Chapter 6: A Painter


Doc yawned awake. He stretched out his axles and started his morning routine. Listening to the nearby argument, he drove up to Harley's bedroom door. He knocked twice with his tire and got no response.

"Harley, you awake?" He asked and slowly pushed the door open. She was parked in her usual spot and was sound asleep. The little radio sit beside her and was playing soft static. Doc cracked a half smile and drove over to the radio. He turned it off and ironically woke up Harley.

"Morning… Doc" she yawned as she stretched her axles. "Last night was fun." she gave him a sleepy smile. Doc chuckled as he thought about the party.

"Yeah, it was." he said and patted her fender. "You should sleep in, you had a long night. The arguing had died down next door and Doc glanced at the window. "Otherwise, you'd be as grumpy as Sarge over there." Harley giggled tiredly.

"That would be no good." she said and Doc chuckled again.

"Right." Doc said and patted her fender. "You go back to sleep, I'll come and check on you in an hour, okay?" Harley nodded and closed her eyes again as Doc made his way out to the courthouse. Harley tried, but she couldn't go back to sleep. She the smelt something strange, but it was a familiar strange. A smell she thought she'd never get used to, even if it had been the same one every day for the past year. Paint. She drove out of the clinic and passed by Flo's.

"Morning, soldier." Sarge called out and Harley giggle.

"Morning, Sarge" she saluted with her tire and Sarge rolled his eyes.

"Good morning, Harley." Fillmore said and Harley waved.

"Good morning Fillmore." Fillmore smiled at her and she giggled again. She could tinted her path and pushed softly through the doors of the body shop where a blue and purple Impala was singing and mixing some new paint and spraying it on a testing board.

"Booorrrn! In East L.A! I was. Booorrrn! In East L.A!" he glanced up and saw Harley. He then rose up and turned around in a hurry.

"Hay, mija!" He was wearing a mask and Harley giggled.

"You look funny, why do you-" Before she could finish, Ramone was rushing to put a mask on her face. "What the!?"

"You can't just come in here while I'm working, Harlina! It's dangerous. The fumes can mess with your engine and lungs and, hijole you don't want that. He backed up and looked at Harley. "There. All set." Ramone lowered to his normal height and Harley tugged at the mask and Ramone swatted her tire away.

"But you do the always wear one." she whined and Ramone shook his hood.

"I've been doing this for a while. And I'm an older car. Tu eres un chicita."

"What?" Harley asked and Ramone chuckled.

"You're a little girl." he translated. "And you're too young to be exposed to these fumes. He then rose and pointed a tire to a corner of the room near the ceiling. "Plus my rooms dental action system isn't working." he said with a touch of annoyance.

"Is that why I can smell this stuff all the way from the clinic" she asked and Ramone raised his eye rims.

"Really? Da- I mean. Wow, I really need to get that thing fixed." he nearly cursed, but Harley didn't catch it.

"What color are you using today?" she asked and drove over to his work station. There were many cans of paint they had tight lids covering them, two or three other that were open. Ramone shook his hood and drove up beside her.

"Well, I'm testing different ones put on this board here. I though silver old be nice, then I thought mint green, como mi esposa, then I thought, nah, that color needs to be on one car only. Well," he thought for a second then laughed. "with the one exception of when we got married." Harley giggled then look up at the Impala.

"How'd you and Flo meet?" she said and Ramone lowered himself even more as he thought of the story.

"Oh, it was a long time ago." he started. "Way back when the town was busy, some Motorama girls were driving through town. Their chaperone blew her transmission just outside of town.

"So, while Doc fixed their chaperone, they had some time to kill. They got new tires from Luigi, souvenirs from Lizzie, and a new paint job from Ramone's because Ramone's is where it's at! I told them, sure, I'd be glad to paint pinstripes there, a flame job there. No biggie.

"Then I got to the last one and then, boom, I threw down my brush. She turns to me and says "What, you too good to paint me?" and I said, "No, no. You're too good for me to paint! I can't touch a classic." The next day when the girls left, Flo stayed. We've been together ever since."

"So, she just stayed? Why?" Ramone chuckled and lifted himself up a little.

"Well, when you know they're the one, you stick with 'em" Harley chewed on that for a while before asking another question.

"How did she know you were.. 'the one?" Ramone chuckled and leaned over towards Harley.

"When you find them, you just know." she said and Harley simply nodded, still lost. She then turned her attention back to the paint cans.

"I think you should go with the silver! Like me!" she said and looked at her gray hood.

"You know what, that's a great idea." Ramone said and took the silver paint and started to pour it in his airbrush.

"Can I help paint you!" Harley asked and Ramone chuckled.

"Sorry, mijita. Can't let you do that." Harley grunted and frowned.

"Why not?" she whined and Ramone set down the paint and looked at her with a serious expression.

"It takes a lot of practice." he began to explain and Harley jumped up.

"What did you start practicing?" she asked and Ramone looked up and thought about it.

"Well my dad gave me my first airbrush lesson when I was… when I was about.. oh." he stopped himself and furrowed his eye rims.

"What?" Harley asked and urged him to finish his sentence.

"When I was about your age…" he said defeated and Harley raised her eye rims high and pouted her lip even though it wasn't visible behind the mask. "Alright, fine." Harley jumped up.

