This is a long story... its my first attempt at writing in years. I tend to be "long- winded." Any comments will be appreciated.
"RING!" Chris heard the phone ring in the kitchen. He was in the garage putting the finishing touches on "The Truck," which was his grandpa's classic Ford pick-up that he had been restoring with his dad for years and was finally just about finished with it except for putting the fluids in and starting it up. For that, he was going to wait for his dad to arrive in a few days and they would finish it together. "RING" He heard the phone again as he opened the door from the garage to the kitchen. Picking up the phone, Chris said, "Hello?"
"I am so sorry Chris, but yesterday, your parents were killed in an accident. They were leaving for their trip to see you and..." his aunt had said before breaking out in sobs. His uncle then took the phone and stated that Jean, Chris' 16 year old little sister, was O.K. and was going to stay with them for a while so that she could finish school the next year. He also said that the funeral arrangements were made already and when it would be.
Chris was recently divorced after a marriage that lasted six years. They had no kids and luckily he got to keep most of their belongings, since his ex-wife left him for another man and didn't need it. He was twenty-six years old, five foot-eleven inches tall, and slightly muscular but also carried a few extra pounds. Jean had told Chris after the funeral that she wanted to move in with him and attend the junior college there where he lived after graduation. He accepted and told her, "you have to help around the house and follow my rules." She was all but too happy to agree. Chris later returned home, went to the garage and as he looked at the truck, he cried.
"Jean, can you come here for a second, please?" Chris yelled from the garage towards the kitchen where his little sister, Jean, was loading the dishwasher after breakfast.
"Sure, be right there," she answered. Jean walked into the garage and didn't see Chris anywhere. "Chris?" she said, wondering where he was. "Down here," she heard from the other side of the dusty truck in the garage. Walking around the front of the truck, she noticed a pair of black tennis shoes sticking out from underneath the truck.
"Sis, can you bring me a glass of tea, please?" he asked with the sound of his voice being muffled by the truck. She was amazed at how much he sounded like their father and then absently thought of when she had seen the two together last. Smiling, she remembered them working on the truck together in this very garage. They were laughing at something one of them had said just before she walked in on them.
"Jean!"
"AAHHHH!" she yelled out load, startled. Quickly looking down, she noticed that Chris had crawled out from underneath the truck and was staring at her questioningly.
"Are you ok?" he asked her with a slight grin on his face, where just one side of his mouth rose up. "You were zoned out there."
"Yeah, I'm ok. I was just remembering watching you and Dad working on this old thing together. How come you started working on it again after so long? Not that it's a bad thing. I mean, it's just been so long since you've touched it." She reaches out and runs a finger across the windshield, drawing an arc in the dust. Showing her brother the clump of dust on her index finger, she continued, "Now all of a sudden, I wake up this morning and you're in here clanging around again."
Looking up at the side of the truck, Chris smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I figured that it was time. With you moving in this past month and going to college now, I think we can use the space, not to mention the use of another vehicle. Aren't you really tired of having to ask your friends or me to take you places?"
"No, not at all!" she answered sarcastically in a voice sounding like a rich southern belle. "I just love being chauffeured around all of the time." They laughed together and then she said, "Oh, your tea! I forgot. I'll go get it for you."
As she left the garage, Chris watched her. "She is really a beautiful woman now. Any man would be lucky to have her as a girlfriend," he thought to himself realizing that Jean hasn't ever said anything about a boyfriend to him ever or a girlfriend for that matter.