Page 13 of Your Carriage Awaits in Crumbleton
Giving up on trying to get her hair to behave, Michelle started to rummage in her pockets until she came up trumps with one of her ever-present hair bobbles. Perhaps a perky ponytail would help her look cute instead of catastrophic. It’d be nice if Danny’s second impression of her wasn’tquiteas bad as his first…notthat Michelle cared what Danny Dalton thought.
At all!
After hauling her wayward hair into the bobble, Michelle did her best to brush herself down. Unfortunately, it did nothing to fix the fact that mud splatters dotted her denim-clad legs from ankles to knees.
Ah well, there wasn’t any point worrying about it now, was there?! She didn’t care what Danny Dalton thought…
‘Except, you clearly do!’ she muttered, straightening up. Why else would she have thought the exact same thing twice in as many seconds?!
Michelle was just trying to summon the courage to head across the forecourt in search of her car and the aforementioned bad boy, when a barking blur pelted around the corner, heading straight for her.
If she hadn’t met Elvis just yesterday, she might have been concerned. Instead, Michelle’s face broke into the first proper smile of the morning - a smile that dissolved into laughter as the dog barrelled into her shins. Elvis promptly threw himself onto his back and started to wriggle around, clearly begging for a belly rub.
‘Morning, you crazy old sausage!’ she chuckled, bending low to give him a tickle.
Elvis closed his eyes, revelling in a long, blissed-out sigh before bouncing back to his feet to run rings around her.
‘You’re a rubbish guard dog,’ laughed Michelle, watching as his tail wagged nineteen-to-the-dozen. He let out a littlewoofof agreement. ‘Come on then, let’s go find your dad.’
The word “dad” instantly made Michelle think of the feud between her own dad and Keith Dalton again. Blimey, she hoped she wouldn’t run into Mr Dalton! She’d never actually spoken to the guy, and she didn’t particularly want to start now.
A tug on her trouser leg made Michelle glance down, and her frown turned back into a grin. Elvis had a mouthful of her jeans, and he was clearly intent on taking her for a walk.
‘Sorry boy, I’m coming… just do me a favour and guard me from Grandpa Dalton if he turns up, okay?’
Elvis let go of her, wagged furiously, and hurtled off across the forecourt. With a quick glance at the bike, Michelle followed the bouncing dog. She didn’t get very far before her eyes were drawn to an abandoned showroom off to one side. She wondered if that was the spot Elvis had taken shelter in when he’d first turned up.
A strange tingle ran down her spine, and she came to a complete stop, staring at the empty space. The large windows were grimy, and weeds had sprouted through the surrounding concrete. Swathes of scruffy dandelions bobbed in front of the boarded-up entrance. Something about it was making Michelle’s heart hammer.
It felt… familiar somehow. Not that she’d ever been here before. This felt more like…
‘Love at first sight?’ she muttered, before quickly shaking her head. Maybe that bike ride had addled her brain! Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was looking at a blank canvas and she knew exactly what she wanted to paint on it.
An excitable bark broke the spell and Michelle turned, only to find Elvis waiting for her.
‘Sorry boy, I’m coming!’
The dog waited until he was sure she was following, before trotting on, clearly on a mission.
Less than a minute later, Michelle found herself staring through the open doors of the garage. There, right in the middle of the floor, was her car, with a pair of ancient, oil-stained work boots sticking out from beneath it. The faint, mumbling croon of a country song being mistreated drifted up to greet her.
With any luck, that was Danny under there… though she couldn’t be certain. Either way, Michelle wasn’t sure what to do next. The last thing she wanted to do was make the owner of the feet jump and clonk his head on her exhaust pipe!
She glanced around, looking for a solution, but two seconds later, she was saved from having to figure it out when the “singing” stopped abruptly.
‘Hello?’
Michelle let out a sigh of relief. Yep, that was Danny Dalton under there alright!
‘Hey, it’s me… erm… Michelle?’
‘Oh, hey! Give me just a sec…’
The feet scrambled about for a moment, and she wondered if Danny was trying to catch a glimpse of her.
‘Good news,’ he grunted, sounding slightly out of breath. ‘I managed to get it going.’
Shuffle, wriggle, shuffle.
