Driving just to catch myself

Clank!

Clunk!

BOOM!

I grimaced, cringed, then nearly jumped through the roof as another loud sound rang through my 1990 blue dodge colt.

"That can't be good..." I muttered to myself, checking the forever lowering rearview mirror only to see a long, rusted piece of metal lying where I had been driving moments before.

Clunk!

I winced again, watching as another part of my baby fell to the black asphalt on the dark overcast late afternoon. "Well, maybe I didn't need that," I said happily, wishing the old car had a radio I could blare so I wouldn't have to listen to the fake sound of my voice.

Thump!

My hands gripped the wheel a bit tighter. "Or that..."

Clu-

"Shut up! I get the point!"

I blinked after a moment, before sighing, relaxing my hands. "Great... maybe Dad was right... maybe this car really is a screaming metal death trap..."

The car responded with a coughing sound like I would get every winter when my sinuses popped up to say hello as the little arrow on the speedometer began to shy away from the tiny fifty. Watching it like it was the meter of my life span, I applied more pressure to gas, producing no result.

"I didn't mean it!" I cried to the roof, leaning forward in my seat and jiggling the stick shift a few times. "Come on baby... don't let me down... come on... please? I'll love you forever..."

Great, I was talking to a car, a car I had forced my father to keep because I wanted to drive it. Now here I was, just a few days after getting my drivers license and old reliable was deciding to be more old than reliable. "Please baby? I'll buy you a new gas tank if you just promise to work... one that actually will fill up all the way without leaking! Now wouldn't you like that?"

The car sputtered and jerked forward.

"No!" I cried, hitting the steering wheel a few times. "You're not supposed to die! Live! Live!"

Thunder booming like one hundred power chores played at maximum volume in the distance caused me to shriek in surprise, the car lurching quickly forward on one last jolt of energy before it stopped; dead.

Whimpering, I moved the stick and applied pressure to the gas pedal, a pathetic cough spewing from it. I tried again, and again, but the car was not about to listen to my pathetic cries.

"I am so dead..." I groaned, turning the keys to the off position and leaning back in my seat, pressing my hands against my tired eyes. "This couldn't possibly get any wor-"

Suddenly rain lashed down from the sky as if it were mad at the ground, the echoing sound of water meeting metal for the first time echoing over the roof.

My hands slid down my face. "I had to ask... I just had to ask! Stupid, stupid, stu- AH!" I screamed as a loud tapping at my window interrupted my speech, my body jumping to the side; my rear end falling into the other seat.

"'Ello!" I heard a muffle voice call from outside.

"I'm dead... I'm so dead. That's the grim reaper out there and he is calling my name!"

"'Ello? Anyone in there? Do you need help?"

"I'll be singing the death march and-"

"Oh stop being so paranoid..." my voice answered back, my heart slowing it's pounding as I made my way back to the driver's seat.

Letting out a heavy breath I hand-rolled down the window, rain and wind spewing into my face. I blinked as a man with a strong, stubbly face covered with some grime and oil met my eyes. His dark hair was stuck to his scalp as he wore a faded, grime covered blue overall suit.

"Can I help you?" I asked, screaming over the sound of the wind.

"No, can I help you!" He responded, his voice having some accent I couldn't quite guess at the moment. "'Aving some car trouble?"

I nodded. "I don't know what happened! She just died all of a sudden!"

"Maybe I can fix 'er at my shop!"

"You're what!"

"My shop!" He yelled a bit louder.

"Where's your shop?"

"Let's just say you're blocking my customers from leaving!"

I quirked one eyebrow and stuck my head out of the window just far enough to see a faint neon sign and a few lights shinning through the rain.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, removing the keys from the ignition. "I'm sorry!"

"Not a problem!" The man said. "Just as long as you let me put 'er into my garage and fix 'er up!"

Well, I always was trustworthy of complete strangers.

"It's a deal!" I exclaimed, trying to roll up the window, but after a few tries and not producing a result, I gave up and opened the door, climbing out of the car and slamming it behind me. The rain immediately began to work on soaking the part of me it hadn't gotten to in glee, the man looking over me with a confused look over his face.

"What?" I asked after a moment.

"How do you reach the pedals?"

I sighed angrily. I guess being five foot two had some disadvantages I hadn't thought of yet. "I manage. Now be careful with her, she's old." With a tap on my colt's hood, I walked until I was under a small awning protecting the gas pumps from the rain, not worried about how soaking wet I had become. There I stopped, watching as the man attached my baby to a dark green pickup truck and drove slowly and steadily into one of the few open garages.

