"I've been watching you," she said looking down at the ground and kicking the grass around with her foot.
"You've been watching me?" I asked, slightly weirded out by the fact that someone had been watching me and I wasn't even aware of. She must have been pretty good at it, too. There really weren't a lot of places to hide in and around my Dad's garage and our house. I had looked. She was pretty scrawny though. I guess that helped. And, thinking of her past actions, I never looked up in the trees.
"Not you, the garage, you guys fixing up the cars," she corrected.
"Oh," I said, a slight bit of ego drained from me.
"Well, I like cars and I like to be away from my house. It seemed to fit pretty well," she said as if it were a validation for stalking.
"Have you ever actually worked on a car before?" I said. I know there were often a lot of cars around her house, but I never saw any hoods popped.
"I used to watch my brother work on cars. He was a racer," she said.
"Really? What circuit does he race in" I asked, this had peeked my interest. I couldn't wait until I was old enough to start racing.
"The street circuit," she laughed sarcastically.
"Where is he now?" I said, looking around.
"He got killed," she said, finally sitting back down. She said this with more emotion than she had when she mentioned her mother's death.
"That sucks. I'm sorry. Did he get killed in a race?" I asked. I felt like I was prying but something about this girl fascinated me and I wanted to learn more.
"No," was all she said.
"Well, whenever school is supposed to get out then I am going back to the garage to help my Dad. If you ever want to stop just peeping and start helping I don't think he'd mind," I offered. My Dad loved teaching anyone about cars. He tried and tried with Mia but she just never had the interest. She knew all that she cared to know by the time she was about 8. "In fact I think he would prefer it to having some little girl stalking us."
She just rolled her eyes and didn't say anything. With that, I turned and started walking away- the direction opposite of the garage.
"Thanks," she said, barely audible. I didn't respond. I acted like I didn't hear her and just kept walking. I kept thinking about how strange that whole interaction had been. Why had I just invited her back to my Dad's garage? Then I started worrying that she would tell him I hadn't been at school. This was, of course, a ridiculous concern because she had not been at school either. But, my Dad took our schooling seriously. He had never graduated from high school and was determined that Mia and I would.
A few hours later, when I saw the school bus drive by its usual stop and drop off Mia, I ran up to her.
"Where were you
today?" she asked, clearly pissed off. I had never seen a
ten-year-old take school so seriously. We didn't go to the same
school but it was pretty obvious that I had not been to any school.
"Do you know that girl that lives down the street?" I asked
pointing to Letty's house.
"I don't think so. Why? You got the hots for her?" she asked annoyed.
"No, she's not my type," I laughed.
"What, not trashy enough?" she asked.
"Not old enough. You should know me better than that, trashy has nothing to do with it," I laughed. I was such a smartass at that age.
"So, why didn't you go to school?" she insisted.
"Mia, my birthday is tomorrow. I'll be fourteen. I really don't think school is a big concern right now," I said. And that was the truth. At that point in my life, school was very low on the priority list. I knew that I didn't care about graduating. And, with the grades I had, it seemed like it may be a reality. Of course, I didn't want to deal with my Dad's reaction to that. I was destined to be a gear-head.
She gave me the look I deserved with that statement, "What?"
"Nevermind. Listen, don't tell Dad I wasn't at school," I begged, well begged as much as I was willing to. Before she could answer, we were at the garage.
"Hey guys," my Dad said, rolling out from under a car as he heard us walk up. "How was school today?"
Mia just glared at me. She was never one to appreciate the rules being bent. And usually she squealed on me. But, she did not today, for some reason. She just said, "fine."
"Dominic, how was school?" he asked, looking at me suspiciously.
"Same as always, I guess," and that was the truth. I doubted that it had changed much from last time I went. "Dad, can I talk to you? Alone?" This helped to change the subject. I didn't like lying to my Dad. It was better to just not mention things.
