Vehicular Magic

By Gretchen L Elhassani

In the real world, Pandora is homeless. Her family sleeps in a car parked in a municipal lot. But when a wizard attacks one night and her parents go out to defend their home, Pandora is transported to a magical upside-down world where only rich people live in cars. Instead of the grimy parking lot with its chain link fence and glaring streetligh

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gretchen Elhassani
• Release date: Feb 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987787328

Book preview

Vehicular Magic

Book 1

By Gretchen Elhassani

Copyright 2023 Gretchen Elhassani

Independently published

Chapter 1

Pandora picked at the lunch meat special, trying to decide whether she liked it or not. It was a tossup. The meatloaf was okay if it was soaked in gravy; the turkey sandwiches were wet and cold. This particular meal had a weird texture, although the cafeteria got the salt right.

She was sitting with her friends Kylie and Megan. They were a small band of sisters out to protect each other from the forces of evil, which, in Tryon Middle School meant Tiffany Preston and Melony Jerome. Of course, there were other kids at school. There were the band geeks and the football players, the math nerds and the cheerleaders, but Tiffany and Melony had a special thing for Pandora.

They hated her. She didn’t know why, and she wasn’t sure it mattered. Maybe it had something to do with Pandora’s thrift store clothes, or the fact that her shoes were so old the soles were coming undone. It shouldn’t have mattered. Pandora’s choice of fashion was her own business, but Tiffany never passed up an opportunity to make her feel bad.

Pandora sat on one side of the table while Kylie and Megan sat on the other. Megan was fat. There was no delicate way to put it, and Megan herself didn’t really care. She was comfortable in her own skin which was more than Pandora could say for herself. Megan had long dark lashes and deep brown eyes. She was beautiful and showcased her creativity with extravagant hats. The teachers always made her remove them, but she carried them around and wore them anyway.

Kylie had braces and big glasses. She was an unfortunate victim of circumstance, and an easy target for the mean girls. Pandora was more of a tomboy. She didn’t fit in anywhere, and that made her perfect for the little circle of outsiders.

I’ll trade you the corn bread for my apple, Megan said.

No, Pandora replied.

Come on, you know you want to.

I really don’t, Pandora said. How about your chips?

Are you crazy? I’m going to eat my chips.

Why does your mom pack you an apple each day? Kylie wondered.

I guess she thinks I’ll eat it, Megan answered.

I would kill for a homemade lunch. Pandora sighed.

And I’d kill for a cafeteria meal, Megan countered.

They’re not that good.

Yesterday was French fries, Kylie said.

That was good, Pandora agreed. But I don’t even know what this is. I’m not sure if it’s really meat.

Let me try it, Megan offered.

Pandora slid it over to her.

Megan handed her the apple in exchange, and Pandora shrugged. She didn’t have a choice. She had to eat whatever was on the menu, or she would go home hungry. It might be late before her father was able to bring something home, or, as often happened, it might be never.

The school offered both breakfast and lunch free of charge for kids whose parents didn’t earn enough money. That Pandora qualified hands down wasn’t something she liked to advertise. Still, she knew that both Megan and Kylie were aware of her financial position. What they didn’t know was that Pandora didn’t have a home.

She lived with her parents in a dilapidated car that her father used to make deliveries. Her mother couldn’t work, too sick to hold down a job. She didn’t have cancer or anything, it wasn’t an illness anyone could see. She collected things like pebbles and flower petals. She organized words into phrases that made no sense. She cried all night long sometimes, and at other times would dance in the street to no music.

Pandora was ashamed of her. She didn’t want to be known as the kid with a crazy mother, even though she knew she should show more loyalty to family. Her father understood and did his best to keep Betty, Pandora’s mother, out of sight. He dropped her off at a free shelter during the day and picked her back up at night. In the in-between hours, when Pandora was at school, he ran deliveries.

Christopher Martin, Pandora’s dad, had every delivery app known to man available on his phone. He didn’t take passengers. He didn’t want anyone to know that the family was living out of their car. The backseat was full of Pandora’s clothes, her books and a few stuffed animals that she didn’t want to live without.

The front seat was clear of debris. Most of her parents’ stuff was packed into the trunk. But the wealth of crap stuffed into the footrests spoke volumes. There was no way her father could transport people around in their mobile home. Instead, he took food and groceries, anything that would fit neatly onto the front seat.

A typical day started wherever they had parked for the night. Dad would wake everyone up. He drove Pandora to school and dropped his wife off at the day care center. Then he spent the day ferrying things around the city, connecting wealthy people with expensive lunches and groceries from luxury stores.

