her little cottage for the evening.
Chapter 7
Per the arrangement Dr. Stuart had made with
Summer, every two weeks she was to meet the bookkeeper at the
veterinarian office to do payroll while he was on vacation. This
was nothing out of the ordinary. Dr. Stuart had often relied on
Summer for office responsibilities such as these, but today was
different in that Summer lent the dog mobile to Tori for the day.
So Tori agreed to meet the accountant instead.
Tori wasn’t happy about having to drive the
car, but she didn’t own one herself and she wanted to go into the
big city to meet with some people she’d met online who had
information about her parents and gypsy heritage.
The city was a thirty minute drive from
Paradise. She could go to the city, meet up with these people, and
be back by 2:00 p.m. to meet the accountant. Easy peasy.
Or at least it seemed to be. But once she
was on the freeway and only a few miles from home, she found the
car was acting oddly. The freeway near Paradise was still a bit
windy before it got down into the valley, and the brakes were not
responding well. Sometimes they would grab harshly, and other times
they didn’t seem to be working much at all. The problem was that on
a winding highway such as this, there were not a lot of wide
shoulders or opportunities to pull off.
With each bend in the road, Tori’s fear
grew. The brakes on the carpet covered SUV with flapping dog ears
were completely useless, and the grade was still rather steep.
Tires skid as she made turns at higher speeds than a race driver
might take.
She put the car in a lower gear, but that
only made the vehicle make a high whining sound as it had to rev at
a higher rpm due to the gear. Tears welled in her eyes as she flew
around a corner. She felt sure that at least one if not more tires
left the pavement from force.
She knew she was still several miles from
the freeway leveling out. One more corner like the last, and surely
she would roll the dog mobile or lose control of it and plummet
down the side of the steep shelf carved out of the mountain to
house the two-lane highway.
She prayed that the brakes would
miraculously repair themselves and she braced herself for a long
steep turn she could see coming up on her fast. She could barely
breathe as she gripped the steering wheel so tightly her fingers
hurt. Just before she commenced banking the curve, a crow dove in
front of the car and she reacted by yanking the wheel hard to avoid
it. That’s when everything fell into silence and slow motion. The
car started to roll.
For some reason, the instrumental of The
Blue Danube Waltz played in her head as she watched without any
control as items floated around the car as if gravity had
disappeared from earth. She watched a pen rotate and spin as if it
were a prima ballerina dancing gracefully across her field of
vision.
Outside was a blur of green, black, and
brown with a horrid jolt ever so often when the car would hit
something solid. It seemed to continue on for an eternity. Sharp
pains erupted as the dog mobile continued its destructive
somersault down into the ravine, until it abruptly stopped as it
careened into a large granite boulder. At the same instant the
tumbling stopped an excruciating blow to the head sent Tori’s world
into a dark tunnel, where the light at the other end was slowly
dulling and then extinguished as she lost consciousness.
* * *
A phone call from Nick informed Summer of
Tori’s accident. He quickly relayed that he was coming to get her
and he’d explain on the way what he knew. He arrived in a cloud of
dust and laid needlessly on the horn when he arrived at the gate of
the Midnight Mansion, where he always dropped off Tori for her
magic lessons.
She had been waiting for him under the shade
of a tree where he hadn’t seen her, and he practically jumped out
of his skin when he spied her moving towards him.
She quickly sat next to him in the car and
before she had the door closed the
Chapter 7
Per the arrangement Dr. Stuart had made with
Summer, every two weeks she was to meet the bookkeeper at the
veterinarian office to do payroll while he was on vacation. This
was nothing out of the ordinary. Dr. Stuart had often relied on
Summer for office responsibilities such as these, but today was
different in that Summer lent the dog mobile to Tori for the day.
So Tori agreed to meet the accountant instead.
Tori wasn’t happy about having to drive the
car, but she didn’t own one herself and she wanted to go into the
big city to meet with some people she’d met online who had
information about her parents and gypsy heritage.
The city was a thirty minute drive from
Paradise. She could go to the city, meet up with these people, and
be back by 2:00 p.m. to meet the accountant. Easy peasy.
Or at least it seemed to be. But once she
was on the freeway and only a few miles from home, she found the
car was acting oddly. The freeway near Paradise was still a bit
windy before it got down into the valley, and the brakes were not
responding well. Sometimes they would grab harshly, and other times
they didn’t seem to be working much at all. The problem was that on
a winding highway such as this, there were not a lot of wide
shoulders or opportunities to pull off.
With each bend in the road, Tori’s fear
grew. The brakes on the carpet covered SUV with flapping dog ears
were completely useless, and the grade was still rather steep.
Tires skid as she made turns at higher speeds than a race driver
might take.
She put the car in a lower gear, but that
only made the vehicle make a high whining sound as it had to rev at
a higher rpm due to the gear. Tears welled in her eyes as she flew
around a corner. She felt sure that at least one if not more tires
left the pavement from force.
She knew she was still several miles from
the freeway leveling out. One more corner like the last, and surely
she would roll the dog mobile or lose control of it and plummet
down the side of the steep shelf carved out of the mountain to
house the two-lane highway.
She prayed that the brakes would
miraculously repair themselves and she braced herself for a long
steep turn she could see coming up on her fast. She could barely
breathe as she gripped the steering wheel so tightly her fingers
hurt. Just before she commenced banking the curve, a crow dove in
front of the car and she reacted by yanking the wheel hard to avoid
it. That’s when everything fell into silence and slow motion. The
car started to roll.
For some reason, the instrumental of The
Blue Danube Waltz played in her head as she watched without any
control as items floated around the car as if gravity had
disappeared from earth. She watched a pen rotate and spin as if it
were a prima ballerina dancing gracefully across her field of
vision.
Outside was a blur of green, black, and
brown with a horrid jolt ever so often when the car would hit
something solid. It seemed to continue on for an eternity. Sharp
pains erupted as the dog mobile continued its destructive
somersault down into the ravine, until it abruptly stopped as it
careened into a large granite boulder. At the same instant the
tumbling stopped an excruciating blow to the head sent Tori’s world
into a dark tunnel, where the light at the other end was slowly
dulling and then extinguished as she lost consciousness.
* * *
A phone call from Nick informed Summer of
Tori’s accident. He quickly relayed that he was coming to get her
and he’d explain on the way what he knew. He arrived in a cloud of
dust and laid needlessly on the horn when he arrived at the gate of
the Midnight Mansion, where he always dropped off Tori for her
magic lessons.
She had been waiting for him under the shade
of a tree where he hadn’t seen her, and he practically jumped out
of his skin when he spied her moving towards him.
She quickly sat next to him in the car and
before she had the door closed the
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