Remembering Sunday

The sound of clanging metal and rattling chains violently pulled me from my sleep the next morning. The sounds of iron smashing concrete and car doors echoing shook the sleep from my eyes before I even had a chance to fully open them on my own as I slowly sat up in my bed, scratching my still throbbing head in complete and utter confusion.

"The Hell?" I finally muttered aloud when not even a brief second passed before more rattling came from outside my windows, followed then by muffled voices I couldn't even begin to make words out of through the insulated walls of my home.

I glanced quickly at my clock, reading the borderline disgusting time of '9:21 AM' in red digital letters as I kicked back my comforter and swung my petite legs over the side of my bed. My limbs fought me with every move I made as I slowly rose to a standing position. Goosebumps punching through the entirety of my skin's surface in protest as I made my way towards my window despite the warm air swirling through my bedroom. But it was too late, I was awake, and far too curious about the ruckus going on just outside to hide under the covers a second longer.

Not like at that point I would actually be able to fall back asleep anyway.

Slowly but surely, I found myself at my window, and after having to finesse my blind just a little I managed to get the thing to snap and roll up enough to unveil the origin scene of the commotion that had stolen the first peaceful sleep I'd gotten all week. The unfortunate part of it all was, once I looked down into my driveway, instead of gazing upon answers like I had anticipated, I was only met with even more questions and a more thickly laid layer of confusion to swim through.

Below me then I could easily spot the shining exposed skin on the top of my father's head as he stood beside an older, two-toned pickup truck I knew did not call our driveway home. But that wasn't what truly had me scratching my temple just then. Hooked to the back of the gray and white truck, a transport trailer was latched. And as I looked down on my father trailing the side of the large hunk of equipment, I could physically feel my eyes widen so much so the lids of my eyes had begun to press into the underside of their sockets at the sight of the most beautiful car I'd ever seen in my entire life.

Large blue irises followed in my father's slow path as they scanned every inch of glistening candy apple paint before suddenly dipping to the tail end of the car where they shifted from the glossy coating to a sloppy mop of brown hair I'd sat beside no more than twelve hours before.

I knew it instantly, in my mind and my gut for a change exactly who those soft brown locks belonged too. And I watched the slender boy wrap to meet my father behind almost four thousand pounds of pure muscle and steel. Scrunching my eyes, I watched with more confusion than before as Alex and my father began to exchange words by the tail end of this vehicle. And almost instantaneously I felt the urge to run down the stairs and be a part of their inaudible conversation.

I didn't even have time to really think about what it was I was actually doing before I was stripping off my plaid pajama pants and makeup stained sleeping shirt. In exchange for some high waisted denim shorts and an only slightly wrinkled pocket tee from the floor. Slipping my feet into my beaten old converse and slipping through my door, not caring how much damage I was probably doing to the heels of my sneakers as I swiftly made my way down the fall and patted down the staircase.

In leaps and bounds, I descended the hardwood, for the first time in well, as long as I could currently remember, I was filled with an almost strange level of excitement as I landed hard on my feet in the entryway when the sounds of an engine roared from just beyond the front door. The pure power of the mechanism turning over and firing up shook the large wooden portal in its frame where it had been left just slightly ajar.

I was quick then to head running for the driveway, making my way down the two small front steps of my porch in time to see the car be slowly backed off the transport trailer and onto the level asphalt of my street. Eyes wide and heart unpredictable as it pounded in my chest with the rippling sounds of the car's powerful engine I watched as my dad carefully directed the long-legged boy behind the wheel in the taxing task at hand.

Soon the car was back on all four wheels being pulled slowly into my drive right before my knees and the engine was killed. As far as I was aware, I wasn't a huge car fanatic, but something about that heavy piece of machinery had my eyes dazed in amazement as I stood completely motionless. Watching and listening to the clang of latches and the echoing of the hollow metal door as Alex stepped from the low riding vehicle and rose to his staggering height just feet from me.

