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The Truth About Gifts | Shook Chapter 7 Part 5
The Blues have started their journey to get to the surprise trip destination. Dyan, a "family friend" is tagging along with them while she writes her book that is based on them. What she didn't expect though, was to be driven to a place where horses pull carriges along stone paths and streetlights twist in detailed designs...
Dyan woke up the next day excited and ready for anything. Today was the day! Today was the day the family trip began!
When Dyan got her turn in the bathroom, she changed into her one of the hand-me-down clothes she had received yesterday: a pink shirt with ruffly short sleeves and jean-shorts.
Soon, everyone was piling into the Volkswagen, ready to go, Bear included.
Dyan sat in the first row right behind the front seats for two reasons. One, she was at the table so she could pull out her notebook and write at any moment, and two, she loved the thrill of facing the back window while they drove. Maya sat beside Dyan and smiled.
“Here we go!” Maya said before the two giggled purely out of excitement.
Once Mr. Blue got in the van and turned the key, the engine stuttered to life softly. “Okay, the first stop is in Georgia to your Aunt Cerulean’s house so we can drop Bear off, and then we’ll go to the airport to get to the REAL destination of this trip!”
“Aw, common Dad! Can’t you tell us where we’re going now!? We’ll literally be there soon!” Maya complained.
“Not yet Maya. Be patient.” said Mr. Blue as he started down the road.
The first hour on the road was a blur of trees and rural homes. Bear had walked over to Dyan’s feet and curled up into a doggie crescent by her legs under the table. After a while Dyan heard rustling under there that turned out to be Bear snoring. In the beginning, Mr. Blue had the radio on playing old disco songs, which the Blue children booed come the start of every song. When Wild Yonder announced he’d go crazy if he heard one more song, Mr. Blue turned off the radio and began to talk to Mrs. Blue.
Dyan was focusing on writing when she got two taps on the shoulder. She turned to Maya who pointed to the window and said, “Horses!”
Dyan looked out to see there were indeed horses, far out in a green field surrounded by a wooden fence. They were all different colors, from soil brown to reddish-brown like a carrot cake, to white like a blank page. They stood with their head bent to the grass, tails swishing every so often.
“Woah…” Dyan muttered. Then she went back to her work.
After that, every so often, Maya would yell, “Cows!” or “Horses!” whenever she saw them which was about every few minutes. Everyone started to get annoyed with her until Navy eventually told her to shut up, which led to Maya telling him to shut-up, which led to an argument, which led to Mr. Blue telling everyone to cut it out.
Later on Dyan started to smell a salty, stinky stench in the air.
“Ew,” True mumbled.
“You know we're getting close to Savannah when you can smell the river,” Navy mumbled.
Soon they crossed a bridge with H-shaped structures looming over it. Dyan’s stomach turned. Crossing bridges always made her weary.
Dyan figured that bridge must have been a time machine, because as soon as they were on the other side, everything looked at least a hundred years old. She saw lots of fancy buildings made in different pastel colors such as light purple, pink, or creamy yellow, and all the buildings had fancy windows in huge arched shapes with silky curtains concealing the top corners. The road became bumpy and made of stones. Horses pulling carriages passed by, (“Don’t you dare call them out,” Navy glared at Maya, who only smiled at him).
Dyan gasped when a trolley passed by. She had only read about trolleys in books, how they drove slowly and had circle-shaped headlights. The driver looked at her, and Dyan waved. The driver smiled, ringing the trolley's bell to make a “Ding! Ding!” noise as it slid down the street, a set of rails on the left side of the road.
She began to imagine that she and the Blue family were in their own private trolley, as they slowly drove under huge trees with white moss dropping off them, and beautiful brick buildings with fancy curved windows, and lantern-looking street lights.
Bear woke up, and his claws clacked over to the window, where he got on his hind legs and pressed his front paws to the glass to look out at the city.
Mr. Blue soon stopped at a few old brick buildings that were blackened from some type of dust and in the distance, there was a tall smoke-stack sticking out from behind a flat building.
“Did we get taken back to the old days?” True asked.
"Yeah, this definetly lookin' like the 1800's." Wild Yonder added.
“No. We’ve just gone to the historic part of Savannah, Georgia. You know, where Aunt Cerulean lives.”
“I can’t wait to see her! It’s been so long and I have so much to tell her!” said Royal.
“Don’t get your hopes up. This isn’t a family visit, we’re just here to drop off Bear, and then we leave quickly.”
“Awww,” most of the children said.
“Then I don’t wanna go to Auntie’s house. I’ll miss her too much.” said True.
“That’s why you’re not going to your aunt’s house. You're coming with me and Teal to the Savannah Children’s Museum.” Mrs. Blue smiled.
Teal smiled at this.
“I’ll go with Mrs. Blue,” said Dyan. After all, she didn’t know their aunt.
“Wooooow.” said Navy, stretching out the word as if he were letting out a big yawn.
“I know, this place sounds really cool, right?” Dyan asked.
Navy turned to Dyan. “The children’s museum? No! I’m looking at those trains!” Navy looked out the window to his left once again.
Dyan looked where Navy’s head was turned to and saw a long brick building with a huge porch-like roof, and under that roof sat trains. Some trains had the big circle faces with the tube-shaped funnels, while others were square-shaped with nose-like points poking out the front.
"Woah," Dyan said at almost the same time as few other kids.
She turned to Wild Yonder, who had fuanlly turned off his gamimg console to stare at the trains. "Dad lied. This is definetely the 1800's."
Find out what happens next in the next part!
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