Charlies Auto Repair
By DHMcCarty 12/2018
Wedged into the seat of ‘Wooly Bully’, encased from head to toe in a fireproof suit and Bell carbon fiber helmet, Jimmy Richards counted down the lights. He rocked his right foot heel to toe on the gas pedal as his hand tightened on the T-bar.
A funny car is a 200 mile an hour coffin on 4 wheels. Jimmy was ever aware. He had the fastest reflexes in the business and 6080 horse’s to back him up. As the lights hit yellow, Jimmy extended his index and lifted the cover to the nitro ignite.
Fearless Jimmy Richards
As the lights flashed green, Jimmy rocked his foot back on the clutch, flipped the nitro switch and mashed the accelerator. All in perfect synch.
He passed 100 MPH in 1.1 seconds, the blacktop aflame in scorched rubber, acrid air burning his nostrils, in spite of his gear.
Time stood still.
Suddenly ‘The Beast’ blew by him in a millionth of a second, flames spewing from the blower. The engine exploded spewing white hot aluminum.
Shrapnel ripped through ‘Wooly Bully’s left rear tire. The steering wheel jerked to the left as the car went airborne.
Jimmy’s entire life flashed before him in a blink.
Chapter 1
“To live fully, one must be free, but to be free one must give up security. Therefore, to live one must be ready to die. How’s that for a paradox?”
― Tom Robbins
“She’s just going to break his heart again Charlie. Mark my word. I knew it as soon as she breezed back into town.”
“Uh-huh.”
Charlie Richards glanced toward Christine as he was reaching for the torque wrench.
“I saw her down at the IGA mauling all the peppers. I’ll bet she squeezed every darn one of them. Soon as Jimmy realizes she’s back he is going to tumble right back down that rabbit hole.”
Charlie spun the right front wheel of Christine’s Chevy until the lug nut set. Most of the time he just nodded when his sister Christine started in. She wasn’t really expecting a response.
“She must have Ju Ju or something. One look at Shelly and he just goes to mush. There are a dozen women in this town would drop their drawers if he just smiled at them. Always been that way. I don’t understand why he didn’t just stay with Raynelle. She was a good cook and she kept the house decent.”
“Christine, are you in love with Robert?”
“What kind of question is that Charlie. We have been married for 42 years. Of course, I’m in love with him.”
Christine got pregnant in the back seat of Roberts Road Runner. Married one month after graduation and still together. Robert manages the Advance Auto Parts, smokes 2 packs of Marlboro’s a day, drinks a case of Natural Light in 3 days and has an opinion about everything. Just don’t ask him to defend his point of view.
“I didn’t ask how long you’d been married Christine, I asked if you were in love. Do you think about him when he’s at work? Do you get squishy when you look at him across the table? Do you smile when he comes through the door?”
“He’s the father of my children. I don’t get squishy anymore Charlie. Sex is highly overrated. Just a way to get through a bad second feature at the Starlight.”
Charlie hit the lever to lower the Chevy, scooped out a glob of GoJo and looked Christine’s way.
“I always liked Shelly. She makes Jimmy laugh and he always smiles when he watches her walk away. Jimmy’s been walking around with a big empty spot in his heart.
She’s a good soul Christine, not a perfect one. Jimmy had his heart broke. Now he knows how that feels.”
Charlie had his head buried under the hood of Sam the Sham’s Ford pickup. The old Ford should have been put out of its misery years ago. It would have died a respectable death were it not for Charlie’s resuscitative efforts.
Sam was a junk picker. He couldn’t afford preventative maintenance so he bartered with Charlie whenever the F-100 broke down. He did odd jobs around the shop and drove the wrecker when Milky was too hungover.
“Think you might suh-save those puh plugs Chuh-Charlie? Mebbee fuh file em down a little and re- guh gap em?”
“They’ve been filed too many times Sammy. Tell you what, take that wrench and socket and pull the plugs from that green Galaxie out back. We’ll swap em out. You can haul the Galaxie down to Sonny’s Salvage lot and collect the $50. That will pay for the used tires and the oil change.”
Sam Shamford stood behind Charlie shifting from one foot to the other. When he got nervous, he would start stuttering.
“Chuh Chuh Charlie. I pree pree she ate whuh whuh . . .”
Charley turned and put his hand on Sammy’s shoulder.