"IT'S ALIVE!" I heard my dad joke as he weaved between the car and the trailer, laughing loud and clear as he made his way towards me. "Hello sunshine, glad you could finally grace us with your monstrous presence!"

I looked at him as the smile I didn't even realize had been plastered on my face widened, not even caring at him picking fun at my admittedly unfortunate bedhead. And instead, I just continued to smile in awe as he slid a hand down the hood of the vehicle in passing. "What is this?" I asked, my excitement building inside me as I looked my senior in the eyes.

He chuckled then, exchanging a look with Alex who had begun to follow in suit taking strides towards me. "You tell me," He said plainly, his tone dripping in both sarcasm and amusement. "If anything is going to jog your memory, I'm almost certain it's going to be this beauty!" I turned back then from Alex's cheeky grin only to see my father sporting a similar expression as he smirked down at me. Eyebrows slowly began to sew themselves together on my crinkled forehead as I stared, which of course only gained more amused chuckles from the two men. "Alex, pop the hood and let her take a look!"

More laughter erupted as the confusion painted on my face began to sink so deep into my expression it could have been mistaken for the Grand Canyon. But still, I stepped forward towards the car. Watching silently amidst my dad's hysterical laughter as Alex pulled the pins from the hood before sharply pulling a lever over the license plate, unveiling the source of the earthquake that had shaken my entire house just moments before.

"Wow" I breathed out as I stepped up beside Alex, shoulder to elbow and looked down on all the glistening metal and hectic wires sprayed out before me.

"Tell me about it." Alex laughed softly, scratching the back of his neck as neither of us dared to take our eyes off the engine before us, pristine and perfect. I couldn't even begin to fathom words at that moment, something inside me had been churning for a while, mixing all the excitement and curiosity into a concoction of nostalgia as I stood there in silence for what felt like forever, breathing in the subtle scent of rubber and gasoline.

"Go on..." My dad suddenly added, breaking both Alex and me from our silent states of utter infatuation as he placed a large hand on my shoulder. "Tell him about it." At that small remark, My eyebrows retreated together once again, returning to their ever-confused expression as I turned my head to see my dad smiling yet again. His wide grin exposing the small calcium deposits on his teeth and his deep smile lines beside them.

"He already knows everything." I said simply, without even realizing it which only caused my own confusion to spread as I went cross-eyed looking down at my own lips. Curious about where those words had just innately come from.

"Humor me!" My dad chuckled lightly smacking my shoulder, blatantly ignoring my obvious disorientation. And I thought for once it best to as well when a headache began to twitch above my right eye.

I looked back at the engine and squinted for a moment, my palms slowly growing clammy as though this car were my second-grade crush or something. And then I opened my mouth, and with no control or warning, words began to spill from my lips as though I'd recited them a million times before. "Well, it's a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454, restored with all original steel body panels." I cooed, and it almost started to feel in that instant like I was having an outer body experience. Words were leaving my face, and if they hadn't been floating through the air in my sleep-soaked voice I would have been certain I wasn't the one saying them.

But I was, and I just kept on going. "It has an LS6-454 mark four V8 big block engine with an aluminum intake manifold," because I somehow knew what that was or all that meant! "450 horsepower, which can get it from zero to sixty in about six seconds flat and averages in the thirteen second time range for a quarter mile."

My head was aching now, but not from any hint of an oncoming memory. Just from the pure fact of not understanding a single thing coming from my mouth as any attempts to shut it completely proved futile and I made my way around Alex and towards the driver's side of the car.

"She has fourteen by seven-inch wheels with F70 tires and beautiful heavy duty F41 suspension underneath her," I muttered, beginning to smile to myself despite the total war going on inside my brain between everything I knew, and what little I remembered. Sticking my head through the open window I somehow continued, as though I hadn't said enough already. "All original round gauge dash and black leather interior, complete with a Muncie M22 rock crusher four-speed manual transmission."

