SUMMER... August, at home (Part 89c)

Eric asked if he (we) could come to Rick's shop to take a closer look at his race car and he had no problem with it. The only problem I had was Elle’s reaction when I told her where I was going. That notwithstanding, I had to do a double take when we got there. The “shop” was nothing more than an old potato barn on Rick's family farm. For those that don’t know, a potato barn is NOT like the typical barn you see riding down the road. It’s actually built partially into the ground and the part that’s above it has dirt packed around the walls. They look like bunkers with a shingled roof. The floor is dirt and there’s absolutely nothing structural attached to the walls inside. My first take was that the only thing they had that I didn’t was a roof. Their workbench was 2 by 6’s on saw horses with a tool box sitting on them. The light came from three single light bulbs hanging from the rafters. My reaction was disbelief because of how well they ran and were doing it with so little. It was certainly a form of encouragement to me.

The girlfriends pretty much sat on the back of a pick up truck parked in the entryway. One of the girls that I truly remember had long black hair and really dark eyes. There wasn’t enough light to really tell their color. She was sitting in the bed of the truck with her back against one side with her legs pulled up and her chin resting on her knees. I knew if I were to walk up to the other side I would’ve gotten a nice peek up the legs of her shorts. Not knowing her I had no reason to go over there. If I turned to look at her once during the time I was there I must’ve done it a dozen times even though dark haired girls were not normally my cup of tea.

After a while a girl I hadn't seen at the track showed up. She was seriously cute... and very well endowed both top and bottom. One of Rick's friends saw me giving her a good look and came over and told me that she was Rick's sister and she was definitely "hands off". I hadn't done anything but look (maybe stare) at her so that was a pretty good "shot across the bow" for me. Believe me, I really would've liked to see her in the shorts she was wearing in the daylight.

Eric was in his glory. He could “speak their language” since he owned and had raced a car very similar to theirs. Because of the Labor day weekend and all I had to do I wasn’t racing that Saturday night but after getting to know these guys a bit I wished I could be there to watch. They really felt they had a chance to win. Their enthusiasm was infectious. Eric wanted to as well but he had scheduled duty so it would be over a week before we’d see them race again. As we were leaving Rick told us to take some of the corn that was in the bed of the pick up truck. As Eric and I picked some out Rick told us to stop at the family farm stand any time we wanted more. As I did the guy who had warned me about his sister whispered to me that if I wanted really get a good look at the sister to stop by the stand and that it would be worth the trip. I found that to be very interesting.

On our way back home Eric mentioned that he had something in mind that he thought might help them but was reluctant to offer it up. I told him that the worst that would happen would be that they’d ignore him. He said he’d think about it some more. Back at the park, when we turned down Eric’s street, we both could see flashing lights down at the end where I lived. There were all kinds of police and fire people there so we couldn’t even get the car as far as Eric’s unit. I jumped out and ran down the rest of the way. When I got to the end of the street it was hard to fathom the sight that was before me. There was a car way up on Lil’s patio. As I moved closer I could see that the wooden steps and platform that had been outside her door was now crushed up against the patio room. If that wasn’t enough I could see that the two panels that made up the North end of her patio room were also crushed.

Lil had sent her kids to her parents for most of the Summer after Andy had left her. With school starting right after Labor Day she gone to fetch them earlier in the week. It was obvious that she hadn’t returned because if she had her pick up truck would’ve taken the brunt of the crash. It took a few minutes to get though all the people who’d gathered and home. Elle was standing on our patio but when asked she really knew very little of what had happened. She did offer up that she’d heard the crash about a half hour earlier. I was thankful for the distraction as she never made mention about my going off with Eric that evening.

I had a pretty good idea of what had happened by the time I went to bed. One of the golden agers who still lived in the park and hadn’t moved to the new park had hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. Ben and Dick, the owners of the park, had been called and assessed the damage noting that when the patio room got hit it pulled the awning part (the roof) away from the mobile home. The home itself appeared to be OK. Going to bed I felt sorry for Lil. I’d avoided her ever since the morning when I’d re-leveled her unit. Elle had asked me why but I just sloughed it off. Jim and Dora were still very close to her even though it was a little uncomfortable for Jim what with working with Andy and in the same department. Jim and Dora were also away for the long weekend and I had no idea of how to contact her or Andy. It took a while to get to sleep.

To be continued...