Bella sighed repeatedly, lamenting the apparent decline in the quality of American ghosts. The older generations got around on foot but now needed a car. It was a natural fall from grace!
Still, with the agreement reached, she didn’t slack off.
She violently dismantled the reappeared engine of the ghost truck.
The chassis! With a series of hard smashes, though it ended up in disarray, she managed to dismantle it.
She didn’t spare the gas tank, fuel lines, or pressure valves.
Eventually, even the few battered tires and headlights were removed and piled next to her original pickup.
The ghost inside the ghost truck was still alive; Bella was worried that killing it might cause the painstakingly removed parts to vanish.
“Can you install these? I certainly can’t,” she said, gesturing to the scattered parts.
Even if Jacob were here, he couldn’t fit them; they simply weren’t compatible.
The woman in white remained incredibly calm, brushing her hand over the parts and then slapping the pickup’s engine.
The next moment, the parts flew up, becoming semi-transparent and enveloping the pickup like rain.
Bella released her psychic shield and tossed the small, faintly glowing orb of the truck driver’s soul to the woman in white.
The ghost let out a pitiful scream for over ten seconds. Once the woman in white finished devouring it, a brand-new pickup was born.
It was a hundred times faster than the world’s fastest mechanic. The formerly rounded front of the pickup turned into a squared shape, the bumper was now jet black and looked incredibly sturdy, the severely peeling exterior had turned to silver-gray, and the body had been raised significantly. An additional exhaust pipe stood erect on each side of the rear doors.
The truck once used for hauling vegetables, had been magically transformed, now resembling a Ford F650 muscle truck.
It was powerful and stylish, and since it was now a ghost truck, it didn’t need fuel.
Perfect!
“Take me home.” The woman in white seemed only to repeat those few phrases.
Even the ultimate weapon of “Do you think I’m beautiful?” was sealed off by Bella.
Thinking everyone was now carpooling, Bella felt it necessary to increase their mutual understanding.
“You won’t remember my full name, but I’m Bella. What’s your name?”
After devouring the truck driver’s ghost, the woman in white’s eyes flickered with life. Hearing Bella’s question, she began to pull together fragments from her severely damaged memory.
They had driven over ten kilometers before she answered in a fragile voice, “Shaw.”
“Shaw?” Bella recognized it as a surname but couldn’t ask for more details—the ghostly Miss Shaw didn’t know them.
Unable to fully recall, her psychic abilities wouldn’t create memories out of nothing; she could only wait for her strength to accumulate and gradually recover.
Miss Shaw was sincere, not given to seducing random men or showing interest in black individuals. The truck driver’s resentment and something core within her soul seemed to have reached a balance. She had escaped her fate as a bound spirit and had awoken some of her memories. When idle, she merged with the pickup and didn’t disturb Bella.
“Such a good ghost!” Bella kept exclaiming. While psychic mediums were ordinary, kind-hearted ghosts were not. She had to treat this helpful ghostly sister well lest she dissipate entirely.
As Bella passed through Prosperity Town in Arizona, she planned to greet Natasha but found out she wasn’t in town.
A phone call revealed that Natasha, including her sheriff’s mother, were now in Phoenix.
According to Natasha, it wasn’t anything serious; her current parents were getting a divorce.
“They’re getting a divorce! And it’s not a big deal? I don’t understand why,” Bella spoke, one hand on the steering wheel, the other holding the phone.
“It’s all about money! That guy wants to invest the $100,000 from Stark Industries, but my mom disagrees.”
Bella listened with a gossip-hungry ear, though the story was simple and cliché.
It was about a humble stepfather who wanted control over the $100,000, but Natasha’s mom felt that since the family was ready to give up the toy car. Natasha tripped the female robber, allowing them to retrieve the toy car.
She planned to use the $100,000 as an education fund for the three kids for college in the future.
Conflicts arose, and the stepfather forcefully invested the money in the stock market regardless of the consequences.
What era was it? The year 2000! When the NASDAQ crashed, the $100,000 disappeared without even making a splash.
Then the fights started! During one argument, as Natasha’s mom held a shotgun ready to confront her husband, he suggested divorce!
Bella
The past forty days had been fulfilling, and Natasha’s life had been quite dramatic.
In those forty days, the family experienced a windfall, unequal distribution, noise, breakdown, fights, and divorce.
Natasha still lived with her mom, the stepfather took the young man, and the child from the marriage was raised by the father, with the mother having visitation rights and other such arrangements.
“How about it? Maybe Charlie could consider my mom? They might get along.”
Natasha showed no sadness after her family’s breakdown and didn’t care much about the loss of the $100,000; she just wanted to do something interesting.
In her view, getting Bella’s dad and her mom together would be interesting!
Bella was helpless in this situation; for others, marriage, divorce, moving, and transferring schools were as casual as daily meals. She could only try to adapt to this environment.
“It’s icy here in Washington State.”
“No problem, I’m Russian; I don’t fear the cold.”
“That, our bathroom is small. I recommend you don’t visit,” she casually said.
Natasha giggled mischievously, “We could shower together.”
Bella ‘humphed,’ completely ignoring the other’s comment. So what if you’re from C? Does that mean you can look down on B? Tacky!
Natasha was joking casually but became more serious: “Charlie isn’t poor, right?”
Whether Charlie was poor or not, Bella didn’t know. She only knew they weren’t wealthy, but not poor, either.
After all, he was a public servant; how poor could he be?
Bella’s mother had run off with her when she was just a few months old, leaving poor Charlie alone for seventeen years! He lived frugally, had no bad habits, and his only house was built before marriage. He just wandered around the small town, not spending much anywhere.
Become a Patron read up to 30 chapter ahead public release ^_^
Please join Discord Server so we can talk ^_^
