Goldilocks Read Free Page A

like I wanted to. We have movers bringing our stuff in a day or two. We drove from D.C., and I just wasn’t thinking that…”
    “I can store that c ar of yours here, and let you take Big Red. Big Blue is out of commission right now, but Big Red will get you over the pass and over to the cabin.”
    “Cabin?!” Hannah’s eyes jerked up from the tank of live fish bait she’d been watching, widening as she looked to her father.
    “You’re going to be staying at old man Jacobs’ place right?” Sam asked, spreading out the small hand drawn map he still held in his hand. “That thing won’t be any help around here,” Sam pointed to the crumpled Colorado state map clutched in Paul’s fist. “This here outlines this immediate area, and you’re going to need it to find where you’re going. No one’s even been out to the Jacobs place since he up and ran off a few years ago. I think his children came and cleaned out his stuff, but that’s about it.”
    “I think I’m going to need uh…Big Red… ” Paul cleared his throat, ignoring the look of disbelief Hannah had plastered on her face. “And some directions to the uh…the cabin,” he shook his head, leaning over the counter as Sam began highlighting the roads they needed to follow.
    “Aunt Maggie isn’t going to believe this one,” Hannah muttered under her breath, blowing her long thick bang from off her forehead as she sighed heavily.
    While her dad and Sam talked supplies, cars and mine stuff, she wandered along the far wall, looking over the different antique signs hung there. In the middle was a wooden plaque, plated in gold, the name of the town emblazoned across the top.
    “Population eight hundred and fifty,” she read the very first line and turned away with a shake of her head.
    There would have been about that many in her graduating class at Woodrow Wilson High School back in D.C.. No point in depressing herself with more details about the town that was going to be her home now. One thing she wouldn’t have to worry about any longer was her father pressing her to make friends. She hadn’t had any back in D.C.. She was the quiet girl in school, only interacting with her cross country teammates during practice and meets, never afterschool and never on the weekends. Hannah preferred it that way. Aunt Maggie had been enough to keep her company, and on the occasions that she’d burst into tears for no reason, she never had to explain to her aunt the cause for them. She knew and understood, never pressing Hannah to talk about it, knowing that her sister’s death was still taking its toll on her, even five years later.
    “We’ve got to unpack the car,” Paul startled his daughter from behind, grabbing her shoulder when she jumped. “Sam is pulling around ‘Big Red’, the jeep,” he explained. “Snow tires included, for when winter sets in,” he tried for a smile and was rewarded with an eye roll from Hannah.
    It was a lot to process, he knew that, which is why he left her there to sulk for a moment while he went outside to start unloading the Audi on his own.
    Hannah heard ‘Big Red’ before she saw it, a thick plum e of gray black smoke trailing behind as it sputtered past the front door of the store towards their parked Audi. The jeep was one of those big box shaped ones, most of the red painted permanently rusted over with crusty brown splotches. She’d just exited the store when she heard Sam yelling over the rackety engine to her father.
    “She runs better than she sounds! It’s been a bit before I started her up, but once you drive her for a few days, she won’ t let you down,” he promised, taking the keys -to the Audi- Paul handed him.
    Hannah said nothing to her father as she gather ed her belongings from the car, transferring them over to the worn seat of the Jeep, before climbing in the passenger side.
    “It’s been a while since I’ve driven a stick,” Paul admitted when he finally climbed in beside her, eyeing the