Hero's Curse by Lee Jack J

Author:Lee, Jack J. [Lee, Jack J.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: JackJLee.com
Published: 2011-12-29T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17: Sabotage

When I woke up, I remembered what I had forgotten to do. Drew was on his way to Salt Lake City. I needed to tell him about the change in plans. My head was resting on something that smelled great but was too low for comfort; my neck felt like hell. I opened my eyes. I had been sleeping with my head on Mina’s shoulder. From how stiff my neck was, it must have been for hours.

I sat up slowly and stretched my neck. The van was stopped on the side of the highway. We were still in rural Idaho. We were nowhere close to a major city. Mina’s face was inches away from mine, her expressive eyes intent on me. It wasn’t the time or place for it, but I didn’t care. I was tired of being torn—of wanting her and hating myself for it. I brushed her hair behind her shoulder, lightly placed my hand along her neck, and slowly moved my lips closer to hers. I couldn’t believe how fast my heart raced as I waited for her response. For a second, she froze in surprise. I saw her eyes widen, then close, and then she melted into me.

“Oh my God! Get a room!” I was willing to ignore Andi’s shrill, annoying voice, but Mina wasn’t. As she pushed me away her face came into focus. Her eyes were bright and her face completely flushed. Her dominant expression was embarrassment. I smiled, almost on the verge of laughter. It must have been contagious because she started smiling too.

Tim sounded barely awake, “What’s going on? We’re not in Boise.”

The stress in Andi’s voice was clear, “We’re about an hour away. The check engine light went on a few minutes ago. Right afterwards the engine conked out. Ben’s outside trying to figure out what’s going on.”

It took a possible life-threatening crisis but I was finally able to focus on something besides Mina. My first thought was the van had been sabotaged; my second was to ‘Never attribute to malice that which is adequately ascribed to incompetence[9]’ or bad luck. Stupidity and bad luck are more common than malice. It didn’t make sense that if we had a traitor, he or she’d try to sabotage our ride, but there was no point in jumping to conclusions before I had the facts. I hadn’t paid much attention to the van before. “Tim, does this van have a diesel or a gas engine?”

“Gas. It’s a 2008 Chevy Express with an E85 flexfuel V8 engine.” I was tempted to ask if he’d kept it serviced but I didn’t. Idiots who don’t change their oil or maintain their vehicles usually won’t admit it. There was no point of asking a question when I couldn’t trust the answer.

The check engine light was on. According to the instrument panel, the oil level and engine temperature were okay. We had a quarter of a tank left.

I got out of the van and the others followed. Ben was standing in front of the open hood looking helpless.

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