It started in Uncle Savior’s garage, I guess. He showed me his project car. It was a Nova, and we were off.
I remember mentioning it to a guy who, in this series, I have called Nova.
Then Trashy. She is watching me and Bekah get together one night, when Bekah has drank too much wine cooler, and I am laying her in my bed.
Trashy is in the corner beckoning me. And though, a month ago, I would have done exactly as she asked, she is asking tonight, and tonight is all about Bekah. I tell her that I will not throw everyone out, and I will not take her body, and she has nothing left but to walk away.
It’s the next day that is important. It is the next day that I have not talked about.
She comes knocking on my door. Bekah is talking and laughing at the wild things Bell and Burg have to say. Bliss and Misty are in a kind of celebration mode. Kind of. Bekah has landed a big fish, and they are kind of happy for her.
The door pounds, and it is Trashy. She wants me to come outside. She has to talk to me. I go. She has Nova with her, and she sees me, and immediately grabs him and kisses him. He looks at me with Trashy on his arm and smiles a, let’s say, devilish smile, but I might be playing a little with that. You guys tell me.
“Got a new car,” he says. He points to the beautiful Nova beside him.
“God, it is beautiful.” It’s a ’72, maybe a ’69, and he is showing it off. It’s got a hum, dum and dee dee do, engine in it. I really don’t remember. It is mostly colored in primer, which I remember from Uncle Savior’s garage, and I explode.
“Man, this is awesome! God, this is my dream car and you got it. Man, this is amazing!”
He didn’t like that response.
He wraps his arm around Trashy, which might be the sexiest girl in Waynesville, if you take Vonny and Draconic out of the game, and I smile. See, I have nothing to be jealous of. I have Bekah, and that is all I need. He kisses Trashy again, presses her against his car, and I giggle. “You two are going to make a beautiful couple.”
And at that moment, I don’t care that he was my rival when it came to Draconic. That he went around the school telling everyone who would listen that I had a disgusting, hairy back. I don’t care.
I have Bekah.
He talks about how hot his girlfriend is, and I agree. Trashy is very hot. And I wish them both the best. I ask them if they want to come in to hang out and see everybody, and they deflate. They say no, they have to go be together, and I know that Nova is getting laid tonight. I don’t really care. She kisses him again and runs her fingers through his hair, and I wait until they get in his car.
He revs it, and it sounds amazing, and he grunts out, throwing gravel. The dust rises and I see a beautiful car.
I’m happy for him. And I can’t imagine myself ever having one. Rose has beaten down every car that has come to me, and she has convinced me I will never have a car. The Nova peels out when it hits the asphalt, and a part of me does envy him.
Not for the girl that the night before threw herself at me. Not for the way he has gotten over Draconic. But for the car I will never have and the way it sounds when it hits and rolls.
Then I guess we have to fast forward to me and Sapphire.
See, she has a job at Steak N Shake. And there is a guy that comes with it. His name is Slip, and he sits in her section every evening and eats the same thing. Single steak burger with ketchup and mustard. He has fries that often he does not touch, and he is not excited to meet me.
See, Slip is in his late fifties, and he is in love with my 19-year-old girlfriend. I can tell that the first time I see him talk to her. I’m not threatened. She’s 19, has brunette hair to her waist. Has a lean tight body and a beautiful face, except the nose, and she has big breasts. She is amazing, and he can never compete with me. He is way too old to ever have anything higher than a crush.
But I would find out much later that he had an education degree, and he had taught high school. That he had “fallen in love” with one of his students. And they had been careful and met at a motel, but the school had found out about it, and he had lost his certification to teach.
So there is that.
But Sapphire has to keep her claws in me, so she never teases or turns for him, and he never growls or grinds for her, and I can ignore all of it, as long as he keeps his hands to himself.
Bekah starts coming around, and she gets to know Slip. He brags to me once that he is not overstepping his bounds, he only hugs her with one arm. He is not trying to steal Bekah of anything. Weird, but I don’t care. I really don’t.
Eventually I find out that he works at O’Reilly’s. Eventually I find out that he is plugged in to the car scene and the mechanic scene in Springfield. And eventually he asks about what kind of car I want.
I really don’t know how to answer that question. The only thing I really want is a Nova, but I am pretty sure that any Nova I try to buy will be way too expensive for me, and I know that I only have a slice and a spit of money at my command, so I just say fuck it and I spit out:
“Nova, I want a Chevy Nova. One of the cool years. But I can’t get one. I know they cost way too much to ever afford.”
