Chapter 4 #3
“But sir, I’m filthy. I don’t want to―”
“Nonsense! I’ve got a sheet in the car to cover the seat. It’ll be fine. Come on,” he said again, motioning for Blue to follow him.
Settled behind the steering wheel of the Cadillac, Blue hit the ignition and it roared to life, then settled down to a meek idling purr. “Sounds okay,” Blue told Mr.Wentworth. “Let’s see if I can feel that pull you’re talking about.”
Blue turned onto the street and let the car do its thing. It rode and handled like a dream. After about two miles, he said, “Sir, I don’t doubt you, but I’m not feeling it at all. Doesn’t seem to be anything wrong to me.”
“Pull into that parking lot. I want to talk to you,” Mr.Wentworth told him. When he’d parked the car, he waited. Finally, Mr.Wentworth asked, “Do you know what I did for a living?”
“No, sir.”
“I owned a chain of car dealerships. Still own them, actually,” he said, and Blue was shocked. No one had ever told him that. Maybe none of them knew. “The Vanguard auto dealerships here? Headquartered over in the HoustonCounty part of Macon?”
God, they were huge! And Blue was shocked. “So I don’t understand, sir. Why are you bringing your car to Turner’s?”
“Because my son runs the dealerships now and all he hires in his service department are book-learned idiots! They don’t know jack shit about cars,” he said, and Blue was stunned to hear him talk that way.
In all the time he’d known Mr.Wentworth, he’d never heard a foul word come from the old man’s mouth, but apparently when he got cranked up, he let ’er rip.
“Oh, yeah, they’re all ASE certified, but there’s not a damn one of them that can drive a car and tell if there’s anything wrong with it.
If the computer doesn’t show them a code, they don’t know what to do. Know what I mean?”
“Yes, sir, I do.”
“You know anything about these on-board computers?” Mr.Wentworth asked.
“Yes, sir. Just enough to be dangerous,” Blue said with a snicker.
Mr. Wentworth chuckled. “At least you’re honest about it.” Blue couldn’t figure out where the conversation was going until Mr.Wentworth said, “Blue, I want you to come to work for the dealership. The pay will be―”
“But I’m not ASE certified, sir,” Blue explained. “And I know that’s important, but I can’t afford―”
“We’ll pay for that. So you think about it.
And you could get away from that foul man you work for.
My god, he’s a piece of shit,” Mr.Wentworth said under his breath, and Blue started to laugh.
He couldn’t help it. The old gentleman had just summed up Turner in three words.
“Well, he is!” Mr.Wentworth said to Blue’s laughter, and then he started to laugh too.
The two of them laughed for a good minute before he said again, “Think about it, Blue. You deserve better than that. You’re a damn fine mechanic, and your talents are going to waste there.
What about your wife and kids? Don’t you want to do better for them? ”
Blue sobered instantly. Then he pulled out his phone and brought up the picture. Handing the phone to Mr.Wentworth, he said, “That’s my daughter, Indigo.”
“What a beautiful baby! So precious! How old is she?”
“About six months.” Without thinking, he added, “I just got her Saturday.”
He was afraid he’d just messed up, judging by the look on Mr.Wentworth’s face. “What do you mean, just got her on Saturday?”
“Her mother left her in a basket on my porch. I didn’t know about her until then,” he said in explanation, and Mr.Wentworth’s mouth fell open. “Yeah. That was my initial reaction too,” Blue added.
“Wow. Well, son, you’re a better man than I. I probably would’ve called the police to take her away. Are you married?”
“No, sir.”
“Doing this alone?”
Blue tried to think of a way to explain it. “My next-door neighbor is a nurse. She and her kids are helping me,” he said, hoping it didn’t sound too pathetic.
“Good woman. That’s great. And she looks happy and healthy. You look happy in that picture too,” he said, handing Blue’s phone back. “I’ve always sensed you didn’t have an easy time of it growing up.”
“I didn’t. But I’m not going to let that happen to her,” Blue announced, and he was surprised at the strength in his own voice.
“Good man. If you decide to take me up on the offer, just let me know. I’ll tell my son to piss off and hire you myself,” Mr.Wentworth said with a grin. “Now let’s get back before Turner gets all crazy again.”
“Yes, sir,” Blue told him and turned the key in the ignition. They chatted about benign things on the way back. When he waved goodbye to Mr.Wentworth, he felt a familiar yet grating presence at his side.
“Thought you were going to fix his car,” Turner said, his voice snippy.
“Nothing wrong with it as far as I can tell,” Blue answered.
“Then you wasted almost an hour for nothing. You should’ve charged him for diagnostics,” Turner said.
