Chapter 9

Elizabeth Gershon was looking amazing standing by my car as I exited the school. I had offered Susie a ride to her Mom’s restaurant, but she said she would just walk like usual. Elizabeth looked like she had been crying, and I didn’t know what to say to her, fortunately she spoke up as I approached.

“Sam, right? Can you give me a ride home?”

“Sure,” I replied, unlocking the Prius, and setting my school bag in the back.

As I settled into the driver’s seat, I discovered she was ready, with her seatbelt already on, and school bag at her feet.

“Thanks for the ride, my only other option was to wait for my Dad to get off work at 7 tonight.”

“Sure,” I replied again.

‘you are really lame sometimes.’ Adam said to me.

I ignored him. “Do you have my number? You are welcome to text me anytime you need a ride to school or back, provided I haven’t left already.”

“No, what is it?” she asked, pulling out her phone from her jacket pocket.

I gave her my number. ‘Ok, that was smooth.’ Adam whispered to me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

“I texted you to make sure I had it right.”

“Ok,” I said.

‘And we are back to lame,’ Adam criticized.

“Did Mike take the bus?” I asked, referring to her younger brother.

“Football practice, he’ll get a ride home.”

I wondered what would keep her from getting a ride too.

She turned to look at me as I pulled onto our street. It seemed like she wanted to say something, and I gave her a brief glance, before carefully maneuvering around the big pothole in the road. She turned her head to look out the window at my house, as I pulled into her driveway.

“You guys really need to paint your house. Thanks for the ride,” she said, quickly exiting as I put the car in park.

There wasn’t a wave or other acknowledgement, she just went straight into the house. I noticed there weren’t any other cars in the driveway. I thought she had a car of her own.

I carefully backed out into the street, and pulled into our driveway, parking by the garage.

The house was empty as I came in, so I texted Dad, ‘Hey, just got in, where are you?’

‘Dads OK?’ I asked Adam.

‘Just fine,’ He replied.

My phone buzzed, and I checked the messages. Elizabeth’s was simply ‘test’, Dads was more interesting, ‘be home in an hour with dinner and a surprise’

“Care to share the surprise?” I asked Adam as I got a Reed’s Extra Ginger bottle from the fridge.

‘It’s something nice, plus pizza for dinner.’

I didn’t press the issue, instead I got to work on geometry homework. I was completely entrenched into the book when there was a loud honk from outside.

I looked up at the echo show, and asked Alexa to show the front door. A very big, very orange truck sat in front of the house. Dad honked again, so I went out the door.

“What do you think?” He yelled thru the open passenger window.

“It’s very orange.”

“It’s electric!” He said.

“It’s very big,” I replied.

“Come get the pizza so I can park around by the garage, I want to get it plugged in.”

I tried to open the trucks front passenger door, but it was locked. It took Dad a moment, but he found the right button, and the door unlocked. I picked up the pizzas, and shut the door.

I watched the brand new Ford E550 very quietly pull around the house, then carried the three pizzas into the house and set them on the counter. I checked the time, I’d been working on my school work for nearly two hours.

I got out plates and forks, taking a photo of the boxes before I checked the toppings on the pizzas. Each was a different crust, pan, hand tossed, and thin crust. Just basic pepperoni and veggies with pineapple added to half of each. I know most people can’t agree on toppings, but Dad and I like the same, except pineapple.

I got the cheap parmesan from the freezer, but skipped the can of pepper flakes, packets were stuffed in the crevice of the top box. Dad came thru the back door, but headed to the bathroom first.

I was settled onto the bar stool waiting for him, as he came in with a big smile as he dried his hands.

“I’ve never driven something that moves so smooth down the road,” He said.

“Nice, it’s a five seater, with the crew cab, right?”

“No, it seats six, 2 up front, four in back.”

“Wow, I’ll have to check that out.”

“I got a dual fuel extender in the back, and there’s still enough room for your Prius in the truck bed if I leave the tailgate down,” He said with a grin.

“It looks big,” I said, taking my first bite of pizza.

There was a pause as he had some too.

“The dealership said that there’s talk of an even bigger model, an E650 with dual wheels front and back.”

“Why didn’t you go smaller?” I asked, seriously curious.

“Not much of a price difference, and the dual fuel extender was only available with the larger bed.”

“So gas and diesel for the range extender?”

“Bit more than that, the gas side can take anything from pure alcohol to straight gasoline or any ethanol combination in between, the diesel side can take filtered oil vegetable, synthetic, even used motor oil, all the way through to regular diesel or any combination.”

“How in the world does it manage to do that?”

“Computer controlled micro turbine.”

“That’s awesome!”

He nodded, finishing his second slice, “It’s what sold me. Diesel and gas both are scheduled to rise at the same rate, and to stay even, the only variations in fuel prices are with the mixes. The station on the way out of town carries everything from e100 to straight ethanol free gasoline, so if I need the range I’ll probably find something cheaper than what everybody else is paying.”