StingRay Moments

It was dark and dreary, not exactly the type of thing that comes to mind when thinking of a town this deep in the British Columbia Interior. The multi-hued leaves drifted to the walkway, crunching under foot before flying onto the paved surface of the parking lot. Storm clouds overhead threatened another rainfall that added to the foreboding feeling Allisyn Chadrick has as her hand landed on the doorknob. 1

She glanced up at the homemade wooden Lawyer sign that hung in the window, looking for some reason to stall so she didn’t have to enter the office. Inhaling deeply, she turned the knob, and sighed to herself as she heard the voice of her ex husband coming from inside. 2

Not allowing her sudden unexpected nervousness to stop her, she swung the door open, nodding curtly at the four heads that turned to look at her. She could tell by the look on three of the faces that she was not who they were expecting. 3

"What are you doing here?" her ex-husband asked. 4

Allisyn ignored him as she took the empty seat by her former brother in law, then nodded to the Lawyer. "Sorry I’m late, the storms are fairly bad on the Coke," she said, referring to the Coquihalla Toll Highway that lead in from the British Columbia coast. 5

Adam "Call me Chad" Chadrick didn’t bother to hide the glare he was bestowing on his ex-wife. After twenty some years of marriage, and a rather nasty divorce, he thought he was through with that part of his life. And yet here she was, at the reading of the will of his great-uncle. He glanced at his brother and sister, and knew they felt the same way he did. 6

"Everyone is here," Mr. Basner, the Lawyer said as he sat behind his old worn desk, and started reading the will. 7

~~~~~~~~ 8

Chad’s siblings, Karen and Marcus, whispered among themselves as Allisyn signed the papers to acknowledge her inheritance. They were upset that someone no longer a part of the family should be receiving anything, and turned on her as soon as they all stepped out of the Lawyers office. 9

Karen stood on the sidewalk that ran the length of the strip mall that housed the office, and glared at her onetime sister-in-law. 10

"Why do you get anything?" she demanded. "You’re not even part of the family." 11

Allisyn smiled slightly. She had thought about this moment the entire drive up from the coast, and somehow knew this was what Karen would say. "I guess I was in the will because I was nicer to him than any of you were." 12

Marcus gave her an incredibly snobby look, then turned and walked the short distance to his car. Karen followed, muttering curses that Allisyn could barely make out. 13

Allisyn turned to walk to her car, stopping short as she saw Chad staring at her. "They’re right," he said. 14

"You don’t have to be related to someone to get placed in their will, you know," Allisyn sighed in an exasperated voice. "If the three of you weren’t so full of yourselves, then you would know that." 15

"Whatever." 16

"Snappy comeback," she replied. "I would love to stay and continue this fascinating conversation, but I want to get on the road before it starts to storm again." 17

Chad smiled slightly and walked away to the area of the parking lot where he had parked his Bentley. He always parked well away from other cars so as not to get scratches, and as he walked to the back area of the lot, he slowed when another car caught his eye. 18

He gaped in shock at the sight of the one thing Allisyn had fought adamantly for in the divorce, a 1966 Corvette Convertible StingRay. A car that used to belong to Chad, a car that he had treated like a baby. And here it was, parked in a normal stall, surrounded by other cars. 19

"Problems?" Allisyn asked as she walked up to the driver’s side doors and slipped the key into the lock. 20

"This car," he started, barely trying to hide the anger in his voice, " is never to be parked where it can be damaged." 21

"My car," Allisyn replied, "is parked wherever I decide." 22

"It’s a classic, and should be parked with care, just like my car." Chad blindly motioned to the back of the parking lot. 23

"You mean in the back, by the no parking signs?" she asked innocently as she opened the door and got in. 24

Chad stared at her as the door closed, then quickly turned as what she had said registered. He saw the No Parking signs at the back of the lot, complete with empty stalls in front of each one. 25

He stormed to the spot where his Bentley had been, and glared up at the sign. He grabbed his cellular phone from his pocket, and called the number on the sign. Imputing his license plate number at the mechanical prompt, confirmed that his car had been towed, and he discovered that he has less than ten minutes to get to the impound lot before they close. 26

Since he also traveled from the British Columbia coast, he had no intention of leaving his car behind. 27

Allisyn drove up and tried to hide a smile. "Need a lift?" 28

"No thanks," he said. "I’m going to call a cab." 29

"Fine," she said. "I passed that impound lot on my way in, and it’s only a couple clicks from here." 30

Chad held up his hand as he ordered the taxi, then turned off his phone in annoyance. "Fine," he said. "Taxi’ll take too long to get here anyway." He walked to the passenger side and climbed in. 31

They drove in silence, each one not wanting to engage the other in what would most likely turn into another argument. Chad jumped out of the car when they got to the lot, and went to the door, slightly banging into it when it didn’t open. He stood back and stared at a small sign in the window. 32

"Closed." Chad turned and glared at his ex-wife. "They’re closed. Thanks for taking your sweet assed time." 33

"I’m not the one who parked in a No Parking zone," she said as she pulled out her own cellular phone and called the number under the company sign on the door. Trying to listen over Chad’s ranting, Allisyn finally gave up and climbed out of the car to shove her phone at Chad. 34

Chad listened for a moment, then shoved the phone back at her. "Okay, so they close early on Saturdays." He stormed back to the passenger side and climbed in. "Gimme a lift to the hotel I stayed at last night." 35

Half tempted to leave him here, Allisyn stared at her ex for a few moments. "Where is it?" she finally asked. 36