And if you thought I was done there, you and I both would be so painfully wrong. Because then I pulled my head from the window, lightly tracing a hand down the roof of the car as I smiled at the flecks in the paint glistening back at me. "Her two-door coupe style body is perfect – if I do say so myself..." I smirked, "With just a single repaint of stock, true to the year colors of cherry red with pristine, airbrushed tuxedo black racing stripes and chrome-tipped dual exhaust, it's as though you drove her off the lot."

I took a step back then, gazing at the white 'SS' insignia stamped on the rear rubber bumper panel for a second before I looked up. Staring over the slick roof of this car I'd just completely reconstructed without skipping a beat and met my father's eyes. Their bright blue-gray color that resembled mine could hardly be seen in their squinted state he'd been smiling so hard just then.

"What?" I basically snapped, laughter playing on my lips as I wrapped back around the side of the car and advanced towards the older man. Something inside me then, be it the giddy smile that had subconsciously plastered itself across my lips, the look in my father's eyes as he pulled me quickly into a bear hug or the light almost butterfly-like feeling that consumed my stomach told me that the car I was already re-infatuated with was mine.

Or was pretty damn close to being mine at the very least.

"You may not remember, but there are some thing's you'll never forget." My dad muttered in my ear then, crushing my rib cage into my spine he was holding on so tight. "It's like riding a bike... sometimes in order to remember how to do it, you have to get back on the seat!"

I couldn't help but laugh then, a light-hearted, warm laugh as I squeezed my dad a little before we both let go. And I looked up at him with large wide eyes, and a devilish smile pushing out my cheeks. "Is that your way of telling me I get to drive this thing?" I giddily asked.

In the second he released me, I took a step back and watched on as my father quickly looked over at Alex, a silent exchange of nerve-wracking looks happening between them. And something slowly began to dawn on me as to why that exited proclamation of my idea seemed to settle in all the wrong places.

I watched Alex slowly jingle the keys between calloused fingers as he bit his lip and my head began to throb, a literally painful reminder of why it was so astonishing I'd remembered anything at all about the car now beside me. I knew enough from skimming my hospital report that the accident that caused my loss of memory and everything else I've endeavored wasn't my fault. That I wasn't even the one behind the wheel when it happened. But still, it went without saying why my father and I guess friend were so painfully hesitant to hand the keys over so soon after getting me back in any condition at all. Let alone the one I was in.

I was mere seconds away from revoking my foolish request when my father released a heavy sigh, the engine still ticking softly under the hand he gently placed on the frame. And without any warning, he said something I would have never expected nor anticipated.

"Only if Alex rides along." He said softly, shaking his head as though he was fighting himself to not drop the hood like he was and latch it back shut. But my arms and my body didn't give him a second to contemplate taking it back before I was throwing myself into his side and holding on for dear life.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I squealed. Jumping up and down causing his round body to shake rather violently. Untangling my arms from his stomach and back, he jokingly muttered for me to get off him with a laugh before I looked at Alex who was silently and hesitantly extending the keys over to me.

"be gentle with her!" My father warned next, running a hand down his face and shaking his head before turning back towards the house. I wasn't sure if he was talking to me about the car, or to Alex on my behalf. But I didn't care to examine my father's few words as I all but snatched the keys from my old friend's hand and ran around to the driver's side door.

The clang of our doors echoed in succession as we both climbed in and the sinking leather of the seats wrapped around the undersides of my exposed thighs perfectly, as though they were molded for me long ago. Hands ran softly over the groves of the wheel filling me with excitement and joy that felt fitting and perfect in that instant. It felt nostalgic of days I didn't remember but could feel in the sting of the sun-heated metal.

With the click of our seatbelts and the rattle of keys, the engine between my thighs roared to life with a mighty growl and I couldn't help the ginormous, almost kid-like grin that spread across my lips at the sound. A sight which of course only gained a small chuckle from Alex as I put it in reverse and glided from my driveway.

