Just Lost Control

Gwen walked slowly towards Kevin’s house, staring at her shoes and the stone she kicked along as she walked. As she neared the house she looked up and let out a sigh. The past few nights the garage had been dark, but tonight the light shone out through the rolled up door. Gwen smiled thinly, but paused before she stepped towards the light where she might be seen. Of course, Kevin was likely to have his head under his car and probably wouldn’t see her immediately.

Still, Gwen hung back. It had been almost a week since she’d last seen Kevin in person. Her eyes wandered up towards the rest of the house. Usually at this time of night there’d be other lights on. In the kitchen, or Kevin’s mother’s bedroom. But the rest of the house was pitch black.

Gwen could still remember the phone call. She’d shouted at Kevin, telling him to get down town if he wanted to help take down this alien before it took out Ben, or took off and they had to chase it.

“I can’t come,” he’d replied. His voice had been quiet, compared to her ranting.

“Kevin! It can wait; we need you…” She’d waited, almost shouted again before he finally replied.

“Mom was in a car accident.”

Gwen had paused, almost forgetting the battle raging about her, not hearing Ben’s roars as Humongosaur.

“I have to make arrangements…”

“… sure,” she’d stuttered, stunned, “if you have to go to the hospital…”

“… for the funeral, Gwen.” Then he’d hung up.

She and Ben had gone to the funeral. Kevin was obviously upset, but still managed to hold himself together. He’d been a little standoffish, so Gwen had let him be. She assumed that he would speak to her when he was ready. But after the funeral neither she nor Ben had seen much of him. At first they’d thought he’d taken off, except they soon saw his car about, a few of those times in front of the local police station.

Gwen had called him a few times but Kevin had only returned her call once. Intentionally, if she was not mistaken, doing so when he knew she would not pick up and leaving a message instead. He’d said something about trying to get some answers about the accident, but in little detail, and then asked her to leave him alone.

She’d walked past his house a number of times too. Only this time he was actually home, apparently working on his car. At least that was somewhat normal.

Gwen drew in a breath and stepped towards the open garage door. No, he was not working on his car. That was in the driveway, backed up to the garage door, but still outside. It looked like he had a trailer hooked to the back, this halfway into the garage.

Suddenly there was a crash from inside, and Gwen heard Kevin curse.

She blinked and stepped into the open door. Sure enough Kevin had backed up a trailer into the garage. This was now empty, its load now parked at the back of the garage where Kevin normally worked on his own vehicle. It was a smaller, newer model car. And it was a wreck. The front was buckled in and every window was smashed. Gwen put a hand to her mouth. This mutilated vehicle had belonged to Kevin’s mother.

Kevin stood beside it. He wrestled with a wrench at the nuts on the bowed and bent wheel hub. “Stupid…” He snarled and tossed the wrench aside and then slammed a palm on top the bent metal. His body instantly cloned the material. He grabbed the offending tyre with both hands and ripped it from the axle, then tossed it towards the open door, the small vehicle crashing to the floor as a result of the onslaught.

Gwen instinctively ducked and threw up a shield. The tyre spun through the air, the rubber chirping as it skittered off the top edge of the shield. It continued its flight over Kevin’s car and into the dark front garden.

“Gwen...!” Kevin exclaimed, only now seeing her and realising he’d nearly taken her head off.

“It’s okay! I’m fine… good reactions…”

Kevin continued to stare at her. His body reverted to normal.

Gwen took a cautious step towards him. “Are you alright?” she asked.

Kevin was breathing heavily. “No.” He turned away, moving to the rear of the car and sat down beside that tyre. He began to loosen the wheel nuts.

Gwen approached the car cautiously. She didn’t really want to, but couldn’t help herself. She let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding when she saw the driver’s seat. Thank God, it had been cleaned. She wasn’t really sure what she’d been expecting. But the metal was bent in around it, the steering column, the engine, and whatever else was in the front of the car pushed up against it. Very little room was left. Gwen swallowed. It was impossible to imagine that anyone sitting there could have survived long. She glanced down at Kevin. How could he look at this? She barely could. “Where’d you get this?” she finally asked. And why?

“Cops…” Kevin muttered.