"Yay!" she shouted and Ramone waved his tire.

"Calm down, chica! We're going to practice on this loose hood over here, okay?" Harley nodded and Ramone finished filling the airbrush. "Okay, ven aca." he said and gestured with a tire to follow. She sped across the room and Ramone started to spray the hood in an even back and forth motion. "See. Make sure the paint is evenly applied, otherwise you could have splotches of paint and an uneven coat." Harley nodded and watched carefully. "Alright, you try." he attached the airbrush to her tire and she excitedly sprayed the hood quickly. "No, no, no, no! That's too fast, mida!" Ramone pointed to the red splotches behind the silver. "You can see the paint underneath."

"Oh…" Harley said and tried again. "Like this" Ramone relaxed and nodded.

"Si, like that." he watched as she covered the area in a nice coat of a metallic light gray. "Hey, you're pretty good at this. Maybe one day you could be a painter like me." Harley looked up at him with big hopeful eyes. "That would be so cool!" she shouted and took the airbrush off. Ramone had an invisible satisfied smile hidden by his mask. He took the airbrush and drove into his paint booth.

"Okay, Harley, I'm going to the hard part then I'll let you do the easy stuff. Sound good?"

"Mhm!" Ramone went off for a moment then came back with a few more brushes.

"One of these is black and the other is silver. I think we could do a simple design today. What do you say?"

"As long as I get to help!" Harley said and went to get the silver brush.

"Alright!" Ramone began to make room for the job and started to wrap his tires in plastic. "After the silver paint settles, we're going to go over it with some black racing stripes!"

"What are those?" Harley asked and Ramone shook his hood.

"Just paint where I tell you to." Harley nodded once. "If we want to get out before noon, we better get to work."


After about an hour, it was 10:30 a.m. and Harley and Ramone were putting the last few finishing touches.

"There we go!" Ramone said as they finished. "Okay, now we will carefully take off the tape and paper." They started the end of the job and once they were done, Ramone drove up to a mirror and smiled once she saw the final result.

"I think we did good." Harley proudly said.

"Good?" Harley's smile slightly faded. "Harlina, this is the best paint job I've had in awhile!" Harley's smile returned and she giggled as chuckled. "Let's go show everyone how we did." Harley jumped up and began the speed out the door. Ramone slowly followed her and the headed next door to Flo's. Everyone was there and talking, including Doc who rolled his eyes as soon as he saw the color of Ramone's paint job.

"Would you look at that!" Flo shouted. As she saw how similar the gray silver colors of the two cars were. "You trying to win a look-a-like contest?" She joked and Doc shook his hood with a small half smile.

"You look great, Ramone." He scoffed and Ramone lifted himself up high and slightly lowered himself as he drove up. Harley sped past the Hispanic car and straight to Doc.

"Guess what! I helped!" Doc's small grin quickly faded.

"What?" He stared down Ramone and his smile also faded quickly.

"Look, Doc, I wasn't going to let her, but she-"

"You let a child help you! You realize how dangerous that is, right?" Doc said and moved away from Harley and headed towards Ramone with anger in his eyes.

"Doc, listen man." Ramone backed up and Doc waved his tire.

"No, no. Don't 'listen man' me! She should've breathed in those horrid fumes and gotten hurt!

"Doc, no. She was okay, I pro-"

"And if she wasn't okay! What is something went wrong? I respect your line of business, I really do, but it should only be conducted by a professional! No one else! Let alone a child!"

"Doc, I was okay really!" Harley tried to butt in and fix it, but Doc hot hours toe hard on the ground.

"No! It's my job to keep you safe!"

"Doc, she was safe, believe me!" Ramone was very low on his chassis and had a look of worry and fear fill his eyes.

"About as safe as a beetle in a tractor stampede!"

"Doc, please, it's okay! I want to be a painter!" Harley rose her voice loud and everyone silently looked at her. "It was fun…" her voice returned to its usual softness.

"Doc, she had a mask on, she had a beginner's airbrush. She was fine." Doc looked from Harley to Ramone and back again.

"I think being a painter would be cool…" Doc was frustrated but also relieved that she wouldn't be following her family's tire marks. "R-Ramone can teach me… I-I'll be very careful… I promise." Ramone cautiously moved forward.

"She's.. she's in safe tires, man. I promise nothing bad will happen to her…" Everyone held their breath while Doc exhaled.

"A painter, huh?" He said and turned to Harley who nodded at him. "Well.. if you're going to do something, might as well learn how to do it well." Doc said and began to drive off. "Looks like you've got yourself a good teacher..." he drove off and vanished as he drove around the clinic and into his garage. Everyone began breathing again and just stared at the two gray cars.

"He's, uh, had a long morning…" Sheriff said above the silence. Ramone looked at Harley and saw how upset the whole scene made her, so he put on a half smile and nudged her.

"Ey, how about you come to my shop once or twice a week and I give you a body art lesson when you do." She looked up at him and smiled softly. "Sound good, little painter?" she nodded slightly.

"Yeah, sounds good." From that day on, she began going to him twice a week. Learning the tricks of the trade, she got better. And soon thought, maybe she did want to do this. But maybe as a hobby. She felt as if something else was out there, but for now, she'd just simply paint away.