Disclaimer: I am not Universal Pictures (try to hold down your surprise). I do not own the fast and the furious/any movie-related characters. I own a Mac and make this stuff up for personal entertainment. This disclaimer also applies to all previous and subsequent chapters because I don't want to be redundant. Happy reading, AJ
I loved summers in LA. I guess I loved anything that didn't involve school, though. June was never too bad, upper 70's. July was the month that was always so humid. My Dad's garage wasn't air-conditioned. They had plenty of ceiling fans strategically placed around but it never really got cool, just bearable. Of course, that was part of the entertainment. Having sweaty hands added the extra challenge of keeping a grip on your tools. It became a game. So far today it was me versus the sun. The sun was winning and my big toe was taking the loss pretty hard.
I had been leaving my window open every night in case Letty needed to a place to run to. I found her on my floor about once a week. I tried not to ask a lot of questions and she never volunteered information. I always kept a pretty close watch on her house, though, to see who was coming and going. Of course, as the weeks progressed she was spending more and more time at my house. She and Mia had not completely bonded yet. Mia was looking for a girl friend and Letty was looking for an education.
My dad and his buddies at the garage seemed to enjoy having Letty hang around. She was very eager and a fast learner. This was beneficial to a bunch of large, scruffy mechanics. Her hands were small enough to fit anywhere and she was willing to make the extra effort to appease them. This probably allowed her to learn more about the internal workings of a combustion engine than Vince and I ever would.
I never told Vince what Letty had told me the morning I found her on my floor for the first time. I would have preferred to never have to tell him about Letty sleeping on my floor but I felt this maybe unrealistic, at least to a degree. For some reason, I felt like I needed to shield her from everyone and everything- she was my personal responsibility. I enjoyed being the only person she was willing to confide in. I had never really played that role in someone's life before and it made me feel like an adult.
Vince came from an alright home. Alright is a very relative term. And, where we lived, there were very few homes that were pristine. Beaver Clever did not grow up in my neighborhood. I realized that I had, by far, the best home life of anyone living around me. Vince's dad had run out on his mother when he was very young. His mom was remarried. His stepfather pretty much ignored him completely about 60% of the time. But, the other 40% was pretty rough. During this 40% his stepfather drank a lot of whiskey. He was not one of those happy-go-lucky drunks. Instead, he was pretty volatile. When Vince hit adolescents the beatings became a lot worse. He was never hospitalized but it was still a very bad situation. On days when Vince saw his stepfather starting to drink he would spend the entire day at my house and go home just in time for bed. This would typically protect him from anything. But, I could see that it was starting to affect him more and more. He was growing much more capricious. This paired with his size, I suspected, could be a deadly combination. But, he was a good guy to have on your side.
On the 4th of July the shop closed early. My dad was having one of his famous barbeques. All the fellows from his garage were there with their wives or girlfriends. One of them had a son, but he was much older than Vince and I. Naturally, my dad invited Vince and Letty to come. He even told them that they could bring their families. I am not sure that either of them even mentioned it to their adult "caregivers" though. It was a fun party. My dad was a whiz at the grill. This was another skill he was attempting to teach me- the importance of perfect grilling. I took it to heart.
Mia was making sure that everyone had drinks and napkins, God love her. She was handing out plates and refilling chip bowls just as hard as she could.
As night approached, the fireworks started. I enjoyed fireworks, who doesn't? But I would have preferred to be working in the garage. Dad always said that you needed to take a break from work to live your life. Working with my dad was my life, always would be. This seemed silly to me. But, I didn't argue. So, I stood looking up at the sky with everyone else. I glanced over at Letty. Her eyes were so big. It reminded me of the first time she got to help install break pads. I had never seen someone get so excited about something most people would deem as mundane as break pad installation. But, that's Letty. It was the small things that made her world light up. And, tonight, it was apparently fireworks.
"You look very…intrigued," I said slowly and with fascination. I had never seen anyone look at fireworks like this before. I didn't see fireworks very often, mainly July 4th, New Years, and random other summer nights when kids would decide to have fun. But, this was even more fascinating than the fireworks to me.
"I've never really watched fireworks," she said almost automatically, still not taking her eyes off the sky.
"Really?" I asked surprised. Granted, Letty was not one to really make something like that up so it was a bit of a rhetorical question. I asked it nonetheless.
She didn't answer. She just kept looking up. At this point, I was used to asking Letty questions that never got answered. Something I learned about her very quickly was that she would tell you things in her own time. You could never rush anything out of her. And, if you tried, she would close up completely and then you had no chance of getting another peep out of her for a while. So, I let it go. I figured it wasn't important. I was just glad that she was seeing them now, with us. I stood there just watching her. She looked so innocent, just like any other kid. And, I think, at this moment she probably felt like any other kid. The burdens of her world were not on her right now. And, that was really cool to see.