The car was a beast in itself and that was for certain. It revved loud and proud with a tap to the gas and would have had us flying down the street in seconds had anyone else been behind the wheel. But in that instant, just with navigating my house, or knowing where to find forks, my hands and my feet knew this car better than I knew myself. Which was almost a too literal analogy. But my limbs worked together in a beautiful symphony just then, knowing exactly when to release the gas and press the clutch and shift the gears with seamless effort. Like second nature it came and I couldn't help but laugh at the indescribable way driving that car made me feel.

Alex laughed too then, causing me to take my eyes off the road for no more than a second as I squinted at him. "What?" I dared to ask, which only resulted in him shaking his head from the edges of my eyes as we pulled to the stop sign at the end of my street. "What?"

"Nothing..." He laughed on which resulted in an innate growl to surface from the back of my throat which only elicited more laughter from the young adult beside me. "It's just funny to see you like this, it feels like the day you got your license all over again!"

"It does?" I questioned, pulling out into the street and pressing the gas, letting the tires spin and shriek for a second to feel it beneath me before letting it die. "Why is that?"

"Because from the second your dad brought this car home as nothing more than a rusted body and frame, all you ever – ever, wanted was to get behind the wheel of this thing. And for some crazy reason not even hours after passing your road test he let you, on one condition-"

"You came with me." I smiled, running my hands over the wheel again as we took off down the back roads.

"You remember?" He suddenly asked, his tone dipping down dramatically to a soft, careful one.

I smiled softly to myself, not realizing I must have some way or another just then. "I guess so." I shrugged. "In a way." And I could see him nod in my peripherals, the answer I guess was enough for him in the meantime. But something was tickling the back of my mind. "Does this thing have any music?"

Alex laughed, and loudly at that as he reached between his feet. At the first red light, I glanced and found him sifting through a decently large cardboard box I hadn't even noticed between his bent knees, overflowing with CD cases and cassette tapes. "You never went a second in this car or any car for that matter without blasting something!" He chuckled as he pulled a small tape deck from the box, every possible inch coated with masking tape to the point I wasn't certain it would work and slid it softly into its respected slot on the dash. Something I'm sure had been added in after for my use, and probably the only thing on this car I could spot as modified.

'DO NOT PLAY BEFORE 4/12/2003' was written on the only exposed part of the deck which I managed to read just as the light turned green and I rolled onto another side street. Almost instantly music began to pour from the static of the speakers at a ridiculous volume, just as quick as Alex was to begin flipping through the tracks as best he could on the makeshift sound system jammed in the plastic.

He said nothing as he found the track he wanted, track seven to be exact and sunk softly back into his seat. Smiling to himself from what I could make out. No more than a second passed before hauntingly familiar riffs began to pool into the car. Floating between the two of us as I tapped the beat on the wheel, my thumbs having a memory of their own. Something inside me had begun to stir as I smiled to myself and slowly rolled to a stop sign just as Ryan Key's voice filled the air.

And almost as quick as that smile came, it faded as fast as that car could go, replaced with a splitting headache that had me pressing down on the breaks for dear life as a memory sucked me in at what couldn't have been a worse possible time.

"TRAVEL BACK IN TIME WITH YOU, TO WHERE THIS ALL BEGAN!" I screamed, the lyrics of Yellowcard's brand new album flowing from the speakers and through my long, wind-tangled hair as I ripped it from the stop sign and down the backroads of my town.

Laughing loudly at the sensation of the engines power and the freedom flowing through my veins, I looked over at Alex as he clung to the window frame of my car for dear life, trying his hardest to smile through his fear.

"Oh, loosen up ya tightwad!" I laughed, daring to take my hand off the transmission to poke my dear friend on the cheek which nearly caused an audible shriek to rip from his pinched lips. "I passed my driving test with flying colors!"

"Yeah, and the colors of my stomach's contents are about to go flying out your window!" He all but whined as I reluctantly slowed to a halt at the next stop sign and smiled at him almost too calmly.