I waited a moment before stalking into that garage, only to see the man had already unattached old reliable from his truck as was opening her hood with his only good hand; the other, I noticed with a slight cringe, was only a stub.

"Will she be okay?" I asked once I had gotten close enough to get a peek of the engine from the side.

"Oh, she will be, once we replace a few parts in 'er," he muttered, scratching his head with the stub of his hand.

My heart fell to my stomach. "How many parts?"

"Five... six... maybe more..."

"This is going to cost a lot, isn't it?" I asked, already watching moths fly from my wallet after this was done.

"Depends on how hard the parts are to find... but..." he looked my pathetic figure over. "I'll see if I can get a deal for you."

I sighed in relief. "I appreciate that so much. Thank you..." I looked at his name tag. "Candy."

"Always 'appy to help." With that he went back to fixing my only chance of ever seeing my home again.

"Awww Lennie, how many times do I have to tell you? When you see a dead animal in the road, don't stop to pick it up!"

"B-but George it was so soft and-"

"I don't care how soft it was! Didn't you see what you did to your car? It was a wreck- for the third time this week!"

The two very different voices sounding from the connecting garage caused my ears to perk up like a cat's as curiosity gnawed at my insides.

Carefully walking over, my eyes fell to two men- one was a little, snappy guy, well, little compared to the other towering piece of muscle standing by him. But, as strange as it would seem, the snappy one seemed to be in charge, reminding me of something, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"But... they fixed the car George! It's as good as new now!" The big guy certainly was an optimistic.

"Your car might be, but your pockets sure ain't! I swear Lennie, if you don't wisen' up, you'll end up in the poor house. And what would your rabbits do then?"

The bigger man, called Lennie seemed a bit hurt and was about to say something, but the one called George stopped him.

"Hey you!"

I looked around nervously, hoping he was talking to someone else.

"Hey you!" George demanded again.

I gulped and looked to see his piercing gaze was upon me. I pointed to myself, just to make sure.

"No, the other short chick behind you. Of course you!" He motioned for me to come closer. Knowing full well I couldn't bolt out of there, I obeyed, stopping in front of the snippy man.

"Yes?" I asked, trying to be calm, but in the presence of that Lennie, my height wasn't exactly comforting.

"Were you listening to us?" The man snapped the question.

"Well... uh..."

"Were you listening to us?"

Okay, that was it, no more Miss. Short-nice-person. "The whole garage could practically hear you. It wasn't my fault I decided to attach my ears today."

"Ah, a smart aleck eh?" He gave me another top to bottom look, causing me to gulp as he stopped at my face.

"The smart aleck's right, ya know," I turned around to see another man with dark colored skin, dressed in the same uniform as Candy had been the one to speak up. My eyes skimmed over his name tag- 'Crooks'.

George looked at this man uncertainly, but Lennie seemed happy to see him.

"Did'cha fix her?" he asked excitedly.

"Sure did," Crooks answered, rubbing off some oil from his hands with an old rag. "You beat her up pretty good, but she's running just like new."

Lennie seemed like a kid on Christmas morning as he ran towards a large yellow hummer, only to dash past it and get into the one car I wasn't expecting- a white beetle.

I blinked as the large man somehow managed to fit into the drivers seat of the car, the small bug leaning to one side under the weight. "Come on George, let's go!"

George sighed and handed Crooks some money out of a beat up wallet he kept in his back pocket. "This should cover it..." he muttered, as Crooks counted the change and nodded, walking back to his dark blue pick up truck and, just a bit faster than Candy had, pulled out of the garage and soon had parked somewhere out of my sight.

George let out another sigh and looked at the beetle. "Darn it Lennie! Be patient! I still have to get my car!"

"But George!"

"Fine! If you're so eager to get to your Aunt Clara's then get going! I'll catch up in a minute!"

The door slammed happily (if that's possible) and the engine started with a roar as Lennie sped off down the road, swerving slightly from side to side as he did so.

I blinked, my attention leading away from trying to figure out how such a large man could fit into such a small car to something else. "He didn't pass his driver's test did he?" I asked out loud.

George turned to me. "Well," he said, removing his straw hat for a moment to wipe his brow with the back of his hand. "Guess even smart alecks are right about a few things."

I opened my mouth to retort, but he beat me to it with a small smile.

"I'm only kidding. Lighten up." With that he walked over and got into a flint mica scion TC, the car's engine purring when it started before he tore off, straight as a one hundred eighty degree line out of the garage and down the road, chasing after his friend.

I sighed and turned on my heels, figuring that this day couldn't get any weirder when it did.