I didn't typically want to talk about anything. So, at this, my Dad figured it must be pretty important. I needed to give him a heads up about Letty. I figured if I could place the burden on his shoulders, it would save me a lot of confusion. He got up and we walked back into his office. He sat in his rolling chair and I sat in the chair beside his desk.
"So, there's this
girl," I started. But, before I could keep going he got a knowing
grin on his face.
"Always a girl," he said. I did talk to him
about girls occasionally. But, usually it was a much less wholesome
conversation than I wanted to have right now.
"Well, this is a little different. I met that girl that lives down the street. The one that the cops came about a few weeks ago," I said, waiting for a reaction. When I did not get one I just continued. "Anyway, I don't really know what her deal is. But, she is really into cars. She seems lonely and really scared of something. I told her that if she needed somewhere to go, she could come by the garage and maybe we would teach her a thing or two about cars." This was mostly the truth.
"Something about this girl has caught your interest," he said. He knew me.
"She's probably Mia's age, Dad. I'm just trying to be nice," I said defensively.
"Dom, you always have other intentions with girls," he added.
"Like, she's ten," I added indignantly. For some reason, I could not take anyone thinking that I liked her. She was too young. It was creepy.
"Ten-year-olds grow up, son. Don't discount a girl that likes cars. They are few and far between," he said. This was actually very good advice. My Dad was exactly the way I wanted to be. He didn't speak unless he was going to say something good. He was strong, silent, the kind of guy that no one would fuck with. He seemed cold. But, he would show his softer side if he knew you well enough.
"Dominic, you know that she'll be welcome here. If we can help her than we should. But, you may want to find out exactly what is going on there. It may be a little more than we can handle," he said sensibly.
More than we could handle? What was that supposed to mean? I could handle anything.
So, with that ending, we went back to the garage. I was impressed with my Dad's reaction to the situation. When we walked back in, Mia was gone. She usually dove into her homework immediately after school ended. Sometimes, she would help my aunt at her mini mart/sandwich shop up the block. Either way, I was glad she wasn't there when Letty arrived. I didn't think Mia would care much for Letty's "leave me alone" attitude.
She walked up to the door of the garage about an hour after we started. I looked up from the hood of a Chevy and saw her standing there. She looked right at home. She didn't really walk past the doorway, but she looked around like it was Christmas morning.
"Hey, Letty," I said setting down the bolts that mounted the water pump to the fan clutch. I wiped my hands off on my coveralls and walked up to her. I stopped and picked up a shirt I knew would be big enough to cover all her clothes and said, "here, slip this on."
"Tony Toretto," my Dad said extending his hand to Letty's. She was hesitant at first, but shook it.
"Letty," she said.
"Well, Letty, Engines 101," he said taking her over to a car that had been towed in this morning because the engine wouldn't start. "Let me teach you about lack of compression and piston rings…"
He went on. He was very careful to explain everything to her. Granted, it took him twice as long to replace the worn out rings, but it was worth it. It was worth it to Letty anyway. I don't know how the car's owner felt about it. As it turned out, I didn't really have a lot of dealings with Letty in the garage that day. I was busy replacing a clutch fan.
I did notice, though, that when you got Letty under the hood of a car, she came alive. She was a different person. She was so interested. She talked a lot and asked a lot of questions. I even saw her smile that first day. And, it wasn't a sarcastic smile. It was genuine.
Things continued pretty steadily like that for a few months. Outside of the stop, Letty would shut down. I had tried to talk to her about her world but she never gave me any information. But, one morning, about six months after Letty became a permanent feature at the garage, I woke up. I stepped down out of my bed and felt someone. I looked down and saw Letty sleeping on my floor. I was still half asleep, but this got my attention. I looked around, as if expecting something to happen, but it didn't.
"Um, Letty, is there something I can do for you?" I asked confused and shaking her with my foot.
She looked up at me with the same desperate eyes I saw that first day she was in the tree. She sat up.
TBC
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AJ