CJ took an exhaustive look around the garage and was feeling upset. The stones of the walls were faded with some prominent holes around them. The front windows were broken on the outside. The paint job was evanescent and slowly dissipating. There were boxes, tires, and other generic material lying around. It also included a small office partition to the left. The whole garage was austere. It wasn't anything as CJ expected.
"Motherfucker!" CJ finally exploded. "That mute asshole! That fucking snake without a tongue... gave me this shithole instead of a real pink slip?! I must be the biggest fucking idiot in the whole fucking world!"
"Holmes - take it easy," Cesar told him, trying to sound more conciliatory. "At least we're alive."
"Carl, friend, fellow traveler, relax, man," Truth told him as well. "You're really killing my fucking vibe here!"
"Well I'm sorry if I'm fucking up your vibe, old man," CJ apologized, then turned to Cesar, "but I can't wait to get my hands on that mute and your bitch ass cousin!"
"My cousin?!" Cesar cried out, looking shocked. "You gonna diss my familia?!"
Cesar just walked away, still stunned at what CJ just said. CJ then started to show remorse to what he had just said. Sure he disliked Catalina with every fiber of his bone, and he really wanted to retaliate somehow. But the last thing he wanted to do was get on Cesar's bad side. So CJ decided to apologize to his friend.
"My bad, man," CJ told Cesar. "I'm just pissed for all of us!"
He turned to Kendl, who was giving him the "I'm very upset with you" look, which forced himself to explain himself.
"I mean... look," he started to explain, "we in a strange place, we got shit to our name... and for once I try to make something work, this garage... and it ain't even a garage!"
"Then make it into a garage!" Kendl finally answered.
CJ then stared at Kendl sideways for a second. Then he got into her face.
"Oohhhhhh... That's a great idea, sis," CJ stated mockingly. "Why don't you shut up?!"
He stormed away in a fit of pique.
"You know what, Carl?" Kendl told him, following him. "You are a fucking idiot! You whole life, you wanted something for nothing. Now you got something, and you don't know what to do with it! Well, make it good enough! We'll help, right?"
"We got your back, CJ," Cesar answered calmly.
"C'mon, stop tripping, man," Kendl answered. "Both of you."
"Wooooooaahhh, man!" Truth said, chuckling all of a sudden. "The energy here - it's fantastic!" Then he started humming strangely. CJ just stared back at the eccentric old man wearing a perplexing look on his face.
"Yyyyeah, alright," CJ said. "But how am I gonna to find some good mechanics to work up in here, man?"
"I know a few guys," Truth answered, hopping onto his feet. "Come with me, friend. They're good people, I swear it."
"Aww, man," CJ groaned as he walked alongside Truth. "I'm about to ride with this fool again?"
"C'mon, man," Truth declared as he and CJ hopped inside a red Emperor. "There's these two guys I know, used to work on Marine Engines, 'til the mob bought their business over at vice. Now they try to make end's meet by taking any old job. They're a little bit dull by their habit, but the smoke don't get in the way of their skills with an engine. We'll pick up Jethro first. Last I'd heard, he was working at the garage over at East Basin."
CJ drove on the road and made a left turn.
"Hey, man, how'd you meet these dudes anyway?" CJ asked Truth.
"I met them at the '89 Fierro Love-In... apparently," Truth responded.
"Apparently?" CJ asked.
"You know how it is, man," Truth replied equivocally as CJ made a right turn and drove through a curved tunnel. "A field of tents, crazy-assed music, a quart of mescaline vodka, polar bears..."
"Polar bears?" CJ asked.
"Yeah, go figure," Truth said. "But they were funny guys, man - great sense of humor."
CJ just shook his head. The people he met were getting weirder by the minute.
"This here's Vietnamese gang territory," Truth announced as CJ drove through downtown. "Da Nang Boys, Shining Razors, Butterfly Children. Watch yourself, dude. These cats are real serious!"
CJ finally made it to a gas station called Xoomer, where he found a mechanic wearing a blue janitor suit working under a white truck.
"Hey, Jethro!" Truth called to the mechanic. "Hop in, man. I've landed you a real job."
Jethro peered from under the car and hopped on his feet. He was a Caucasian man wearing a red-white-and-blue bandana on his head.
"Hey there Truth dude!" Jethro greeted as he hopped in the back seat of the Emperor. "Oh man, do I owe you? Coz I swear I paid for that weed, dude!"
"No, man, we're good, I think," Truth declared. "Jethro, Carl. Carl, Jethro."
"Whassup, man?" CJ greeted the mechanic.
"Can we swing by the hospital?" Truth asked CJ. "It's over in Santa Flora district, west of here."
"Yeah," CJ said. "You sick?"
"No," Truth answered. "The government is, but that's a long story."
"So y'know, like what's the deal, dudes?" Jethro asked as CJ got back onto the road.
