The Black Cadillac

by Ryan P. Ruiz

  “Good night, Mommy! I love you!” said Olive.

  “Good night, sweetheart! I love you too, bug! Tell your brother good-night and I love him too,” she said, putting down her book.

  “I will, Mommy,” said Olive.

  Cody called his sister, “Olive, your bathwater is ready!”

  Olive jetted into the bathroom, threw off her pajamas, and jumped into the tub. Cody turned away as a huge splash full of bubbles scattered across the bathroom floor.

  He grabbed the shampoo and squeezed a dollop onto his hand. He started washing his sister’s hair with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

  “I wonder why Mom is so tired. It’s early for her to go in her room already, isn’t it?” she asked.

  “Because she works really hard to support us, and her work is super busy at this time of the month,” Cody replied.

  “Oh well, that makes sense,” she said, even though she looked a little confused.

  Cody changed the subject.

  “So how was school today? Did you learn anything fun?” asked Cody.

  “Kind of. We are learning about presidents. Also, I’m making something cool in art class for Mommy,” she said with excitement.

  “That’s great! Who is your favorite president?” asked Cody.

  “Um, I like the guy on the dollar bill,” she replied.

  “Oh okay, George Washington. Good choice,” said Cody. “What kind of art project are you making for Mom?” he asked.

  “Something really cool that she will like. It’s a surprise. Next week, I’m going to start making something for your birthday too,” said Olive, smiling.

  “Oh, wow. My birthday isn’t for a couple of months, though,” said Cody.

  “Well, I’m starting on it soon.” replied Olive.

  Cody changed the subject. “Olive, do you know what to do if a stranger were to try and talk to you?” he asked.

  “Yeah, dum-dum. I am supposed to say no. Everyone knows that,” she replied, looking like a white-bearded little girl with bubbles all over her face. Olive loved her bubbles.

  “Okay, good—but especially if someone were to offer you a ride in their car, okay?” he said.

  “Yeah, I got it,” she replied back.

  “Don’t ever, ever get into a stranger’s vehicle, okay?” Cody told his sister.

  “Okay, okay,” replied Olive.

  “You know I will never let anyone ever hurt you, don’t you?” he added.

  “Yes, I know. You’re my big brother!” she jokingly said.

  Cody finished rinsing his sister’s hair with a cup.

  “That’s right. Now dry yourself off, brush your teeth, and I’ll meet you in your room to read you a story,” he said.

  Cody left the bathroom and went into Olive’s bedroom.

  Cody sat on the wooden rocking chair in the corner. His sister’s room was pretty girly for an eight-year-old. Olive loved unicorns, so there was a unicorn of some sort in practically every corner of the room. The room was small with pink and white paint on each wall. He had painted a unicorn on her wall above her bed when she first got a big-girl bed. It was hot pink with a silvery mane and golden horn. Olive loved that he did that for her. It was her favorite unicorn of all, and her brother had made it just for her.

  Olive, all dressed in her pajamas, pounced into her room and onto her bed. Then she quickly hopped back out and went straight for her small bookcase. She pulled out The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss off the top shelf and handed it to her big brother.

  “Here you go, brother!” she said excitedly.

  “Great choice. This is one of my favorites,” Cody replied.

  His sister hopped back in to bed and pulled the covers up to her chin getting comfortable for the story. She was excited and sleepy at the same time as she waited for her brother to begin reading.

  “Thank you, brother.” she squealed.

  “You’re welcome, sis.” Cody responded.

  By the time Thing One and Thing Two were ready to clean the house up, Olive was fast asleep. Cody kissed his sister good-night, flipped on her unicorn night-light, and quietly closed the door as he left.

  Cody grabbed a towel from the closet and headed for a much needed shower.

  CHAPTER IV

  Lying in Bed

  It was going on 9:00 p.m., and Cody couldn’t even think about today’s homework. He scampered to his room and sat right back down at his desk.

  The notes he had taken earlier were still sitting there, waiting to be further analyzed. He had almost forgotten that Zach hadn’t called yet. Cody tore off the first page of his sketchbook with the notes on it and put it to the side.

  The memory of today’s morning would be etched into Cody’s head for the rest of his life. But that couldn’t be the end of it, could it? There was a reason he had asked Olive that question in the bathroom.

  He began to wonder. What if it had been Olive in his shoes earlier this morning? What if the obviously sick man had jumped out of the car and tried to grab her after she said no and started running? What other kids were out there that this had been done to? Had any of those kids ever gotten in the vehicle?

  The more questions he asked himself, the angrier he got. The pencil he had been holding was indented so far in the page of the sketchbook, a hole was being made on the top page.

  He pulled the tip of the pencil out of the page and began drawing. With each stroke, vertical and horizontal lines were flowing on the page. Cody knew exactly what was being drawn. It was the mysterious black car. He sketched, erased, and shaded.

  In just one hour, there was a fully drawn sketch of what Cody believed the car looked like. With as many details as he could remember, the nine-by-twelve pad had a drawing on it resembling a boxy and long car.

