

She asked him as her voice shook, “Yeah, how do you propose we get it out?” She thought he was going to suggest driving it out, which definitely wasn’t going to happen.

Then he shocked her when he said, “Push get it out.”

She froze as he said this. She whispered, “You and what five man army?”

“No five man army,” he said as he slowly walked to the back bumper. It was flat against the ground so he started kicking the ground with his heel, so he could get his hands under the back bumper.

She was about to tell him she didn’t even think five guys could lift and push this out when she started to notice the large clumps of dirt that were being kicked out from under the bumper at a very rapid pace.

Soon enough he had cleared a hole that was big enough so he could get his hands under the bumper.

“Back move,” he said to her, and she moved further away from the truck.

He took a few seconds to look around, and then he crouched down and placed his hands under the pick-up’s back bumper. He strained and his face went red. Slowly, he lifted the back end, while simultaneously tipping the truck back to the left at the same time. The truck creaked and groaned as he did so. She saw that his left bicep looked like it might bust through his tee’s short sleeve.

Soon the truck was level and straight. She had never seen anything like this in her life. She just stared at him stupidly with her mouth wide open.

He went to push it forward, but the front wheels were locked.

“Oh my fucking, God,” she said breathlessly. “It’s still in gear!”

“No gear,” he gasped as he strained to keep the truck up and still.

“Hold on Drew!” she said. And then she did something that wasn’t chicken-shit at all. She opened the door and got in.

“Heavy!” he croaked. But he held the pick up steady nonetheless. She pushed the clutch in and put the truck in neutral.

She stuck her head out the window and yelled, “It should roll now!”

He pushed the truck forward a little more, but soon he cried, “Turn wheel!”

She got this right away because if the truck just went straight forward again, it would simply straddle the road. If it did so, they’d still have the same old problem of not being able to get out.

She started to turn the steering wheel, but soon Drew cried, “Turn road way!”

Her face went crimson - he wanted her to turn the truck so it faced toward the main road. She thought, I’m a complete dipshit, of course he does!

She started cranking the steering wheel the other way. She stuck her head out the window and yelled to him, “Sorry!”

And then she just really couldn’t believe it when, as his face turned the deepest shade of red, and his legs wobbled a little, and as he gulped for breath, he somehow managed to say, “It OK.”

And that’s when, even though she didn’t know it, because she was so freaked out and scared of him right now, that’s when she fell in love with him.


A short time later Drew’s pickup rolled to a stop in front of her house. He had driven as she was too shaken up.

The old truck rattled like never before, but seemed to be running fine, and their arrival time was good. This was about the time when the bus would have dropped her off.

Despite everything he did that day, she was shaken to her core about Drew. And nice as he had been to her for the past two days, she was afraid of him.

She said in a hushed tone, “I don’t think we should do this kind of thing anymore. I don’t think we should see each other anymore. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can handle you. It’s too much. I’ve been scared of everything for so long, I think I’m broken now. Do you understand?” she said as she quivered in equal parts shame and fear.

“Yes,” he said as he stared out the front windshield.

Then she got out of the pickup and ran into her house without even knowing if he was watching her.

She went inside in a daze. Her grandmother and grandfather were playing hearts in the living room. Her grandmother asked, “How was school, dear?”


She stared at them for a moment. Then she lied, “It was fine.”

“Wanna play, dollface?” asked her grandfather, holding up his hand of cards.

She said, “Thanks for the invite, Gramps. Maybe later?” Her grandfather nodded his head.

She climbed the stairs to her bedroom, listening to them creak beneath her. She took a pit stop to use the bathroom so she could get that out of the way before she cried herself to sleep. When done, she looked into the mirror. She looked at her reflection for a while.

Then, because of everything that had happened that day, and because of how ugly she looked in the mirror, but mostly because of how she hated herself so much right now, she quickly dropped to her knees and vomited in the toilet for a time.

She slept away the rest of the afternoon. Later, she awoke groggily to go downstairs and pretend to eat some dinner with her grandparents. When she was done pushing her food around, she washed up all the dishes in a haze, and then she lied and said she was going upstairs to finish her homework.

Instead, she went upstairs and cried herself to sleep once more.


The next morning her grandmother called up the stairs, “Val-dear? Are you awake?”

“Yes Gram,” she called back down.

“You should be downstairs by now, you’ll miss the bus!”

“Gram, I’m not feeling so good. I don’t think I’m going to school today,” she said.

