More than meets the eyes
My friends, thank you for all of your support, I never imagined I could get so many reviews. Please continue to send comments or even flames so that I will know my weaknesses, especially when it comes to descriptive writing which I totally suck. For your sakes, I hope you all have watched at least the Transformer movie preview so that you know how Bumblebee and Optimus Prime looks like when they transform because I have no idea how I'm going to describe their transformations or their robotic forms other than saying, "They transformed into humanoid robot forms". If not, well, use the old Generation One cartoon as your image then, it'll have to do.
Chapter 2: A friend in need
For the rest of the week, Kasumi spent her remaining free time reading the book that she bought on how to take care of auto-mobiles. As per the book's instructions, she managed to assemble a large set of tools to help her work with the car by either searching around the house or borrowing from the various shop owners that she knew. Some of them raised their eyebrows when Kasumi started to borrow wrenches, pliers, work lights, jumper cables and even coolant but they wrote it off as part of the repairs that would have to be made to the Tendo house or dojo as the destruction made by Ranma's escapades were well known. She spent the week familiarising herself with the basic necessities of a car as she had no time to actually practise it until the weekend.
After the arrival of Ranma and his father, their daily consumption of food forced Kasumi to more or less, go to the market every day to stock up on their food. It had put quite a strain on the household budget, which only revenue came from Tendo Soun's part time work at construction sites. Although Kasumi disapproved of Nabiki taking pictures of Ranma and Akane and then selling them to her school's perverted students, a quick overview of the finances forced Kasumi to keep silent on the issue. To put it simply, without the added revenue from Nabiki's activities the Tendo family could not support itself, what with rising property taxes, the huge amount of food consumed by their extended family and worst of all the damages to the house caused by Ranma's ….. friends.
So in order to make time to do her little project at the junk yard, Kasumi had to save time on the shopping trips, which meant that Ranma and his father had to go.
Of course not "go" in the sense of poisoning them in their next meal and ending their freeloading once and for all. No, Kasumi had to get them out of the house for at least a few days to stock up on their fridge and make sure she didn't have to go to the market during the weekend.
The opportunity came on Monday with the arrival of two girls called Natsume and Kurumi at the Tendo dojo. What followed was a whirlwind of events involving the supposed infidelity of their father resulting in Natsume and Kurumi being his illegitimate daughters, a fight between Ranma and Akane with the two sisters which resulted in the heirs of the Saotome and Tendo Anything Goes School of Martial arts respectively, being defeated. As expected, both of them didn't take the defeat very well and promptly left the house for several days to train.
This was a big relief to Kasumi as the elder Natsume ate next to nothing and when she did, only ate vegetables, while the younger Kurumi, despite her voracious appetite, nevertheless also ate moderately. The elder Saotome also had to consign himself to smaller meals as Kasumi decreased everyone's serving marginally. By her calculation, the decreased food consumption created a window of opportunity for her to stock up food for three days until Friday, when Ranma and Akane would return to duel with Natsumi and Kurumi. As for Ranma and Akane, Ranma basically fasted for the next few days whereas Akane dieted and used her allowance to survive for the next few days.
Despite Natsumi and Kurumi's claim that Tendo Soun was their father, Kasumi did not believe them for an instant but kept her opinion to herself. For one thing, the two sisters did not bear any resemblance to Tendo Soun and also, when she did the laundry for the Master Happosai, she had washed the very gi which had been shown in the picture that the two sisters had which supposedly identified their father. She was disgusted that Happosai had told such a dreadful lie to the orphans but she also rejoiced that Akane had been given a rude reminder and how backward her training was. As a result, the girl had been training long and hard to reclaim her place as heir to the Tendo school whilst Ranma did the same, having had his ass handed to him by the two girls. Kasumi therefore viewed Natsumi and Kurumi's arrival as a blessing in disguise and also harboured faith that come Friday's duel, Ranma and Akane would prevail.
Friday came and as expected, Ranma and Akane, through a surprising and rare display of cooperation and trust, defeated the two sisters and reclaimed their place as heirs to the Tendo Dojo. At the same time, Happosai had returned from his panty raids just as the final battle ended, resulting in everyone discovering his gi. He even revealed that it was him who trained Natsumi and Kurumi long ago and tricked them into believing that he was Tendo Soun, their father. An enraged Ranma and Akane promptly proceeded to beat him up while the sisters recovered from the shock that their saviour from long ago was the perverted master Happosai, whose sole purpose of training them was so that they could grow up to be sexy women for him to grope and steal underwear.
