Christine

Like the kids in the smoking area at school, like Ralph on Basin Drive, like Buddy Repperton (we’ll be talking about him all too soon, I’m afraid), he had taken an instant dislike to Arnie—it was a case of hate at first sight.

“Okay, that’s the last time you run that mechanical asshole in here without the exhaust hose!” he yelled. “I catch you doin it, you’re out, you understand?”

“Yes.” Arnie looked small and tired and whipped. Whatever wild energy had carried him this far was gone now. it broke my heart a little to see him looking that way. “I—”

Darnell didn’t let him get any further. “You want an exhaust hose, that’s two-fifty an hour if you reserve in advance. And I’m telling you something else right now, and you want to take it to heart, my young friend. I don’t take any shit from you kids. I don’t have to. This place is for working guys that got to keep their cars running so they can put bread on the table, not for rich college kids who want to go out dragging on the Orange Belt. I don’t allow no smoking in here. If you want a butt, you go outside in the junkyard.”

“I don’t sm—”

“Don’t interrupt me, son. Don’t interrupt me and don’t get smart,” Darnell said. Now he was standing in front of Arnie. Being both taller and wider, he blotted my friend out entirely.

I began to get angry again. I could actually feel my body moan in protest at the yo-yo string my emotions had been on ever since we pulled up to LeBay’s house and saw that the damned car wasn’t on the lawn anymore.

Kids are a downtrodden class; after a few years you learn to do your own version of an Uncle Tom routine on kid-baters like Will Darnell. Yessir, nosir, okay, you bet. But, Jesus, he was laying it on thick.

I suddenly grabbed Darnell’s arm. “Sir?”

He swung around on me. I find that the more I dislike adults, the more apt I am to call them Sir.

“What?”

“Those men over there are smoking. You better tell them to stop.” I pointed to the guys at the poker table. They had dealt out a fresh hand. Smoke hung over the table in a blue haze.

Darnell looked at them, then back at me. His face wag very solemn, “You trying to help your buddy right out of here, Junior?”

“No,” I said. “Sir.

“Then shut your pie-hole.”

He turned back to Arnie and put his meaty hands on his wide, well-padded hips.

“I know a creep when I see one,” he said, “and I think I’m looking at one right now. You’re on probation, kid. You screw around with me just one time and it don’t matter how much you paid up in front, I’ll put you out on your ass.”

Dull fury went up from my stomach to my head and made it throb. Inside I begged Arnie to tell this fat fuck to bore it and stroke it and then drive it straight up his old tan track just as fast and far as it would go. Of course then Darnell’s poker buddies would get into it and we’d both probably end this enchanting evening at the emergency room of Libertyville Community Hospital getting our heads stitched up… but it would almost be worth it.

Arnie, I begged inside, tell him to shove it and let’s get out of here. Stand up to him, Arnie. Don’t let him pull this shit on you. Don’t be a loser, Arnie—if you can stand up to your mother, you can stand up to this happy asshole. Just this once, don’t be a loser.

Arnie stood silent for a long time, his head down, and then he said, “Yessir.” The word was so low it was nearly inaudible. It sounded as if he was choking on it.

“What did you say?”

Arnie looked up.His face was deadly pale. His eye’s were swimming with tears. I couldn’t look at that. It hurt me too bad to look at that. I turned away. The poker players had suspended their game to watch developments over at stall twenty.

“I said, “Yessir,” Arnie said in a trembling voice. It was as if he had just signed his name to some terrible confession. I looked at the car again, the ’58 Plymouth, sitting in here when it should have been out back in the junkyard with the rest of Darnell’s rotten plugs, and I hated it all over again for what it was doing to Arnie.

“Arright, get out of here,” Darnell said. “We’re closed.”

Arnie stumbled away blindly. He would have walked right into a stack of old bald tyres if I hadn’t grabbed his arm and steered him away. Darnell went back the other way to the poker table. When he got there he said something to the others in his wheezy voice. They all roared with laughter.

“I’m all right, Dennis,” Arnie said, as if I had asked him. His teeth were locked together and his chest was heaving in quick, shallow breaths. “I’m all right, let go of me, I’m all right, I’m okay.”

I let go of his arm. We walked across to the door and Darnell hollered at us, “And you ain’t going to bring your hoodlum friends in here, or you’re out!”

One of the others chimed, “And leave your dope at home!”

Arnie cringed. He was my friend, but I hated him when he cringed that way.

We escaped into the cool darkness. The door rattled down behind us. And that’s how we got Christine to Darnell’s Garage. Some great time, huh?

6 OUTSIDE