Chapter 7: The Mess
One Month Later
Doc had been back and forth between the courthouse, the clinic and Flo's for the past month. It was a nonstop effort to keep Harley safe and to keep the situation handled. But to him, it was worth it. Looking up from some paper work, Doc saw that it was almost time for lunch. He squinted his eyes at the clock and sighed. Harley had spent the day helping Luigi and Guido organize some tires, so he first made his way to the Casa del Tires. He slowly drove it and looked at what didn't look like organization. Tires were everywhere.
"Beh, è stato organizzato ..." Guido scoffed and Luigi sprinted in from outside.
"How did this happen!" Luigi cried and Harley smiled guiltily at him.
"Well, me and Guido were messing around, ya know, having fun!" Luigi went over to Guido.
"Guido! You know better!"
"Lei è una bambina, possiamo avere qualche divertimento! E avevamo organizzato, ma poi-" Luigi cut him off and Harley shrunk away.
"No,no, no, no, no!" He argued. "This is a business, not a fun house!" As they began another battle, Doc whistled to Harley. It caught her attention but not the attention of the Italians. She slowly and carefully drove past them and headed over to Doc.
"Really it was just an accident…" she whispered and Doc shook his hood.
"I'm sure it was." he whistled again, but louder this time. Just as planned, the arguing stopped and the two small cars spun around.
"Doc!" Luigi shouted then looked embarrassed. "Please excuse the mess!" he drove up to him and woefully tried to hide Doc's view of the shop. Guido did the same.
"Sarà ripulito al più presto. E 'stato un incidente." Guido quickly said.
"Guido. Luigi. It's fine. Harley will come and help fix it once she's done eating lunch."
"She doesn't have to do that! We can manage." Luigi assured him but Doc shook his hood.
"If she had any part in this mess, then yes, she does have to do that." The two Italians shrugged and smiled at the judge. Guido gave an apologetic look over at Harley.
"It's uh, it's okay. I'll help out, it's fine!" Harley offered and Doc nudged her and started to to drive off. Harley waved a tire good bye at the shop owners and began to quickly follow Doc.
"It really was an accident." she tried to concise Doc who simple chuckled with a small smile.
"I never said I didn't believe you." he said and he drove down the street to Flo's.
"Oh…" Harley said and looked at the road. "Well, It seemed like you didn't." She said and Doc nudged her again.
"Hey, it's fine. You'll just go and help then clean up after lunch." Harley looked up at him.
"That's okay, but I was supposed to meet with Ramone for another lesson." Doc drove up to the café and shrugged his tires.
"Well, I guess you better tell him you won't be able to." he said and glanced over at the sparkling pink and purple car. Harley sighed disheartedly and nodded.
"Okay…" she said and drove over to Ramone as Doc went off to give Flo their order.
Harley drove up as the Impala was joyfully sipping at his drink. He notice the small car drive up and he greeted her.
"Ey! Harlina!" he called as she drove up. "Ready for another lesson?" He asked and Harley looked at the pavement.
"About that…."she quietly said.
"Que paso? What wrong?" Ramone asked as he studied her.
"Guido and Luigi's shop is sort of… messy and it was sorta my fault. So…" Rome slightly rose his eye rims.
"Oh, I see. You gotta go help 'em out. It's alright, ninita; We can make it up tomorrow morning!" He smiled at her she she looked up and smiled back.
"Really? That'd be awesome!" she said hopefully.
"Yeah, chica. Awesome!" Harley nodded and drove off to find Doc. After finding him, she sprinted to her answer skidded to a stop once she was close.
"Whoa there! This one's a little speed demon!" Flo shouted as she drove over to them with their order. Doc slightly frowned at her and furrowed his eye rims then looked at Harley.
"Har, you can't be doing that, you could hurt yourself." he scolded and Harley's smile slightly faded.
"Okay…" she said and Flo nudged Doc as she set down their trays.
"Oh, she's fine, Doc. No harm done!" Doc rolled his eyes at her then looked over and the Harley.
"What did he say?" he asked and Harry's bright smile returned.