All in all, everything went well. Ranma and Akane had come out stronger from the ordeal although to Kasumi's annoyance, Ranma's foot in mouth disease got the better of him again in the end. The two sisters departed from the Tendo dojo on friendly terms, and Happosai was a shrivelled corpse reeling from the combined attack from Akane and Ranma. Also Kasumi managed to stock up the fridge so that she wouldn't have to go shopping during weekend and even Monday, freeing most of the weekend mornings for her secret project.
On Saturday, Kasumi dressed herself in an old skirt that still went below her knees and an old blouse before leaving early that morning for the junk yard. She cooked everyone's breakfast and left it on the table, with a note that she had to go shopping as she usually did every morning. The tools which she had collected were already left in the junkyard during the week; all she had to do was bring some clean rags as well as a creeper, which was basically a plank with wheels so that she could move underneath the car without damaging her clothes. This she borrowed last minute from her next door neighbour who did not ask any questions.
She felt excited as she entered the old junk yard. This was certainly a break from her daily routine, which was basically cleaning the house, cooking and witnessing the chaos that sprouted around Ranma. Now she was doing something on her own, something that nobody knew, not even her own sister Nabiki who rarely paid her any attention. But then, she discovered the first snag in her plan to service the old car.
Mainly how to drive it out of the corner behind the tank and into the more open space of the hangar.
She slapped her forehead as she never learnt how to drive the car. Sure she knew how a car worked as well as how to maintain it but actually driving it? That was something her book left out.
OK, looks like its time to improvise. I just hope I remember how Speed Racer drives his car when he isn't pushing all those buttons that make the car go sci-fi, she thought as she gingerly stepped into the driver's seat of the car. Taking a deep breath, she ignited the engine which roared into life. Trying to recall how Speed Racer drove his car, she tried pressing the rightmost pedal which she correctly surmised to be the oil but nothing happened. Umm, let's see, oh yes the gear, she remembered as she tried to move the gear into 1st gear. But the gear appeared stuck, unable to move into any of the gear positions.
Oh dear, what am I missing? she thought. She looked at her feet and noticed that there were three pedals all together. Three? Break, oil… what's the third one? Oh yes, the clutch, she thought to herself. Kasumi then pressed the clutch and tried shifting gear again. This time she succeeded and she smiled at her success before releasing the clutch.
All at once, she was flung back to her seat as the car jerked forward suddenly and she screamed when the car continued jerking forward. Praying to any god that it would work, she slammed both feet into the middle pedal and frantically tried to pull the gear back into neutral. The brake succeeded in slowing the car but jerky motions continued to push the car forward. Remembering the clutch, she screwed her courage to release her left foot off the brake and press on the clutch. With her left foot on the clutch she managed to put the gear on neutral and the car finally stopped short of ramming into the hangar wall.
For awhile, Kasumi just sat there shocked, the adrenaline making her heat pump harder than it ever had in her life. She couldn't believe that she had just nearly driven a car, let alone nearly rammed a wall. Eventually she let go of her breath and started laughing at the absurdness of her effort. And to top it all of, the radio roared to life with a song she was not familiar with:
Dare to be stupid
Come on and dare to be stupid
It's so easy to do
Dare to be stupid
We're all waiting for you
Let's go
"OK Mister Car, I get the picture. For once, I really am stupid, you happy now?" Kasumi giggled as she got out of the car, legs shaking slightly. She was partially satisfied that the car was at least out of the corner and had moved forward enough for her to have enough space to work on the car.
She pulled from under the tank, the toolbox where all her tools were assembled and dragged the heavy box next to the car. Going back to the driver's seat, she looked around until she found the button to release the hood. Moving back to the front of the car, she released the safety hold and opened the hood.
For the next five hours, she methodically ran through the book's contents, familiarising herself with the various car parts and functions. To help her along, she had brought little post it notes which she used to label parts of the car, even clutch, break and oil pedal as she referred to the book. Eventually, post it notes covered the entire interior of the car as well as the exterior. Everything was labelled, from the rear mirrors to the radiator inside the hood. She mentally ran through her labelling, making sure that it was accurately done, committing it into her memory until by the end of the 2nd hour, she had memorised every single part of the car. Only then did she finally start servicing the car.
Surprisingly, the book was truly effective and by three hours, she had completed the checklist at the end of the book, cleaning the sparkplugs, checking the air filter, filling the radiator with water and coolant (she bought radiator water for this purpose instead of normal water), cleaned the fuel injectors, lubricated the steering and suspension and in the end, gave the car a wash. This was done using an old pump that was still working at the junk yard. At one pm, five hours since she nearly had a heart attack from driving the car, she wiped her forehead with a dirty hand and stepped back to survey her work.
