Kara’s Past ii

Book Three

Volume 9

Ch. 119 Kara's Past ii

Pov.

-Kara-

| Kara's Past | Ch. 22 |

"Grr* why won't it budge?!" I tug as hard as I could on the stupid crank pulley of his stupid old beat up corvette

"Gyah?!" I yelp as it finally pops off and sends me flying into the toolbox behind me "Grrr* stupid stupid!" I kick my feet

"Hehehe*" papa giggles as he continues to sand down the passenger side door

Before I can growl at him there were two honks outside

"We're home papa!" Mia shouts

Papa opens the garage as Paris towed a black and yellow Camaro SS into the garage

The entire rear end was smashed and the front bumper was missing

It had many dents and scratches all over but the engine seemed completely intact

"Wow this one is so much cooler" I remove the engine cover to reveal the 6.2 LS3 in all its glory

"You can say that again." Ignia joins my side

"Wow this one is so-."

"Shut up, idiot." Ignia grumbles

"Kehehe" I giggle

"What's the point in buying this if you can't drive it?" Ignia asks

"Yeah." I agree

"Hehehe." Papa giggles "we're putting this bad boy, inside that absolute beast"

"What?!"

"Really?!"

"That's awesome!" We jump

Ignia and I run around to check out the inside

"We can use these seats too!" I touch the leather interior

"Yeah!" Ignia giggles

…

"But wait… what's the point in even taking that engine apart?"

…

"Well how else are you supposed to learn?"

"What?!" Ignia and I growl

"I learned just the same. Took one apart maybe a thousand times"

"Hmm, how boring"

"Yeah, why don't we just jump straight into it?"

"C'mon, quit complaining." He picks his sander up "let's see who finishes first"

"Alright!" Ignia and I get to work

We raced around for tools and soda

Ignia removed the rest of the pulleys. I got to work on the carburetor and by the time I was removing the valve covers he was already loosening the timing chain

After I removed the camshaft ignia began working on the other side

Removing the headers was always a pain but when I finally got that off I needed two more bolts to remove the cylinder head

After Ignia helped me take the head off because it was too heavy, I gave him a hand with the headers as he finished removing the camshaft

After we finally got that out we put the crank pulley back on. We turned it and watched how the pistons jumped up and down.

"Kehehe, awesome." We giggle

Papa said that was enough so we dragged the motor crane over and he showed us how to strap the engine down so that it wouldn't fall

After that he taught us where all the mounts were and showed us how to remove the driveshaft before resuming with the sanding

After Ignia and I made sure every sensor was disconnected we began raising the engine out of the car

"No wait, down. Bring it back down a little." Ignia says after the transmission got stuck on something

"It is down." I crawl under the car and see the transmission was just barley grazing something

Maybe if I kick it

"Maybe if I jump on it it'll come loose!" Ignia shouts

"Okay!"

"No, don't-." Before papa could turn down our horrible idea Ignia jumps

I kick the transmission and it pops out of place before it began to quickly roll out

"Guahhh!" Ignia shouts

I quickly pull myself out and I watch as ignia holds onto the transmission for dear life as he and the engine block went rolling down the driveway

"Dammit what did I just-." Papa sighs

"Ignia!" I hurry behind him only to trip over the breaker bar sticking out of our toolbox

"Gah! No!" I hold my hand out as Ignia rolls onto the middle of the street to his death

…

I sigh in relief after seeing a truck didn't run him over and kill him

"Ignia!" Paris races past me

"Kara, are you okay, Kara?" Mia helps me up

"Yup, hehe" I smile widely

"You have to be careful or else you can hurt yourself bad." She pats me down

After making sure he was alright, Papa, Ignia, and I laughed and joked about it before getting scolded by Paris

It was also time for dinner so we hopped in the shower and cleaned up

After that we watched a movie together then played some board games

We played hide and seek but Paris said we couldn't fight and wrestle because we just showered

After that, papa went to bed with Paris so ignia and I played video games in our room

The following day we had school

Papa added larger cams and switched out the valve springs for the LS3. Then we cleaned the engine bay before he took it to get painted all black

Then we helped papa install the motor mount swap kit. After that we managed to stuff the LS into the corvette

Papa was cutting and welding the Camaros driveshaft back together so that it'll better fit the Corvette

The following week he made more and more adjustments like adding long tube headers and a straight pipe exhaust system

