Free Emily For Real by Sylvia Gunnery Page A

don’t want to be there when the two of them meet face to face. But what else am I going to do?
    Leo walks up the driveway, directly to the transport truck, and goes around the back, where he leans down and looks underneath. He reaches with one hand and hangs on to the back with his other hand. He’s holding a key when he straightens up.
    â€œWhat’re you going to do with that?”
    â€œDrive this truck.” Leo’s obviously thinking up something that’s not going to be a good scene. He reaches up, opens the cab door, climbs the two steps, and settles into the driver’s seat.
    For some idiotic and stupidly dramatic reason, I run around the other side and climb up into the truck too.
    â€œGet out of the truck, Emily,” he says quietly.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDon’t be an idiot.”
    â€œWhy’m I an idiot? I’m just sitting here in the truck with you while we wait for everyone to come back from that breakfast.” My heart’s beating extremely fast. I know for certain that the only thing standing between Leo and trouble right now is me.
    He sits there, looking out through the windshield.
    This truck’s so huge I feel like I’m in an airplane, waiting for takeoff.
    Leo starts the truck. It sounds like a dozen garbage cans rattling under the hood. For sure no one’s home, because by now they’d be running outside to catch whoever’s stealing this truck. Can Leo even drive this thing? Don’t people need special training and—
    â€œIf you’re not getting out then put on your seatbelt.”
    He revs the engine and checks the gages on the dash. Then he pushes on a gear shift and the truck starts moving forward.
    â€œDo you know how to drive this thing?” I snap on the seatbelt.
    â€œIt’s automatic. Anyone can drive one of these. It’s not rocket science.”
    â€œBut this is humongous! Look at all these buttons and stuff. It’s not an ordinary truck!” I’m getting a bit hysterical.
    Leo stops the truck. “If you want to, you can get out.”
    â€œWhere are you going? What if your father sees us in his truck?”
    â€œLast chance if you wanna get out.”
    â€œI’m not getting out.” I try to calm down my hysteria. Not that I know him very well, but I have a feeling Leo won’t do anything entirely stupid with me here in this truck with him.
    We rumble along the windy road past the garage, then down around a sharp curve at the end of the cove, and then up a very steep hill. Leo’s driving slowly and smoothly, so I try to relax a bit. I can see way out over the cove from up here. All those wharves and boats and lopsided fishing shacks. Like a postcard.
    I’m getting used to driving along in this truck, but I’m relieved when we’re past the houses in the cove and away from any chances of Leo’s father seeing his truck go by. “So where’re we going?”
    â€œDunno.”
    â€œNot on the main highway, okay?”
    â€œI don’t plan to go that far. I’m not an idiot.” He’s watching the road and leaning his long arms on the steering wheel like he’s driven this truck lots of times before.
    We drive for about twenty minutes and come to a small picnic park beside a rocky beach. Leo pulls off the road and stops the truck.
    â€œNow what?” I say.
    He pulls on the emergency brake but he doesn’t turn off the engine. “Let’s hitchhike back home.”
    â€œWhat? And just leave your father’s truck here?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œBut—”
    Leo’s already getting out.
    â€œAre you just leaving the truck running like this? With the keys in the ignition?” I jump down from the truck and follow him back to the side of the road.
    â€œThat’s the plan.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause it’ll piss my father off when he eventually finds his precious truck. And if I’m lucky,