Dusty Old Hat

Ellis lies, under a car, the smell of oil and gasoline filling his nostrils as he took a look at the dirty underside of the car he was fixing. Looking at the good condition, although dirty, pipes and tubes running along the underside, he searched for the source of his client's issues. Finally, his eyes fell upon a damaged muffler. A bit dented at places, but the main issue was a large hole right in the middle of that thing. He took out a flashlight, and shined it in the hole, seeing if he could spot any other problems outside of the obvious, unfortunately, he saw nothing as the black interior revealed nothing new to him.

Rolling out from under the car, he looked at his client standing over him. She was blonde, average height, a bit pretty, as he would put it. Standing up from his position, he smiled at her.

"Well, that sound ya heard while driving was a broken muffler. Hole the size of Texas right dead center. I'll have it fixed for ya in a jiffy." Ellis explained.

She looked a bit surprised by the news, "What, that's it?"

"Yeah, I mean, I can take a look at more but it'll cost a penny er 2."

"No leaky pipe? Destroyed gas-tank?"

"Ma'am, you're starting to sound like you expected this car to be in much worse condition."

She sighed, "Sorry, it's just... Not many auto shops charge for what's actually wrong..."

"Ma'am, here at Keith's Auto Shop, we charge fair prices for fair work," Ellis chuckled, "If we wanted to scam someone, we'd get into cryptocurrency!"

She let out a little laugh as Ellis went to get a rag, wiping his hands clean.

"We can start work on it now, or we can work on this tomorrow. It's already 7pm, sun's setting. We can store the car here, free of charge, if ya want," Ellis suggested, "We don't have much more work to do this week."

"I'll be fine with tomorrow, thank you," She walked to her car and opened the door to the driver's side, "Oh, and, I never got your name."

"Ellis, Ma'am."

"Well, nice to meet you, Ellis."

"Just as much, Ma'am."

Starting the car, she drove out, the muffler making concerning noises as she drove out of the garage and back onto the Savannah streets. Ellis smiled, watching her drive off.

Soon, a friend of Ellis walked out of a nearby room, the manager's office.

"Hey Dave," Ellis greeted.

"Oh, hey Ellis," Dave responded, "That the last customer?"

"Yeah, pretty girl too."

"You hit it off, er?"

"Nah, I'm not looking for someone, currently. Just bein' friendly."

"Really? You're like down with the ladies, man!"

Ellis laughed a bit at Dave's compliment, "I mean, I can pull a girl but, nothing compared to a real relationship."

"You could at least teach me something, we've been friends since high school and I've yet to get a girlfriend!" Dave laughed.

Their laughter died as the 2 men looked back to the manager's office, their joyful laughing turning to a silent frown.

"You think Keith will make probation?" Dave asked.

"I don't know. He still has like, 6 or 7 months left. Crazy son of a bitch, huh?"

"The rifle was your idea!" Dave teased.

Ellis chuckled, "It was a joke, I didn't think he'd go through with it!"

As they both laughed over memories of their friend, the sun finally fell behind the curve of the earth and left their auto shop in complete darkness.

"Well, I oughta close up now. It's already dark." Ellis began, putting the rag back on the table and reaching for the keys.

Dave quickly swiped them away from him, "How about I do it tonight? You've been working hard, Ellis. You deserve a break."

Ellis shook his head, "I don't see it as a job, ya know. More of a hobby. It's like what they say, working hard or hardly working?"

"Just... Try to get a good night's sleep, alright? Those bags have been visible all day, man."

Feeling the bags just under his eyes, he watched as dave went into the manager's office, leaving Ellis alone in the garage.

He looked around the garage. It was full of busted up cars, parts for them, and pictures on the wall of him and the gang. One was of Dave, Keith, and him on a rollercoaster, all screaming for their lives while on the appropriately named, Screaming Oak. Another picture depicted him and Keith as teenagers, driving around in an empty parking lot. He remembers that day, fondly. Keith felt like he was about to throw up, and when Ellis stopped the car, he jumped out near a dumpster and found the blue dusty hat Ellis still wears to this day just behind it. The hat with its recognizable tow-truck inspired them to start an auto shop business together, and now look at where they're at?

Ellis still remembers how Keith insisted it'd be called "Keith and Ellis' Auto Shop" but both Ellis and Dave insisted it'd be named after him, even if nobody technically owned the place.

When they weren't working, the 3 hanged out a lot together, more specifically, Keith and Ellis got into a lot of mischief. Between engineering their own bumper cars to camping out in military owned swamps, they did a lot together. Since they didn't care about money, they never took their auto shop job as anything but a fun hobby. Yeah, they were serious when customers were involved, but even then, why stop joking or messing about with tools? There's no harm to throwing a hammer at your friend, yelling "heads-up" when it's already strucken his toe.

Everything was going great for them, a good couple years of fun and stupidity. Not even that bastard Green Flu had affected them at all yet. It was good. Until a couple months ago, when Keith suggested another brilliant idea for a camping trip. This time, in some of Savannah's biggest hoods yet. Pretending to be a homeless person, sleeping in a tent on the street, hoping not to be mugged or killed. Ellis jokingly suggested bringing their prized military sniper with him, in case someone tries to break into his tent when he sleeps. Keith agreed to it, and brought the rifle with him, stuffing it under his pillow when he slept at night.

Unfortunately, that sniper was not street legal and when Keith heard a noise in the night and shot away at a racoon with half the magazine, the police showed up in a heartbeat. Luckily, he was only charged for owning an illegal weapon, not for using one, as both Ellis and Dave testified that he did not bring it for malicious intent and didn't own it for any bad reasons. He just wanted to shoot birds with a better rifle. So, he paid a hefty yet doable fine, and was locked up for a good amount of time.

Although this isn't anything new, he had to serve a day or 2 after being caught in restricted areas, but it was never to this much of an extent. Now, he's being put into a full-on prison, not a crappy little county jail.

Ellis, now sitting on his couch, after a long drive from the auto shop to his home, lost in thought, he grabbed his hat from his head and looked at it.

"Keith, Keith, Keith..." He muttered, putting it on a table next to him and lying his head on the arms of his couch.

Starting to doze off, he looked to the TV one last time, reading the headline of the news, "Multiple Green Flu mutations. Medicines ineffective."

Turning to the back of the couch, zoning out the TV's noise and light, he closed his eyes, having finally one good night's sleep, just before the apocalypse.