"I'm opening a garage in Doherty by the waste ground," CJ answered. "You know, car mods, lowriders, all that shit. You down?"
"Do polar bears shit in the woods?" Jethro asked.
Damn! CJ thought. He took my line without knowing it.
"No," Truth answered, "but they've been known to shit in the liquor tent, if I remember it right."
"Yeah, that was, like, so far gone, man," Jethro answered.
CJ drove around town through the shining, bright lights, the roads were slightly empty. It felt good cruising through the streets of San Fierro. It was a fresh breath of air for CJ to drive in a town that wasn't surrounded by land or drugs.
By the time he made it through Santa Flora, he spotted the hospital up ahead. He parked in an empty spot up front.
"What we here for anyway?" CJ asked.
"Nothin'," Truth replied. He then spotted a van closing in. "Ooh, don't look," he protested. "Cover your faces. Think about a yellow rubber duck."
"You tripping again," CJ told him.
"Sshhh!" Truth shushed as the van drove past the Emperor and continued going.
"OK, I've seen enough," Truth declared. "Let's go see if we can find Dwaine."
"He's working a hotdog van at the tram terminal in King's," Jethro added.
CJ just shook his head and began to pull out from the parking lot right on the road.
"Come on, dude," CJ complained. "What's that all about?"
"You don't want to know," Truth answered.
Why?" CJ asked.
"Do you know what a sub-dermal neurophone is?" Truth asked him.
"A what?" CJ asked, sounding confused.
"Exactly!" Truth blurted out. "Sometimes, it's best to stay in the dark, kid!"
CJ just continued driving without a word. He wasn't understanding exactly what Truth was talking about and what effect it had on him in general. He drove through King's, where he found the hot dog stand and a blond man wearing a blue mechanic suit smoking a blunt standing by it. It must have been Dwaine. CJ pulled up in front of Dwaine, who took a quick glance at Truth and Jethro from inside.
"Dude, Dwaine, man," Truth called out to him. "How's the hotdog business?"
"It's totally shit," Dwaine answered bluntly. "Why, what's happenin'?"
"Uh, my friend Carl here is opening a chop shop," Truth told him. "Jethro's in, how about you?"
"Ah yeah, cool man," Dwaine replied, sounding blatantly stoned. "Uh I've got like some shit to take care of first though. So uh, you tell me where you guys are going to be at and I'll meet you dudes there."
"The garage is on the waste grounds in Doherty," CJ responded. "I'll see y'all later."
As Dwaine left, CJ continued driving on the road.
"OK, next stop the cop station downtown," Truth announced.
"What?" CJ asked, sounding shocked. "You out your mind! Why?!"
"If I told you, the likelihood is you'd get a probe up your ass within a month," Truth sighed nonchalantly.
"Like, listen to the man, dude," Jethro added. "He's real serious about that shit."
Oh he's serious alright! CJ thought.
"Wuh...?" CJ began to ask. But he thought better of it. He was tired of being inquisitive, and he knew he wasn't going to get a straightforward answer from a stoned, old man anyway. "OK," CJ agreed, "but you're starting to freak me out with all that space shit, man."
So CJ just drove around town for a few minutes and drove around a few blocks. He finally made it to the cop station and parked up front.
"OK, you know the drill," Truth whispered. "Don't look interested in anything."
When CJ stared ahead, he noticed the same van that came out of the hospital. It pulled around the corner and turned to CJ's direction, still not paying any mind to him or the other two in the car.
"Picture a pink golf ball in your mind," Truth said calmly as the van went down the street. "OK, we're good to go."
"Where to next, Spacehead?" CJ asked not
"There's an electronics guy I've had dealings with, goes by the name of Zero," Truth answered. "He could fix a supercomputer with a paperclip. He's got his own shop, but he's always ready to help fellow travelers along the path. Let's go introduce you to him."
"Look, what's goin' on, Truth?" CJ asked as he began to drive around the city once again. "Who was them dudes?"
"Don't go there, man," Jethro warned.
"Listen to Jethro," Truth replied. "Now, what if I told you we never went to the moon, JFK lives in Scotland with Janis Joplin, and the only reason we've been in a cold war for the last forty-five years was because snake-headed aliens run the oil business?"
"I think you popped another microdot," CJ replied, not comprehending anything The Truth told him.
"Good," Truth responded nonchalantly. "Keep it that way."
CJ really didn't have any time to answer more questions. Aside from the fact that most of it was being answered in a rather equivocal manner, his head was just spinning in confusion at the moment. So he decided not to ask another question and continued driving. He drove through Garcia street and found a shop called Zero RC. He pulled up front to it and saw a young man wearing a red baseball cap, a green shirt, baggy black shorts, black and white sneakers, and black square-framed glasses
"Leave me alone Berkley!" he complained as an RC helicopter hovered above him. "This is stalking!" He then took a look inside the car to notice The Truth inside. "Oh, hey, Truth," He greeted.
