Read Online Rick Carter's First Big Adventure (Pete's Barbecue Book 1) by Samuel Belcher - Free Book Online

the seat and folded his arms across his stomach.   What did he say?  Didn’t he say he would be back?  I wonder what he meant by that?  How is he going to find me?  Well, he knows what cab company I lease with.  He might track me down that way, I suppose.  His thoughts wandered back and forth across the different possibilities of Mel’s return when he began to nod off.  Then something caught his attention through his half-closed eyelids.  What’s that green light?
         The hood of his car looked like it was glowing green.  He sat upright, concerned.  But, he quickly realized that the light wasn’t coming from the hood.  It was coming from above the hood.  The light was just reflecting off the surface of the blue paint.   The source of the strange, eerie light was coming from somewhere above the car.  He twisted and tried to look upward out of the windshield but couldn’t quite see where it was coming from.  Just as he was getting ready to get out of the car, he was startled by the black silhouette of a body falling from the sky onto the hood of his car.  The impact rocked the big heavy vehicle, and the person let out a painful yelp to accompany his loud thud.  Rick sat there wide- eyed, both hands gripping the steering wheel so tight that he nearly bent it backward.  His heart rate was through the roof again.  No words escaped his tight clinched lips.
     
            The car rocked for several more seconds after the impact.   Rick didn’t let go of the steering wheel.  He continued to stare wide-eyed out of the windshield at the figure on his hood that was face down with arms spread wide.  He was groaning.  Then Rick heard a muffled voice say, “That didn’t work well at all…..aww, mnnnggghh.”
         The man lifted his head, and Rick could plainly see Mel’s face staring back at him through the dirty windshield.  His face was smeared with black soot and a streak of fresh blood was oozing out of his left nostril.  He smiled as he recognized Rick still sitting there in horror, staring back.    The blood was oozing down into Mel’s open mouth and staining his teeth and gums.  “Rick!   I told you I’d be back…” then his expression strangely turned to one of concern, “What happened to your hair?” His voice trailed away as he slipped into unconsciousness and his face thudded back onto the hood. 
         As Rick’s heart rate started to return to normal, he sat back in his seat, the look of alarm and panic washing away into one of uncertainty and confusion.  This just keeps getting better, he thought.  He stayed in his seat looking out at Mel’s lifeless body spread eagle on his hood for a few moments before he finally got out and began the laborious process of getting him off the hood and into the back seat of his cab.  Well, Rick thought, I guess that’s the end of my night.   He decided to drive straight to his apartment and was only slightly annoyed along the way when all the stop lights turned red in perfect sequence.
     
          Rick grunted and moaned and complained every step of the way as he hauled Mel’s lifeless body up two flights of stairs, down the hallway, through his door that had to be unlocked, before depositing him like a sack of potatoes on his couch.  The fall onto the sofa caused him to stir and mumble something about a multi string jump and how much that hurt.  Rick sat for a long time in his old broken recliner, his back screaming from the workout, staring at an unconscious Mel on his couch in the dark.  Finally, with nothing else left to do, he made up his mind to go and grab a grape soda out of the refrigerator and sit back down in frustration and wait.  He silently drank his soda, pondering Mel’s new arrival.  As he waited in the darkness, he began to fall asleep as well, overcome by a wave of tiredness.  He nodded off just as the sun was starting to come up and shinning through the curtains.   He slept for