Chapter 23: New home

****Kar-el P.O.V.

I checked in a nearby inn for the night and enjoyed a nice bed for the night.

In the morning I entered the bank as soon as it opened and deposited the cash in my account before I returned to the place tania was staying at.

Since they didn't have breakfast yet, I joined them as we had breakfast.

"Where were you the whole night?" Tania asked me when I was helping her carry her luggage.

"Playing games on a computer. " I replied before moving a little faster.

I quickly put all the luggage in the trunk of the car before sitting at the front seat with James who would be driving. He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything else.

"Move it, kid. The front seat is mine. " Carol complained as she kicked the door to display her non-existent authority.

" Don't wanna. " I told her before putting on the seatbelt.

She stood on her tiptoes to show her frustration as she made her palms into fists before speaking, "Is that so! Don't force me to make you get up, brat because you might very well end up in the trunk then. "

The rest were already sitting in the car and observing the drama.

" Make me then if you can," I told her before closing the window too.

"Aarh, you... you... how dare you." She screamed before beating on the glass.

"Enough. Just sit in the backseat with your friends. " James finally broke his silence as he ordered his daughter.

I just smirked which was clearly noticed by Carol but she still followed the order and disinterestedly sat on the backseat.

We finally hit the road after that, Girls started to chat about girls' stuff to pass the time while James and I mostly stayed quiet.

He was focusing on driving while I was looking outside the window.

Once we reached halfway the route, I started hearing a noise from the engine of the car which caused me to focus on it. There was a tiny piece of cloth stuck in a piece of engine.

"When did you last service this car? " I asked James casually as I turned to look at him.

" A week ago. Why?" He asked as he looked at the girls in the backside through the mirror.

" Nothing just that I think there is a problem in the engine. It is about to stop at any minute now." I said as I observed the cloth falling into the cooling system of the car and stopping the flow of water.

" Is that so? And how would you know that?" He laughed mockingly as he increased the speed a little bit.

I didn't humor him as I returned to observe the view outside. He too just shook his head before focusing on driving.

**** 10 minutes later.

As I expected, the car stopped because of overheating in the middle of the road. Thankfully, we were not on the highway and the car still had enough momentum to roll to the side of the road after it stopped working.

Currently, James was checking the engine for the problem while we wait inside the car.

" Why are you sitting inside with us?" Anita asked me as she looked at James trying to find the problem.

"What do you want me to do then? " I asked back as I turned to look back.

" I don't know, maybe help him find the problem?" She answered back while narrowing her eyes.

" Do you think he will let me? In my opinion, He is as stubborn as his daughter" I said as I looked at carol.

"Hey" Carol interjected.

" He will not let me touch it right now, Let's wait for a few minutes. Once he gets a little frustrated then I will try. " I told her as I looked in the front again.

" Well, then you don't know uncle James enough. He gets frustrated real quick. " Tania remarked as we looked outside. James was looking at the engine and trying to call someone.

I sighed as I exited the car and walked to the front.

"Found what is the cause of the problem? " I asked him as I looked at the engine.

" Yeah, Somehow the cooling system is not working but I already checked it and it should be working fine. " He remarked as he looked at the other side of the road.

" Did you check the pipe? " I asked him as I started to remove the pipe after the engine so I could look at it easily without leaning on the engine.

" Do you know the problem?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow.

" I don't know but nothing wrong in giving a try, right?" I said as I looked inside the pipe from one side.

" Pick the other end of the pipe and try blowing air into it. I think I found the problem. " I said as I try to pull the cloth inside toward my side by sucking the air toward me.

After two to three minutes of labor, we were finally able to remove it from inside. He put the pipe in its earlier opposition while I washed my mouth with some water.

After that, we traveled for another hour before reaching the community where I would be staying for some time.

My hunch proved right, the community was made up of a mixed-race of people from different parts of Asian American to Latinos and African Americans.

I was clearly a sore thumb in here. Even though I had no relations with Western civilization, the color of my skin clearly portray a different image altogether.

Considering the racial discrimination that these people had to face daily, I couldn't blame them for being wary.

Still, I only received stares, and nobody looked outright judging which showed that they clearly didn't define my character just from the color of my skin.

We first dropped Anita on the way as apparently, her house was 300 meters away from others before stopping at the house that was clearly 3 to 4 times bigger than the rest of the house in the street.

It was a single-story house and even though it was bigger than the rest, it didn't mean that it was better than the others. Rather, it looked worse than the others in terms of age and condition.

You could say that it took quantity in exchange for quality.

There were around 20 people outside of their houses that walked toward us as soon as we stopped the car.

Tania got a hug from a girl who was about to enter the adolescent once she exited the car.

She gave a gentle smile as she got on her knees to return the hug as she softly muttered," Miss me?" to which the girl just nodded as she tightened the hug by a notch.

James got out of the car to greet his neighbors and hugged a woman who I assumed must be his wife.

I stayed in the car as I observed them. The community looked pretty close to each other.

It looked like James already told what happened during the trip because the adults were looking at tania with pitying eyes.

" Now I know that we all want to know what happened and what not but I think we can discuss it at a later time. We should let them rest a bit. I am sure my husband would be happy to share what transpired with you all. "James' wife spoke while gesturing the group to relax a little.

They all agreed to that as they gave nods to her or James before returning to their places.

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Author note: I was feeling a little under the weather as the seasons are changing so it took some time uploading this chapter.

You guys make sure to stay safe too as Omicron is spreading fast.