Chapter Two

I stumble out of the car and practically run to the undergrowth by the sheer rock face of the mountain. There was no way I could hold it anymore. I think my pee has frozen in my bladder for awhile. I shiver and try to keep my jeans from getting wet in the snow. It was hard to crouch down, it was awkward and I feel cold and wet. Finally I start to pee. But as soon as the urine hits the ground, a familiar red, rusting, truck appears on the top of the hill and starts to drive down to where we were.

“Come on, come on!” I practically yell at my pee, which doesn't stop coming.

I'm sure my brother is laughing his head off in his car. Probably remembering the time we were caught in a rain storm and I had to pee... so I peed in the trees and got Jitter bugs all in my shirt, it was awful. But now? I finish peeing and pull my wet jeans up around my legs. I'm so cold I swear I'm going to take a blow torch to the snow... whenever I can find a blow torch of course.
I walk up to the parked truck that is hood to hood with the rental. I slap the hood of the rusty truck and angrily glare at my older brother's laughing face. I also look into a new laughing face, beside him is some guy with dark drown hair and a unibrow... I mean, he is pretty cute. I feel my face go bright red and hot.

Maurise jumps out of the car and goes to the drivers side door, which opens for her. My brother engulfs his daughter in his long, strong, burly arms. “Daddy!” she cries joyfully, snuggling her face into his dark green plaid shirt.

“Hey sweety.” His voice is as warm and deep as it had been the last time I talked to him on the phone. But there is something about hearing it in person that just makes me feel like crying with happiness at seeing him again. He keeps one arm wrapped around Maurise and outstretches an arm to beckon me forward.

I am still a bit embarrassed by the fact that this really attractive unibrowed man had seen me do my business in the snow. Yes he was an older guy, and yes I still had a hot Puerto Rican boyfriend. But the guy was attractive. “You can think some ones attractive without being attracted to them,” Kieran-- my best friend-- always says to me. I walk forward, feeling wet and cold.

“Gigi, get over here,” my brother demands playfully, like he always did.

I grin and hug him. “It's so good to see you Huey.” I close my eyes and smell the pine-saw smell on him.

He holds me at arm length and looks me up and down for a moment. “You're soaked through. Pee on yourself? Why are you in jeans?”

I shrug, blushing. “No, I did not pee on myself. I thought I'd be in a heated rental car the whole drive.”

The uni-brow guy leans forward with a large gaped tooth smile. “We thought we'd find you two dangling from a cliff edge.” He had a deep smooth and accented voice, it was something like a German accent. It was, if you understand me, a dark chocolate voice. Rich and delicious to the ears.

Maurise climbs into the drivers seat and reaches over to hug the man. “Ferdy!” She throws herself in his arms.

“Oh,” Huey says and turns to introduce him. “This is Ferdinand. He's a good friend. He lives next door. Ferd, this is, as I've told you, my perfect, annoying little sister, Gertrude.”

I give Huey a glare and then outstretch my clammy hand. “Please to meet you Ferdinand.”

Ferdinand nods and shakes my hand. His hands are very large, manly and warm. I feel like my whole hand is being put into an oven. “Nice to finally meet you, Fraulein Gertrude.”

“Call me Gigi,” I say grinning.

“Fraulein Gigi, and call me Ferd, or Ferdy, as Fraulein Murray likes to call me.” He grins again and tickles Maurise.

I laugh and turn back to my brother. “So, how are we going to get up that hill?”

Huey put his hands on his hips and looks around at the landscape for a moment. “Ferd, you and I will probably have to push your car up it... but maybe...” he trails off and looks inside the bed of his truck for a moment. He shakes his head. “Nope, we'll have to manually push it up.”

I sigh, rocking on the balls of my feet, feeling the heat of the car tickle me, but I'm still frozen. I look down at my jeans. “Can I push?”

Huey rolls his eyes. “Of course, don't even try excusing yourself.” He pulls out a pile of snow proof overalls from inside the truck. “I came prepared.”

I roll my eyes at him and pick out a bright green pare of overalls. “Like always.”

We slip on the water proof and isolated overalls and Ferd rubs his hands together with a look of excitement. “I love working with cars.”

I give him a puzzled look. “You an Huey should start a business then.”

Huey and Ferd both look at each other uncertainly. Huey shrugs. “We've talked about it. Now, let's get this party started.”

I grin at his choice of words and rub my hands together, imitating Ferdinand. We walk over to the bumper of the rental car. “Alright. What is the best way to do this Big Huey?”

Huey sighs in exasperation, “I swear, Gigi, if you call me 'Big Huey' one more time, I will send you back to Florida.”

I roll my eyes at him. “Big Huey, Big Huey, Big Huey.”

Huey throws his head back in exasperation like he used to when we lived together. Like before he had married and left me, a ten year old, all alone, to deal with the harsh world of bullies and boys. Now that he's twenty four, and I'm seventeen, it doesn't seem like we've changed much. Except he has replaced his“baby” fat--that I teased him about-- for muscle, and I have hips and curves now.
But soon, I find out that curves and hips, don't help with manual labor.

As we push, I try to make small talk, though it doesn't really work all that well with the grunts I have to give way to from pushing. “So... you don't... have an... interstate?”

Huey shakes his head, the veins in his neck bulging from the strain of pushing. “It's not called... the interstate... here... it's the... Autobahn... stupid.”

I grunt and wonder why I'm not the one inside steering the car. I'm sure I weigh less than Ferdinand. I strain to look at him, and realize that he's steering, but he's standing outside the car. “Wouldn't it... be easier... if I... steered the car?”

“And... not be... able... to talk to... me the whole... time?” Huey asks sarcastically.

I take that as a “sure, go ahead,” and move out from behind the car. I take Ferd's place and hop into the car. I take the wheel and start the engine, it might be helpful if I gave the car some gas. So I push the peddle and I hear several rounds of “STOP!” from my brother.

“Stoppen!” shouts Ferdinand, “Stoppen! Stoppen! Stoppen!”

“Stop!” shouts my brother, “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

I take my foot off the gas peddle and lift my hands in surrender. “Sorry.” I look back and see Ferd and Huey splattered in mud and snow. “Oops.”