Pop: Chapter Twelve

    "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," I yell up to Sam as leave for the signing.

    I mean, he will probably be alright on his own.  He shouldn't, say, burn down the house or anything in the next few hours.  He's eighteen.  He knows he'd be arrested if he commits a crime now.  That's probably too harsh for him to think this way, but he has been acting surly ever since he found out about the house.

    I walk down the street to Rick's to pick up my car, eating a protein bar on the way.  Banana chocolate-chip.  Almost as good as the blueberry, just a little more common.  At least here in Lexington.

    With the remodel going on at my house, I'd been keeping my car at Rick's where it was safer.  I can see it parked out on the driveway as I walk towards it.  Midnight blue Camaro.  Fully charged too, considering the cable's down.

    Yeah, it is a hybrid.  I go on and on about how Sam's vehicle is basically a box on wheels, and I have a partly electric car myself.  Yet mine is sporty and actually looks like a car.  It just wasn't practical to keep a gas-powered vehicle when I don't drive it for weeks at a time.  Leaving all of that fuel in the tank could cause problems.  That might be one of the reasons I had so many problems with my last car.  The Camaro might not be the best car for driving to New York and back, so I just leave it here and drive one of Dad's cars.  Now that I'll be back in Lexington, I'll get to drive this one more often and finally put gas in the tank.

    Besides, this was the only model that came in blue.

    I must admit that the drive is fairly smooth, as I pull out of Rick's driveway.  I try to drive around town as much as possible so I can stay familiar with the traffic patterns.  New York traffic makes me appreciate Lexington traffic ever more.  Sure, driving here can be tricky, but it makes sense after awhile.  Four years in NYC and I still try to stay off the roads.

    The drive to Pulse is quite boring.  Just the familiar lights and lane changes I took dozens of times, usually from the other direction, but this part of my day is the same.  One detour for road work, nothing new.  Late mornings are fairly tame.

    I make it to the strip mall down the block from Pulse in less than fifteen minutes.  Even for me, that is impressive.  This will make my first time back to Pulse in over a year.  With the work on my book and the tour, I just didn't have the time to stop by the old place my last few visits here.  

    The strip mall is about the same.  The convenience store has changed it name. Not sure if it is a new owner or just a re-brand.  I'll have to go in after the signing to pick something up to validate parking here. The rest of the storefronts are for various services, ones I never really looked into.  The nail salon and weight-loss center in particular are not for me.  Anyway, I should be fine parking here for a few hours.

    I walk down the street to Pulse, only thirty minutes early.

    I must be slipping by being so late.