K
aleb awoke to the blaring scream of his alarm clock, which was doing its job of disturbing him of his current dream state. Rolling over just enough to reach out for his alarm clock; Kaleb pushed down the snooze button and rolled back over hoping to return to his current dream. His cat, Gwenyvere, had other plans however; picking up Kaleb's movements as a good time to climb into the window. Rubbing, and purring against the curtain, the small kitten had managed to push aside the curtain; just as Kaleb began to roll away from his alarm clock and directly into the morning sunlight.
"Yes Gwenyvere, I'm awake." Kaleb replied faintly, slowly sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. "Thank you."
The small kitten replied with a series of soft meows, as though she understood, while she found a more comfortable position upon the window pane. Kaleb, giving into a much larger yawn, had finally become slightly more observant to his surroundings. From outside his bedroom window, he could hear the faint sound of a rooster's caw. Unable to do anything about that issue-not understanding why his neighbors felt the need to own a rooster in the first place-he quickly dismissed the thought as his alarm clock began buzzing once again. Six-forty a.m. and his alarm clock wasted no time beginning the soft 'beep' that gradually grew louder. Making sure this time to turn the alarm completely off, he slowly stood and moved toward his closet pulling a pair of blue jeans from one of the hangers.
Sliding his legs through the pant legs, he pulled the pair of jeans over his hips and fastened the button. Finally moving toward his dresser, he pulled out one of his tank tops and quickly pulled it over his head, and down along his torso. At five feet ten inches tall, Kaleb's one-hundred and forty-three pounds wasn't exactly a large frame. He was still defined where he needed to be. Pulling his shirt the rest of the way down, allowing the cotton fabric to slide along the toned eight-pack of abs. Grabbing both his socks and shoes, he quickly slid them over his feet before making his way through the doorway opening of his room, grabbing his phone off the side table as he walked past.
The upstairs was separated into two different rooms, by the use of two plastic sliding doors, with a hallway like opening that allowed access to the set of stairs. Kaleb had been given the use of both rooms since moving into the house, and so he dedicated the smaller of the two rooms into a small office. There was just enough space inside the room to fit a leather recliner, a matching sofa, a small end table and a desk with an average style office chair. The desk was fairly organized, containing only a few important items, such as the laptop that was set near the back corner of the desk, a set of wireless smartphones, and a small black address book and pen.
Stepping through the opening and into his little office, Kaleb could hear the loud hum from the air compressor coming from the garage below. Curious as to what Hunter was in the garage doing, Kaleb took a seat in front of the desk, and quickly skimmed through the computer, checking for any scheduled appointments, inventory orders, and service requests. Without meaning to, or even realizing he had done so; Kaleb had spent the better part of an hour in front of the computer, searching through the new emails. Through the whole process however, Kaleb had managed to print all the important paper work, and was finally making his way down the stairs into the main level of the house.
Almost as soon as he pushed the bedroom door open, which was easily mistaken as a closet door at first glance, the scent of French Vanilla filled the air within the living room. It wasn't difficult to figure out where the smell was originating from, and almost on instinct, Kaleb began making his way toward the kitchen.
"Morning Madi," Kaleb said, almost instantaneously stepping into the way of his sister as he made his way into the living room.
"Good morning to you as well, you're up early," came Madison's reply as she continued heading toward her room.
Kaleb was going to offer another reply, but seeing how his sister was already steps ahead and out of his line of sight, he simply continued through the living room and into the kitchen. Standing in front of the counter, Kaleb reached above him, opened the cabinet door and -- after a brief moment of searching -- pulled out his
favorite
coffee cup. After preparing his first cup of coffee for the morning, Kaleb began heading into the dining room, and through the side door into the garage. Kaleb had barely gotten the door pushed open before the quick claps of nails against the hardwood floor caught his attention.
"Akhyra! Sit!" Kaleb quickly commanded in a firm tone, causing the dog to come to an abrupt halt. "Good girl," Kaleb replied again, petting against the top of the dog's head. "Stay!" he said once again to the dog, as he began to pull the door leading into the garage open.
Inside the garage, Kaleb could still hear the loud hum of the air compressor as it once again began to fill with air. And then, just as suddenly, the loud pitch from the impact wrench was heard. There was no way, even screaming at the top of his lungs, Hunter was going to hear anything he tried to say. So, instead of screaming and since Akhyra was showing she was listening to her commands; Kaleb gave three quick snaps of his fingers as he began following the orange compressor hose toward the front of the truck. Akhyra was doing excellent, following closely behind Kaleb, but soon she was being put into her sit command as Kaleb gave a simple snap of his fingers and then laid his hand flat.
"Hey Hunter!" Kaleb shouted slightly, finally catching Hunter's attention. "What'cha got?"
"Bad brake lines." Hunter said, finally setting the wrench down. Inside the garage, things began to quiet down once the compressor had filled itself to capacity with air. "Bad brake lines are just the start; however, there is a lot of wear and tear on the lower ball joints too."
"So, in other words, our tow-truck is down currently!" Kaleb replied, with a bit of dry sarcasm, as he crouched beside the side of the truck.
"If you have to put it so dry and bluntly; yes Kaleb, our tow-truck is in need of some PTO." Hunter replied, just as sarcastically.
"So what are we going to need?" Kaleb asked, this time with a little more seriousness to his tone. Slowly standing from his crouched position, Kaleb slowly took a sip of his coffee before setting the cup down on the workbench. Making his way toward the front of the garage he began pulling the metal garage door open.
"Morning Kaleb!" he heard in greeting, even before the door had made it half way up. "I heard the air compressor running so I figured someone was out here."
"Well, good morning to you as well Blake." Kaleb finally responded as he pushed the garage door open fully.
"Hey Kaleb, think you can give me a hand with this lower control arm?" Hunter was quickly questioning as he stepped away from the truck.
"I sure can," Kaleb replied, quickly taking a seat in front of the driver side wheel well.
"Hey Blake, have you heard anything back from your commanding officer?" Hunter quickly asked, remembering bits of an earlier conversation within the week.
"Actually I have, which is part of the reason I was coming over." Blake began. "Now I know this is about to sound extremely sudden, but I'm to be leaving within the next forty-eight hours. I wasn't given anything more than that, but he said he would be by and I would be fully briefed upon pick up."
"Hey Kaleb, Jakob called and said he was on his way over." Madison said, peeking her head around the door.
"Did he happen to say how long he would be? I've got to run to the auto store soon." Kaleb replied, still working on the bolts that held the lower control arm in place.
"No, unfortunately, he didn't. However, you still have about forty-five minutes before the store opens. It's only eight-fifteen." Madison replied before stepping back inside the house, closing the door behind her.
"Like I was saying," Blake began again, "I have to be ready within the next forty-eight hours. Which means I have a whole household of items I have to get rid of because I can't take any of it with me. If there's anything either of you want, need, or think you can hold on to it for me, you're welcome to it."
"If you would like, we'll provide a storage unit for your things. That is if you aren't fully set on getting rid of everything you own." Hunter quickly offered.
"That would be greatly appreciated, but the two of you don't have to do that." Blake tried to decline, although extremely grateful for his neighbor's offer.
Kaleb had finally successfully removed the two I-bolts --which helped with the vehicle's alignment-- and sat the control arm off to the side. After taking another few minutes, getting a closer look around the wheel well, Kaleb began pulling himself away from the vehicle, and headed over to join both Hunter and Blake.