He nods and, within a week, he is back where he always is with a smile on his face. It’s kind of a greasy smile. Like a, I found your car so let me fuck Bekah, smile, or a let me fuck Sapphire smile. But he says, “I found a Nova.”
“Could never afford it,” I blurted out.
“Maybe you can,” he says. “It’s only 800 bucks, but it is not on the market yet. She knows she wants to sell it, but she has not told anyone yet, and I got her to wait until I talked to you.”
“What condition is it in?”
“It runs. Good engine. It’s a straight six. They are reliable. And there is not a spot of rust on it. She really doesn’t know what she has, and if she does, she knows me and she knows that she wants to please me because I am tapped into the mechanics of the area.” He takes a bite of his burger and looks at my girlfriend’s ass. “If you want a Nova, this is your chance.”
I take a few days to think about it. He keeps after me, saying that I need to make a decision, while eyeing Sapphire. I am starting to think that he is bargaining my upcoming wheels for a taste of my girlfriend, and when I think about it, I don’t really have any reason not to, and I think I can manage the money, so I agree to look at it.
The house is falling down. The yard needs to be mowed three times, but the gravel driveway has a Nova in it, and I walk around it. He is right. Not a speck of rust, which is impossible for a ’74 in ’99, but I can see it with my own eyes, and I ask her how much.
She is a thick but sexy woman of about twenty six, with brunette hair and a voluptuous body. She looks at me as if I am a snack, which at this point in my life, is reasonable, and she says, “It was my grandma’s car. She drove it from the day she bought it new. It runs really well and it sounds great, and I am just trying to clear out this house so I can sell it, and this car is a great big problem for me. Can you give me 800 for her?”
“Keys?”
She tosses them to me and I open the front door. The seat in the back is there, but sitting loose. The driver’s seat is wearing a pink seat cover, but that has ripped, and the foam that holds the seat together is crumbling. I drop into the car and it starts up the moment I roll the ignition.
I yell out the window, “Can I take it around the block?”
“You’re with Slip,” she says. “You can keep it for a month.”
I back out and it follows my every touch. I hit the gas and it reacts instantly. By the time I have turned out of the driveway, I know, this is my first car.
“I love it,” I say, when I get back from driving too short a distance. “I’ll take it. Can you wait for about twenty minutes, maybe less?”
“Yeah babe, that car ain’t going nowhere.”
Slip gives me a lift to the nearest gas station, and I pull a credit card.
See, most working class can’t get a credit card to save their lives when they are young, but as soon as you enroll in college, they start shoving credit card applications at you. I went to the ATM and withdrew exactly 800 dollars in twenties.
Should have maxed it out.
I slap the money in her hand. She smiles and I am gone. I have a lot to do to get a car going, and I don’t really know what I am doing, but Slip will walk me through it. I think in his mind somewhere he is still thinking I will share Sapphire with him.
First thing I do is drive to Bekah’s house. I rap on the door too hard I think, and she answers. I don’t tell her anything, I just grab her wrist and pull her out of her house. She grabs it back and giggles. “Let me lock up,” she says, and we are outside.
“Got a car,” I say to her as we are walking down the stairs of her apartment. “It’s mine. I bought it. My first car.”
“What did you get?”
I motioned to the parking lot. “Find it.”
She giggles and starts walking the parking lot until she stops at my girl. “This can’t be it.”
I cross my arms.
“Om my God, Jesse, it is gorgeous!”
“Get in. I want you to be the first passenger.”
We drive for too long. I end up riding out half a tank of gas as I take her around everywhere. She keeps looking at me from across the bench seat, with a big smile on her face. When I drop her back off at her apartment, she hugs me.
“It’s you,” she says and she lets me go.
I drive. I drive in my car. Rose had spent so many years stopping me from getting one, and now I am driving my car. I can’t roll up the windows. It has air conditioning, but I never used it. There is no way for me to drive this car in fair weather without having my elbow propped on the window.
Do you understand? Can you get it? For the first time in my life, I am free. I can go anywhere. I can be anywhere. I know her name is Jackie, but I am an Indigo Girls fan, and my favorite Indigo Girl is Emily. So I call her Emily. But I know her name is Jackie.