The car certainly looked much better. All the dirt had been washed clean and the waxing that Kasumi did had given the car a new and healthy shine. Despite the scorch marks, the car looked like a classic and it made Kasumi happy to know that she had done it herself. Although she dared not judge her own work, for the first time in her life she felt proud at doing all by herself without asking for any aid, doing a man's job no less.
She looked at herself and grimaced when she saw how filthy she looked. Grease, oil, dirt and lubricant stained her blouse and skirt, not to mention her hands and legs. When she looked at the now shining hood and saw her reflection, her hair was dishevelled and her face was smudged. She had been planning to sit into the driver's seat again and switch on the engine to see the fruits of her labour but decided not to dirty the seats which she had just wiped.
"Well Mister Car, I hope I've done an adequate job. I guess I'll have to get a book on how to drive as well. Sorry about the incident earlier," she then giggled. "I can't believe I'm having this conversation. Sigh, is this what's to become of me? To become a senile old woman?" she asked the heavens silently.
The radio crackled to life despite her removing the keys from the ignition.
I want to thank you
for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you
is having the best day of my life
This time, she was not startled. It defied her logic but then again, logic defying situations were found in abundance in Nerima. After encountering a boy who changed sexes when splashed by cold water, Chinese Amazons determined to make Ranma into their breeding stud, a Giant Ghost Cat who was in love with a cross dresser who also disguised himself as inanimate objects like post boxes, a car that seemed to talk with its radio hardly topped the list of Most Unusual Things In Nerima. Kasumi smiled again, recognising one of her favourite American songs, 'Thank You' sung by Dido.
"Please don't mention it Mr. Car," she frowned slightly. "Dear me, it does seem silly calling you Mr. Car. I don't suppose you have a name?"
Bumble bee, bump into me
I am in for pollination
Bumble bee, take what you see
I'm in need for your donation
I can't wait for your invasion
This time, she did frown and slammed her dirty hand on the hood. "That's very rude of you. Please refrain from using such suggestive songs. It's very vulgar. I may live under a roof with the greatest pervert in Nerima but it doesn't mean I like it nor tolerate it. Do you know how it feels like living with him? Never knowing whether one day, your underwear may not be enough for him?" Kasumi shivered at the few times that she caught Happosai looking at her. Whatever her father might say, that was NOT an innocent stare.
Softly, as though the car was sheepishly apologising, another song came out:
Please forgive me I know not what I do
Please forgive me I can't stop lovin' you
Don't deny me
She then took a cloth and promptly wiped the smudge that her slap had caused. "Sorry for getting angry over such a little remark. I know you didn't mean it. I'm just tired of hiding behind my mask. Everybody thinks I don't notice anything and I don't fear anything but I do. It's only mother's promise that makes me keep up the pretence that nothing fazes me. Strange isn't it? I can't be honest with my family but I can be honest with a car."
Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.
"It is isn't it," Kasumi agreed.
She sighed once again and collected all of her tools and put it back into the tool box. She then took out one last item she had obtained: a green car cover to hide the car.
"I hope you don't mind, your yellow colour stands out a lot. This should hide you adequately for awhile," she said as she covered the car. She then stored the tool box underneath the tank.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then. I'll have to study tonight how to drive you. Oh, I have to figure out exactly what type of car you are."
She sighed and put her hand on the car.
"Thanks for listening …. Bumblebee," she said quietly before walking away.
She heard a soft song from the car's radio and it put a real smile to her face.
Put your faith in what you most believe in
Two worlds, one family
Trust your heart
Let fate decide
She knew she made the right choice for a name then.
To be continued…
Author's notes
Remind me to kill Steven Spielberg for coming up with the idea of making Bumblebee mute and communicating with a radio. Because of this, I really have to think and stretch my imagination on how to get Bumblebee to communicate with Kasumi. ARRGHHH! I've gotta get the Autobots to Earth soon.
OK, gotta put disclaimers for the songs which I certainly don't own. In case you don't recognise the songs so far, here they are:
"Dare to be stupid" by Weird Al Yankovic (soundtrack for the 1986 Transformer movie)
"Thank you" by Dido
"Bumble Bee" by Aqua group
"Please forgive me" by Bryan Adams
"Two Worlds" by Phil Colins.
"Honesty" by Billy Joel