"If you throw up on my car, I will murder you in your sleep and make it look like an accident." I said softly, daring my grin to widen more than it already had. Since to widen as large as Alex's eyes had grown in that instant would be humanly impossible for even a clown.

"You're absolutely crazy!" He managed to laugh, knowing all too well my threat held no validity as I pulled from the corner and managed to control my lead foot from gassing it down yet another street. "I can't believe your dad actually let you drive this thing!"

"Own it." I corrected. "As of tomorrow morning, the title to this beauty will be in my name and no one – not even you Gaskarth will be allowed behind its wheel."

"You're not going to let me drive it?" He proclaimed, sitting forward now on the still glossy leather seats, getting comfortable inside the steel frame slowly but surely.

"Not a snowflakes chance in Hell, kiddo!" I laughed almost maniacally. Pulling down my favorite dirt road which skirted the most perfect large field I often fund myself whenever I got stuck in my ways. Finally taking off down it like I'd been dreaming about since me and my dad had started to rebuild this thing from rust to the glory it now was.

"Well if I can't take it anywhere, where are you going too?" Alex challenged, throwing his elbow onto the small center console nestled between us.

"Wherever the road takes me, my dear boy," I practically sang, barreling down the empty road as I smiled up at my rearview mirror. Watching in awe and amazement as the dust and gravel kicked up into a dust storm behind me. "And you're coming with me."

"Oh, is that so?" He laughed now, nudging my arm ever so slightly as I giggled back at him, only trying for a second to purse my lips at my pal and nod.

"Who else would I trust to be responsible for my life now that I can operate a vehicle of this caliber?" I asked, cocking a brow at the road before me as its end came into sight and I eased my foot off the gas with heavy reluctance. "You've been keeping me in line for almost three years now, and I think that if anyone in this state can come close to handling me it's going to be you!"

"I sure as Hell can't handle you Dee." He said matter-of-factly as he shook his head, which of course I laughed at with pure amusement dripping from the sound.

"Well no shit Sherlock, no one can!" I snickered, "I said if there was anyone close to being able to, it'd be you!"

He smiled at me when as I glanced over, rolling to a stop at the line in time to see the biggest grin spreading on his still chapped lips. Eyes glistening with delight as he stared at my careless beam and wind-whipped hair. Not a care in the world between us as we sat on the corner of Gibbons and Fountain street just smiling at one another in a blend of Yellowcard lyrics and the fresh spring breeze.

"So where are we off to now?" He asked, never letting his eyes waver from mine as my wide grin only grew at his daring inquiry.

"Honey Bee's" I stated with certainty and a brief nod. "I'm in the mood for a cherry coke!"

"Aren't you always?" He all but cackled looking at me with a look I could only describe as astonishment. Well, that's at least what I chose to describe it as most might have chosen 'disgust' as a better fitting term. But I'm not most people.

So, I shot him my biggest grin before turning forward and readjusting in my seat. "Exactly!"

"Kennedy?" Alex's voice called me back from my thoughts as I blinked violently and came too. "You've been sitting at this sign for almost ten minutes now, I'm shocked no one's come up behind you, what's going on?"

"I- I don't know..." I managed to stutter out and looked down at the display on the cassette player and saw 'TRACK 9' click to 'TRACK 10' and heard their song Inside Out start to play. I couldn't think of anything to say for a second as my hand traveled to my growling stomach and I looked at Alex with the utmost look of confusion adorning my face. Cocking my head, stumped by myself I said, "But I think I'm having a craving for a cherry coke."

His head dropped after that remark, inner corners twitching ever so slightly as I watched the tanned boy closely. "Aren't you always?" He couldn't seem to help himself from asking aloud. Smiling softly down on his lap I took in the joy on his lips and the subtle pain in his eyes before turning back to the front and placing my hand on the wheel.

"Exactly..." I muttered, pulling out onto the main road and going in whichever direction it took me.

Notes