I need to get her inspected. Slip tells me this and says that I should meet him at O’Reilly’s at five. That is when he gets off, and we drive to a mechanic shop that is closing.
Slip calls the owner over. “What do you think?” he says.
“It’s beautiful. Where did you get it?”
“Dead old lady.”
“What’s it got in it?”
“Straight six,” Slip says.
“Well shit, that is a blank canvas. You can do anything with that.”
“Need an inspection.”
“Yeah, give me a minute. He walks into his shop and yells at a few people as I turn to Slip.
“Hey, you know, in order to pass inspection, you have to have a horn and,” my mind skips on the name Jackie, but I say, “Emily does not have one.”
Slip acts as if he cannot hear me. The guy comes over with a page he has already signed, and a sticker. He has a scraping device and he scrapes the old inspection sticker off and puts the new one on.
“Thanks for bringing her by. If you ever need anything for her, let me know,” the mechanic says.
Slip is in his truck and I jump in Jackie. I mean Emily.
The next thing I did was bring her to D’s house. At the time, he lived in a very nice but small apartment in Springfield. He had decided to go back to college, and that is where he found her.
Now every woman who D has ever found, with the exception of Vonny, has had one tiny problem with him. They have all wanted to get rid of me. D is gorgeous, charming, with no money problems, and a nice car. His best friend is a violent psycho who has more mental health issues than hairs on his head.
I am the only flaw they see in a perfect man, and none of them have ever been able to figure out the bond. Hell, we don’t even understand why we are friends, but a long time ago we tied ourselves and our fate to one another. No girl understands why he keeps me around, and she was no different
She was tall, with perfect hair, and ambitions to be a model. She made an art of being rude to me, and when I walked into his house, she sighed.
“Bought a car.”
He looked up at me and I could see in his eyes that he was excited for me. I was twenty-two and had never owned a car. I’m sure he thought it was a dog, but he was happy for me.
“Come see, it’s perfect for me, and you will understand as soon as you see me in it.”
“We are hanging out tonight, Jesse. Maybe you can take whatever heap you bought and come back on a day when he actually wants to see you.”
I looked at her. She glared at me.
“Ten minutes, man, just give me ten minutes. I’ll take you on a short drive and bring you right back.”
“Let’s go.”
“You are leaving me for him?” she snarled. “What am I supposed to do while you’re gone.”
“I’ll be back in ten minutes. This is important.”
When he saw Jackie, I mean Emily, he stood back and cocked his head. “What is it?”
“It’s a ’74 Chevy Nova. This is my dream car. Get in, it’s unlocked.”
He tried to be excited about her, but he just didn’t understand classic cars. I took him around for a while and he said,. “Dude, it is very cool, but I do have to get back.”
I nodded.
“This car is very you,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine you in anything but a car like this. Congratulations.”
Back at his house, I followed him in, and I do not remember why. It escapes me why I would expose myself to her again, but I said my goodbye and was headed for the door.
“What kind of car is it?” she asked.
“It’s a ’74 Chevy Nova. It’s my dream car.”
“What type of engine does it have in it?”
I realized she was on the computer, typing in the information I was giving her.
She chuckled. “How much did you pay for it?”
“800 dollars.”
She turned and looked at me. Her devastating smile was a mask of hate. “Well according to Kelley Blue Book, your car is worth 327 dollars. Wow, you dream big. Congratulations, you got taken for almost 500 bucks.” She laughed and spun back around.
“Get out,” D said very quietly.
“Yes, little man, get out.”
“No, you get out. I want you to get the fuck out of my apartment,” D said. “No one talks to Jesse that way. This is one of the greatest men you have ever been in the room with, but you don’t get to be in the room with him anymore. Get out.”
She spun, snarled at D, and shoved past me, and slammed the door behind her.
“Listen, this car is worth so much more than 327 dollars. It’s a classic. And—”
He stepped up before me and grabbed both of my shoulders. “That car is you. You don’t drive that car, you wear it. Let’s hang out.”
“All I want to do is drive my car,” I said with a giggle.
“Then let’s ride. It will be weird, you driving me, it’s never happened before. So let me get used to it.”
Slip told me to bring it by the store, and I drove it to O’Reilly’s on Saturday. He introduces me to the guys he works with, and none of them are excited to meet me. He takes them out back and they love my car. But they could give or take me. But Bekah walks in looking for me, while I am back in the break room being ignored, and they flirt with her before sending her back to me, but she does not notice.