~~~~~~~~~~ 37

Chad sighed in annoyance again as the car crept along slowly. The exhaust from the truck in front had already prompted Allisyn to put the top up on the StingRay, and that only enhanced the feelings of confinement both seemed to be experiencing. 38

Allisyn glanced over as yet another sigh sounded beside her. "Would you stop that," she demanded lightly. "It’s a traffic jam, or accident, or something, and the only thing your sighing is going to accomplish is pissing me off." She turned away from him, and quickly jabbed at the automatic window opener as she spotted a police officer walking the length of the vehicles in front. 39

"Excuse me?" she called out. "What’s going on?" 40

The police officer stopped and looked at her. "The bridge ahead is open only to alternating traffic." 41

"Why?" 42

"The storms in the mountains have raised the water to dangerous levels," he explained. "We lost this portion of a road about fifteen years ago, and had to put a bridge over it. We nearly lost another bridge in town from the debris coming down, so we prefer to play it safe." 43

"How long of a wait is it going to be?" 44

"Anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. There aren’t that many cars coming from the other side, so it could be shorter." He nodded to her and continued his walk past the line of cars growing behind them. 45

"Might as well wait," Chad said. 46

"Yeah," she sighed as she stared out the window at the scenery below. Through the trees, she could see parts of the river winding down the side of the mountain, and it did indeed look swollen and dangerous. She laughed to herself as she remembered once rafting it. 47

Chad seemed to be thinking the same thing as he looked out the front window at the river in the distance. "Didn’t we meet on that river?" 48

"Rafting," Allisyn said with a nod. "Although I don’t remember it looking so…foreboding." 49

Chad laughed lightly. "Yeah. Those were good times," he said softly. "Remember the time we went to Nanaimo?" 50

"How could I forget?" Allisyn laughed. "Bungy-jumping was one of the more stupid things I let you talk me into." 51

"Yeah…you hated so much that you jumped three times that day." 52

They both jumped, startled as a cellular phone rings, and Allisyn picks hers up to answer. "Hello?" She smiled as the voice on the other end. "Stuck in traffic, actually…yeah, in the middle of nowhere." She opened the car door and got out, leaning against the car as she continued to talk. 53

Chad slowly rolled his window down slightly to hear better and frowned as he realized she was talking to a guy. He heard the name Carlos, and knew that this was the ‘up-and-coming Corporate Lawyer’ that he had heard so much about though a few of their mutual friends. His jealousy mounted as Allisyn giggled in reply to something, and lowered her voice to sultry levels. 54

Chad rolled the window up quickly as the driver’s door opened, and glared at his ex-wife as she climbed in. "Didn’t take you too long to move on and find someone, did it," he demanded in a hurt voice. 55

Allisyn stared at him, her mouth slightly open in astonishment. "So says he who is living with his trophy fiancée," she finally managed to say. 56

"Krissi has nothing to do with this," Chad retorted as the car moved ahead slowly. 57

Thunder rumbled in the distance as small drops of water peppered the windshield, the expected oncoming storm adding its humidity to the thick annoyance that was quickly filling the car. 58

Allisyn looked as Chad’s cellular phone rang. "Your turn," she said in an artificially sweet voice. 59

Chad shot her a dirty look as he pushed a button on his phone. "Chad Chadrick," he said. "Hey, sweetie…stuck in traffic…no idea…" He listened as the other person spoke. "Of course I miss you, baby…" 60

Allisyn rolled her eyes and turned to look out the window. She tried to concentrate on the valley below, willing the all too loud giggling coming from the other end of the phone to disappear with the water in the raging river. 61

Idiot she thought. At least I got out of the car to talk. She smiled at her reflection in the window as she watched the water below, and thought about her boyfriend. She had met Carlos a few months previous in downtown Vancouver when he had ‘stolen’ her parking spot. Angry, she confronted him, and he apologized, offered to buy her a coffee, and smiled at the look on her face. 62

Not knowing why, she accepted the offer from this good looking stranger, and through their subsequent ‘coffee’, learned that he was a lawyer for a Vancouver based business. She thought she had seen the last of him after they had finished, and was completely surprised to meet him a few nights later at a dinner party thrown by mutual friends. He asked her out, she accepted, and they became nearly inseparable. The fact that he was, at thirty, nearly ten years younger than her didn’t bother either of them, and some small ego-based part of her loved the fact that she could still attract a man with dark brown hair, smoldering bedroom eyes, and a sculpted physique. 63

