‘Let’s just say I’ve got my fingers crossed,’ saidAnnabel.
Frustrated, she crouched down, almost tripping over her bunny slippers as she tipped the contents of her handbag out onto the roadside. ‘I know they’re in here somewhere’ she said. While sifting through the pile of crumpled receipts, her purse, and even a tatty old address book, Annabel sighed. She still couldn’t find what she waslookingfor.
‘Look, wherever you need to be, I’ll take you,’saidDan.
Annabel paused. ‘And spoil your plans, I don’t think so.’ She got back to her search, this time tossing a pack of headache pills to one side. ‘Honestly, you go. We’ll talksoon,yeah?’
She felt Dan’s hand on her arm as he lowered himself down to her level. ‘I don’t mind and this is obviouslyimportant.’
Annabel momentarily relaxed when she saw the concern on Dan’s face. It was good of him to think of her like this, but there was no way she could ruin his evening. ‘I’m fine. It’s just a family issue and believe me, you’ll have a lot more fun doing whatever it is you’re supposed to bedoing.’
With one last grope around, she finally had to concede. Her keys weren’t there. ‘They must be inside,’ she said. She looked towards the house as she scooped everything back up. ‘Shit!’ Annabel rose to her feet and realised that the keys to her home were on the same ring as those to her car. ‘What the hell am I going to do now?’ She put one hand to her forehead and the other on her hip as she tried to think. With only the bathroom window left open, the prospect of shimmying up the drainpipe did not feellikefun.
She watched Dan stand up. He pulled the keys to his vehicle out of his pocket and dangled them in frontofher.
With no time to argue, Annabel zipped her bag shut. ‘Okay,’ she said, deciding it couldn’t hurt to have a bit of back up in a situation like this. As she quickly headed for his car, she expected him to be right behind her. ‘Well what are you waiting for?’ sheasked.
He pressed the button on his key fob and released the central locking. Dan shook his head and indicated to her clothing as they climbed inside. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t get changed,’hesaid.
Annabel looked down at her attire. ‘Who’s going to see me?’ She put on her seatbelt. ‘And like you said, this is anemergency.’
As Dan turned the ignition, she took in the interior of the car.Very nice, she thought. Annabel compared it to her clapped out and rather basic little number; this one seemed to have a display for everything. It was obviously built for speed, something Annabel felt comfortable with. Her lack of punctuality had given her lots of experience on the speeding front, something Dan clearly didn’trealise.
Having expected him to just pull out and hit the accelerator, Annabel waited for them to move. Forced to watch Dan double check for other traffic before slowly pulling away from the kerb, the last thing she’d had him down as was a Sunday driver. He seemed to carefully and methodically move through the gears, from first, to second, to third. She found it painful viewing; especially as they’d already established this to be a life or death situation. Even in her old car, she could have done nought to sixty in no time at all and, as they carried on down the street, Annabel itched for him to put his foot down. ‘You can go a bit faster,’ she said. Her impatience grew. She glanced at the speedometer; surely he was going to go above thirty at somepoint?
‘Where is it we’re off to?’ heasked.
‘Nowhere by the looks of things.’ Annabel silently insisted she could walk quickerthanthis.
‘I’ve already had one ticket recently,’ said Dan. ‘I don’t wantanother.’
‘Really?’ She’d have put money on it not being forspeeding.
‘Really.’
Annabel realised no amount of complaining would make him go any faster, so she decided to just go with the flow. ‘You need to take the next right and then a left,’shesaid.
She continued to give him directions, all the while thinking they were never going to get there. At this rate her sister had to think she’d been deserted in her hour of need, or worse, gotten herself into trouble.Finally,she thought, at last spotting their journey’s end. ‘You see that car park over there,’ she said. ‘That’s where we’reheading.’
Although still in no rush, Dan pulled in, while Annabel scanned the area for her sister’s vehicle. ‘There she is,’ she said, as she pointed out a blue car so Dan could draw upalongside.
‘A pub?’ he replied. ‘We’ve come to a pub? I thought you said this was anemergency.’
Annabel rolled her eyes. The drive had taken so long, no one would haveguessed.
She decided to ignore his questions and hastily unclipped her seatbelt; but paused to look her driver directly in the eye before getting out. ‘You’re not to say a single word,’ she warned him. ‘You’re here for your brawn should anything go wrong and not yourbrains.’
‘Excuse me,’saidDan.
Annabel could see that he was wondering what he’d gottenhimselfinto.
‘Plus, I could do with the moral support,’ she added. ‘Silent moral support, that is.’ After opening the car door, she paused for a second time. Annabel knew that Dan’s presence wouldn’t exactly be welcome, but thought it better to excuse her sister’s impending behaviour prior to the fact. ‘Rebecca can be a bit difficult, you see,’shesaid.
Dan smiled. ‘I remember,’ he replied, obviously recalling the couple of times their paths hadcrossed.
She finally disembarked and, with Dan following suit, climbed straight into the back of Rebecca’s vehicle. She could see her sister had been crying, something Annabel thought understandable under thecircumstances.
‘Two questions,’ said Rebecca. ‘One, what on earth are youwearing?’