"Dominic," Vince said quietly, walking up behind me. Letty ignored us completely and stood, glued to the sky.
"What's up?" I asked, turning to acknowledge him.
"Do you think I can stay here tonight. Peter, well, I don't think I should go home tonight. It's a holiday, you know? I don't really want him to celebrate with me," he said as nonchalantly as a fourteen-year-old kid that was scared shitless could say. I tried to play it cool, also, to help him maintain some dignity.
"No problem, anytime," I said. He knew this was true. But, unlike Letty, he was big and strong enough to handle his own problems most of the time. He knew his stepfather well enough to have invented a pretty successful system of avoidance. But, I knew that Vince was right. Tonight, his stepfather would be up late. And he would probably be pissed off about something stupid like the fact that a bunch of aristocratic colonialists didn't want to pay their taxes back in the 1770's.
Of course, I started to think, this put me in a bit of a dilemma. Given that the 4th of July was a pretty exciting time in LA, it may be a night that Letty needed a place to crash also. I didn't want to pussyfoot around the issue. I needed to talk to Letty about it. This had to be thought through, though. I didn't want to mention that I was going to tell someone else about the situation and violate her trust. I knew that she would not want Vince to know and I was afraid that if she thought I was going to tell him that she would try to act strong, shrug it off as no big deal. She would say that she wouldn't need to stay at the house and then might be placed in a situation that she needed escape from and have no where to go. I could not handle that. So I decided the best thing to do would be to go on the offensive.
"Hey Letty," I said, trying to break her trance.
"Hm," she said, still not looking at me.
"Why don't you crash here tonight? I think Vince is going to stay. It could be cool. We'll watch 'Ghostbusters' or something," I said attempting to make it sound enticing. I realized that I probably sounded pretty lame. But, around Letty, I didn't much care. And, honestly, there was not a single kid/adolescent at the time that wasn't always down with watching 'Ghostbusters' (I or II).
She finally stopped looking at the fireworks. She looked over at me. She stared into my eyes for what seemed like a very long time, probably only about 10 seconds though. Her eyes told me that she understood what I was saying. With as close to a 'thank you' as she could muster she said, "alright". She shot me a small, half smile then immediately averted her gaze back to the sky. I loved how well she understood me. Not even Vince understood me that easily and quickly. I enjoyed how our nonverbal communication often said so much more than our words.
Vince tugged at my shirtsleeve and pulled me over to the side. Here it came, I thought.
"What was that all about?" he asked confused as to why I would invite Letty to hang out with us outside the shop. He tolerated Letty really well at the garage. And, I think he was even starting to respect and enjoy her presence. But, I do not think he anticipated a girl so young joining our social circle.
I didn't want to divulge too much information. I was trying to stay a neutral party and hide everything from everyone- always a good idea. So I just said, "Hey, Letty's cool. Besides, she knows more about suspension than you ever will!" As if this had anything to do with her staying over.
"Nah, she's fine. But, why did you invite her to stay the night? You have a thing for her?" he asked suspiciously.
"Dude, she just turned twelve. That's gross," I said. I felt like he just accused me of having a thing for Mia.
"Hey no judgments," he joked. "But, so, what then?"
"It's like you, man. Sometimes she needs to just not go home," I said. I vowed that was all the information that I would disclose right now.
He saw a look in my eyes that he could always recognize. It was the all to familiar 'don't say anything' look. It took him a while to understand this look in the beginning. But it was the look I used when I didn't want him to mention anything about my skipping school around my dad. I guess he figured that I had my reasons and didn't mention it again. That was helpful.
I decided I should tell my dad. He was on his sixth Corona at this point and in pretty high spirits. I knew he would not care if Vince stayed. But, he needed to know about Letty.
"Dad," I said, walking up to him. Luckily his buddies did not surround him so it was easier to have a more private conversation.
"Vince and Letty are going to stay over," I said casually.
"Letty?" he asked raising an eyebrow. He just chuckled and shook his head. "You got a thing for her son?"
"God, why does everyone think that?" I asked exasperated.
He just smiled again and shrugged.
"No!" I exclaimed. "They both just need a place to crash, geez."
"That's fine. But, you keep your hands to yourself with Letty…and Vince for that matter," he joked.
I just rolled my eyes and walked back over to where Vince and Letty were standing. Me, like Letty? That would never happen.
TBC
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AJ