Bekah is not used to guys flirting with her, so it flies right over her head. They want to talk to her and they want to talk to me, and soon, they take me back out to my car. The youngest one asks if she is single, and she reluctantly says yes, as the guys really look at my Jackie. I mean Emily.
“Needs work,” a guy says.
“Needs to be overhauled in a real way,” another says.
“It will be fun. Bring it in next Saturday.”
“I need a seat cover,” I said.
“Yeah you do!” the youngest of them said.
The older one said, “Bring her back on Saturday and we will have one for you.”
“Do I need to pick one or anything?” I said. “You guys have a catalogue?”
They looked at each other and smiled. They shook their heads. “Just bring her here Saturday.”
Saturday they had ordered a seat cover to my bench seat. It was black with vertical gray stripes. Exactly what I would have ordered. I loved it, and it contained the crumbling seat problem. They easily popped the back seat in place, and Jackie could seat about six. I mean Emily.
Few more Saturdays, they wanted to see me every weekend. They bored out my drum brakes. All the rust was out of them, but I needed new brake pads. They bought them for me, but with little explanation, they told me how to put them on. And Jackie could stop, kinda. I mean Emily.
One day, they told me to drop her off on Saturday.
“Drop her off?”
“Yeah, just drop her off at about nine and come pick her up at six,” Slip said.
“Why?”
“The guys want to take a look at her. You know, give her a once over.”
I didn’t think anything of it ,until Bekah brought me back that Saturday evening. She had Sapphire with her, and the guys spent a long time staring at asses and tits that night. They told me to start her up, but no matter how many times I tried, she would not turn over. There was a real problem with Jackie. I mean Emily. A real problem. She would rev for a moment but never get over the hump. I got out of her pissed.
“What happened?” I growled. “Why does my girl not want to start? Whatever you did didn’t work.”
Guy dropped in and closed the door. He leaned toward the passenger seat and sat back up. He rolled the ignition and she growled instantly to life. Leaned over toward the passenger side again and let her stop.
“Starts for me. Maybe she doesn’t love you anymore,” the oldest one said. All of them had a smile on their face.
I got in and told Sapphire to drop in and still she wouldn’t start. Not even a full roll over. I leaned out of the driver’s side window and looked at all of them. “You know I’m from the inner city right?”
They laughed.
“You know I carry two knives on me everywhere I go?”
They laughed.
“I can take at least three of the four of you, and I will if you don’t—-”
“Smoke a cigarette,” a guy said.
“What?”
“Smoke a fucking cigarette.”
I didn’t smoke, but Sapphire figured it out before I did. She pulled the ashtray open and I could see a bright chrome switch pointing down. I flipped it and the car started right up.
Every Saturday, I went to O’Reilly’s. Every Saturday they gave me a new part to add to her. One weekend, they told me that I needed new shocks. And I had to put them on myself. I had no idea how much that would cost, and I had no way of paying, but they gave me a price that was way too low for what I was buying. Even I knew that.
I realized they were selling me my parts wholesale. They introduced me to the idea of a Breaker Bar, and told me that a normal socket would not loosen this bolt. I needed to snap it.
I snapped off both of her bolts and nuts, and when her new shocks were on, they checked them, patted me on the head, and I held out the pieces to the broken nut and bolt. “Can you drill a hole through the side of the bolt head and a hole through the middle of the nut?”
They didn’t ask any questions, and the next Saturday, they handed the two pieces to me. I ran a piece of leather cord through the bolt head and hung it from the rear view mirror. The nut, I ran a cord through and tied around my neck.
These were not the kind of men that cried, but if they could get misty eyed, they did that day. I added a new lock to my glove compartment that day, and now I had three keys for my car. Door key. Engine key. And glove box key. Before we are done here, I will have a different key for my trunk.
And every time I tried to unlock her, I would randomly pick the right key. Jackie, I mean Emily, wanted me in her. She wanted me in her at all times.
It was about two months into this car ownership that I was driving, talking to Bekah and I just yelled out, “Fuck!”
I didn’t hit my steering wheel. It wasn’t like that with me and Jackie.
“What is the problem?”
“Her fucking name is not Emily!” I yelled. “I named her before I sat in her, and it’s not fucking Emily!”
