An unforeseen issue leads to another secret.

It was that time of the month when we, as family, would have a little trip to the supermarket to buy most of the groceries and take the chance to make it a bit of an event. That usually meant we’d stop to eat somewhere together. This time, however, my dear sister wasn’t with us as she had been charged with a very important task, one I was unable to fulfill. What is that, you may ask? Well, it’s simple: socializing Cake.

You see, I take the responsibility of having a cat very seriously. I feed it, brush it, try to train it, all of that. One thing I realized fairly late, however, is that cats also have a very obvious need to socialize with other cats as kittens, lest they end up becoming aggressive when they see others as adults.

Let me give you a list of people I know and I’m comfortable talking to: Mila, Grace, Sarah, Thomas, Noelle, Alice, Kevin, Ben, and Lena. Maybe Amanda, but she flirts too much for comfort, though at this point I thought she just did it because I was getting better at brushing her advances aside. Anyway, do you know what all these people have in common? Exactly. None of them have cats.

The solution? Isabelle and I asked Thomas if he knew anyone who had cats, and he said a classmate of his did. Isabelle talked to her at school, told her our issue and now she’s at her new friend’s house with Cake.

People fear what they don’t understand, and social butterflies scare the shit out of me.

Anyway, that meant it was just mom and I shopping this time. The supermarket was uneventful and boring. You ever go to a huge supermarket where lots of people shop but they only have one or two registers open? Yeah, we had to wait for like 20 minutes.

Dinner was nice. We ate at a Chinese restaurant, where I decided to keep practicing the use of chopsticks.

“You’ve never cared for chopsticks and always used a fork,” Mom said. “Why start now?”

“...I ate sushi the other day and they only had chopsticks. I couldn’t pick the rolls up, so I had to use my hands. It was… kind of embarrassing.”

Mom laughed. “I see. Well, let me show you how it’s done.”

After eating with mom and having a nice, calm chat, we were ready to go pick up Isabelle and go home. However, our car had other plans.

As we were on the road, I heard mom go “Oh no…”

“What is it?” I asked.

“The engine is overheating,” she said and pointed to a red light on the dashboard. She grimaced. “I thought there was something odd about the car the other day, but it seems I postponed it for too long.”

“Is it serious?”

“It can be.” Mom slowed down, pulled to the side of the road and started typing something on her phone. After she connected the map on it to the car’s screen, I saw what she’d been looking for: a repair shop.

“Send a message to your sister, please. Tell her we’ll be late so she should take a cab home.”

Isabelle had Cake in her kennel, so taking a cab shouldn’t be an issue. I typed as we waited for the engine to cool down for a bit. After it did, we headed for the nearest repair shop, just five minutes away from our current location.

The place was practically a huge warehouse, maybe two if the one beside it also belonged to them. Nothing fancy other than ads for oil, car parts, services and the big sign at the top of the main gate that I only noticed because I liked the name. It read “Knights of the Wheel.”

We parked outside and went in. The floor was slick and gray and blue metal pillars supported the high ceiling. Walls were filled with tools, three other cars were being worked on already by mechanics, but a fourth one caught my eye.

It was just sitting there with its hood up, but… it looked really cool. I know a bit more about cars now than I did back then, but I had played a few racing games with licensed car manufacturers and models, so I recognized this car. A hot yellow sporty body shining with a perfect polish, a matching spoiler on the back, two doors, and even the old-school pop-up headlights… I don’t normally get excited by cars, but seeing a real life RX-7 made me a little giddy. It definitely stood out.

“Nice car, huh?” Knowing instinctively I was the one being addressed, I tensed up and looked away from the car and towards the person talking to me.

A man who looked to be around his 30s, give or take a couple years. Sharp features, a bit of a stubble, curly blonde hair in a mess. He was dressed in a blue coverall, stained black with oil and dirt. He was wiping his hands with a piece of cloth.

“S-Sorry for staring,” I suddenly said.

“Don’t apologize!” The man laughed. “Cars like those are meant to be stared at. I bet my lil’ sis would be flattered.”

I blinked. “That car belongs to your sister?”

“Yeah, it’s her baby. She works on it at least one day a week, if not more.” The man had to forcefully get rid of his goofy smile and replace it with a more professional one. He turned to my mom. “Sorry about that. The name’s Alex Knight. Welcome to my shop. What can we do for you, ma’am?”

“My engine seems to be having problems. It was overheating just ten minutes ago, so I decided to bring it in as soon as possible.”

I had to do a double take. Thankfully Mr. Alex was busy talking to mom, so he didn’t notice me staring. His eyes, his eyebrows, and maybe even his mouth a bit… Not to mention that last name.

I looked back at the RX-7 in disbelief. I had to be wrong. There was no way. It had to be a coincidence, or another sister… but no, because as soon as my eyes went back to the car, I saw Alice Knight, dressed in a stained, blue coverall, staring back at me with her jaw hanging in shock.