Chapter IV
The city is bustling. Cars in the shape of beetles pack the roads, mopeds snake through traffic, and people crowd the sidewalks. Ashleigh desperately holds onto Toads hand as he relentlessly pushes through the sea of people. The city is even bigger and busier than New York; Ashleigh feels a bit overwhelmed. They push and look all afternoon, occasionally asking locals to which respond with little or no helpfulness. Eventually they stumble upon a run down and slummy part of town, with significantly less people and cars. Ashleigh looks a mess, and quite exhausted from holding on for dear life. But after a long day of searching for a Junkyard, Toad and Ashleigh walk up to an old chain gate, and as they walk in, a black car with tinted windows dives away. Emerging from the dust is an old man with a slight hunch, raggedy and dirty clothes, and a concerned look as he grabs on top the gate to close it.
"Excuse me," Toad starts. "Are you open?"
"Barely," the old man's raspy voice chuckles.
"We'd like to come in and look around if that's okay," responds Toad.
The old man's baggy face scans the two. Toad with his giant back pack and Ashleigh with her street clothes make it apparent that they hold no poor intentions. "Come on in, but be fast. I gotta close up for the night in a bit."
The two enter and begin searching. The Junkyard is filled with rusted and destroyed vehicles, most of which is beyond repair. Burned karts, trucks with large portions missing from the body, bikes that are twisted, crushed, and rusted close to dust. Luckily there are parts in some of the destroyed karts and bikes that if they are able to find a repairable body and tires, they could build a kart. They search all day only finding small parts for an engine and a single tyre. Earlier in the day, Ashleigh noticed the old man watching them search as he sat on the porch of his house. Next to his house is a large garage with fogged windows. After gathering the final remnants of parts for the kart, they look over what they have as the sun peaks over the horizon.
"Alright Toad," starts Ashleigh. "What have we got so far?"
"Some bearings, a few belts, a fuel filter, a clutch, some pistons, and one singular tyre," says Toad, proudly holding up the tire.
Ashleigh exhales. "I'm so fucked," she sits defeated on a large ripped tractor tyre.
"It's okay, Ashley," Toad sits to console the girl. "We can try again tomorrow."
"We're running out of time, Toad! If I don't get this money by the end of the month I'm gonna end up homeless!" Shouts Ashleigh.
"What do you mean?"
"In this world, you can get away adventuring and living wherever you want, but in my world, you need to give up half your money to a government that doesn't care about you just to stay alive, and because I messed up, my uncle is going to have to sell his garage and almost everything we own just to keep our house!"
"We still have time though."
"We can't spend all month building a bike, there's not enough time!" Rebuttals Ash.
"Races happen everyday, there'll be more junk in the morning-"
"Actually, no there won't," the old man starts, appearing from behind a pile of wreckage.
"What do you mean?" Replies Toad.
"I mean, my Junkyard is finished," the old man starts. "The city took my land to build another God forsaken distribution center. Lord know we need more," he finishes, sarcastically.
"Great!" Yells Ashleigh, "now we have to waste more time looking for another junkyard!"
"I was listenin' to you a bit, and I see what you got piled here… you're buildin' a Kart, aren't ya?" The old man interjects.
"Well, we're trying," replies Toad.
"Alright then," the man begins walking away. "Come on," he says, waving toward the two. They get up and follow the old man to the large garage door. "Wait here," he says, making his way into the house. The garage door roars. It squeaks against the old metal rails as the contents of the garage appear from the dust. The garage is covered in it, clearly, it hasn't been touched in quite some time. Old parts and tools coated in a fluorescent dust. Boxes molding on the floor and a large tarp hiding an unfinished project in the center of the garage. The old man grabs the tarp and launches it off and across the room. From the massive cloud of dust emerges a pipe frame bike. The engine sits pristinely in between the pipes, the two racing tyres hold onto red rims, and the exhaust pipes shine in the light. The old man walks to a tarp in the corner of the garage and rips it off to reveal a metallic, sporty body for the bike, still unpainted. Hope fills Ashleigh's eyes.
"There's a couple parts that it still needs," the old man starts. "Probably a new battery too, but everything you need is here. Shouldn't take you more than a week." The old man starts walking back in his house when Toad stops him.
"Why are you giving this to us?" He asks.
"The MKL open qualifier is this weekend, if you can rebuild that bike in time I'll let you take it free of charge," responds the old man disappearing into his house.
"That- didn't answer my question though…"
"Alright," she claps her hands. "Let's get to work!"
"Actually Ashley, why don't we turn in for the night. It's already pretty late," Toad yawns.
Ashleigh, although frustrated with the response, was forced to agree as she also felt tired from walking and searching all day. "Yeah it's probably best if we turn in. We should start looking for a hotel."