“I thought they’d keep it to… investigate or whatever it is they need to do…” Gwen said. She wondered if she should even be saying anything. But she had to get him talking somehow.

“They’ve done investigating,” Kevin growled. “So they let me have it back. They said the accident wasn’t anybody’s fault…” he trailed off, wrenching one of the nuts off with more force than necessary.

“You don’t think it was an accident…?”

Kevin ignored her for a moment. “Of course it was an accident,” he said finally. “It was wet; she just lost control.”

Gwen looked at the totalled car again. “Okay… but… Kevin, what are you trying to do anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“Even you can’t fix this,” she gestured at the vehicle. “Shouldn’t you just dump it? Or couldn’t the cops do that… why’d you even want it back…”

Kevin stood up and examined the one nut in his hand he’d completely removed. “She shouldn’t have been in that accident,” he growled. “This thing’s tyres… they were worn, she shouldn’t have been driving on them!”

He was removing the tyres, Gwen realised. For what good that would do. “Kevin… you don’t need to do that, not now…”

“She asked me to change them!” Kevin burst out. “I told her I would! I told her I’d change them as soon as I fixed my car. It’s always getting trashed…” He looked up then, staring past Gwen. “I had to fix my bloody paint job before I could fix my Mom’s tyres!” He lifted his arm and hurled the nut he held. It hit the back of his car with a clang, and ricocheted off.

Gwen blinked. “Kevin…”

Kevin looked at her with tear filled eyes, his anger evaporated. “It would have only taken me an hour or something…” He stepped forward suddenly and grabbed Gwen. He rested his head against her shoulder and began to sob.

Gwen put her arms around him. “Kevin… I’m sorry…”

Kevin held onto her for a few moments, his whole body shaking. Then he pulled away, turning so Gwen couldn’t see his face. “Why? There’s nothing… you can do about it…” He was staring at his Mom’s car now, right at the driver’s seat. “You’re right, I shoulda dumped it…” He turned away from that, not wanting to look there either. Nowhere else to go, he shuddered and sunk down to the floor, putting his head in his hands. “I shoulda changed the tyres…”

“Kevin,” Gwen sat down next to him and rubbed his back. “You don’t know that would have made a difference…”

Kevin tried to stifle another sob. “You don’t know it wouldn’t have…”

Gwen didn’t have an answer for that. She continued to rub his back. He was struggling to bring his emotions back under control, but failing miserably. He looked tired. Exhausted. Gwen wondered with all the running about he’d been doing the last week, barely at home, when he’d found time to sleep. Maybe he hadn’t. “Kevin, I think you need to forget about the car. Maybe get some sleep…”

Kevin wiped a sleeve across his eyes and sniffed. “But I have to…” He started to look behind him at the mutilated vehicle but then shuddered and put his face back in his hands. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I brought it back. And it was so… smashed. What else was I supposed to do with it?”

“You can take care of it tomorrow. Get a tow truck to get rid of it if you have to.”

Kevin nodded slowly. Then he drew in a breath. “Yeah.” He pushed himself to his feet. Gwen stood up with him. “I’ll… I’ll get rid of it.”

“Look… if you need anything you can call me…”

“I just want my Mom back,” he said. He swallowed hard at his words, just managing to pull himself together. “I doubt you can help with that.” He drew in a breath, and turned towards the internal garage door. “I’m going to bed…”

Gwen chewed her lip, wondering what, if anything, else she could do. But Kevin was right. The one thing she could do to stop him hurting was humanly impossible. “Night, Kevin.”

Kevin paused in the doorway. “You could come in…” he said softly.

Gwen blinked, not sure if she’d heard him correctly. “Pardon?” she asked, perhaps a little harshly.

“Er… nothing… forget it… I’m just…” He looked like he was going to break down again. But instead he closed his eyes tightly, gritted his teeth, and then pushed through the door and shut it loudly behind him.

Gwen was left alone in the garage. She stared at the closed door for a moment, knowing Kevin would be in there, alone, with all the hurt he must be feeling. He thought his mother was dead because of him. She felt the back of her eyes sting, and closed them briefly, shaking her head sadly. Then with a sigh she turned and headed back out into the night.