Bekah was really calm when she handled her man back then. Her man, which was Sapphire’s man. She said, “What is her name, Jesse?” She took a deep breath and calmly said, “Only you know her name. What is it?”
“It’s Jackie, okay! Her fucking name is Jackie, but now I have this other name for her and—”
“We will just call her Jackie. It’s no big deal.” Bekah said. “It’s over. Her name is Jackie.”
I pressed the gas and she responded better than she ever had before.
“Jackie.”
“Yeah,” Bekah said. “Her name is Jackie.”
They checked the oil, and she was bone dry. They checked it every weekend and found out that with every full tank of gas she took, she needed a quart of oil. Then they sold me a case of oil wholesale.
They would just tell me to drop her off, and they started telling me which girl they wanted me to drop her off with.
Sometimes it was Bekah.
Sometimes it was Bekah and Sapphire. And they would flirt and joke with them both. Sapphire was deeply offended and didn’t respond to their words, but Bekah laughed and joked with them. And slowly, the entire store began to fall in love with her.
One day they demanded I leave the car with them. And I came to pick it up that evening. Bekah was wearing jeans that were very kind to her ass, and a short T-shirt that showed it off. Sapphire was wearing a bikini top with an open flannel that hid none of her assets. We walked straight to the back room, where there was a lot of important stuff, and a loveseat and chair scooted up to the wall with a tiny TV on a box of windshield washer fluid. The guys started coming back one at a time to talk to us.
They would say a few words to Sapphire, then flirt openly with Bekah. She laughed and joked with them, and soon Sapphire realized what was happening. Her flirting was kind of slutty and overbearing, but with a bunch of wrench monkeys, it worked just fine. After all of them had come back to talk to us a few times, Slip called me to the side.
“You walked in here with those girls,” he said. “Dressed like that. One set of tits on display, one ass to gawk at. These guys think you are a god.”
I chuckled. “They can’t have them,” I said. “When can I take my car?”
“It’s about done,” Slip said. “It would have been done about twenty minutes ago, but they have slowed down now that there are treats to look at.”
I dropped into my seat and they came back every now and then. The store was long closed before they threw me the keys. Me and Sapphire jumped in the car, Bekah followed, and the guys all stood outside the store and watched us drive away.
She started driving better. No more hiccups. Well, fewer hiccups. And she was responding better to my heavy foot. She started braking better. And one day I dropped Sapphire off at Chili’s with a friend, and I told them not to shut the door. I hit the reverse and slammed on the brakes and Jackie’s passenger door slammed.
I had a new trick. But I needed tires. Everyone at the shop knew I needed tires, and finally Slip took me to his guy.
“Nice car,” dude says as he eyes my girl. “You need a whole new set, don’t you?”
“What can you do for us?” Slip said. I learned pretty quick that in these situations I needed to let Slip do the talking.
“Tires, mounted and balanced, for this car, and for you.” The guy looked around and shook his head. “Let’s say 60 dollars, and for another 15, I will throw in a full-size used spare.”
“Done!” I said, way too enthusiastically to be cool.
“Oh, but wait.”
He came back with a rim. It looked just like the rims that Jackie wore. They looked custom. And I didn’t remember buying custom rims. “I got this extra just laying around. It matches, and I can’t really sell one rim. Throw in another five dollars and I’ll put your spare on here.”
I drove off with four new tires and a used, full-sized spare on a matching rim.
Few more times of leaving the car with them on Saturday, and my girl is driving even better. Then I take it to church.
Waynesville, but really Buckhorn, and I am at Harmony Baptist on a Sunday night. When the service is over, I pull Brother Hoss and Brother Justice aside. “Got something to show you.”
They are both members of the car club Cave State Cruisers. Vintage cars are their greatest love, except Jesus, and when I walk them out into the parking lot, they know instantly what I am showing them.
“Dear Jesus,” Brother Justice says. “Look Hoss, not a spot of rust.”
“It’s gorgeous.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I mean this thing is a blank slate. You can do anything with this car. Jesse, nice pick.”
“Can we get it out on the road?”
Eyes darken in their gaze, and they both laugh. “We won’t be driving,” they elbow each other. “He’s one of us already. No, I will get you on the road and see what this beauty can do,” Hoss said. “You drive.”
He is in the car already.
Now, one of my all-time heroes is in my first car drooling. It was a highlight of my life. I pulled out of the church parking lot and he pointed left. “Take her on the highway.”
