Chapter Thirteen
Darren
On Wednesday, I finally got my chance to visit the auto parts store.
On my way to work that morning, I decided to take the car for a test run. I had just woken up from a dream in which I was cruising through the streets of East L.A. in the Mustang. Penny’s dad, for some reason, was in the passenger’s seat. Part of the city had just been destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and now a blanket of radioactive waste lay over it. We were being chased by a couple of two-headed guys driving a red Corvette. One of them was carrying a Super Soaker that sprayed toxic goo. He was leaning out the side of the car, fangs bared, with his gun pointed at us. I pressed down on the accelerator and left him in a cloud of exhaust.
It was a bit of a shock to wake up and discover that the Swedes hadn’t nuked us and that L.A. didn’t lie in ruins. I lay there in bed for a few minutes remembering the feel of the clutch in my hand. I hadn’t taken the car out for several days, not since Penny and I had narrowly eluded the police. It was time.
I ran by the store to pick up a box of croissants and then headed to work. No sooner had I entered the garage, though, than Dickie said the last words I had wanted to hear.
“There’s something wrong with the car,” he said.
I stared at him warily with a sinking feeling. “How wrong, exactly?”
“Nothing major, nothing that we can’t fix. But I took it out for a run this morning before dawn, out on that lonely stretch of highway just south of the manufacturing plants. The exhaust is leaking, and it’s causing the muffler to rattle.”
“How bad is it?”
Darren tossed his head back and frowned thoughtfully. “It’s not like the car is ruined, but I think you might want to replace the exhaust sooner rather than later. It’s a pretty common problem with race cars, and with cars that have been repurposed into race cars especially, the parts degrade faster than your average car because of the strain that they’re under.”
“Well, that’s the risk I took when we fixed it up. The one good thing about it is that with the money I won last weekend, the car basically paid for itself.”
“Yeah, and I don’t think the repairs will be massively expensive. If you want to just go ahead and replace the whole exhaust system, which is what I would recommend, a new muffler shouldn’t cost more’n four or five hundred dollars. And that’s on the high end.”
“Oh hell, that ain’t nothing. I could run down and get the new muffler this morning and have it fixed up by the time we close. That’s assuming they even have the parts.”
Dickie grabbed a croissant out of the box and bit the end absently. “I’ll mind the store. Just be back before noon.”
I turned and strode back through the parking lot, my limbs feeling strangely light. It was one of those perfect spring mornings where the air is still slightly chilly and the fields are shrouded in a slight mist. When I reached the store, I found Penny standing in the parking lot taking pictures of the sky with her phone.
“This is a really special morning for me,” she said by way of greeting, “because it’s the anniversary of the day I went camping by myself for the first time out in Piney Woods. I had completely forgotten it was Piney Woods Day until I got up this morning and checked my phone. I’d have taken the day off, but I already took yesterday off.”
“What did you do yesterday?” I asked.
“I went bungee-jumping with Nic and my dad down at the Blue Hole. Except we didn’t actually get to go bungee-jumping because Dad got sick, but it was nice just to drive around for a few hours and not have to deal with sweaty boys wanting me to order parts. Nic put on a Twenty One Pilots playlist, and we had a car singalong at full volume. A couple guys honked and made faces at us. I think they were trying to ask us out. Anyway.” She turned and smiled at me. “Happy Piney Woods Day! Did you need anything or did you just drive over here to chat?”
She turned and began walking through the parking lot in the direction of the store, and I followed her. “I actually need to look into getting a new exhaust system because the old one on my race car is busted.”
Penny grimaced as she pulled open the front door. “Sorry! I hope I didn’t ruin it when we were running from the law.”
“Heck, I probably ruined it trying to win that forty thousand dollars from Adam.”
“Well, at least the car paid for itself. Hey, would you mind taking a selfie with me to commemorate Piney Woods Day?”
“Wouldn’t mind at all.” We paused by the door with our backs to the sun-streaked glass. She pulled me close to me and snapped a couple pictures, then broke away so she could post them on Instagram.
“Do you have special holidays for every day of the year?” I asked as I followed her to the counter.
“Not every day. There are only two or three holidays or anniversaries a week. Nic and I have our friendaversary coming up in August because that was the day she came into the store to apply for a job and didn’t know there was a large nacho cheese stain down the front of her shirt. She’s very lucky that I was the one doing the interview. We spent most of it laughing, and she got the job and a friend.”
“You must have an excellent memory.”
“I do,” she said, not in a proud way but as a matter of fact. “I mean, I have a good memory for the things that I care about. I was never very good with dates or things I was supposed to know for school, but if you say something nice to me, I will remember and treasure it forever. And if you say something mean to me I will cry into my pillow night after night until we’re both dead.”
“Wow. Remind me never to say something mean to you.”
“Hopefully I won’t have to remind you. One time in middle school I overheard a girl say my nose was too tiny, and I’ve been self-conscious about my nose ever since. I do have a very small nose—it’s about the size of a button—but I can’t help it. I couldn’t make it longer unless I told a lie, and I’m not very good at lying.”
One of the great things about Penny was that I never had to say much; I could just wander into the store and listen while she rambled about whatever was on her mind. Today, she was being even more talkative than usual because I hadn’t spoken more than a few words since I pulled into the parking lot.
By this point, I had almost forgotten about my ostensible purpose in coming. “How are you the most fascinating person?” I wondered aloud.
Penny beamed benevolently from behind the counter. “That’s very kind of you to say. I think sometimes Nic hides in the back because she thinks I’m insufferable, so I just talk to the plants and lizards. They never make fun of me, although they probably would if they could speak.”
“What are you doing this weekend?”
“Going skydiving,” she said without a moment’s hesitation. I searched her face to see if she was joking, but her expression remained stoic and smirking.
“Do you go skydiving often?”
“Just when I’m in the mood. If I don’t feel like sitting in my room crying over fictional characters and drinking tea with my stuffed animals, risking death in a rickety airplane is always a second option. I never got the chance to bungee-jump yesterday, so this weekend I’ll have to get all my wiggles out.”
Listening to her talk, I had the growing suspicion that she was making up the whole story about going skydiving to scare me away. But there was only one way to know for sure. “Well, shoot, I’m down for it if you are. You wanna meet in front of the store on Saturday?”
If Penny was surprised or perturbed, it didn’t show on her face. “Yeah, sounds great. We’ll be leaving from here around noon. Have you ever been skydiving before?”
“No, but I’m willing to learn. It can’t be any more dangerous than racing down the strip. Speaking of which, I’d better find this muffler before my boss starts texting me wanting to know where I’m at.”
“K. See you Saturday,” said Penny, and she went back to her typing.