NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: Law And Disorder
Chapter 4: Law And Disorder
Officer Slaw slowly reached out, grabbing the handle of the driver’s side door on Wheeler’s cabin. Wheeler shuddered internally as Slaw pulled on the handle. It didn’t exactly hurt, but it was uncomfortable.
*CLICK... CLICK*, the door refused to open. Wheeler had activated his central locking system, which kept Slaw locked out.
Nevertheless, Wheeler had to endure the ongoing unpleasant sensations, as Slaw continued to wrench the handle harder and harder, trying to force his way in.
Abeona had been watching this unfold with amusement though the charm on Wheeler’s rear view mirror, which granted her a view of both Wheeler’s interior, along with the view from the windows.
“Ok... now’s the time to really have some fun”. She smirked as she pressed a button on her tablet screen.
Both Wheeler and Slaw were caught off guard as the driver's side door sprung open, sending Officer Slaw once more tumbling to the ground. The door then slammed itself shut as quickly as it had opened.
“WHAT THE BLAZES?” cried out Officer Slaw, as he flew back.
Wheeler’s reaction was much the same. “What the hell just happened?”
“I got remote access.” Abeona laughed, “I could drive you around like a little toy truck if I wanted”.
“Please don’t” Wheeler begged.
“Don’t worry” The goddess reassured him. “I’ll only use it in emergencies... for the most part”.
Wheeler was unsettled by the way that sentence ended, repeating her last words. “For the most part!?”
Before that conversation could progress any further, Officer Slaw had got back on his feet. “I better call this in,” He muttered.
Slaw went over to his cruiser and grabbed the radio. “Calling in a suspicious vehicle in front of the Ford House on...”
Every word of the transmission was picked up by Wheeler’s own radio “He’s reporting us.” Wheeler fretted
“Hush, mmm... just... mmm, listen to what happens next.” Abeona’s words were broken up by an odd crunching sound.
Wheeler wondered what the weird noise was. As the realisation dawned on him, he baulked in disbelief “Are you eating right now?”
“Mmmm, Popcorn” Abeona mumbled between mouthfuls.
Wheeler narrowly avoided sounding his horn again. “Could you please take this situation at least a little seriously? This isn’t some drive-in movie for your entertainment!”
“Shhhhh... this is the best part!” Abeona insisted, bringing Wheeler’s focus back to Officer Slaw’s radio call.
“The vehicle licence plate is... is... give me a minute, over”. Slaw walked over to Wheeler, read the licence plate, then returned to continue the call. “The licence plate is...”
He’d read the plate just moments ago, yet Slaw couldn’t seem to recall a single letter or number from the truck’s licence plate.
He remembered seeing the plate number of the vehicle. Yet, even if someone held a gun to his head, Slaw still couldn’t have recalled a single piece of it.
Slaw went over to the truck again, taking out his notepad, taking care to write down the complete licence number. Yet on returning to his own car, he found the paper he’d written on was now blank.
Wheeler watched as an increasingly perplexed and frustrated Slaw approached him again. This time taking out his phone to photograph the truck, plates and all.
“Ok Abeona, something is up, what did you do?” Wheeler asked accusingly.
The goddess put on her most cutesy, innocent, syrupy sweet-sounding voice. “Who me? Nothing...” This was then followed by some very conspicuous whistling.
Meanwhile Slaw had got back to his car radio. Upon checking the picture, on his phone. He saw a distortion on the photograph had obscured the number on the trucks licence plate. He thumped his dashboard in frustration “GOD DAMN IT!”
In that moment, Wheeler could empathise with the officer’s frustration. “Ok Abeona, I know you did something, spill.”
“Well, I packed plenty of features into this big old truck body of yours.” She declared proudly. “One of these Truck Tricks I like to call ‘License Plate Scramble’. People see a legitimate number plate, but when they try to recall or record it in anyway... the information goes POOF.”
“Poof?” Wheeler parroted in disbelief.
Abeona proceeded to elaborate further. “Yes, the information is erased from memory, or from physical and digital records by divine magic”.
Wheeler could see a frustrated Officer Slaw, sitting in his Police Car, with his head in his hands. Wheeler almost felt sorry for the man.
