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At twenty-six she was about to grow up, and fast.
Life wasn't fair. Deal with it, a small voice in her head cried.
With the back of her hand, she wiped the sweat trickling down her forehead and into her eyes. The sweat stung. The fact that the dress she wore cost more than she wanted to contemplate, seemed of little importance. It was ruined and there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it now. A $5000 dress. A dress she would never wear under normal circumstances. A dress her mother insisted was perfect for her, first because it was a bride's dress, and second because it was what any self-respecting Kingsley would wear.
Savannah hadn't thought much past her future with Chad until now. She bravely faced having to redirect her entire life, to rethink her values. But how did one go about redirecting their lives, when their dreams were suddenly crushed? Where to start?
There was no use rehashing her well laid plans of marriage. That was history. Now she had to think about what to do next. Like today, tomorrow, and maybe next week.
She hadn't the intelligence to draw money from her account at the bank, but that would have taken time and her parents might stop her. All she could do was run for the moment and hope that somehow everything would work out alright, for her and for Chad.
She moved the dangling sleeve of her dress away, so she could get closer to the trunk. By the time she managed to roll and scoot the tools to the far edge of the trunk she was breathless and black-smudged. She gasped. The nut and bolt holding it in place hadn't budged. After breaking a couple more fake nails, she managed to loosen it and pull the offending contraption out of the trunk.
"Alright I did it!" she jumped for joy. "I actually did it!"
But having it in her hands, and knowing where to put it to use was another thing.
She knew she needed to jack the car up. But where did one put the jack to jack it up? She'd seen this done on TV. She’d watched Chad do it, too. It had looked simple enough. Still, given all that information, she had no idea where to begin. After several minutes of trying to put the jack together, she glanced at the car, with a grimace. "Now where do I put you?"
She turned the jack around several different directions, placed it under the car behind the bumper. Nothing happened.
"Oh, you have to pump it up, you igmo," she berated herself. It also made sense to her to put it as close to the flat as possible. When she finally managed to get it situated under the car, and pumped it, it began pulling the fender away. She knew from the gosh-awful sound that she wasn't doing this correctly.
Slowly she glanced up at the protruding fender.
Stomping her foot, she jerked on the jack till it fell away. The car immediately slumped, making another weird sound, and stirring the dust from the side of the road. She licked at her dry pasty lips. Mad, hot, and disgusted with her own inabilities; she threw the jack as far as she could, nearly winging a jackrabbit in the process.
"Sorry little fella," she blew a tendril of hair away from her face and leaned against the fender. She mentally recorded the damage she'd done to the car with a withering sigh. Her father would not be pleased with her.
She wasn't a man, how was she supposed to figure this
out? If her brother, Jarod could see her now he'd laugh his head off. She missed Jarod. He'd flown in for her wedding that same morning and she had all of ten minutes to kiss him and catch him up on her life.
But all of that was gone and her life had changed within a few fragile moments.
Now she was faced with stark reality.
Stubborn to the core, Savannah vowed nature wasn't going to win with her. She did away with the offending train and bustle of the wedding gown. In fact one sleeve was already ripped and she felt compelled to rip off the other to match. Her veil lay in the backseat, she tossed her extra baggage back to join it. Nothing of the dress was left but one long piece of the skirt and the bodice.
She reached in the glove compartment for a string to tie her hair back, but the sun beat down on her neck so brazenly, she had to let it fall loose again. To complete the mess, when she closed the car door, her skirt caught and ripped again. She screamed aloud, "This can't be happening to me! What have I done to deserve this?"
Then in a fit of anger, she ripped the offending silk from her body and threw it in the backseat to join the rest of the mess. The silk slip was ankle length and thick enough to pass for a skirt she quickly decided.
She stood there, looking down the long lonesome road, wondering what might happen next. A slight breeze played tricks on her imagination and told her she was a little more comfortable than she had been, just a little. The fact that she had destroyed a $5,000 wedding dress, and damaged the beautiful new BMW didn't make her too proud.
Flashbacks of yesterday's disaster made her feel no better. Spending the night in the car hadn't done much for her disposition either. Sleeping in a wedding dress just didn't cut it, and perhaps turning the air on half the night didn't help the car's problems either. Guilt riddled her. But darn it, what was a girl to do? She could have lived with the fact that she'd lost Chad to another woman, but to lose him to man seemed outrageous. It bordered on hurting the ego and the pride all at the same time.
"I don't need marriage..." But that prospect brought no happiness either. Savannah knew deep in her heart that was one thing, she did need. She wanted the whole nine yards. She'd dreamed of being knee deep in diapers by this time next year. Fat chance!
Her two older sisters were married and had a houseful of children. That's exactly what she had wanted. She admired them both for making such happy families.
She and Chad had waited until they both finished college and secured jobs before jumping into the marriage ring. She'd been sensible, a lot of good it did her.
Savannah mentally tried to shake herself. Her mouth was dry, her lips chaffing, and the dust was thick enough to cut. She glanced down the forlorn looking highway for signs of life. From the looks of it, she and the jackrabbit had the whole of West Texas to be miserable in.
She glanced up at the clear sky, then down the long lonely road.
Nothing was in sight for miles. No service station, no cafes, no bright lights, just the blaring hot sun and a lonely stretch of highway. Oh why had she decided to look her long lost aunt up out here in the middle of nowhere?
