She Left Me Breathless (27 page)

Sydney, dressed from head to toe in coveralls and a welder’s apron, was so intent on the job she was doing that she didn’t notice when the garage door opened.

Alyssa turned her head to keep from looking directly at the arc coming from the machine Sydney was using. She walked up and lightly tapped Sydney on the shoulder. 

Sydney looked back at Alyssa and smiled. She switched the torch off, laid it down, and then jerked off her face shield.

“Hi, Alyssa, I didn’t know you were coming over today.”

Alyssa shifted nervously from one foot to the other. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.

Sydney frowned. “Of course not, I’m very happy to see you.”

“Really?” Alyssa asked, grinning from ear to ear.

“Yes, really and I was hoping you would come over again because I wanted to show you
my
model kit.” Sydney pointed at an area behind Alyssa.

Alyssa turned to see what Sydney was pointing at. “Wow. Is that what I think it is?” Alyssa asked as she walked closer to the car that was suspended from the ceiling on a pulley system.

“I guess that depends on what you think it is,” Sydney laughed.

“I know exactly what it is,” Alyssa said as she circled the car body.

Sydney crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay, tell me what you think it is.”

“I don’t think, I know, and that is a replica body shell for the Mirage K Lamborghini Countach Kit Car,” Alyssa answered.

Sydney shook her head. “How in the world do you know that?” she asked, looking at Alyssa in amazement.

Alyssa laughed. “I told you that I’m a model freak.”

“Well, young lady. I am thoroughly impressed,” Sydney said, still shaking her head in disbelief. “How old are you anyway, twenty?” she asked although she knew exactly how old Alyssa was.

“I’m only eight years old, silly, but I’m in the seventh grade,” Alyssa laughed.

“I must admit that you are pretty incredible for an eight-year-old.” Sydney looked at Alyssa. Considering how intelligent Rachel and Caitlyn were, she shouldn’t have been surprised that Alyssa would be as well but she was.

“I see that you’re using a Pontiac Fiero as the host body for the kit. What year is that ‘94,  ‘96,?” Alyssa asked as she circled the stripped down car that Sydney had been working on.

“‘94 with a ninety-three point five wheelbase,” Sydney answered.

“Yeah, the old kits didn’t quite fit right and you had to extend the wheelbase on them before the body could be assembled. Automatic or five speed?” Alyssa asked.

“Five,” Sydney answered as she watched Alyssa circle the car. The young girl was studying it just like a scientist would study a newly discovered specimen under a microscope.

Alyssa walked to the rear end of the car. “Since you don’t need to extend the wheelbase, then what are you welding?

“When I pulled the Fiero body off, I noticed a few weak spots along some of the weld seams so I’m touching them up just to be on the safe side. 

Alyssa tapped her index finger against her chin. She looked so much like an adult. “That’s probably a good idea. Are you using a TIG or MIG welder?” she asked, nodding at the welding machine.

“MIG and just what do you know about welding?” Sydney asked, again surprised by this young lady.

Alyssa shrugged. “Not much really. Just that the TIG uses Tungsten Inert Gases and that a person who uses that type of weld has to have a lot of skill. Most people use MIG though because the Metal Inert Gas is easier to handle since it supplies a continuous metal wire feed and fuses the two metals together. With the TIG, you have to use two hands, one to hold the welder and the other to hold the metal rod for welding.”

Sydney shook her head in amazement as she looked at Alyssa. “I thought you said you didn’t know much about welding.”

“I don’t really. That’s about as much as I know,” Alyssa said with a shrug.

“I think that’s enough,” Sydney laughed. “So, how would you like to help me work on it?”

Alyssa’s eyes flew open wide. “Are you serious?”

Sydney nodded.

“Sweet,” Alyssa said.

Sydney laughed. “Well, first thing we need to do is get you some coveralls. I don’t think your mom would be too happy with me if you ruined your clothes.”

Caitlyn, with a donut in hand stepped off the elevator on the executive floor. She glanced through the open doorway of several offices as she walked toward her office. It was very quiet and she liked it that way. A glance at her watch told her that it was almost five-thirty and she knew that very few employees worked past their scheduled time. She was definitely an exception in that area. More often than not, she was the last employee to leave the building.

She was looking down at her shoes when a movement out of the corner of her eye caused her to look up. She stopped walking. She held her breath, listening for any sign that indicated she wasn’t alone and then she heard it.

“Who’s there?” she called out as she walked several more feet and stopped. She waited for several seconds and when she didn’t hear anything else, she continued down the hallway toward her office. 

As she reached her office, she shivered involuntarily. She turned and looked back over her shoulder. For some reason she had a strange feeling that she was being watched. She took one last look down the hallway and then went into her office.

She noticed that the red light was flashing on her answering machine, indicating she had unheard messages. She pressed the button to hear them through the speaker and smiled when she heard Janice from Property Records’ voice.

“I hope you have the news I’m looking for,” she said to the machine.