"Get in," Truth ordered. "I'll fill you in as we drive. Home, James!"
Zero hopped inside the vehicle alongside Jethro. and CJ continued to drive around the city.
"Carl, Zero," Truth said to one and the other. "Zero, Carl."
"'Sup?" CJ greeted.
"Carl here's opening a garage around the corner," Truth told Zero. "I told him you're the man to speak to when it comes to electronics."
"Actually, I'm the ONLY man to speak to," Zero corrected as CJ. "Grade A, tip-top genius, that's me. You should drop by the shop sometime, see some of my shit, bro."
"I'll do that," CJ answered as he pulled up in front of the Doherty garage. "OK, we here."
He drove the car inside the garage and the four hopped out. Another car pulled up in the station and stopped. CJ looked to se Dwaine hopping out of the car.
"Dwaine, great to see you, brother," Truth answered. "Come on in. We've got to get to work!"
CJ saw that Cesar and Kendl were in there as well and guided the others inside.
"A week of hard work and we'll transform this place," CJ declared. He turned to Cesar. "Hey, Cesar!" he called to his friend. "Come over here!"
"Whassup, B?" Cesar replied, walking up to the crew.
"Cesar," CJ introduced his friend to the others, "this is Jethro, Dwaine and Zero."
"Hey man," Dwaine replied.
"Dude," Jethro added.
"Salutations, my sibling!" Zero greeted.
"Horale," Cesar responded, sounding less enthusiastic. "Let's get to work."
As the others walked with Cesar, Kendl pranced towards CJ.
"Hey," she called to CJ, "hey Carl, look - I think I found a way for us to get paid."
"I ain't going to no college to study no accounting!" CJ answered.
"No, idiot, property!" Kendl replied.
"Decorating ain't exactly my thing, either," CJ told her.
"No, property development!" Kendl told him. "Look, you buy a dump like this, fix it up and sell it. Or better yet, you turn the property into a business. The snowball gets bigger..."
"I dunno, sis," CJ replied as Cesar walked up to the two, "this all sounds big time to me."
"Look, Carl," Kendl declared, "this place is gonna get on its feet, and when it does, we are gonna have money. If you want to make something of yourself, you gotta let your money work for you."
CJ then thought about it for a moment. He wanted to make some easy money, but he wasn't sure how to run a business since he had neither the experience nor brains for such a task.
"Look, I wouldn't even know where to start," CJ told his sister, sounding skeptical.
"Look," Kendl told him impatiently, "you two concentrate on the garage, and let me work the property thing, OK?"
She walked away to get to work.
"Yeah, that's my baby girl right there, holmes!" Cesar told CJ grinning.
"Man, you chose her, I'm stuck with her!" CJ groaned.
Just then, he saw a familiar-looking green lowrider pulling up in the parking lot outside, with Redman's "Blow Ya Mind" playing on the radio. In the car was Ryder in the driver's side and LB in the passenger seat. CJ and Cesar walked up to the lowrider.
"Aww shit!" CJ cried out as he watched his friend put the vehicle on park. "You got it all hooked up, Shermhead!"
Ryder turned the car off and hopped out.
"Nice ride, holmes," Cesar said, giving Ryder a high five. "Where'd you get it from?"
"Ask my homie LB over there," Ryder replied. "He always got it in fo' me."
"Hell yeah," LB chimed in as he hopped out of the vehicle himself. "I told you that last year, I been working with Ryder and Sweet to collect cars from the junkyard and getting them hooked up!"
"Jeah," Ryder added. "LB's always looking out for me." He turned to CJ. "Hey CJ, guess what?" he asked as he pulled out a wad of cash out of his pocket to show CJ. "I stole this from Smoke's goons! It's $1,800, homie!"
"$1,800?" CJ asked, astonished. "Damn! That's a lot of money!"
"Damn straight!" LB chimed in. "If they only have this much money, just imagine how much those fools carrying when they leave here in San Fierro."
"Jeah," Ryder said. "So what's this place?"
"It's a garage," CJ said as he guided Cesar, Ryder, and LB inside.
"This is a garage?" Ryder asked.
"It looks like a shithole to me," LB answered.
"That's the thing, holmes," Cesar told him. "We're gonna turn it into a garage. With a little work and some mechanics, this place would look cool in no time."
"Mechanics, huh?" Ryder asked. "Well what the fuck we waiting on? Let's get to work and fix this place up!"
"Hell yeah, homie!" LB added. "We gonna run a business here now!"
CJ feel very satisfied now. Not only was he getting help from other mechanics and his sister, he was also getting help from his childhood friend, who was also chasing after the drug couriers carrying to yay around country, which means he didn't need to do too much work.
Man, Sweet would be so proud, CJ thought. If we keep this up, we'd get him out of jail in no time and finally get out of this hood bullshit once and for all.
While there were still a lot that CJ had to take care of, he was at least satisfied of the help he was getting in order to move on up.