“There were no diagnostics. I just drove it. Told him it’s the crowned roads around here that make it feel like it’s pulling to the side. That’s all.”
“Give him another freebie,” Turner said, “and I’ll be free of you. Understand me?”
Blue had taken about all he could take. “Yeah. I understand you. But it’s hard for me to be as much of an asshole as you are, Turner. Doesn’t come naturally for me like it does for you.”
“Shut up, Wallace, and get back to work. You’ve wasted enough of my time already.” With that, Turner stumped back to his office and slammed the door shut behind him.
Back in his work area, Blue pulled out his phone, careful to watch for Turner. It rang twice and Anne said, “Hey!”
“Hi. She okay?”
“Yeah. She’s been good all day. You really shouldn’t worry.”
He breathed out a huge sigh of relief. “Thanks. Oh, and will it be okay for you to tell Polly that I’ll be a little longer getting home?
I need to stop and get some stuff.” Blue had one credit card, and he figured if there was ever an emergency that called for using it, it was this one.
He didn’t have the money to pay on it, but at least he could get a few things Indigo needed, and maybe a few groceries too.
“Sure. And I’ll call you on my break tonight. There are some things we need to talk about,” Anne said.
Oh, god. Wonder what I’ve fucked up this time? \ “I’ll get there as soon as I can. Thanks, Anne.”
“You’re welcome. Talk to you this evening.” With that, the phone went silent and Blue slipped it back into his pocket.
Things they needed to talk about. Those kinds of statements had always left him in a heap of trouble. He hoped this time would be an exception to that rule.
With the baby fed and settled, Blue set about putting away the few things he’d bought. He made himself a sandwich with the lunch meat and bread he’d gotten on closeout past their expiration date and ate it while he folded clothes.
At almost nine his phone rang. “Hello?”
“Hey. Everything okay?” Anne asked.
“Oh, yeah. She’s been napping and I’m finishing cleaning up the kitchen. So you said there were some things we needed to talk about?”
“Yes. First off, I left in time to go by a couple of thrift stores but I didn’t find a car seat.
But I did remember that some of the fire stations do checks for people, making sure they’ve got their car seats put in correctly.
Why don’t you call the fire department and ask them if they know of somewhere you could get a car seat? ”
“Wow. Yeah, that’s a good idea! I’ll do that.” Blue picked up a piece of paper, an advertisement that came in the mail, and rooted around until he found something to write with. “Okay. I made myself a note.”
“Also, my kids’ doctor is a friend of mine. I talked to her tonight. She said you need to have Indigo checked out to make sure she’s okay.”
Blue sat for a minute, embarrassed and trying to find a way to say what he had to say. “Um, my job, I mean, I don’t have any insurance, and I don’t have, well, there’s really not―”
“Brent, I told her the situation. She knows. She said she has to do a number of services a year pro bono for her licensing, and she’ll be glad to see Indigo for no charge. Vaccinations and the like too. No problem,” Anne said.
“But Anne, I don’t like to take charity. I’m sorry, but I can’t―”
“You can and you will. You listen to me, BrentWallace. This little girl is your responsibility. You have to take care of her. It doesn’t matter if you have to beg, borrow, or steal.
Oh, wait―don’t steal. That’s bad. But otherwise, begging and borrowing are allowed.
This is your child. Swallow your pride and admit that you need help, and let people who want to help you do so. Please?”
Blue dropped his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Everything inside him knew that Anne was right, and yet he hated it.
He’d always taken care of himself. Having someone else he had to take care of and to grovel and scrape for was something he wasn’t prepared for, and yet it had to be done.
“Fine. I’ll do it. Give me her information and I’ll call the office.
” Then panic struck again. “I can’t take off work to take her to the doctor.
Turner will fire me. He’s just looking for a reason. ”
“You have to, Blue. This is important, and they won’t let me bring her because I’m not her parent. Please? Get this taken care of?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll call her.” Blue wrote down the information Anne gave him. When he was finished, he asked, “Anything else?”
“Yes. I need you to bring her to the hospital Wednesday evening about seven o’clock.”
Now that was a curiosity. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Just bring her, okay? When you get here, ask for the fourth-floor nurses’ lounge. Someone will tell you how to get there.”
“But what―”
“You ask too many questions!” Anne said and began to laugh. “Just bring her, okay?”
Blue shrugged even though no one could see him. “Yeah, okay. Fine. You’re weird, know that?”
Anne laughed again. “Yeah, well, so are you! I’ll see you in the morning,” she said. “Night.”
“Night, Anne. Thanks.” Blue ended the call and sat there for a couple of minutes, just thinking. Why was he going to the hospital Wednesday night? Didn’t make any sense.
But he’d be there. He’d promised Anne, so he’d go.