  When he was finished, Cody gently smiled, set his pencil down, and lay down on his bed with the clothes he wore to school that day still on. He was exhausted.

  That night, he didn’t sleep that well. Cody woke up several times and eventually changed into clothes more suitable for bed. When he finally did drift off to sleep again, weird dreams circled his brain.

  He was right back on the sidewalk where the car had pulled up on his street. This time, when the man asked the question, Cody went to the passenger door and opened it. Olive was in the front seat, telling him that it was okay. He tried to pull his sister out of the car, but the door shut and the car drove off. He chased after the car as fast as he could and eventually lost sight of it.

  Another dream had him on the other side of the street, watching the black vehicle pull up to another kid younger than Olive. The kid got in the car, and it drove off. Cody tried to yell at the kid, but nothing came out of his mouth.

  The final dream that stood out had the black car in an unfamiliar driveway. As if he were floating through the air, Cody entered the house where the black car was parked. He went from room to room in the dark, creepy house and found the same thing over and over. It was completely empty. The dream ended with a door where light was coming from underneath. It was the basement door. As soon as he opened it, the dream was over, and he woke up dripping in sweat.

  CHAPTER V

  The Plan of Attack

  The next morning, Cody awoke to his mother at his door.

  “Are you up? You’re going to be late for school, and Zach’s here,” she lightly shouted.

  “Zach’s here?” he quickly thought aloud. “That’s right, Zach never called me last night, but why is he here?” he continued to think.

  “Tell him I’ll be right down, Mom,” Cody said while stretching out his arms.

  Cody rushed out of bed; went to his disorganized closet; grabbed a flannel shirt, jeans, and some socks; and put everything on. He hurried to the bathroom, rinsed his face with ice-cold water, and brushed hi
s teeth.

  He went back to his room, picked his book bag up off his desk, and raced downstairs where Zach was patiently waiting on the living room couch.

  “What’s up, bud? I never heard from you last night,” Cody said.

  “Yeah, I know. Sorry, dude. My mom had me do something that took forever,” replied Zach.

  Cody’s mother yelled from the kitchen, “Zach, honey, are you hungry? I made a bagel with cream cheese for Cody—would you like one?” she said.

  “No thanks, Ms. Roberts. We have to get going anyways,” Zach shouted back.

  Cody and Zach threw on their jackets, shoes, and hats and scuttled out the door. Georgiana handed the bagel to Cody in a napkin. Although it was still cold, it was a little warmer than yesterday, and the wind was hardly blowing. As the two went down the driveway, an uncomfortable feeling ran into Cody’s stomach. They were headed the same way Cody went the day before.

  “So why did you come to my house? School is just a block away for you,” Cody politely asked.

  “I felt bad about last night and wanted to make sure you didn’t have to walk alone today. It’s what best friends do. Besides, I want to talk more about what happened to you, if you don’t mind?” Zach replied.

  Though still shaken from the incident and nightmares, Cody appreciated his friend’s gesture and actually wanted to talk more about it.

  Zach fired off all types of questions like “What kind of car do you think it was?” “Did you write down the plates?” “Was the guy young or old?”

  As he answered Zach’s questions as best he could, Cody began to see a bigger picture. He saw how animated his friend was about the whole thing and then stopped walking.

  “It happened right here, Zach,” said Cody.

  “Wow, right here? In broad daylight? This guy has some balls,” Zach said toughly.

  “Yeah, right here, and if I had gotten in with him, you probably would never see me again,” Cody replied.

  The boys kept walking.

  Cody continued, “Zach, let me ask you something. If I asked you to do something completely crazy, would you do it?”

  “Depends on what it was, but most likely yes,” Zach replied.

  “Good, that’s what I thought,” said Cody.

  “Dude, if I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t have woken up super early so I could be at your house to walk to school with you. I’ve known you since kindergarten, man. We are like brothers,” Zach added.

  “I know. Please keep this a secret like I asked, and let’s meet up after school. I have an idea,” Cody explained.

  “Okay, what is it?” asked Zach.

  “We will talk after school, buddy,” replied Cody.

  The two were almost at school. They walked into the main building.

  The bell rang, and the kids both entered first period together. With the exception of lunch, the two only had one class together, and it was first-period homeroom.

  The day flew by, and classes kept Cody occupied. Although he hated reading, he was actually enjoying The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. His brain was occupied for the time being, but other thoughts and ideas were also forming on the other side of it. By the school day’s end, Cody had thought of a risky, but important, plan. He couldn’t wait to share it with Zach but was also worried he wouldn’t understand.

  The two friends met up after school and walked all the way to Cody’s house. On the walk home, they talked about a lot of things, but nothing had to do with Cody’s idea. Cody and Zach arrived at the house and walked through the front door.

  He waited till they got to his house and upstairs in his room to tell Zach.

  Before Cody could blurt out the idea, a knock on the bedroom door was heard. They both knew who it was—Olive.

