Getting Around

Charlie and Hazel were ordinary people, so they had mixed feelings when they found themselves suddenly in possession of a fancy Model T. It was flashy, with bright yellow wheels, and they were used to walking to church or to the store in their little suburb outside of Austin, Texas. They were also perfectly happy to walk to the end of the trolley line where Charlie worked as an engineer and then ride the public transportation wherever they needed to go. But now that they had the shiny car, people pointed fingers and tittered about where they got it.

The other awkward thing was that there were almost no paved roads in Texas in 1913, few road signs, and almost no reliable maps. There were very few places to obtain oil and gasoline for the vehicle, so it wasn’t practical to take it very far, particularly because if it broke down, it might be difficult to find parts to fix it. On the other hand, other than tires, they tended to be pretty reliable.

The car cost more than $500, an amount Hazel and Charlie would never have been able to afford. Nor could they afford the gasoline and oil to maintain it, but that was really beside the point. The fact was that they didn’t buy it. It was a gift, although an extravagant one, and it made Hazel and Charlie feel just awful since it came at the same time as their child disappeared.

Still, life went on, and Charlie had to keep working at his job as a trolley engineer because his family kept growing. It was an especially dirty job after the dam broke and made the electrical grid in Austin unreliable, when the cars sometimes had to be pulled by mules. In the meantime, mysterious letters and photographs kept arriving at home, prompting Charlie and Hazel to become desperate to get their child back. But how?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little teaser about Charlie’s car. Although we first heard about it in Saints & Deceivers, it becomes makes another appearance later in the Inherited Treasures series, so keep reading.

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