"Oh yeah! He said that we can make up for it tomorrow morning!" Flo looked at her with a raised eye rim.
"Make up for what?" she asked and Harley chuckled awkwardly.
"Heh, well… me and Guido were messing around and sort of ran it a few stack of tires and sort of made a huge mess." Flo laughed and shook her hood. "Oh you two could cause a lot of trouble!" she said then looked over at Ramone who was now talking to Sarge and Fillmore. "So you're missing your afternoon lesson and replacing it with a morning one?" Harley nodded happily and Flo chuckled.
"She needs to eat first before she can do any of that though." Doc strictly said and Harley drove over er to her food and began chowing down. Once she was done she started to sprint off.
"Gotta go!" she called and Doc began to chase after her.
"Harley! Slow down!" he said but she was gone. He gave up his chase and shook his hood. The other churches kled quietly, but he still heard them and slightly glared back.
"Doc, she's a kid, she's going to speed every once and awhile." Flo said and Doc drove over to her.
"So long as she doesn't speed everywhere for the rest of her life." Sheriff said with a bit of annoyance. "I can't stand hotrodders."
"That won't happen, Sheriff. And she's going to get hurt if she keeps speeding around like that. It's my job to make sure that doesn't happen."
"Doc, calm down, man. She'll be fine." Doc furrowed his eye rims at Ramone.
"She better." he said and began driving back to the courthouse. The others looked at each other and shook their hoods.
The next morning came quickly. Harley woke up with excitement at the daily verbal confrontation and sped over to Ramone's. Doc attempted to stop her, but was again unsuccessful and gave up once he got to Flo's. Harley burst into the paint shop and Ramone greeted her with a big smile.
"Ey! Bright and early! I like it!" he said and Harley nodded vigorously.
"Yep! I'm ready to work!" she said and Ramone laughed.
"Good! Because today we are working on finishes!" Harley then shook her hood. "What?" Ramone looked confused and Harley piped up.
"I think we should go on to self body art!" she shouted and Ramone moved back and inch.
"Why?" He asked as if investigated her.
"Because I wanna paint myself today!" whatever was left of Ramone's smile and completely left him now. He rose his eye rims and shook his head.
"No, no, no. We're not there yet." he said and began to drive off. "Plus Doc would have my hood…" he said under his breath with fear in his eyes and worry in his is voice.
"What?" Harley asked and rose shook his is is hood.
"No, just no. Maybe when you're older, okay?" Harley followed him to the counter filled with paint and tools.
"Why?" she begged on.
"Because Doc wouldn't like it, okay!" Ramone began to raise his voice, but it didn't phase the child.
"So?" at this Ramone seemed shocked.
"What do you mean, so?" He asked and began to sort out the tools. Harley then took one of the air brushes.
"I mean so what. You paint yourself everyday! I wanna try!" Ramone quickly tried to take the brush from her.
"No! You're not ready!"
"How do you know?"
"Because I do!" The fought over the brush. Ramone raised up with a huff. "Harley, give me the brush!" he demanded and she shook her hood.
"Nope!" Ramone lowered himself quickly, scaring Harley enough the jump back and hit the counter.
"Harley!" Ramone demanded again and tugged at the cable that the brush was connected to. A game of tug-of-war started.
"Just let me try!" suddenly the brush broke and Ramone's purple face was now a bright orange. "Oh my gosh!" Harley said and dropped the brush. "I-I can fix it! It won't take long!" she promised, but Ramone just had a look of shock, worry, and most of all, fear. "What's wrong?" Ramone shook his hood and was very low.
"We have to fix this now." he said and sped off to the other side of the shop. Harley was confused, until she caught a glance of herself in the reflection of a white hood.
"Oh no…" she said and saw that her own silver face was stained neon orange.
"Harley! Get over here!" Ramone called out and she sped over. "We're just going to paint over it… or take it off. Sand it off? Oh, I don't know what to do!" Ramone was panicking and driving around in circles.
"Uh, we can figure this out.. um. Just, uh… Calm down!" Harley tired to help but was just as lost as Ramone.
"Calm down? Calm down! Oh no, Doc's not gonna be calm! Oh he's going to kill me!" he whined and Harley furrowed her eye rims.