“Sammy if this old pickup isn’t running than I have to take time out from my day to haul trash to the dump. Who’s going to watch the shop while I’m gone?
I’d have no one coming by to show me the treasures he’s collected from the streets. Half the cars in this town are running with old tires and parts you scrounged up. I’m just doing my civic duty keeping this old classic running.
Wooly Bully Sammy. Wooly Bully.”
Chapter 2
“The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and irreplaceable being.”
― Tom Robbins
She was sitting in her Saab, nose up to bay 2 when Charlie drove up in the morning. He waved at her, opened the office door and set about turning on the lights and the ancient compressor. By the time he opened the bay door, she was next to the 900 with her hands deep in her pockets, standing pigeon-toed in Anne Kalso’s shoes.
Charlie tied off the rope that raised the bay door and turned to Shelley with open arms.
Shelley filled them, her head resting against his sternum.
“When did you get back Shelley? Christine was in here yesterday and said she ran into you down at the IGA.”
“I don’t know if ‘ran into’ is the correct term. I noticed her eyeing me when I was in the produce section but she didn’t communicate. She gave me that Church Lady look.”
“That’s Christine. She subsists on prunes and moral indignation. It’s her atonement for a tryst in the back seat of a Road Runner in the ’70s. 42 years of atonement will set you in your ways. Don’t let it get you down.
Does Jimmy know you’re here Shelley? He took it pretty hard when you left.”
Shelley looked down at her shoes for a moment then raised her eyes to Charlie. Her fingers were twisting a few strands of hair that had escaped from her beanie cap.
“No, Evelyn Smoak and Sammy are the only ones I talked to. Evelyn doesn’t tell tales and Sammy is too embarrassed.”
“Sammy was in here yesterday and never mentioned it. Christine was my source, you know, telephone, telegraph, tell a Christine.
So, what’s going on with your Saab?”
Shelley explained the symptoms and Charlie promised he’d check out the fuel line, fuel pump, and filter.
“Charlie, make sure you write me out a bill. I know how you are. I didn’t come here because you’re my friend. I came here because you’re the best mechanic in Shady Creek. I sold 14 articles last year. My name has been on the cover of both ‘The Ladies Home Journal’ and ‘Redbook’. I’m doing OK.
You do have to put food on your table.”
Charlie laughed.
“Yes, ma’am will do.”
“I’m going over to Peanuts for some breakfast and then City Hall to meet with Franklin. Evelyn recommended me and they didn’t advertise the position. It’s pretty much a done deal.”
“So, she is retiring from the library after all?”
“Yes, moving to Saugatuck to paint pictures on the beach.
I’ll see you around 4:00 Charlie.”
Jimmy pulled his 1952 Chevrolet pickup into the parking lot of Charlies Auto repair. He noticed a flash of silver through the open door of bay 2. Was that. .? He glanced through the office window and saw Charlie replacing the receiver of the old rotary dial phone. Charlie was looking right at him as he rose from his desk.
Jimmy circled the pickup and stood stock-still staring at the silver Saab.
Charlie was standing outside the door, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his Dickies.
“When did you get back into town?”
“About two minutes ago. This is my first stop.”
He cocked his right thumb over his shoulder and nodded toward bay 2.
“Shelly’s?”
“Yup. Fuel flow problem. I was ordering a fuel filter from Robert when you pulled up. I figured you’d have some questions.”
“She’s back?”
“Evelyn Smoak is retiring and moving to Saugatuck. She recommended Shelly for the job. You know how Franklin hangs on Evelyn’s every word. She’s over at City Hall interviewing right now.
She’s staying at her Dad’s place with Sammy. She said it will take her a month to get the place cleaned up. She’s a little worried about Sammy, says she’s seen a real downturn since she left. He can’t live on his own anymore.
You know it was only a matter of time Jimmy. She could never turn her back on Sammy.”
“Why not? Turned her back on me.”
Charlie ran his hand over the hood of the Chevy then wiped his hand on his trousers.
“First time I’ve ever seen it dirty. You not sleeping with it anymore?”
Jimmy grinned.
“Let’s just say my mind has been occupied. I got lost in the woods up there in Alpena.
I went fishing once. I stayed drunk and high as a kite for the first two months until I got tired of being hungover and listless. Face it, I was never meant to be a drinking man. It messes with the lightning reflexes.”
