A Car Ride Home

S H O C K

Previously...

Al stopped talking lost in thought. "Hey, you don't have to tell me. I'm sorry. It must have been hard," Lilly tired to bring him back to their conversation.

"It's fine," Al said, but his voice was heavy.

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" W e' r e   a b o u t   f i v e   minutes from town. What is your address?"

Shit. Al thought. "I-I live at-um main street?" He tried.

Lilly looked in the mirror at the mystery man. There is no main street here, and she knew that. Al was lying to her, but why? She decided to just drive home, figuring he really wouldn't know the difference. And she was right.

Al sat there quietly looking out of the window, as Lilly drove. The town reminded him of some of the little towns in Montana without the snow. It was welcomed in his eyes. Al had a feeling he wasn't fooling Lilly, and he was quickly becoming nervous of where she was taking him. The police station. A church. Both pretended to help, both couldn't. He felt as lost and hopeless, as he appeared.

Lilly pulled up her drive and stopped in front of her home. Al was shocked. She took me to her home?

"Alright, rides over," Lilly announced, getting out of the car. "Can you grab those uniforms for me?" She asked, while collecting the trash from today. Al hadn't gotten out of the car yet, fear of what she would think heavy on his mind. Lilly took the trash to the side of the house and deposited into a trashcan. She noticed Al was still in the car, not moving. "Al, come on, I'm tired. You can spend the night. Tomorrow, we'll figure out how to get you where you need to go," she reasoned, suppressing a yawn.

"Are you sure about that?" Al asked, worry clear in his voice.

"Why wouldn't I be," she shrugged.

"Just wait, you might change your mind."

"Do you mean me any harm?"

"No."

"Then, get your ass out of the car," she ordered, annoyed. Her exhaustion beginning to get the better of her.

He grunted, grabbed the uniforms like she asked, and got out of the car. There he stood for her eyes to judge. Al kept his head down and held the uniforms out to her, thinking she may want to take them out of his dirty hands.

Lilly was shocked, but tried her best not to show it. Al was a homeless man. Now, thinking back to the little he said and where he was made sense. His clothing put together with seemingly mix-matched rags. His dark brown hair was long enough to to touch his shoulders, and could really use a brush. He had a little dirt on his hallow face, which was tanned from the sun. He wasn't even wearing shoes on his feet, it was just sandels that had seen better days. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than her. His head was down, so she couldn't see his eyes, but by his stance she could tell he was ashamed of the person that stood in front of her. "Well, come on then." His head shot up in surprise, and she saw his green eyes look at her with shock.

"You-you still want me to come in."

"Are you still the same man that was in my backseat? You haven't switched him with someone else have you?"

He chuckled at her ridiculous question. "Yes and no."

"Then, lets go. It's cold out here."

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To be continued...