When I got on the highway, he smacked the dash. “Now let this lady run.”
I dropped my foot and she reacted.
“Holysmokes, she had a little growl to her, don’t she?”
I’m already 80 in a 70, and he waves his hand forward. “If you will please.”
“Ticket?” I said.
“The troopers won’t touch you in this part of the woods when I’m with you. Let her fly!”
I hit the gas, little at a time.
“Good, when you run a straight six, you want to ease her in. She doesn’t like to be rushed. Now go.”
The speedometer stopped at 80, but he pointed as we passed that. “Keep going.”
My foot kept pushing and he kept pointing. He nodded and I pressed her harder. She started to shake.
“She has a little more in her,” Hoss said.
I pushed a little more.
“Whoa, there you go, ease off. Let her glide.” Hoss grinned. “What have you done to her?”
“Not much.”
“Well then, you bought a sleeper. That was your top speed. Don’t take her past that.” We pulled back into the church parking lot. All of the other members of the congregation are gone except Brother Justice.
“Well?” Justice said.
“He has about 95, 97.”
“Wow, with a straight six that color!” Justice whistled. “This is a beautiful thing. Get her cleaned up a little bit more and we can get you in the Cruisers.”
“That color?”
“Pop the hood.”
I obeyed. I would always obey these men.
“That’s what I thought. You have Chevy Red.”
“Chevy Red?”
“Well a long time ago, Chevy started painting all of their engines orange. That was just what you got. You buy a Chevy, you get an orange engine. But this is a red engine. Which means, this thing is stock. Which means, this is the original engine. If this car can hit 96, 97 with a Chevy red, then this thing has so much potential. Bring it by the house. I would love to get a look under her and see what we could do to her.”
“Call me over when he brings it by, I want to help,” Brother Hoss said.
“Nice pull, Jesse. Please be careful. That is not a careful car. She will take you down with her if she can.”
Now I guess we have to talk about why my son wants to kick me in the balls.
One day they say to bring her by on a Saturday and bring a ride. I get a ride from Bekah and Slip tells me to get in the car. I motion for Bekah, but they all laugh.
“She is fine. She can wait here. You guys won’t be a minute,” the youngest one says. “Yeah, just go, and Slip will take the store truck and drive you back.”
“Your cute little friend here will be fine while you’re gone,” the oldest one said. Bekah giggled.
“She has no problem being fine right here in this store.”
Bekah grinned and I jumped in Jackie.
I follow Slip and ended up at an exhaust spot. “He needs an all new exhaust. Like we talked about,” Slip said.
The guy had a car on the rack, but he took it down. He backed the next one out of its spot and freed up his shop. “Yeah, this is the one you were talking about.”
“Yeah, he needs an all new exhaust. Like we said.”
“Give me four hours.”
Well back at the store, the guys said that it was only going to be four hours, so there was no use in us driving off if we had a free day. Bekah and I could stay right there and hang out. I sat and they took turns coming back and throwing themselves at Bekah. She laughed and joked and accidentally flirted with all of them.
See, the secret that no one knows about Bekah is, she is really good at flirting. She just doesn’t realize she’s doing it.
When the four hours was up, I had a custom exhaust.
This is the part that chaps Rayph’s loins. A custom exhaust would cost about seven hundred to a thousand dollars. I paid 70.
A lot of times, I made an idiot of myself.
I called the guys once and told them that no matter what I did, I could not get her to start. I had to walk to school, and I needed a tow back to the store, and could they send a guy that wouldn’t charge me an arm and a leg. They asked for details and I heard the guy on the line yelling out everything I said to the others.
When he was done laughing at me, he told me to flip the switch in my ashtray and look into the rear view mirror and call myself an idiot.
He was right. I was an idiot.
Tony was behind me one day and saw liquid draining off the back bumper of Jackie. He pulled me aside and gloated when he told me that something was wrong with my car. I took it to the guys and they sold me a new gas cap. See, Jackie’s gas went in behind the back license plate, and I had forgotten to put the cap back on when I had filled her up.
Few more stupid things like that. I was always showing my ass to them. I told them once that I wanted to have every gasket changed in the entire engine. They assured me that they would do that. They needed to order the parts, but one of the guys had a pretty impressive garage, and they would work on it. When the order came in, they had asked for every gasket on a straight six, and when the guys showed me the box, it had more than eighty gaskets.
