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She took theride.
A part of me had been waiting for the rejection. Una wasn’t known as someone who trusted easily. And considering the other times we interacted weren’t the best, I understood her hesitation.
I hadhopedhearing her dad bailed would work in my favor, but I wasn’t sure that was why she accepted. It could have been a mixture of things. I wasn’t sure, but I was glad she hopped in.
Once Una got out of the car, I made sure she made inside the house alright. Considering I saw Ali poke his head behind the curtain before I pulled out of the driveway, I assumed she hadn’t had me drive her toherhome. But that was okay; trust would come with more interactions.
I hoped.
As I drove away, I replayed what she said earlier in my head. About Tony’s phone call.
Telling her I called Papa Tony’s seemed to be the wrong move. Somehow, she put two and two together and got five, because I had no idea what she meant by Tony changing his estimated finish time and rate.
To me, as someone who knew a thing or two about cars, it sounded like Una was getting scammed. Swindled. Taken advantage of.
It was an easy thing to do, especially to younger women who may not know the inner workings about cars. Scammy mechanics often said they needed more parts or more time, meaning more labor hours billed, when in reality, the fix was simple and straightforward. But easy fixes didn’t bring in the big bucks.
As soon as I heard her car was at Papa Tony’s, my stomach twisted into a knot. It was one of the worst around town, and Tony was not known as the most trustworthy person. He was on Dad’s “Do Not Interact” board at the dealership, to remind everyone not to work with him in any capacity whatsoever.
We had been nice and accommodating once upon a time. But the niceness wore off once we got conned. A while back, he used us to get rare parts for older cars, since we had access to a bigger database than he did. When he didn’t come up with payment more than once, we severed all ties.
The moment Una told me about Tony’s latest scam, I knew what I had to do.
Well, wanted to do. If Una heard what I was thinking, she probably would murder me on the spot. I would be dead, gone, six feet under.
I didn’t knowwhyI wanted to do it. Other than it was a nice thing to do, and I enjoyed helping people. In a genuine way, too. I didn’t ever expect anything in return. It made me happy to know that people were happy. If I put a smile on someone’s face because of something I did, that was all I needed.
I arrived at Tony’s quickly, the shop being not too far from Una’s house. It was an hour before the listed closing time, but the garage was shut and the office door locked. I banged on it, seeing a light in the back, alerting me that someone was still there.
“Whadda want, kid?” a rough voice said to my right.
I jumped and turned, finding Tony himself coming out from around the side of the building, wiping his hands on a dirty, greasy rag. There was no way that piece of cloth would give him clean fingers. It looked like it made him even dirtier than before.
“Hi there. I’m Charlie Henrikson.” I smiled and extended my hand, a little hesitantly due to the state of his.
He didn’t take it, though. He just glared at me instead. Adding my last name probably wasn’t the best idea, but it was ingrained in my brain to introduce myself as such. Hopefully Tony didn’t realize my last name was the name of Dad’s dealership in Fairview, or this conversation would be over faster than I hoped.
I retracted my arm and shoved both hands in the pockets of my shorts. Rocking back on my feet, I started again. “I’m here about a friend’s car. Una Nielsen?”
Tony snorted and used his forearm to wipe some sweat off his brow, leaving a grease stain in its place. “You’rea friend of Una’s?”
Keeping a straight face, I nodded. “Sure am. And I’m here to inquire about her car. She said it’s almost done and ready to go?” Having to lie was part of working with a shady mechanic. I couldn’t come out and tell him what I knew.
“Hardly. It needs more work. I told her it would need another week. Waiting for a part, you know,” he said, as if that line excused everything and anything.
I shrugged, pretending to agree with him. “I see. Well, can you tell me what part, and what’s wrong with it? I’m pretty handy around cars. It’s a… hobby of mine.” More lying, but I had to get Tony on my good side and pretend.
His eyes narrowed as he scratched his chin. “Come see for yourself. If you’re ‘handy around cars,’ then you shouldn’t have any problem figuring it out, right?”
It was obvious he was trying to play me. If I was lying and had no knowledge of cars, then he could easily scam me as well. He was expecting my age to play a factor, thinking a teenager like me wouldn’t have a clue what to look for under a hood.
If he only knew.
“Umm, yeah. Sure. Let’s take a look,” I answered, following him inside.
He led us to the back of the shop, where the car I assumed was Una’s sat somewhat forgotten in the corner, like he hadn’t touched it in days.
“That’s it. Let me pop the hood and I’ll show you what part we’re currently missing.”
