Chapter 6: The second favour

We ate our food in mostly silence at the dining table. My hunger completely disappeared for the second time today and I was stabbing my food with the fork like it had offended me personally.

 

"Is there anything we can do? There must be a way out of this kind of thing, right? I mean we didn't pay." Elyse said with a hopeful voice and she glanced at me. "Maybe he will collect his payment later." I said in a grumpy voice. I felt utterly defeated and empty. It felt like I was in a surreal situation, like I was under water and as soon as I got to the surface, it would be over and I could step out of the water and dry off.  Back in the sun. 

 

I bit my nails in anxiety until someone knocked on our door. We all froze on the spot and we all looked at each other with panicky eyes. "Who's there?!" Fay shouted. No answer. "Let's not open-" I whispered-

 

KNOCK KNOCK

 

"Who's there!!?" Fay shouted louder this time. Another no answer.  "I will get it," Anna said after 10 seconds and with protests from us which she ignored, she opened the door wide like we weren't just discussing making a deal with the devil. Anna didn't say a word but just looked down. "Elyse. There's a package for you." Anna said while tilting her head to she side in thought. She looked at Elyse but when she realised Elyse wasn't going to move, she grabbed the package from the floor of the hallway and put it in the middle of us on the table.

 

Anna grabbed the plates and threw them rather rushingly in the sink. She practically ran back and the package still lay untouched in the middle of us. Elyse looked at her name which was written on the small box in fear but she made no move to touch it.

 

"Open it," Anna said with excitement and she moved the box towards Elyse, who jumped back in shock. "I'll open it for you." Anna said while rolling her eyes and before I could protest, because whatever was inside it, it probably wasn't good, Anna tore the beautiful black box open.

 

Anna looked at the inside with a frown. "What? What is it?" Fay asked, her hand on Elyse her hands in a sign of comfort. "It's a key. A car key." Anna explained and she removed a set of car keys with the Mercedes logo from the box and hung them in front of Elyse. "And a contract. In your name." Anna continued. A set of papers was taken out next and it was a document revealing a Mercedes GLE coupe was now in the ownership of Elyse Clark, registered at our address.

 

"No." I said in shock. "A Mercedes GLE? What the hell? Aren't they like, really expensive?" Fay said, eyeing the keys in the hands of Anna, who was still dangling them in front of Elyse. "What? I would like to think I'm worth more than a car!" I exclaimed and Fay started grinning at that.

 

"What are you laughing at? NO! No, I don't want this car. Where is this from? Let's return it, like right now!" Elyse shouted and she jumped to attention, grabbing the keys from Anna and throwing them back in the box.

 

She snatched the contract from Anna's hands and started reading it frantically. Pacing the living room, she read through the entire thing two times and threw it back on the table. "I can't find where it's from. Can we call someone?" She asked in desperation and we all read over it.

 

The registration of the car, the details of the insurance, the price of the brand new car and all personal details of Elyse were present on the contract, but there was nowhere to be seen where it was bought from. We decided to call several Mercedes garages close-by, only to come up empty handed. They hadn't sold the vehicle and they couldn't tell by the number plate where it originated from. It was almost like the car just appeared out of air.

 

Elyse called the Mercedes head office in a last attempt, only to be told after a waiting time of two hours that they also couldn't find the registration of the car and that it might have been shipped from another country directly to the current registered owner.

 

"Fuck. What do we do? Can I sell it?" Elyse asked with her hands in her hair. "Can we at least first look at the car?" Anna intercepted us quickly and we all turned to her in shock. "What? No, why does it matter, Elyse is not going to keep-" I started but Fay opened her mouth before I could finish my sentence.

 

"I would like to see it. No harm in just taking a quick peek."

 

Fay stood up with an excited Anna before I could utter any protest and they waited by the door for us with expectant looks. Elyse got up after a minute and I solemnly followed them out. Right in front of the campus, blocking the road and entrance of our university, a shiny black giant Mercedes stood. It was screaming brand new and a very angry looking janitor eyes the car with anger. "Miss Clark, is this your car? Remove the damn thing right now or I will have the police tow it! The fine will come to your address!" He screamed with spit in our direction, and gave the front left wheel a firm kick. 

 

We stood there for another minute, all staring at the car in shock with open mouths. "Right now, miss Clark!!" The janitor screamed again and Elyse sprung into action, walking over to the janitor with a kind smile.

 

"This is not my car. Call the police and tow the vehicle, please. It's not my car!" Elyse exclaimed with a hopeful gaze and the janitor narrowed his eyes in more anger. "You think I'm a fool? There's an envelope on the passenger seat with your name on it. And I checked the registration through the school system, it's in your name. Remove the vehicle now or I will have you arrested by the police for disturbance. You've parked in front of the entrance, on school property, which is not a parking zone. I'll come back in three minutes, and if it's not gone by then, the police will be here 5 minutes after that." The janitor warned her and I saw Elyse swallowing heavily and nodding her head meekly.

 

The janitor stormed back into the building, past us with steam coming out of his ears and we walked over to Elyse with no comforting words. "Just park it somewhere else for now, we don't want the police involved." Anna said, taking the keys out of her pocket and putting them in Elyse's hands.

 

With a nod, Elyse got behind the wheel and we all got in the car. The car started surprisingly steady and Elyse drove away like she drove this car every day. I sat behind Elyse and Anna handed me the envelope that was on the passenger seat. "Open it." Anna said to me and with a shrug, I ripped open the envelope and read the sentence that was written on a single piece of paper.

 

'I will be collecting my payment soon'