"Outta my way!" With a loud, annoying honk, a red Ferrari convertible nearly ran me over if I hadn't jumped out of the way as it screeched into the garage. The top was down, and stepping out of it came two very wet, and two very angry people. One was a female, her blonde locks clamped to her head as her red dress was soaked to the bone while the other was a shorter man, his mouth moving a mile a minute, and his language anything short from school appropriate.

"What seems to be the trouble? Other than your mouth?" Another guy appeared, dressed in the same grimy uniform as Candy and Crooks. His build, however, was far different from theirs' as he seemed to be a lot more muscular and younger than the other two. Again, the name on the tag caught my eye- 'Carlson'. His words infuriated the small man even more.

"Why you son of a-"

Beeeeeeeeeeeep!

A held out car horn sounded, drowning out the man's last words, and causing me to jump again. All heads turned to a jet black Porsche that was just sitting in the garage, the convertible top pulled down as a lanky man sat in the driver's seat, smiling calmly. My heart pounded as I realized he had been there the whole time and I hadn't even noticed him.

Carlson grinned slightly as the little man's face grew redder and redder.

"I would suggest you keep your foul language to a minimum, we have a young girl present," the man in the car said smoothly.

I immediately realized he was talking about me and nearly fell over. "Awww come on, I can't look that young." I thought.

"You ought to listen to Slim. His word is law around here..." Carlson suggested.

But, obviously, the woman the man was with thought Slim was talking about her. "Oh please," she said, tossing a strand of her wet locks behind her. "I can handle anything Curly has to say."

"Hm. I bet," Slim said cooly, yet a bit intimidating at the same time.

This enraged the woman, as now she began to show that she and Curly were just perfect for one another. "I don't need your sarcasm." She turned to Carlson. "Now do as my husband says and fix our car!"

"What seems to be the problem?" Carlson repeated, rubbing the grime off his hands a bit harder.

"Can't you tell you over grown-"

Beeeeeeeeep!

Once again, Curly's words were lost in Slim's car horn. I quickly stifled a laugh that was ready to come bursting out.

"Why you smart-"

Beeeeeeeeep!

"Stop that you-"

Beeeeeeeeep!"

"I mean it you-"

Beeeeeeeeep!

"Oh forget it Curly!" the woman snapped, turning to Carlson. "The stupid top wont go back up! You're a mechanic! Fix it!"

Carlson walked up to the car, receiving a tense look from both Curly and his wife. "What are you doing?" Curly asked defensively.

"If you expect me to fix the car, I have to take it to an open garage. This one is full."

"Be careful! This car is made of the finest-"

Beeeeeeeep!

"He didn't swear!" Curly's wife shrieked.

Slim grinned. "Sorry," he responded, passively waving.

Carlson rolled his eyes and got into the car, Curly and his wife jabbering all the way as he looked over his shoulder and backed out, his technique perfect and precise as if he were wielding a gun as soon the rain swallowed the three up. I then heard a screech of the tires, a few splashes and two loud, angry 'Hey's!' followed by some illicit words coming from outside.

Chuckling, I turned to walk away, but another short beep reached my ears and made me turn to Slim. "Yes?" I asked.

"Good luck kid," He said, saluting before he put up the top of his convertible and stealthy slipped out of the garage like a snake moving in the grass.

"Cool," I whispered, wishing for a moment that I had his car instead of mine.

Oh crap. Mine.

I quickened my pace to a power walk and made my way over to my baby, it still sitting there helplessly as two feet stuck out from under it. Crouching down, I glanced at Candy. "How's she doing?"

"You beat 'er up pretty good miss. And it'll take a while before I can get some of the parts. I had no idea these old colts still roamed the earth!"

I let a small sigh pass my pale lips. "How long, exactly?"

"We'll be finding out in a matter of moments..."

"Fair enough..." I muttered, standing up and leaning on the side of the car that I wasn't going to let die no matter how much it wanted to as my brain tried to comprehend all that had happened today.

The characters I had met this rainy day all seemed strangely familiar. From their looks, to their natures, to even their names. In fact, they seemed so familiar I could have sworn I had heard of them somewhere before... like in some English class one year or something.

Oh, this would have been so much easier if I hadn't erased everything I had learned from last year from my mind for the summer.

The mechanic mumbling things under his breath I knew couldn't be good snapped me out of my own little world as I stared out at the pouring rain cleansing the earth from all it's impurities. I sighed again, folding my arms over my chest.

"Maybe I should have asked for a ride home from one of those guys..."

"Nah!"