“Been doing any racing?”
“Haven’t been behind the wheel of The Beast since last Summer’s ‘Strip Tease’ at Lapeer International. Cedric may have given up on me. His boy Matthew has been driving the car. He hasn’t won a race yet.”
The two of them stood looking at the blacktop for a few moments.”
“Jimmy, she didn’t turn her back on you. I may not be the smartest man in town but I do know what a woman in love looks like. She stopped in to say goodbye before she went to Traverse City. She was a ghost. She did what she had to do to preserve some semblance of Shelly.
All the pain that you’ve been dealing with, weighed on her like an anvil. I may not know much but I know the real deal when I see it. The best thing you ever did in your life was fall in love with that woman. Look what you learned from it.”
“Yeah, well . . . that’s a tough learning experience.”
“She’s coming by for the car at 4:00. Or you can stop off at City Hall and catch her after Franklin is done talking to her.”
“No, I think I’m going to stop by and say hi to Christine and the kids. Shes left a dozen messages on my cell in the last few months and I never returned a single one. I’ll pop a couple of Tums and go see her.”
“You’re going to run into Shelly sooner or later. It’s a small town.”
Jimmy stood holding the open door of the Chevy and staring at his keys.
“Charlie, I didn’t mean what I said about her.
I tried being mad at her and it just wouldn’t stick. Truth is I’m scared. Scared she won’t want to talk to me.
Imagine that. Fearless Jimmy Richards, scared of a little redhead wearing Earth shoes. What will that do to my reputation?
The ‘Quarter-Mile King’ turned to mush by Emily Dickinson.”
Chapter 3
“We are our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.”
― Tom Robbins
“The guy’s a legend in this town. He averaged 7.2 yards per carry over his Junior and Senior season. The team went 17-1.”
Gunnar Nilsson chuckled
“What, you’ve got his stats memorized? Did you get that off his Topps card.?”
“We all played under Sammie’s legend. I was on the team years later and he was still the example everyone in town brought up. But that was 40 years ago. Time is fickle.
Charlie blocked for Sammie. A school of 211 students. Guys played two ways so Sammie never came off the field. On defense he was a run stuffer, roaming the middle until teams stopped running on him. He forced the game into the air.
Do you know how many schools in Middle Michigan can field an adequate passer? Kids in this area grow up chasing stoats through a cornfield, not tossing rocks through a window.
He had curly black hair that hung to his shoulder blades and a beard like a pirate. Everyone called him Wooly Bully. “
“Sam the Sham.”
“You got it. I think he grew into the name. He was always physical. A rhino.”
Jimmy was stirring his beer with his finger than licking the hops from his index.
“Jimmy, you don’t have to order a beer. You never finish half of it. I’ll set you up a glass of water or a coke if you like.”
“I just don’t have a taste for it anymore. Dulls the reflexes.”
“Still racing?”
“Haven’t even sat in the car since May. Cecil has been trying to break in his son Matthew.”
“Whatever happened to Sammy?”
“Viet Nam. He didn’t get a single offer from a college program. He didn’t have the speed for the NCAA. He barely carried a C- average and that was because his mama scrutinized everything he did in school.
His Mom died of lung cancer his senior year. The first two ball games that she ever missed were Sammy’s last 2. His little sister Shelly was only 4 years old. She stopped talking for two years, it was a devastating blow.
He took his dad’s advice and enlisted in the Marine Corps a week after graduation. He was 17. Ten months later he caught a grenade at knee level and tossed it back the way it came. It exploded twenty feet out of Sammy’s hand resulting in extensive neuro damage. It got him an Honorable Discharge and a 3-month stint at Walter Reed before they transferred him to the Saginaw VA for 6 months of rehab.
At 19 and a half years old he was released to the streets of Shady Creek. Reflexes shot and 30 pounds lighter, he was a shadow of the bull.”
“You know a lot about the guy.”
“Twelve years later I was the best quarterback that Arenac County had seen in twenty years. Nobody remembers that. We all played in Sammy’s shadow. It was an honor.
“I heard Shelly is back in town. Have you seen her?”
“No, It’ll happen. Franklin Jefferson hired her for Evelyn Smoak’s job. She moved in with Sammie. You know Shelly. She worries about the world.”