  “Sorry, Olive, Zach and I have a big homework assignment we need to work on. I’ll play with you later. I love you, though!” Cody yelled at the door.

  “Okay, love you too,” the little girl’s voice squeaked.

  When he knew she had left the hallway, Cody started talking, “Okay, Zach…”

  Before he could say anything else, Zach said, “Dude, I know what you want to do. I’m pretty sure I know what your plan is.”

  “You do?” Cody sounded surprised.

  “Yeah, dude. I’m all for it. Let’s find the man in the black car,” Zach replied.

  “Wow, man, how did you know?” said Cody.

  Zach set his book bag on the floor and looked at Cody’s desk. “I just saw how much it affected you yesterday. Is this the car?” Zach was holding up the drawing Cody did last night.

  “Yes, but I’m not sure. It’s just everything I can remember. It all happened so fast,” said Cody.

  “It’s okay, buddy. It’s a start,” Zach replied. “So how are we going to do this? I mean, we are twelve years old, we don’t have any clue how to go about this, do we? And what are we going to do once we find the car?”

  “I know, I know. If we are going to do this, we need to be smart. We need to put in the time and effort on top of our schoolwork. I understand if you don’t want to do this,” Cody explained.

  “I’m in, dude,” Zach replied.

  The boys continued to devise a plan. Both Cody and Zach were smarter than they appeared. Even though Zach was considered a jock and class clown at school, he could always think of ideas.

  The first step was simple. The boys needed to find out if the man in the black car lived in Tippwood. They made a map of the city and drew a radius from where the vehicle pulled over. On foot or with their bicycles, they both covered zoned areas and would take notes of any vehicle that even remotely resembled Cody’s drawing. With Cody’s new camera, which he received for Christmas, they would secretly snap pictures of every car and license plate. They knew they had to be careful doing so. Step one of their plan was in place.

  Over the next few days, with the weather decent, they rode their bikes together to different parts of the city after school. On a few occasions, Cody thought he saw the vehicle, but it never was the exact same car he saw.

  In their first few days, the two of them took just three photos. They jotted down three license plates as well. Not knowing what the make of the car was made it very difficult. Together, they had covered just about a third of the city that had a population of sixty thousand people.

  The searching became a wild goose chase. It really didn’t seem like they were going to find the car or the man. On one occasion, they thought they were getting close and actually found the car.

  On Tuesday, the boys rode to a neighborhood just south of the church in their continuing coverage of the area. The boys found something.

  While riding their bikes down Roosevelt Avenue, the boys noticed a black car in a driveway. Cody believed that the car on Roosevelt was the exact car. The boys stopped on the sidewalk across the street from the house.

  “Zach, that might be the car.” said Cody.

  “Are you sure?” asked his friend.

  “No. Not at all, it just looks like the closest thing to my drawing and what I remember.” said Cody.

  “Ok, what do we do now?” Zach asked.

  “I don’t know. Let’s write down this address and come back tomorrow. We need to think of something to say if we knock on the door. We need to find out who lives there.” explained Cody.

  “Ok, let’s come back tomorrow after school. I will think of something.” replied Zach as he wrote down the address and license plate number.

  The boys turned around and headed back up the street. As they were leaving, a curtain moved in the front window of the house. The boys failed to see it.

  The next day, school went by fast and the two friends met up at Cody’s house after.

  “Ok, ready to go?” asked Zach, walking up the driveway to meet his
friend in the back yard.

  “Yep. Let’s go.” replied Cody. “I came up with something that might work.”

  The boys headed down the driveway and towards the sidewalk.

  “What is it?” asked Zach.

  “I’ll show you when we get there.” said Cody.

  It took about ten minutes to get to Roosevelt and to the boys’ surprise; the black, long car was waiting in the driveway. The two stopped on the other side of the street.

  “Ok, here’s my plan.” Cody said reaching in to his draw string bag. “We are going to act like we are selling candy for a fundraiser for school.”

  He pulled out a box of candy from the bag.

  “Ok, that will work.” responded Zach.

  “It’s the best I could come up with.” said Cody.

  Cody and Zach turned towards the house and started walking. The house was cottage-like with a long driveway. It looked like a normal house and it had two big windows with curtains on each side. The partial brick front went up past the front green door to the awning. The boys approached the house.

  “Do you want me to do the talking?” asked Zach.

  “Sure, I’m going to try to keep my head down a little in case I recognize the person.” said Cody.

  Cody pulled his baseball cap down so his eyes were well underneath the brim. Zach reached for the faded doorbell with chipped green paint surrounding it. Before he could fully press it in, the front door swung open. An old lady was standing right in front of them.

  “Can I help you two?” she said in a raspy voice.

  “Um, we are from Franklin Middle School and we are selling candy for a fundraiser.” blurted out Zach. “I’m Zach and this is Cody.”

  Cody put his head up and motioned a small wave.

  “Oh, well I’m not interested in your candy.” the old lady said.

  The old lady looked at Zach and Cody, and then spoke again.