“You know we can’t do this, right?” he said to me with a chuckle.
“God, no.”
“Look kid, we had no idea either. Let this one roll right off of you.”
Jackie’s blinkers didn’t work, but the Missouri Driver’s Manual says that in the case of faulty blinkers, the driver can stick their hands out of the car window and do the accepted bike signals. Jackie had a wondering eye. Her left headlight would just shoot light up into the sky when you hit a bump. A second bump and she is shining on the front bumper. I learned what size bump it would take to knock her eye forward again, and we were fine.
Jackie had her keys locked in her trunk by an idiot trying to load up his laundry for a trip back to Waynesville. Threw them right on the clothes basket and shut the trunk. I called the guys. Within an hour, a locksmith showed up with a massive ring of keys and tried every one until it opened. I asked what I owed him, and he shook his head. He just walked away.
Me and Sapphire broke up. It was one of the greatest things to happen to my life. It was the worst thing to happen to the guys at O’Reilly’s, and to Jackie. Slip, of course, stayed loyal to the girl he was trying to take from me, the young girl he was trying to fuck.
There were no more guys.
When I got my first disability check, I found a shyster of a mechanic who assured me that if I got an engine rebuild, it would only cost me 1,000 dollars. He had a whole sales pitch. I bought it. But as I pulled away, leaving Jackie in his lot, I realized that during that conversation he smiled too much.
I told him I wanted the emergency brake fixed. New leaf springs. Engine rebuild and every other thing that I needed to pass an inspection. He kept nodding and smiling. Told me all of that would cost me about 1,500.
He had my girl for about six months. I had burned through almost all of my money by then, expecting for my car to be ready much sooner.
When he called me, he told me I could have it back for 4,600. I only had 1,500 to my name. I called on Bekah and she paid, making me promise to pay her back about 200 every month.
No new leaf springs. No fixed emergency brake. And it was not an engine rebuild, it was a new engine. My Chevy Red was gone, replaced with a light gray.
I was furious, but the guy was charming, and he told me to take it for a drive before I paid him.
“But can you take Rowdy?”
“Rowdy?”
“Yeah, he is the new guy, and we gave him the job of the rebuild. He has been working on it and it alone for months, and he has fallen in love with his car. He would love to see your reaction to his work.”
I asked Rowdy what I was looking at as far as horsepower, and he told me about 300. As I drove him around, he could only stare at the dashboard with a genuine look of love on his face.
The brakes went out about six months later. I had to coast to a parking lot all the way across town from South Towers and just park her. The only way I could stop her was to slow her down as much as possible, then slam her in park. I heard her chunk every time, and I knew I needed to park her and take care of this problem.
I ended up having Siren help me get her back home. We went at four in the morning. I drove Jackie at about 15 miles per hour, and Siren ran ahead and sat at red lights to turn them green in time for me to get to them. When I parked Jackie that night, I never drove her again.
Me and Bekah got together. Of course my Jackie debt was absolved, but by the time I was ready to move, the brakes had locked up and the wheels would not budge.
We got it towed to her house, and then I made the biggest mistake of my adult life.
I had little in the way of money coming in. Bekah was just starting out at freelancing graphic design, and we didn’t have the money to work on her. It hurt not being able to drive her, and we had some really poor friends. They had no car that would get them around, and I knew that with a brand-new straight six Jackie would drive forever for them.
I couldn’t sell her. It would have been perverse. So I just gave it to him. I told him that if he could get the brakes unlocked, I would give him the car.
He got a mechanic friend to come out to our house and, with a hammer and a few light taps, Jackie was rolling again. I handed my friend the keys and he nodded. He never even looked at me.
A week later I went to see them, but really I wanted to look at Jackie again. I wanted to make a deal with him, I would give him four hundred a month until he was satisfied if he would just give me back my girl.
When I asked about her and was planning my speech, he said that he sold her for cocaine.
I wasn’t even mad. I was just broken. I wished in that moment that if I was going to give her away, I had given her to Rowdy.
So many people told me that Jackie was like a suit or an accessory to me. That when they met me, sometimes they were confused, but when they saw me in her, they suddenly got it.
My girl is gone. Jackie is a couple of pictures and this chapter. That is all I have of her now.
That is all I will ever have of her.
For more about the series Reality of the Unreal Mind, visit Amazon.
Jesse Teller 
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