Gunnar smiled and tapped out a tune on the oak bar with his fingertips.
“Well, I can’t think of anyone more qualified for the job.”
.
Little Shelly was late to speech. She observed the world around her with wide eyes and an animated face. She processed everything internally.
Her Father Darren would take her for walks in the country several times a week. She stopped every five feet to pick up a leaf or a rock. She would linger to feel the texture of moss on trees or dangle her fingers in a stream. She would smile at Darren and say “Hard” or “Wet” or “Cold’ or”Soft” or “Pretty.”
Darren would puff on his meerschaum and add in an adjective or two to every object she displayed. Stones were hard, round and black. The stream was cold, wet and turbulent. A 1/2 mile walk would take them two hours.
Darren didn’t mind, it was his favorite downtime. When they walked through town, Shelly would stand close and hold tightly to his hand pointing at what she saw. Her conversation would remain monosyllabic.
Every night, Darren or Sonya would curl up on the sofa with Shelly to read her a book. Their fingers would point to every word that they pronounced. Shelly would follow along with dancing eyes. Those eyes never danced away from the page.
Sonya was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma of the breast when Shelly was three and a half. Her bout with cancer did not go well. Each round of chemo and radiation left her more depleted. Shelly watched the rapid deterioration of her Mother with increasing horror. The smile faded from her innocent face. She could find no word to describe the change in her Mama.
One night while Sonya was reading to her daughter, Shelly reached up to stroke her Mama’s hair and recoiled when she came away with a handful of limp hair. She fled the room, curling up in the covers of her bed. Darren walked into the room and sat on the edge of her bed. He reached down and gathered Shelly in his arms where she clung to his chest, her tiny body shaking in convulsions.
“Shelly, you didn’t do anything wrong to Mama. It’s the medicine that she’s taking that makes her hair fall out. The medicine isn’t working anymore. You need to know that. It’s hard to be a big girl when you are only three and a half but right now Mama is more scared than you are because she can’t make it better.”
Shelly slowed her breathing until the convulsions stopped and the tears abated. She scooched her bottom to the edge of the bed and dropped her pudgy feet to the carpet. She toddled out to the living room dragging her Snow White blanket behind her.
Sonya was lying on the couch with her right forearm across her eyes. Tears streaked her face. Shelly climbed up the couch and straddled her mama’s waist. Sonya opened her eyes and wrapped her arms around Shelly, pulling her to her tortured breast.
Darren covered his girls with Snow White, dimmed the lights and slipped into his room.
That night he stared at the ceiling until his alarm went off at 6:15. He would never share his bed with Sonya again.
Chapter 4
Charlie was the oldest and the biggest of Riley Richard’s three children. He was big even when he was little.
By the time he was 14, he could sling two bales of hay at a time onto the trailer. The problem was his cousin couldn’t keep up. Tony was Stacking bales with two hands and a knee-up to center them. Once the pile went over two-high, Tony couldn’t use the knee anymore and the bales would pile up on the outer edge of the trailer until they started falling back off.
Riley would shut down the tractor and climb up on the trailer to assist Tony while Charlie re-tossed.
“Damn Charlie. You’re like an orangutang. Ain’t no man alive can keep up with you.”
Tony dropped into a crouch and started swinging his arms like an ape. Charlie looked down at his boots.
Riley glanced at his son. Charlie had always been the sensitive sort. As the oldest, he was eager to please.
Charlie had a habit of squatching down when he talked to others so that they wouldn’t have to look up at him. Susanna Richards was always placing a hand in Charlie’s back and pulling back on her son’s shoulder to straighten him.
“Charlie, you’re going to have problems with your posture if you keep doing that. There isn’t anything wrong with people looking up to you. Just make sure your behavior warrants it.’
Charlie hung on his mama’s every word.
Sammy and Charlie were best friends, yin to yang, sweet to sour, Laurel to Hardy. Sammy attacked life and Charlie stemmed the consequences. Charlie was cerebral, Sammy was physical.
As Sonya regressed, Sammy took out his anger and frustrations on the football field. Charlie, ever the Empath cleared the way. He observed the despondence at arm’s length, helpless to intervene.
A mother can not be replaced.
Sonya continued to attend Sammy’s games right up until the end. Darren tied to talk her out of attending the league championship against Bay City. She was too weak and he feared she would not be able to cope with the excitement.