“Seems you were right, Caitlyn,” Janice said through the speaker. “The prior owner of the property you were asking about once belonged to an Allen Carmichael, which he got for a steal if you ask me. Must be nice to buy a property for twenty-five grand and then flip it for three-hundred thousand. Anyway, I just wanted to give you the information. If you need anything else, you know where to find me.” 

 “I knew it,” Caitlyn said, shaking her head as she disconnected the line. “Gotcha, Allen!” 

Sydney came out of the closet near the back of the garage carrying a pair of dark blue coveralls. She walked up to Alyssa and held them up to her. They were at least three times Alyssa’s size.

“I think we’re gonna have to modify these a bit for you,” she said and handed the garment to Alyssa. She walked over to her workbench and grabbed a pair of scissors.

“Okay hold these up to you like this,” she instructed as she knelt down on her knees in front of Alyssa. She used the scissors and cut a good twelve inches off the length on both legs. “Now we need to make them fit your arms,” she said and held the coverall arm against Alyssa’s arm. Again, she cut off close to the same amount as what she did the legs.

Before she could tell Alyssa to try them on, the young girl had already slipped them over her clothes and zipped up the front.

“Not bad,” Sydney said as she admired her handiwork. “Now we got to find you some gloves.” 

Alyssa frowned. “What do I need gloves for?” she asked.

“I may like working on cars but I can’t stand getting grease under my fingernails,” Sydney said, crinkling her nose in disgust.

Alyssa giggled and rolled her eyes at Sydney.

“Don’t give me that look missy,” Sydney said, shaking her finger at Alyssa.

“You can’t really be serious about the grease. Part of the fun is getting dirty,” Alyssa said as she continued to giggle.

“Uh, yeah ... dead dog serious and if I wanna get dirty, I’ll go play in the mud,” Sydney said, a grin on her face.

“Dead dog? Really?” Alyssa groaned.

“Yeah, because nothing is more serious than a dead dog, don’t you agree?” Sydney asked.

“Oh brother,” Alyssa said, shaking her head.

Sydney frowned. “Hey, you wanna help me or not?”

“Of course,” Alyssa answered through a giggle.

Rachel had checked the theater room and every other room where she thought Alyssa might be. When she didn’t find her, she headed toward the kitchen, thinking that either Fred Rick or Edna would be there and that one of them might know where her daughter was.

She hadn’t planned on having Alyssa at Sydney’s with her while she worked but Mrs. Novak, the older woman who usually stayed at the house with Alyssa after school, had called off with the flu. Although Edward made it home on most days before she did, with his drinking problem, she just wasn’t comfortable leaving Alyssa alone with him.
That should have told you something right there
, she thought to herself. When a mother doesn’t trust her husband enough to leave her daughter alone with her own dad, something is very wrong.

She thought about last night and how relieved she was when she got home and found Edward already passed out in bed. She knew she had some major decisions to make and that her life was about to change in the most drastic way. What was odd, was that she wasn’t scared at all. It was as if an inner peace had come over her after her trip to Immaculate Conception and when she had left that day, she had known that it would be the last time she set foot in that church.

She knew that her parents were aware of her lack of attendance the past two Wednesday’s and Sunday’s by the numerous messages, they had left on her answering machine at home. When that didn’t get a response, her mother had begun leaving messages on her cell phone voice-mail. As of yesterday, she had twenty-two voice mails and all but three of them were from her mother. She hadn’t bothered to listen to a single one, instead she had deleted them. She just wasn’t ready to face her parents yet, mostly because she was dreading the confrontation along with the screaming that was sure to come when she laid it all out for her parents.

“Caitlyn, Caitlyn, Caitlyn,” she said repeatedly to herself. “You never cease to surprise me,” she laughed as her thoughts turned to the conversation she had with her daughter in the kitchen when Caitlyn had announced that she was a lesbian. She had made it all sound so simple and in reality, it was. She had hugged Caitlyn and told her how proud of her she was.

After Caitlyn had made her announcement, for a brief second she had felt a tinge of jealousy. It wasn’t jealousy in the true sense of the word, but more akin to envy, envy because Caitlyn seemed so at ease with who she was and had fully accepted it and she didn’t care what anyone else thought. Caitlyn’s biggest fear however, was how she would react to the news. She had assured her eldest daughter that all she ever wanted was for her to be happy and if loving and being loved by a woman would give her that, then she would support her fully. The look of relief on Caitlyn’s face nearly made her cry and if that wasn’t enough, Caitlyn then decided to drop the real bombshell after she returned from dropping Alyssa off at Christy’s house.

She had told Rachel that she knew who Sydney was all along and that she had remembered Sydney from when she was a child. She then went on to chastise Rachel for not following her heart but she also eased the sting by telling her that she understood why she had made the choices she had made but things were different today and people were more free to love who they wanted to love. Caitlyn had laughed though when Rachel had groaned about not looking forward to talking to her parents. Caitlyn had shrugged her shoulders and said, “Oh well, if they can’t accept you, then it’s their loss.”