She jumped slightly as a horn sounded somewhere behind her, and waved at the rear window as she drove the car a few spaces to catch up with the rest of the traffic. She noticed that there had been hardly any cars coming from the opposite direction lately, and hoped that meant they would soon get across the bridge. She didn’t mind the possibility of waiting to get back across after she dropped her ex off, since she wouldn’t have him yammering on beside her, nearly having phone sex with Krissi. 64

Finally having enough of Chad’s inconsiderate baby talk with his blonde, cosmetically enhanced ‘artistic dancer’ girlfriend, Allisyn reached out and turned the radio on. She scanned through the stations until she came to a particularly annoying song, and then turned the volume up. She glanced at Chad as she moved the car ahead with the rest of the traffic, and smiled at the look on his face. 65

"I’ll call you back later," he said to Krissi. "Love you, pookie." He clicked the phone off, then glared at Allisyn. "That was rude." 66

Allisyn ignored him as she drove a little further on the road as he continued to complain about her turning the radio up. She glanced up to the sky when lightening cracked and rain splashed against the windshield. Reaching out to turn the radio back down to tolerable levels, she finally looked at him again. "Will you shut up?" she asked. 67

He glared again, then turned away to watch the rain stream down the side of the window. After a few minutes of pouting, he turned back. "This reminds me of Hawaii." 68

"Really?" she asked. "Which time?" 69

"Yeah. On our fifteenth anniversary." 70

"Yeah," she agreed as she remembered. "The big storm we watched from the balcony." She smiled. "I still have some of the pictures we took of the lightening flashing over the ocean." 71

"The storm in Sydney was a big one, too." 72

Allisyn laughed. "That was a big one. A big, scary one," she said, referring to the time they had traveled to Australia, and had been caught in one of the biggest storms they had ever seen. 73

"Sort of like the one in Miami," Chad said with a smile. "The time we went to the business conference." 74

Allisyn stopped laughing, and absently followed the traffic ahead of her. She turned to him after she had stopped. "I’ve never been to Miami." 75

Chad looked away quickly when he realized that he mistook her for one of his business trip ‘associates’. There had been so many during the last few years of their marriage that he wasn’t really surprised that he mixed someone up with her. He had worked hard to get his business off the ground, and although Allisyn worked equally hard, it was his name and reputation on the line. He felt he earned the right to relax when he could, and enjoy the fruits of his labor when possible. 76

Sure, he knew he was playing a dangerous game with his string of ‘associates’, but since his company flourished after being placed on the internet, he had more money to take more trips. Small trinkets and jewelry were surprisingly in demand, and he was more than willing to travel to trade shows to garner more customers, and bring in more money. Eventually, Allisyn had had enough of her husband’s philandering ways, and had hired a rather good lawyer to take most of the things that Chad had put his money toward. 77

He happily gave her the house in North Vancouver, the cottage on Vancouver Island, and many other things, including a rather hefty bulk monetary settlement, followed by a monthly ‘paying off her credit cards’ order. The one thing he was adamant about giving up, and the one thing she was adamant about getting, was the 1966 Corvette Convertible StingRay. It had been Chad’s dream car, the one he bought during the first few years of their marriage when money was the tightest. Allisyn had been angry that he wasted money on it, and decided that she wanted the vehicle to show him that she was not one to be trifled with…not any more. 78

He had to admit that his ex-wife seemed to have an inner strength that she had not had before, and that possibly her being single was responsibly for the new found belief in herself. He glanced up from his thoughts when he noticed the car moving again. He could see the bridge from where they sat, and as he watched, it grew increasingly closer. 79

Within a few minutes, it was their turn to cross the bridge. Allisyn drove over it slowly, fighting the urge to look over the side to the swollen river below. She thought about how the river echoed the relationship that had been founded upon it. It could be gentle and calm, only to turn raging and tumultuous in an instant. All too soon, she crossed the span, and slowly sped up as she rounded the bend in the road that lead to the hotel. 80

~~~~~~~~~~ 81

Chad’s hand paused on the door handle as he went to open it, and he turned to look at the other occupant. "I actually had a half decent time," he said. "Thank for the lift." He opened the door, stepped out into the drizzle and hurried to the front door of the hotel. 82

Allisyn smiled slightly as she watches him walk into the hotel, then drove away, finally starting to relax for the first times since she walked into the lawyer’s office. She stopped at the end of the winding driveway, and looked back at the hotel in the rear view mirror. Backing up slowly, she turned the car around and drove back up to the hotel. 83

She parked the car, got out, and entered the lobby. She walked across the deep blue carpet to the lavish front desk. 84

"May I help you?" the uniformed woman behind the long scrolled wooden counter asked pleasantly. 85

"Do you have any rooms for tonight?" 86

The woman took a look on the hotel computer, then smiled at Allisyn. "Yes, ma’am. We have one room left. Non-smoking, king size bed, hot tub on the patio." 87

"Sounds perfect," Allisyn replied as she took her credit card out of her wallet. "I’ll take it." While waiting for the room, she grabbed her cellular phone and punched at the redial. 88

"Hi," she said when a warm male voice answered. "I have a proposition for you…why don’t you drop what you’re doing, and drive to the interior to meet me?" she said to Carlos. "I booked the last room in a great hotel…" 89

The End90