When I Hear The Calling

Shuttle 012

We stumbled down the steps. I opened the back of the car, setting the bag on the right corner beside some beach equipment that has been in there for who knows long.

"I'll drive," Lorra says

We get into the car and I look at her enter with empty hands. "Where are the cards?"

She looks around the car before speaking.
"Shit, I left them in the apartment, I'll be right back".

"This is why you need to stop getting distracted by those damn shows."
She laughed as she shut the car door and then rushed up the steps to the complex.

I leaned back in my seat. It was quiet. While the car was on, the window was rolled down, but it still was silent and I could no longer hear the shouts and laughter from the plaza. I shut my eyes for a moment then I heard footsteps crushing the ground, which made my eyes spring. The crunching ground was softly heard behind me and I could have missed the sounds. I turn towards the side window to see a man. He was wearing a ragged brown coat with a dark blue collared shirt underneath. The denim wrapped around his legs was smudged with dirt stains and his white main had a yellow tint enhanced by the sun.

I didn't know what to do, I looked towards the complex and checked the brown front door, hoping Lorra would open it. I turned back to the old man who must have stepped closer without my attention with his beat-up boots.

"Do you need something, sir?"
He gave me a blank stare, not sure if he understood what I had said. I couldn't comprehend if he was just a drunk homeless man or somebody who knew who I was. My heart started to skip beats.
He raised his pointer finger towards the car and opened his mouth wording something I could not hear.

"I'm sorry what was-"
"Your name is Foro." He cuts off with a dry voice.

I heard the door open and close which brought my attention to the complex. Lorra ran down the steps and stumbled on a few. I looked back to the side window where it was just a patch of muddy grass like nobody had been standing there.

Lorra opens the car door dropping the blue cards in the cup holder. "Good thing you noticed, that would have been a nightmare."

She looks at me with an awarding smirk but noticed my expression, then she changed to mine.
"What's wrong, you okay?"

I lean back in my seat. "Nothing, let's get there before it's too late."
Lorra twists the key and the engine starts. I look out my window, speeding past people running towards the plaza while we drive to the main road. We make it to the highway and drive for another thirty minutes before we had to be lined up behind many cars ahead of us. Could be a motorcycle accident or road rage but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be one of those. Some other commotion is happening.

Lorra looks at the time. She taps the steering wheel while breathing out while the sun casts a yellow shade across her lips. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. "Is there another way, how much time do we have?" I say focusing my eyes on the tap tap tap noise on the leather wheel.

"There is an access road up ahead, another route to the space center. We just need to get there before the shuttles leave."

I look at the many cars lined up like glowing ants from the glass lights. I open the ceiling window and squit my eyes to block the wind from drying them. The trail of cars didn't seem to stop. Only the blurs of red and yellow can be seen by the far edge. I sit back down and close the window. I try to cool down from the warm wind blurring my eyes. I look at Lorra moving her head like a giraffe trying to see the nearest exit close up. "Why is there so much traffic?" I say sweating.

"Because of the shuttles."

"What?"

The, tap tap ta.....stops, and she looks at me.