Her grandmother said, “Aww, I’m sorry, sweetie. Do you need anything?”

She said, “No, but thanks Gram,”

“OK dear, get some good rest, and feel better,” her grandmother called up to her. Then her grandmother shuffled off to the kitchen.

She continued to lay in bed after this, and soon she fell asleep again.


At around noon she woke up. She went into the upstairs bathroom and she took a shower. She felt better after that. Then she went back into her room and lay down on her bed, but she didn’t fall asleep.

She started thinking, and when Valerie started thinking she would cook with gas.

She thought of Mr. Wezell, and of everything that had happened during the last three days. She thought of Drew and she knew she was still freaked out about him. But in thinking of him, she smiled a lot because of all of the extremely cool and nice things he had done for her. She thought and thought and thought.

She made some conclusions.

She concluded that Drew wasn’t lying and he really wasn’t human. Ridiculous as this sounded, the lifting and pushing of the truck out of the ditch was something no human could do.

She decided that she wouldn’t ever try to tell anyone this. It would put him in great danger and that was not the right thing to do. Besides, who would believe her anyway? They’d think she was the crazy one.

She realized that she was still very afraid of him. She knew she was a coward.

But she knew one thing. She needed to see him again and give him about a dozen ‘thank yous’ for everything that he had done for her. And after that, she needed to give a big, fat, ‘I’m sorry’ as well.

And she needed to do this face to face, as scared as this made her feel.


At three o’clock she went downstairs, and she was so engrossed with thoughts of Drew that as she started to walk toward the kitchen she stopped cold. She had completely tuned out the creaking steps she just descended. She had never done that once since she started obsessing about them at age eleven. She smiled a little.

She made herself some toast and she ate it thoughtfully. Her grandmother shuffled into the kitchen. “Feeling any better, Val?” she asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I think I’m going to go for a walk…”

“Good,” said her grandmother. “Why don’t you go down and introduce yourself to the new family that moved into Mr. Wezell’s house. It’s a shame he moved, he was such a dear. I hear they have a boy and he’s around your age…”

“Good idea,” she said. “I will definitely do that.”


Soon she walked down the road that led to Drew’s house. When she got there, all was quiet.

Tentatively she entered the yard. There was no sign of Drew, or anyone else.

She took a deep breath and walked up the crumbling concrete walkway to the front door.

She was frightened as she stood before it. Yet somehow she found the courage to knock on the door.

After a few seconds it opened and Drew stood there. He was looking down at his feet.

When she found her breath, she said, “Hi.”

“Hi.” he said.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. Are you mad at me?” she asked.

“No,” he said, still looking at his feet.

She asked him quietly, “Can I come in?”

“Yes,” he said. Then he opened the door wide for her, and she went in.


Now Valerie had been inside Mr. Wezell’s house many, many times before. Now, it looked pretty much the same as it always had. It was a little cluttered and messy, but nothing crazy. It was a little impoverished, but nothing too grinding. It was furnished with old-fashioned type lamps, paintings, furniture and such, and in this regard it was not much different from her grandparents’ house, or the remaining farmhouses that were out in their far corner of the county as well.

As she followed Drew into the living room, he went over the window that had a view of the dirt road. He looked outside, and he was quiet.

She asked, “Is anyone else here?”

“No,” he said. “No parents.”

“So you’ve been here alone for the past three days?” she asked.

He nodded his head.

She asked him, “May I sit?”

“Yes,” he said.

She sat down on the couch. Beat up as it was, it was still super comfy. It had always been her favorite spot to sit in when she visited Mr. Wezell and he invited her in, which was pretty much always. As a small girl it had swallowed her up with its softness, and she had always loved that.

It didn’t swallow her up now as she was too big, but it still soothed her, and perhaps it gave her the encouraging extra bit of support for what she said next.

“Drew, I’m sorry I crashed your truck yesterday, and I’m sorry that I ran off on you after you dropped me off yesterday. I didn’t even say bye to you. And I did that to you after you did nothing but save my ass. And I’m super regretful about all that because for the last three days you’ve been nothing but extremely kind to me. You didn’t deserve any of that at all. What you deserve is about twenty thank yous from me, maybe more.”

He didn’t say anything in response to this, and just as she was about to say something else when he said, “It OK,” as he continued to look out the window.

She tipped her head sideways and she said, “No, it’s not.”

He said, “Yes, it OK. I say so.”

