Alright let’s keep going with story #1. Beth has found help from the ditch and is in the truck with Noah, and a man she hasn’t met before, Tim.
Story #1 Continued:
Alec looked at his phone again, frustrated. He knew Beth should be on her way home because he had gotten an upsetting call from someone at that meeting. [[who was it]]They said Beth blew up. In public. Apparently she was yelling and kicking things…really, Beth? The town was surely already gossiping about the incident.
He had already called Steve who was married to Anna, Beth’s coworker, who was supposed to be taking her home. (Alec really needed to get her front bumper fixed from that accident–he was kicking himself for that now.) Anna had come home twenty minutes prior and said Beth had decided to walk home. Alec hated this. It took everything in him to not go out looking for her, but he knew that she would be home soon enough and would be upset if she knew he was checking up on her.
“Oh thanks, dad, didn’t realize I needed a man to walk me home” is something she would have said back in the city. She hadn’t done anything like this since moving here, but he knew tensions were high. Feelings were high..in the whole town.
Alec wondered if she could call her doctor in Omaha to see about her prescription…he would have to tread lightly with that, but he wasn’t sure her meds were working anymore.
He dialed Beth’s phone again.
Nothing.
Who else should he call?
Suddenly, he received a short message.
>>On my way home. Noah picked me up.
Picked her up? From where…the school? Why would Noah have been at that meeting? And didn’t she walk…?
With these questions swirling in his head, Alec grabbed a jacket and stepped outside. He wanted to say, “hi” to Noah and try to figure out what the hell was going on when they got here.
He sat on the edge of the porch, his feet resting on the steps. He saw truck lights down the road. I wonder if that’s them? He thought Noah had a green pick up. A Chevy. He remembers giving him a fist bump because of course they were a “Chevy household.”
Alec’s own ’49 Chevy was sitting in their quonset along with loads of other farm equipment Alec had been acquainting himself with that past year.
Suddenly Alec saw the truck whip around back towards town. Weird, he thought.
—
Beth didn’t want to let Alec know about her ankle over the phone…or the fact that she didn’t really know the man driving the truck. It was probably just a sprain (except that crack..).
She didn’t even know why she even sent a text..they were almost home. She could just talk to him there and let him know about her tumble into a ditch. It was kind of funny, or maybe it would be soon.
Something felt funny, though, and her head was still a little foggy from the fall. Beth realized they were both waiting for her to say something–Noah and the flannel-shirted guy whose name was apparently
“Yeah…it was a pretty tense meeting. Who is your dad?” Beth asked cautiously.
“Dale Busey.”
“Oh.” she responded. Of course he was related to her principal. She did think she recognized his face maybe from a picture in Mr. Busey’s office. They also both had the same blue eyes…although Tim’s looked…darker? Plaid-shirted Tim’s blue eyes were narrowing to slits.
Beth winced audibly as a new wave of pain shot through her ankle.
Suddenly, Tim seemed to have an idea. The truck quickly came to a stop and whipped around, heading the other way back towards town.
I have to figure out who would have called Alec from that meeting aside from Anna. I feel like there are so many characters I need to introduce and establish still. And the main characters still don’t have a last name. That should be my next goal–get them a name!
I’m also thinking that Tim won’t be driving Beth to the hospital and somehow will get the phone away from her. We will see how this unfolds!
NanoWriMo updated July writing goal: 5.3k words out of 10k words