"No. No he won't we just, uh…" Ramone stopped and took a deep breath.
"Okay, we're going to fix this, but it's gonna take all morning so just, uh. Come on." he said and drove off to the paint booth. Harley sighed and followed him.
Doc had his breakfast at Flo's then spent the rest of the morning in the courthouse. He was headed to Flo's for lunch and saw that he was there before the two painters.
"Hm." he went over to Flo who was already bringing out his usual lunch. "Flo, have you seen Ramone and Harley?" He asked as he looked around.
"Haven't seen 'em." she said and Doc shook his hood. "She's been acting up lately… not sure what the problem is…" Flo scoffed.
"Problem? She's just being a child. There is no problem." She assured him. He kept a close eye out until finally -after about fifteen minutes of waiting- the two early risers drove up looking slightly worried.
"Whoo! That's some orange you got there!"Flo shouted once she saw Rome pull up.
"Yep! Let's just say, Harlina picked it out." he said as he drove up to his wife.
"Well she did good! You look great!" she complimented him and looked over at the ever worrying Harley. "Honey, you okay?" Flo looked over at Harley who was cautiously driving up to Doc. She wasn't orange, but she still looked worried.
"Harley, what's wrong?" Doc asked and looked her over carefully. "Are you feeling okay?" she glanced up and nodded.
"Huh, yeah. I'm okay." She said and Flo brought out her food.
"You sure?" she asked and Harley stared at her tray. Doc looked over at Ramone.
"Was she feeling okay this morning?" she asked him. "She looks a little pale." Ramone shrugged.
"She seemed fine to me." He said and bit the inside of his cheek.
"Hm." Doc scoffed and looked Harley over again. "Let's go to the clinic. Your color is worrying me." Harley jumped up and moved away from him.
"No, I'm okay. Really!" she said but could help but cough from all the time spend in the paint room that day.
"No, we're going. Come on." Harley sighed and looked over to Ramone for help, but his eyes were darting around the pavement. Harley drove behind Doc and avoided eye contact.
"Did you feel okay this morning when you woke up?" Doc asked then quietly chuckled to himself. "You sure looked like it when you darted off." Harley awkwardly laughed with him.
"Heh, yeah, I did sorta dart out. But, I felt fine getting up and driving off." she then thought if she should play along and pretend to be sick. "Uh, I mean I felt a little, um, dizzy. Yeah, I had a headache." She then decided against the idea when she saw the worried look in Doc's eyes. "But it went away! I feel okay now."
"Hm.." they went into the examination room and Doc did a standard check up. "Open you mouth." he said and she listened. He put a thermometer under her tongue and waited for it to beep. Once it did he looked at it and tilted his hood slightly with furrowed eye rims. "You're temperature is a little high." Harley looked around, avoiding his eyes and biting the inside of her cheek. "Why don't you stay here for the rest of the day and rest, okay?" she looked up at him and nodded slowly. "I'll give you some medicine and we'll see how you are after that."
"O-okay." she stuttered and Doc did as promised. He left to a shelf and looked through some bottles until he found the one he wanted. It was flu and fever medicine. He pushed the small vile to her.
"Drink up." he said and she swallowed her spit.
"I-I don't think I need that." Doc shook his hood.
"I'm the doctor. Now drink it." She stared at it for a moment longer. "Harley." He said strictly. "Drink it." Harley sighed and did as she was told.
"Bleh!" she drank every drop and just as she thought, it was disgusting.
"Good job. I'll be checking up on you throughout the rest of the day." Doc said and left. Once she was sure he was gone she let out a sigh of relief. He looked out the window and saw the V8 Café. Ramone was talking with Flo and shortly after, Doc joined them. Harley bit her lip and watched with worried eyes. Doc said a few words then left. Once he was gone, Flo nudged Ramone and he looked relived. Harley stopped biting and smiled ever so softly.
"Good. He doesn't know... " She said looking off to the direction Doc drove off in. "Maybe he was right. Maybe painting isn't such a good idea." she said and drove over to where she slept and drifted off.