Then she smiled and smiled. She thought - two minutes ago I was terrified to come in here, now I’m hoping he won’t kick me out.

She noticed he looked pretty darned sad, so she asked, “Did you go to school today?”

“No,” he said.

“Did you even go to the bus stop?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

“Are you going tomorrow?” she asked quietly.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“If I went to school tomorrow, would you go too?” she asked

He said, “Yes.” Nevertheless, he still didn’t look at her..

She asked, “Are you sure you’re not mad at me? You won’t even look at me…”

He said, “You say - I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

She froze as he said this, as this was by far the longest and smoothest thing he had ever said to her, and it gave her a chill.

And this confused her for a moment, but then she smiled as she got it.

“Forget I said that, you can see me, and look at me, anytime you want,” she said.

He withdrew his gaze from outside and he looked at her for a time. The room they were in was quiet, and this gave her a chill, a nice chill. Eventually he stopped looking at her, and he looked back out the window.

“What are you thinking?” she asked

His forehead crinkled and he seemed to not know how to answer this. Eventually he said, “That bad idea.”

She tensed as he said this. “What’s a bad idea?” she asked.

He looked out the window and he said haltingly, “To look - at you. When want.”

She shivered as he said this, even though she didn’t really know what he meant. She asked, “Why is that a bad idea?”

“I look you - when I want….” he said, and then he turned to look at her. “No stop look…”

She froze as he said this to her. She asked, “Why?”

He said, “You very beautiful.”

She went rigid at this and for a moment, then tears streamed down her face.

He looked away from her and he said, “You mad Drew…”

She choked, “Is that a joke?” But he looked confused by this, so she said, “I’m not mad at you. Right now, I think I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”

He said, “Good.” He smiled a little as he looked out the window.

Tears still streaming down her face, she said, “Will you come over here and sit down?”

He said, “Yes.” He walked across the room and sat down in a recliner directly across from her. And he looked at her.

She smiled at him, and he smiled just a little, then he lowered his eyes.

She said absentmindedly, “That was always where Mr. Wezell sat. Sometimes he called me beautiful too...”

Drew said, “Wezell smart.”

She smiled big and said, “Hell yay he was!” Then she whispered, “He wasn’t human either, was he?”

Drew said, “No.”

She shivered again and she said, “Is that why he said I was beautiful sometimes…”

“Yes,” said Drew as he continued to look downwards.

Despite her gripping fear, she laughed a little at this. “How can you guys think I’m beautiful?” she asked.

He said, “We see.” Then he waved his hand around and he said, “You all...here - No see.”

She laughed a little at that and said, “Yeah, you got that right.” Then she said in fear, “You said here…Are you from somewhere else? Are you from another world?”

Drew’s head snapped up at this. He said, “Yes.”

“Where?” she whispered.

Drew opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. He thought for a time, then through up his hands. “No words. World be world we see. You no see. You - all. You all no see much. No see you beauty.”

Her jaw dropped at this and she did not completely understand all this. Did he mean it was a world we couldn’t see, or was it a world where her alleged beauty could be seen by Drew’s people? Somehow she thought it was the latter, ridiculous as that notion was. So when she recovered a little, she asked, “OK, just how beautiful would I be in your world?”

He said, “Most.” His eyes returned to the floor.

She couldn’t help herself and she laughed at the absurdity of this. “Is your world full of ogres and hags? I would be the most beautiful person in your world?” she asked

Drew opened his mouth to answer this question, but then he didn’t say anything for a time. He shrugged his shoulders. He said, “Yes, no.”

Her forehead creased and she said, “I’m not following you.”

He said, “You most beautiful. You Queen,” and his eyes continued to look downward, almost as in deference.

She froze as he said this, “That’s a joke, right?”

“No,” he said.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said. Then she thought and said, “So what was the no part of your yes-no answer?”

He looked confused for a moment, then he understood what she was asking him. He raised his eyes to her and he smiled. He said, “You no person.”

She froze in total fear as he said this to her. She felt weak and sick. Her face went white and Drew must have seen this because his smile vanished. She asked huskily, “Are you saying I’m not human too?”

Drew looked very concerned and alarmed. Nevertheless, as his eyes lowered back to the floor, he said, “Yes.”

She asked him in complete terror, “Is that why I’m so ugly?”

He answered, “No, that why so beautiful.”

Then the room spun wildly for her as her vision closed to a pinpoint, and she passed out.