The Penny Drops (Sea the Depths Book 1) Karmon Kuhn (life changing books TXT) 📖

floor. With caution, I went to her. I rested my hand against the bat and then plucked it from her. She gave it up easily and began to cry.

“What’s happening?”

I sat beside her and said, “My world has been turned upside down, and I am truly sorry that I have done the same to you. But I will keep you safe, if you’ll let me.”

Her eyes became wet and rivers formed on her cheeks and dripped onto her chest. I wiped them with my sleeves and let her cry for a moment and then had to interject, “I think we need to leave, Penny.”

“You’re right. Just let me grab a few things.” She stood up shakily and then fell back to her knees.

“Let me,” I said. “What do you need?”

She told me about a few things to get from each area of the apartment and held out her backpack to be filled. Personal care items, clothing, some paper goods, medications, and a bit of food.

Once I’d finished, I grabbed my satchel and pulled her up from the floor. Just as I had, she gazed across the large room as if to say goodbye. Then, we shut the door on the body sprawled on the carpet.

Chapter 12

W

e loaded our things into her car, and when she unlocked the door and got in, she hesitated to unlock mine. I pulled at the handle to gently remind her, and she just stared at me for a moment. Then, I heard a metal clink and the door pulled away from the body of the car when I tugged the handle.

She locked the doors from the inside and took a small orange bottle with a white label from her bag. It read Clonazepam and her name along with instructions and other random information. I’d read the label when I gathered it from the bathroom. She pulled two round pills from the bottle and took them dry, swallowing hard and then looked around the car. Her hands were visibly shaking, and she hesitated to start the vehicle.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“These will just help me calm down. They’re prescription and everything.”

“You are in no condition to operate a vehicle.”

“Can you even drive a car?” she answered in a screechy whisper.

“Penny. I cannot allow you to drive . . . I’ve driven juz̈uṣùs̈s before,” I offered.Though, this vehicle with its short ceiling, navigation wheel, and mysterious panel of buttons was much different than my juz̈uṣùs̈s.

She closed her eyes and let her shoulders slumped. Just when I thought she was going to agree, she hit the wheel in front of her hard with both hands several times and bellowed. I squeezed my body against the door, suddenly worried that I might be in more danger than she was.

After her fit, she opened the door, slid out of her seat, and walked over to mine. I held my hand out to receive the keys as I stood up, but she held on to them until I was in the driver’s seat.

“Please, don’t crash my car.”

She inserted a key below the wheel she’d bludgeoned and turned it. The car roared, and I jumped a little. Her incredulous expression proved that she was unimpressed by my handling already.

Near my feet were two levers and up top was a large wheel and another lever. I pressed each of the levers on the floor as a test. One did nothing and the other produced a jolt and a screeching sound.

“You have to take it out of park before you press the gas!” Penny yelled and covered her face with her hands.

“What?!”

She took a few deep breaths and then leaned toward me. Pointing, she said, “The left pedal is the brake. You have to press that to stop the car. The right pedal is the gas. You press that to make the car go. But, you can’t press it unless you shift the car into drive from park using this.”

She mimicked pulling down the lever by the wheel when she mentioned switching gears. I reached my hand out and then she said, “Wait!”

“What!” I jumped.

“Put your foot on the brake before you switch to drive.”

I pressed my foot down on the left pedal and then pulled down the lever as instructed. Some of the tension left Penny’s face. “Good. Now, SLOWLY push on the right pedal.”

I removed my foot from the brake and the car started to slide forward automatically, “I’m not doing that!” I screeched.

“It’s okay! Just lightly touch that pedal on the right.”

I pressed the pedal with my foot, and the car started forward even faster.

“Woah woah woah! Too fast! Hit the break!” Penny yelped.

I slammed my foot onto the other pedal and we both lurched forward in our seats. She was wearing a safety belt that held her in place, but I slammed forward into the wheel which caused a new drip of blood from my nose.

“Hoḧe!” I swore.

It went on like that for some time until I was able to pull the car from it’s parking spot along the empty street and into the light flow of traffic. Although I finally felt like I’d mastered “stopping and starting,” I quickly learned that driving entailed much more. Once on the main road away from the apartment complex, cars whizzed passed me. They blared at me angrily, and their driver’s began to screech profanities and wave their middle fingers in the air.

“It’s okay. It’s okay! Just keep going. Try pressing the gas a little bit harder. They just want you to go faster.”

We lurched forward and then another car sped in front of me so that I had to screech the brake. This time, I had the safety belt buckled across my body, so I didn’t sustain any injuries. But, the abrupt stop caused a whole new wave of profane screams and roaring horns.

The drive through the city was traumatic to say the least, and Penny directed me to