Instead of using the Camaros seats he ordered a white leather interior which made it look super awesome

About two weeks later the old beat up Corvette was finally up and running

"Wahaha, it sounds awesome!" I shout over the loud chopping that came with the larger cams

"Yeah!" Ignia giggles beside me

We took it out for a spin

Papa did burnouts and donuts in an empty parking lot until the sun began to set

…

"Yeah, it was so totally awesome. We could hear you guys from a mile away!" Mia giggles as I show her the videos and pictures I took on my phone "look!" She hands me her phone

She took a video as papa pulled out of the driveway and also ones when we were still putting the corvette together

It was awesome to see how something so old and ugly could turn into something so cool and awesome

After going through a few pictures and videos Papas friends finally arrived

It was Mr. Lyon, his daughter Marie, and…

"Uncle Johnny!" Mia jumps into his arms

Everyone hugged and greeted him like nothing but I was abselutly petrified to see him again

I mean it's been months, he was the first man and one of the last ones that did bad things to me before Papa came home

I was trembling so bad I couldn't even take a step

I thought I might burst into to tears but Paris set a hand on my shoulder

"Go on, just say hello." She whispers

I look up at Mr. John as he set Mia down

"H-hello mister." I whimper

"Kara," he smiles "why don't you come here and give me a hug?"

I quickly felt sick again and my heart began beating out of my chest

Even as heavy as my legs felt, I was going to step in to give him a hug, but Paris suddenly put her other hand on my other shoulder, keeping from doing so

"Kara doesn't do well with hugs."

…

"Right… well it's nice to meet you too, Kara." He nods

…

After saying hello to Mr. Lyon, I joined Mia outside with Marie who was two grades older than us.

We played tag for a bit before heading inside for dinner

They were all talking about how the corvette came out and how much work we put into it before they began laughing and talking about the time they did on Iran

"The Ghost of Tehran. The Nightmare of Iran. Seriously, has Ignia not told you a thing?"

Ignia and I shake our heads

"Nope."

"That sounds awesome. Is that what they called papa?!" Mia jumps in her seat

"I think it's corny." Papa grumbles as he took a sip from his glass of wine

"Oh yeah, he single-handedly led our platoon to victory. He brought the Great Satellite of Iran to its knees."

"Yeah? Well that was a long time ago." Papa shrugs

"He hung that dictating bastard himself. They offered him the Great Medal of Honor for it too"

"That's enough, Lyon. They don't need to hear all that."

"Awe c'mon, man."

"Medal of honor?" Paris asks

The table went silent.

Ignia and I freeze with the steak in our mouths, wondering what was wrong

Paris scrunches her eyes brows slightly at Papa as if saying; 'I can't believe you'

Paris tosses the fork onto her plate

She gets up as she wipes the tears off her face and storms into their bathroom

"Can never keep that damn mouth shut, huh Lyon?" Papa whips his hands with a towel before shoving it into his plate

"I-I… is she just now finding out?" Mr. Lyon asks as papa follows Paris

I jump off my chair and I follow closely and quietly behind

"It's not that I didn't want to tell you. There was no point."

"Are you kidding? The Great Medal.. it-it was your dream. Ever since you were a kid, it was all you ever wanted."

"It's a lot more than some childhood fantasy now."

"Wh-Why didn't you-."

"Politics, Paris. That's all it is now. I don't need my children growing up around that…"

"It's more than that. It's a status symbol. Y-you wouldn't have to work anymore, you could've…"

"What?"

"You could've gotten treatment…"

…

"The treatment is covered."

"You know what I mean. They have better doctors and better medicine up there."

"Wh-what?" I whimper

They both look my way as the door creaks open

"Kara?" Paris gasps

She grabs my wrist and pulls me inside before shutting the door

"Wh-what's wrong? Wh-what medicine?" I ask Papa in a shaken tone

"Kara…" he sighs

"What's going on? Wh-why do you need doctors?"

…

"I'm sick… I have been for a while now."

…

"Wh-what? Wh-why?" I whimper

…

"Because…" he shrugs

…

"N-no… n-no wh-what? Y-you can get better, right? Y-you don't look sick. N-not at all." I sniff

…

"I-I wish that's how it works, Kara."

…

"But why not? What is it?"

…

"It's best that you don't know, son."

…

"Come, l-let's get you in bed Kara, you must be exhausted" Paris takes my wrist

…

-to be continued