Not good. Not good at all.

Kiri leaned her head against the rumbling glass window, but her teeth knocking together took away from it's cool comfort. Damn this dirt road! She felt like the sandwich she had eaten for lunch was fighting its way back to the outside world...Just when she had sat forward to beg her speed-demon of a mother to pull over for a bit, the car lurched to the side and Kiri's mother stopped the car forcefully-slinging them both hard against their seatbelts. A horrible metallic screech echoed in the dusty air for some time as they sat stunned in the car.

"Mom! Are you ok?!" Kiri scrambled out of her belt and over the seat clumsily. Her mom was gritting her teeth and holding her neck with both hands...

"Fine, I'm fine sweetie, are you alright??" She attempted to look over at Kiri and cried out in distress.

"Sh**. You are NOT okay. Don't move" kiri instructed as calmly as she could. She jumped out and rummaged in the back for the brace her mother had used in the months after her discectomy.

"Can you wear this?" She asked as she wrapped the stretchy contraption around her mother's neck as delicately as possible.

"Yes, yes, I've got it, Kir. Just tell me— how bad is the car?"

Not good. Not good at all. The whole front tire was shredded on the driver's side. No wonder her mom was so whiplashed- and not even a year after the surgery!!!

"Uhhhh, let's call dad..." Kiri stalled.

Reading her daughters reaction, Mrs. Kiri's Mom grabbed her phone and speed dialed.

"Hi, honey. first off- we're OK..."

Feeling her parent's needed to chat (there was no way they'd make it to meet her dad before his plane left) she trudged down the street a little ways in low spirits. They didn't get to see him much, but maybe it was silly to have tried to meet him during his layover in their middle-of-nowhere-Texas airport. He wouldn't have even been home long enough to grab lunch with them at Subplace. So intently was she staring at her shoes that she didn't notice the looming old house until it cast its shadow across the road. It's presence practically jumped from the surrounding trees, startling her a bit. Three (yes, how odd...) stories tall with the top floor just a little room with a round, colorful glass window that made out the shape of a... was that a snake?

"KIIIIIRRIIIIIIIIII !" her mother's voice rang out from behind her

She turned to see her mom rounding the group of trees at a delicate pace with both hands on her neck brace. "I was coming back, you should have waited for me!" Kiri answered guiltily.

"Nonsense, I.... Oh, what an odd little house...It's quite pretty"

Her mother continued past her distractedly.

The two of them approached the front step. "Let me try, dear. And back up a little. Folks out here may not be accustomed to visitors."

Kiri waited anxiously as her mother knocked 5 times and took two steps back just as good manners dictated. After several long moments the door creaked open just enough to reveal a rather surprised older woman.

"Oh, hello! Why...it's been a minute since I've seen... well, people around here!" The woman sputtered cheerfully.

"Yes...erm, I'm so sorry to trouble you but we've blown a tire a little ways back up the road. I was hoping perhaps someone here would be willing to help us...?" Kiri's mother asked hopefully.

She hadn't realized she had been gawking at the two of them...Her mother and the older woman looked oddly alike- as if one was an aged and unkempt version of the other- until the woman's foggy blue gaze landed on Kiri.

"Why yes..." she answered slyly. "You're in luck! My god-son, Roy is around here somewhere and he's very capable." She said as she reached out and rang a little rusty bell that hung near the doorway. With a wink at Kiri the woman began receding back into her house like a phantom. "Come along, I'll make you lovely ladies some coffee while we wait for him.".