Sonya would hear none of it. Darren wrapped her fading locks in a crimson and gold turban and Sammy’s letter jacket. She was determined to fly her son’s colors. She had never missed one of Sammy’s games.
Halfway through the 3rd quarter, Sonya’s eyes closed and she pitched forward into Darren’s arms. Tears streaked Shelly’s face as she gripped her mama’s arm.
The crowd went silent. Coach Perkin’s turned around to the crowd and then quickly summoned the ambulance onto the field. Sammy stood looking up at his mother until Charlie came up behind him and wrapped him in a bear hug.
Two hours later Sonya passed away at Hartnett Memorial. Sammy stood in the doorway as the monitor flatlined. He turned and walked out of the hospital. Charlie glanced toward Sammy and then Darren. Darren shook his head no.
Sammy went on a tirade that night, busting shop windows in downtown stores. Not a single shopkeeper pressed charges.
That night at 0100, Charlie rose from his bed and climbed into his father’s pickup. he drove the mile and a half to Sammy’s house, walked in the front door and down the hall to Sammy’s room. Sammy was curled into a fetal position, sobbing.
Charlie wrapped him in his arms and carried him to the living room. He cradled Sammy in his lap and rocked him through the night.
When Darren entered his living room in the morning Sammy was fast asleep. Charlie stared straight ahead. Darren reached out and squeezed Charlie’s shoulder.
“Son. I fear what Sammy would have done without you. You fill a space in my boy that even his family could not touch.”
Shelly stood at the end of the sofa staring silently into Charlie’s eyes.
Chapter 5 –
Jimmy Richards lived a childhood without restraint. He had a habit of releasing stoats from the pen just for the thrill of chasing them through the cornfield. He never lost one.
He drew three one-foot diameter circles on the barn at 3′ high, 5′ high and 7′ foot high. He practiced throwing apples at the circles, in order, while dropping back or on the run. Riley observed from a distance.
“Son, if you want to make cider, I would advise you to utilize the press. Now you’ve got a pulpy mess all over the side of the barn and you wasted about 20 bushels of apples.”
“But Pop, I’m hitting right around 95% when I’m moving to my right. I need to work on my left lateral movement.”
“Well son, when you’re moving left, you have to plant and dig your cleats into the turf on the balls of your right foot. I’ll take you to Strom’s in Bay City tomorrow to get some cleats. Start wearing them when you practice so that you can get used to the mechanics.
Meanwhile, you need to sort through those apples. Make sure you leave the good ones so your mom can make a few pies. She can’t scrape them off the barn you know.”
By the time Jimmy reached high School, he owned the place. He took over the starting quarterback position in the second game of his sophomore year. The team put together a 14 game winning streak. He was a natural athlete but he didn’t take it for granted. He was the first on the field and the last to leave. He even threw balls to the equipment manager.
Anyone that would run a route.
Jimmy made first-team Class D All-State his Junior year.
Jimmy rounded the corner of the Humanities wing just as Harlan Caldwell and his brother Ziplock slapped Shelly’s books from her hand.
“Little Miss Smartass Duckfeet got some slippery hands?’ Harlan crowed.
“Shelly. Evelyn Smoak is sitting out front in her Volvo. I think she’s waiting for you. Ziplock, pick up those books for Shelly.”
Ziplock picked up the textbooks and handed them to Shelly. Harlan’s shifty eyes darted down the hall and back to Jimmy as Shelly departed. Ziplock took two steps backward.
Jimmy watched as Shelly rounded the corner and then turned his attention to the Caldwell Brothers.
“You know Harlan, I can approach this two ways. I could break your skinny-ass neck, rip off your balls and stuff them down Ziplocks throat. But that would bother Shelly a great deal. This is all about respecting a young woman who doesn’t deserve your bullshit.
Or I could reason with you. I believe Shelly would opt for that approach.
So here’s the deal scumbags. No one in this school will ever turn an evil eye toward that girl again or I will resort to plan one.
Nobody. Do you hear me?”
“But Jimmy, we can’t control what someone else does.”
“Oh, I think you can Ziplock. Maybe you need to get the word out. Anything happens to Shelly and it’s your neck on the line.”
- To be Continued
Whistle Down The Wind 