"How about instead of wasting money," Toad starts throwing his bag on the ground outside. He digs through the bag and starts throwing stuff out that comically land in a row, and in the blink of an eye, Toad posted up two tents, built a campfire, and started cooking vegetables on a frying pan. "We can camp outside! So that way in the morning we can get right to work."
Ashleigh laughs at the adorable little mushroom man. "I like the way you think, Captain!" They sit and talk for the rest of the night. Toad serenades the girl with tales of his adventures, and the legendary Mario and Luigi. They laugh and eat around the fire, and at times, Ash catches the raggedy curtains ruffle inside the house. When the fire is finally close to dying, the two retire to their respective tents and turn in for the night.
"Alright," Toad steps back behind a stack of boxes. "Try it again!"
Ashleigh sits on the pipe frame bike, keys in hand and the other on the throttle. She exhales. "Please, just work," she grabs the brake, and inserts the key.
"Click! Click! Click! Click! Click…"
Nothing.
"Ugh!" Sighs Ashleigh.
"At least it didn't blow up this time," Toad remarks.
"We're running out of time! Qualifiers are tomorrow!" She hops off the bike and tools with the engine. "I don't get it, we got it working yesterday! Why won't it stay on!"
"Did you check the battery?"
"Of course I checked the Battery," Ashleigh rebuttals. She thinks for a minute, looks at the engine, then pulls out the alternator. "Get me that alternator over there!"
Toad runs to the table, picks up the last alternator, and hands it to her. She connects it to the engine eagerly, and backs up.
"Okay, I think we have it," she whispers, eyeing Toad.
"I'll go hide," and Toad runs behind the boxes once again.
Ashleigh looks at the bike. "Please," she prays. "Please just turn on." She straddles the bike, hand on the throttle grasping the break. She takes the key, then looks at Toad with the setting sun lighting his face up, he nods hopefully. She slides the key into the ignition, and turns.
"Click, Click, Click- ROAR!" The engine shakes the garage, and idles with the sound of a high pitched ticking. Both of their faces light up. Ashleigh pulls the throttle and the engine roars again. She revs it again… and again… and again…
"I can't believe we did it!" Toad shouts, jumping from the boxes.
"She sounds beautiful," replies Ashleigh, revving the engine once more. Just then, they look out from the garage. The two nod, Toad backs away from the bike, and Ashleigh kicks up the kick stand, pulls the clutch, and flys out of the garage. She weaves around junk piles, then drifts hard right, around a larger junk pile. She shoots out from the corner and rockets down a long straight. She banks around another large pile drifting 180 and shoots out even faster from that corner. She continues weaving around loose piles of trash and junk, then rides up a compact pile and jumps from the top. She lands her bike on the ground and stops sideways right in front of the house.
"That was amazing!" Shouts Toad, jumping in triumph.
Ashleigh laughs, and just then, the old man emerges from his shack.
"That there was some pretty good drivin'," he says.
"Thanks," responds Ash.
"Well, a deal is a deal. The bike is all yours."
Toad holds his fist out for a fist bump, so Ashleigh responds by bumping his fist.
"And also," the old man restarts. "One last thing for your troubles." He pulls out a card bigger than his hand with a number on it. "If you wanna race in that qualifier you're gonna need this," he explains, giving the card to Ashleigh.
"What's this for?" The girl asks.
"It's a number… for qualifiers. I got it for my grandson some months ago. We were rebuildin' the bike cause he always wanted to race in the MKL, so I bought him a number as a surprise. Unfortunately, he was murdered. Shot in cold blood about a month ago, and the man who shot him got off scotch free!" The old man hissed. He looked at the girl worried that his emotion made him look poorly. "Anyway, I figured it would be best to give it to you then to let it go to waste."
"Thank you very much, kind sir!" Exclaims Toad.
Ashleigh, however, couldn't respond. Even though she knew exactly how the old man felt, all she could think about was the devastating feeling of losing her parents one after another. She stared at the number…
19
She feels terrible and almost lets tears fall from her face before Toad breaks her trance.
"Hello? Earth to Ashley?" He shouts, waving his hand in her face.
She gets off the bike and hugs the old man.
A bit startled at first, the old man embraces her, and the feelings were finally shared mutually. Even though Ashleigh feels strange, she knew it was the right thing to do for the both of them.
"Good luck, kiddo," the old man whispers.
They embrace for sometime before retiring.
"The back of the tag has where the course is," the old man starts. "Toad Harbor I think," and with that, he returns to his home and the other two, to the garage. They start painting the body of the bike. Ashleigh stays up with Toad for as long as she can before she finally passes out on the garage floor.