“The message wouldn’t have got though anyway as you have a built-in radio signal jammer too.” Abeona mentioned offhandedly, before suggesting, “now how about we get out of here while he’s distracted?”
“How?” Wheeler enquired. “Should I back up slowly, just hoping he doesn’t notice?”.
“I could tase him by channelling power from your battery?” Abeona offered.
“Wheeler’s wipers twitched “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“You’re no fun” Abeona lamented. “Ok, Wheeler, instead of that then, now you, the amazing Truck-Kun...” The goddesses voice now sizzled with the flair of a magician, on the verge of pulling off their greatest trick.
“Please stop calling me that” Wheeler insisted.
Abeona simply ignored him, continuing to speak with the pizazz of a showman. “You shall make yourself DISSAPPEAR!”
“How exactly am I meant to do that? If you haven’t noticed, I’m a seventy-two foot long, eighty-thousand-pound, slab of steel! I can’t just fly away or vanish into thin air... can I?” Wheeler began to wonder what other little ‘features’ the goddess may have embedded in him without.
The goddess still maintained her dramatic demeanour. “Oh, ye of little faith, I’ll have you know, you are a feat of divine engineering. I Packed you with a literal truck full of tricks... some of them rather ingenious if I can toot my own horn for a moment.”
“Can I actually fly then?” Even despite the tense situation, the thought of flying was something really captured Wheeler’s imagination.
Abeona’s answer was somewhat cryptic. “You can’t fly, but you could... sort of, disappear”
“Sort of? How?” Wheeler pushed. “What do I need to do”.
“Well first...” Abeona began to whisper.
Official Slaw was staring at his knees, still trying to process exactly what was going on. No matter how much he concentrated, the licence plate details continued to elude him. He had been positive he’d written them down. Even the photo had somehow turned out useless.
He looked up from the seat his patrol vehicle, out his front windscreen at where the truck was. Slaw was shocked by what he saw, or rather what he didn’t see.
The mysterious truck had inexplicably, somehow completely vanished. But how? He’d been parked right in front of the damn thing. Something that size surely couldn’t have reversed without making a ton of noise?
Officer Slaw peered around cautiously, he was on high alert, looking for any sign of the phantom truck.
*Knock, Knock, Knock* The sharp thud of someone knocking on his window made the officer jump out of his skin.
He turned to see the face of Abraham Ford staring at him though his window.
Slaw rolled down the window of his car. “Can I help you sir?”.
“I don’t know how you did it so fast, but I noticed you already got rid of that strange truck that was loitering around.” Mr Ford’s eyes were filled with gratitude. “Thank you, officer. My wife and I will sleep better now knowing it gone.”
Officer Slaw was still baffled but decided to take the win on this one. Even with the exact details unsolved, the Fords felt safe. for now, at least, that was good enough. “Umm glad to be of service sir” Slaw tipped his Cap., “have a good night”.
“You too officer”, Abraham gave a cheery wave before retreating back into his home.
Slaw stayed sitting in his car. Still trying to work out where the gigantic truck had gone.
Little did he know, the strange truck hadn’t gone far, barely a few feet. Wheeler was right under his nose, or rather, right under Slaw’s own police car.
As Slaw pulled away, he didn’t notice the tiny toy sized truck, sitting in the middle of the space where he had parked.
As the police car drove away, Wheeler gave a sigh of relief. Smoke puffing out his now tiny exhaust pipe. For now, at least, Officer Slaw was off his case.
“You should have sounded the horn, that would of really freaked him out” Abeona laughed.
“Shut up” Wheeler fumed, exasperated.
“No, you should have grown to full size underneath him and flipped his car, that would have been a riot!” The goddess began cackling wildly.
“Let's just get out of here, before any more trouble occurs”. Wheeler returned himself to a full-size truck. After taking one last longing look at his old home.
“Goodbye Mom, Goodbye Dad... I love you both” Wheeler thought to himself, wishing his words could reach them.
With that, he revved his engine, without any clue of where to go, but knowing he couldn’t stay here.
Abeona, regaining her composure, gently prompted him “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”
With that, Wheeler solemnly departed, not knowing and past caring, where this insane journey would lead him next.