"Hey, Steve!"
Steve Randle rolled out from under the car he was working on. He had been under there for a while. Once his skin touched the fresh air, he felt how messy his body was. The sweat ran down his face. His swirly hair was now drenched flat. His arms and hands had a layer of grease all over. It didn't matter. Steve loved the feeling after being around a car all day.
He stood up and found his boss, Terry, at the entrance of the garage. "Hey."
"The DX is locked up. Are you ready to go?"
Steve pointed to the car. "Look, I'm almost done with this. Just another hour, and we can call Hawkins in the morning to come get it."
Terry sighed, putting his hands on his hips. "I can't stay here for an hour. I can't leave you here alone."
"Let me finish it. Please. I'll lock up the garage when I'm done. I want to get this piece of junk out of here. We have more important cars to get done."
"I want to get it out of here too. Trust me."
"It's a shit car. I don't say that about cars ever, but this one is."
"I know." Terry chuckled, looking around the garage and glancing outside. "I wonder when Mr. Hawkins will trade it in for a new car?"
"Never. He'll bring it back in another four months too." Steve grabbed the towel off the work bench and wiped some grease off his hands. "Terry, I'm probably overestimating the time. It'll probably take me forty-five minutes. I'm your best mechanic. I can manage. Let me just get it done with."
Terry shuffled in his steps, clearly ready to go home. "Okay, but don't make me regret it."
"I won't. I could run this garage myself if I had to."
Terry walked further into the garage. "It's funny you bring that up actually."
"Why?" Steve asked.
"I'm considering making you the manager of the garage."
Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "That's not a work position here."
"It's about to be. It'd be nice to have someone by my side helping me run things around the DX. I want to have you be in charge of the garage."
Steve's mouth fell open. "Are you serious?"
Terry smiled and nodded. "You'll be eighteen in five months. I think that gives us plenty of time to talk details, train, make a plan on how we want this to work. Maybe grow this garage into something bigger since we can never keep up with the demand on cars needing to be worked on. Everyone knows your the best, so everyone wants your work."
Steve leaned against the wall. He was shaking. "Terry, I... I don't know what to say."
"I knew you'd like that. Well, I'll leave this to you then. Please remember to lock up." Terry handed Steve the key. "And meet me here first thing in the morning to give me that key back."
"I-I will. Thanks, boss. Thank you so much!"
Terry smiled and waved as he walked out of the garage. "Thank you for your work, Steve."
Steve couldn't believe it. He hadn't thought that far into his future with cars before. He figured he'd have to work his way to a bigger garage. Somewhere out of Tulsa. This was incredible, though. An incredible opportunity that came his way. How could he say no? He knew he could make this small garage attached to a gas station something successful.
For twenty minutes, Steve stayed against the wall envisioning his future. He imagined what he could do and what he would change. Now it probably would take him an hour to finish the car. He didn't care, though. It felt great to have something to look forward to in his future. Not many greasers could do that. Steve hurried to the phone on the garage wall and dialed.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Ponyboy," Steve said, "Is Soda there?"
"Yeah, hang on a sec."
Steve could hear commotion as he waited for Soda. Some of the gang had to be over. That was great for Steve. He was about to have a load of energy to get out.
"Hey, Stevie!" Soda answered.
"Hey, buddy! I have something incredible to tell you!"
"What?"
"When I turn eighteen, Terry wants me to become manager next to him, but it'd be for the garage. He wants me to run the garage here and help it grow!"
"What?! Are you serious?"
"Yeah!"
"I'm happy for you, Steve! You definitely deserve it! Hey! Two-Bit! Cut it out!"
Steve laughed, only imagining Two-Bit was throwing a pillow at Soda. "I just wanted to tell you real quick. I'm going to be heading out soon. I'll go home and shower and then come over. We can celebrate!"
"Heading out soon? Isn't the DX closed?"
"Yeah, but I convinced Terry to let me finish Hawkins's shit car."
Soda laughed. "Okay. Yeah, come over! Two-Bit and Dally are already here. Maybe Johnny will come by. I'll wait until you get here, and you can tell everyone the news."
"Cool. See you guys soon."
In an instant, it was like a scene out of a horror movie. Steve turned away from the phone, and five Socs stood at the garage entrance.
Steve's excitement shifted into anger. "What do y'all want? I don't have time for your bullshit right now."
"We saw you were alone, grease," one of the Socs sneered.
"Which is our luck," another one said, "because we were just talking about finding some fun." The Socs slowly walked into the garage.
"Cowards. It takes five of you to take me down?" Steve scoffed. He reached into his back pocket, feeling the end of his blade.
"Get your hand out of there!" the first Soc demanded.
"Fuck you," Steve said, stepping toward the car.
The next thing that happened made Steve's heart drop.
It was one in the morning. Darry had gone to bed by eleven. Ponyboy was in bed, and Johnny Cade was asleep on the couch. Two-Bit and Dally decided to go find some more action. Normally, Soda would have gone with, but he was worried about Steve. He never showed up. Soda had expected him a few hours ago. He didn't want to call the Randle household and risk putting Mr. Randle in a bad mood. Soda tried convincing himself that Steve had gone home and fell asleep. He did have a long day, and he possibly crashed from the excitement of his news.
Unable to shake off the bad feeling, Soda went to his older brother's room. He knocked and opened the door, peeking his head in.
"Darry?" No answer. "Darry?" Soda asked a little louder.
Darry turned and slowly sat up. "Soda? What's going on?"
Soda walked in, closing the door behind him. "Do you think I'm worrying too much?"
"What? Did Steve never show up?"
"No, he didn't. Maybe he got into it with his dad and stayed in." Soda groaned. "Maybe his dad hit him, and he didn't want any of us to see it."
"Do you want to drive over there?"
Soda sighed. "I want to know if I'm worrying too much."
Darry rubbed his eyes. "I don't know. Why are you worrying so much right now?"
"Remember how I said he had great news and would tell us when he got here? Well, he was going to tell us about a work promotion. When he turns eighteen, Terry is going to put him in charge of the garage and help build it into something more."
"Wow. That's a fantastic opportunity for him."
"It is. So, I don't see why he wouldn't come over. He sounded so excited over the phone."
"Maybe you're right. Maybe he and his dad got in a fight, and it killed his mood."
"I guess."
"If you want to drive over and see if his car is home, you can."
Soda shook his head. "No. Two-Bit mentioned he and Dally would drive over and check. If Steve wasn't home, they'd come back here. They haven't been back, so Steve must be home." Soda took a deep breath. "I'm just overreacting."
