Previous part:
Shook Chapter 5 : Trucks
Dyan the orphan stands infront of a semi-truck, her ride to new friend Maya's house. It's so big and strange she doesn't want to go in, but it's either ride this to Maya's house or sleep on the streets....
Dyan closed her eyes and began to quietly count. “One, two, three, four, FIVE!"
Dyan yelled the last number. She rushed up the truck steps, slipping on one, but making it to the back where Maya slid over on a bench so Dyan could have a space to sit.
Dyan’s heart beat fast, and she felt bits of sweat forming on her forehead, but she felt relieved.
“I did it! I got on the truck!” Dyan said to remind herself she had really done it.
“Woo-hoo! You did it!” Maya chanted.
“Nice job facing a fear! Now, let’s head home!” Maya’s dad closed the passenger door. He put a key into the truck's ignition, and the truck began to cough, then roar to life.
The loudness and vibration of the roar made Dyan yelp, but Maya grabbed Dyan’s shoulder and gave her a smile. Dyan smiled back weakly.
Maya’s dad drove out of his parking space and out of Silver Leopard.
The employee man Dyan had seen earlier was leaning on the restaurant while looking at his phone. He looked up from his phone and waved. “Bye Cobalt!”
“Cobalt?” Dyan turned to Maya with a raised eyebrow while Maya’s dad waved back to the guy.
“Yeah, Cobalt. My name is Cobalt Blue, like the color. You can call me Mr. Blue, or Cobalt. Whatever floats your boat.” Maya’s dad-Mr. Blue- said while keeping his eyes on the road.
“Okay.” Dyan didn’t know if she liked Mr. Blue just yet, but she appreciated how friendly he was. When they merged onto the highway, Dyan looked around the truck.
There seemed to be a whole mini lounge area back there. There were curtains pulled to the sides of the truck’s walls that could separate the back from the two seats up front. There were cabinets on either side that held things like gloves, books and cigars. Windows were on each side of the bench she and Maya sat on.
The bench she sat on was really soft and bouncy even, but there didn’t appear to be any seatbelts. When Dyan told Maya about this, Maya explained that this wasn’t a bench, but a small bed called a sleeper, which truckers on the road use to sleep on long travels . “You won’t have to worry about crashing, my dad drives well. You can hold on to the cabinet handle if you want to though.” said Maya.
Dyan definitely held on to the cabinet door, still not taking chances with this huge vehicle.
“You must be really scared of trucks,” Maya commented.
“They're huge, loud, and jiggly!” Dyan said in her defense. “I’m just glad this one didn’t have a huge metal box connected to the back!”
“Huge metal box?” Maya stared at Dyan with a wrinkled expression until she began to laugh. “Those ‘huge metal boxes’, are called trailers, and they’re used to carry all types of stuff across the country! Truck trailers could be filled with chips, soda crates, refrigerators-Oh!, and there are different types of truck trailers too! Like flatbeds -they hold cars- or tankers, those huge metal round ones-my dad pulls those! ”
“Maya, relax, I think Dyan gets it. She doesn’t need to hear about the whole trucking industry,” Mr. Blue said to his daughter.
“I know, it’s just that ever since I read that book about trucks,” Maya started, and then she began to go on and on to Mr. Blue.
Thank goodness Mr. Blue had said something. Dyan didn’t know how she was going to get out of that conversation. She wasn’t that interested in trucks.
She looked over to one of the sleeper windows. Dyan was torn between wanting to look out the window, and not wanting to get jostled out the window from riding with no seatbelt.
Dyan squeezed her eyes shut and slid over to the window. Slowly opening her eyes, she got a wonderful surprise.
The highway as seen from the view of a truck was amazing. She could see the tops of all the cars and SUVs, which looked small from how high up she was. Dyan noticed that in the window’s reflection, she had a huge smile on her face.
“Wow! We’re so high up!” she said.
“Yeah, the perks of riding home in a truck,” said Maya.
Maya seemed to be absorbed in watching her dad drive. Dyan wondered how someone turning the steering wheel ever so slightly every second could be interesting.
The truck jolted up, making Dyan bounce and almost fall off the sleeper.
“If you really want the view, just sit in the passenger seat,” Maya suggested.
It could’ve been her imagination, but the space between the passenger seat and the sleeper began to stretch, getting farther and farther away until it looked like she had to go down a corridor to get to the front seat.
Dyan took a deep breath and hobbled herself over to the passenger seat.
Up front there were seatbelts (thankfully!) and Dyan quickly buckled up and looked out the font window. Lining the highway was a warm and colorful sight of orange, yellow, red, and green trees, the floor beneath them covered in leaves. Cars gilded beside and ahead of the truck.
Dyan took out her notebook and began to scribble. Normally, she would hate writing her book from anywhere but right where she left off from the last time she wrote, but today she was feeling wild. She’d start right where the action began.
“Spirit looked at the colorful autumn trees as she ran across the highway, afraid of being abducted by aliens.” Dyan whispered to herself. “She ran into a bookstore, and in this bookstore, she met a kind alien who promised to give her a place to stay.”
She wrote on.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
New to Shook? You can find the chapter archive in this post.
Hey there! I’m Shila! I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!
Follow me on Twitter!
I also write on Tumblr!