Evenings were particularly important, so Pandora had to stay at school as late as possible. She couldn’t take the bus home. There was no stable place for the district to drop her off. Instead, she joined the Environmental Club, and the Debate Club and the Drama Club, packing her afternoons with enough activities to last until evening. Sometimes if she was really lucky, there would be a math night, or a movie at school. Then she could stay until seven or eight. Her dad took advantage of all the time he was allowed, getting in a few extra deliveries just to make ends meet.

The problem with the apps was that they didn’t pay cash. Dad had to wait until the money was downloaded into his account before he could afford new shoes or a winter coat. He told Pandora he was saving up so that they could rent an apartment, but she knew her mother needed expensive medicine that left little in the way of extra funds to squirrel away.

So they were stuck. All the money Dad made went to pay for the upkeep of the car and for Mom’s medicine. Pandora was forced to wear the same clothes week after week. On Saturdays her father would drop her and her mom off at the laundromat. They would do laundry and Pandora would do her homework. Sometimes there were extra quarters to be found in the bottom of the machines, and Pandora could get a snack out of the vending machine. Most of the time she was just bored.

She couldn’t go play with her friends, or leave her mother anywhere. It was almost like she was babysitting, but not getting paid. Her father had to work as late as possible, so they were forced to entertain themselves all day. The library was within walking distance, and when Pandora got so bored she wanted to rip her eyes out, she took all the laundry down to the library and left it at the front desk.

In the library she could play on the computer and read books. They had activities for kids like crafts and coding projects. There were things for her mother to do as well, like book club and knitting. She became friends with all the librarians and all the kids who regularly attended workshops.

She knew some of them suspected that she was homeless. The laundry was a dead giveaway. The strange relationship between her and her mom was another thing. It wasn’t like Pandora was alone in the world, but if anyone took the time to talk to her, they would quickly see that she was the responsible one, not her mother.

But it wasn’t Saturday; it was Tuesday. Pandora had an entire week ahead of her before the eventual laundry day. Now she had to concentrate on getting through the remainder of the school day and finding a way to get her homework done while she was still in the building.

The free meal ticket didn’t involve dinner, so breakfast and lunch were really the only for sure things she got. She wished the quality was more consistent. If they were all bad or all good, at least she would know what to expect. This mystery meat, or more likely mystery soy product, taunted her with its elusive flavor.

Pandora asked for it back and choaked it down anyway. She pocketed Megan’s apple, thinking she could snack on it later if she got hungry enough. The bell rang announcing the end of first lunch.

Are you gonna be in environmental club after school? Kylie asked.

Of course, Pandora replied.

Okay, see you then. Her friend got up and walked away.

Megan stayed and the two of them walked out of the cafeteria together. It was time for more valuable lessons taught by some of the oldest people on the face of the planet.

I swear Ms. Hinkley is like a hundred years old, Pandora complained.

That’s nothing, Megan one upped her, Mr. Tolman was alive during the Great Depression. I’m sure. He talks about it like it was still going on.

Maybe it is. Pandora sighed.

What are you talking about?

I mean everybody’s poor right? Things cost a fortune. No one can buy a home. She usually didn’t let herself get so down, but at the moment, she couldn’t think of a single nice thing to say about the world.

I don’t think that’s the way it is, Megan hesitated.

Isn’t it? Pandora shrugged. She wasn’t going to argue.

Megan had French class and Pandora had chemistry. There wasn’t anyone she was close to in chemistry, so she just kept her head down and did her work. After chemistry came math and then environmental science. By the time three o’clock rolled around, she was ready to leave the building, but she had to stay.

Walking down the hall as all the rest of the kids flew out the door, she held herself tall. It wasn’t any good complaining about her life. Things weren’t going to change that way. What she needed was a windfall. She was too young to play the lottery, but not too young to have a breakout YouTube channel. If she could come up with some viral videos and then monetize them, surely she could make enough money to purchase a house. She only needed a hundred thousand dollars. How hard could that be?

Judging by the failure of her father to come up with anything close to that amount, it must be pretty hard. It just seemed so unfair. There were billionaires who went into space on rockets, who owned luxury yachts that were bigger than Pandora’s school. And yet she and her family couldn’t afford an apartment.

She remembered the last place that they lived. She had her own room with a door that closed and a bed that didn’t move. She and her mother put glow-in-the-dark stars all over the walls, making Pandora feel like she was sleeping amidst the galaxy. It was the safety that she missed the most, the assurance that the building would be there in the morning. Now, they only had the car left, and sleeping stretched out on the back seat wasn’t very comfortable. Pandora lived in fear that the car would be next, and they would be forced to move into one of the homeless shelters. She didn’t want to think about sharing her living space with a bunch of strangers.

Hey, Kylie waved at her from the back of the room as Pandora pushed through into the science lab.

The chemistry teacher was the staff member assigned to the environmental club, and it was his room that they used for