Day five: Morning comes to the desert,the rain has stopped. Joe’s Auto Repair. This is Joe speaking,what can I do for you?
This is Rehecca Casey. Listen,I left you a message last night about my car. It’s sitting right here.
Great,do you know what the problem is? Not yet,it’ll take a couple hours.
A couple of hours! I have a long trip ahead of me. I just got it in,call me hack in a couple of hours.
I’ll call back in two hours,is that ok? All right.
Who is it? It’s Alherto.
Oh,come on in! Hey,you’re still here!
I went to bring you a pillow last night,I thought you’d left. Oh really? Oh,man,I’m sorry. A trucker came up and pulled next to me.
And he was making too much noise,so I went on the other side of the motel. I’m glad you didn’t leave.
Um,may I ask you a favor? Of course.
Can I use your shower? Oh,yeah,sure! My back’s really stiff and I think a hot shower would.
Yeah,go right ahead. Um,All the other towels are wet. This is the only one that’s dry,sorry.
That’s fine. So,what’s happening with your car?
Oh,it’s at Joe’s Auto Repair. Really,does he know what’s wrong with it?
No,not yet,I have to call back in two hours. Oh,you know,you should be careful.
Sometimes those mechanics don’t know what they’re doing. Yeah,but I’m at his mercy.
Listen uh,I don’t want to bother you anymore. So I’m just going to take a taxi over to the garage,thank you for everything yesterday.
Hey,I was…I was glad to help. You,you don’t have to take a taxi. I’ll drive you over there,just wait till I’m done showering.
Oh,it s really not necessary. Thank you,again. Bye. Excuse me,excuse me,hello.
I’m sorry,how are you today,ma’am? Fine,thank you. I need to get a taxi as soon as possible.
A taxi? I need to go over to Joe’s Auto Repair.
The nearest taxi is in Indio,at least an hour away. Oh,come on.
Honest. Well,how can I get over to the garage?
Why don’t you thumb a ride with one of our truckers? Hitchhike?
Well sure,I’ll ask around. See who’s going. No,I don’t think so. I,I don’t think that it’s safe,but thanks,anyway. Well,suit yourself,um,what about your friend,the guy who slept in the car?
Um. Hey.
Hey. Still here,huh? Where’s your taxi?
Uh,This,this is embarrassing,but I tried to get a taxi over to the garage and there aren’t any. And I hate to ask,but could you drop me off there?
I don’t know,Rebecca. All right.
Sure,I’d be happy to take you.
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Look,I’m starving,let’s get a bite to eat,ok? Well,we should go over there,don’t you think?
The garage said two hours,right? Yeah,I guess there’s no rush.
Desert,Center Cafe? We don’t have a choice,I don’t know about you,but I need to eat.
I’m starving,aren’t you hungry? Yeah,I guess so..Yeah,I’m pretty hungry.
So,where exactly are you going? California. San Francisco.
You’re kidding. No,why do you think I’m kidding?
Because I’m from San Francisco,that’s where I live. Really? What a coincidence.
Isn’t it? Small world.
So what are you going to do in San Francisco? I got accepted to the San Francisco College of Music.
Oh,and what do you wanna do when you finish music school? Well,I hope to be a songwriter.
What kinda songs do you write? Folk and pop,with a little jazz influence.
I can’t believe you re moving to San Francisco. I know.
Alberto,do you know what this is? That is a dream catcher.
What’s a dream catcher? Well, according to Native American legend,if you place a dream catcher over your bed at night,
it catches all the bad dreams,and it lets in only the good ones. How wonderful, we all need a dream catcher in our lives.
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Let’s see, parts, Iabor, and, oh yeah, there’s the towing. I had hoped to be on my way to San Francisco by now.
God, this feels like a bad dream. Yeah, where’s a dream catcher when you need one?
Well, we have two problems: first, I need your OK on this before I can go ahead with the work. Sign right here, and, second, I have the fuel pump, I think, excuse me.
Sorry. Calm down.
Got it right here, but I don’t have the right gasket. I’ll have to send out for one. Send out! Where?
Well, I usually get my parts from a place in Mason, but. . . How long will that take? I was about to say, but it’ll take at least a day or two, and that’s if they have what I need.
And what’ll the whole thing cost? Well, lemme check the price of the gasket.
Let me see, around five hundred and twenty dollars. Oh, no.
And I noticed there’s a problem with the steering, tie rods, I’m afraid. Well, is it something that can wait?
I mean, can I, can I wait till I get to San Francisco? You shouldn’t take a chance with your steering.
He’s right. And how much will that cost?
Off the top of my head, another two hundred fifty to three hundred. I need to think about this.
You want my advice? Let him fix it. I need to think about this, give me a few minutes.
How long will it take your girlfriend to make up her mind? She’s, she’s not my girlfriend.
She’s just a friend, and I’m sure she’ll make a decision quickly. So, what do you wanna do?
I don’t have eight hundred dollars to spend on that car. I have to sell it, is there any chance that you would buy it from me?
Buy your car? Yeah, how are you gonna get back to?
With the money, I can take a bus to San Francisco. It’s not a bad car. I mean, my father paid a lot of money for that car a few weeks ago.
I’m sure you could sell it for a decent price, after you fix it up. Well, there isn’t much demand for cars like that around here.
People around here want mostly pickups. I’m sure you could sell it to somebody, do you wanna make me an offer?
Well, I suppose I could sell it for parts, I’ll give you three hundred. Three hundred! It’s worth a thousand at least. 300
OK, how about four hundred? It’s yours for seven hundred. 700
Five is as high as I can go. 500 You know, it’s worth a lot more than that, come on.
Five twenty-five. 525 Five seventy-five. 575
OK, five-fifty. Lord knows, it’s my good deed for the day. Five-fifty, sold. 550,
Now, are there any buses to San Francisco around here? Yup, greyhound bus stops in Indio. Right down Route 10, about a half-hour from here.
One bus a day, it leaves at two. So, now, it s eleven o’clock.
Plenty of time to make the bus. Do you mind driving me?
Course not, I’ll have you there by two. Thanks, I guess I should get all my things out of my car.
Yeah. One last thing, title to the car, you have to sign it over to me.
The name’s Joe Steward. That’s S-T-E-W-A-R-D. Thank you. One-two-three-four-fifty-five, and fifty. Let’s see here, receipt.
Thanks for everything. No problem, here are your plates.
Yeah, thanks. Here you go.
So, you ready to go? Yeah.
I, I feel really embarrassed, you’re driving me to my next destination. I, I feel like you’ve become my taxi driver.
If I were a taxi, you couldn’t afford me. I don’t know how I can ever thank you.
Forget it! Listen, I was thinking, we’re going to the same place and I didn’t think of this before, I beg your pardon?
We’re going to the same place, right? Yes?
Well, why don’t we ride together? Oh-uh.
We’ll drive straight through. No, I, I appreciate the generous offer, but I don’t think so.
I think I’d better take a bus. Come on! It makes perfectly good sense.
Alberto, I, I think I should take the bus. But, you know, but why spend the money?
The bus. Right, the bus.
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