Ducking his head into the engine compartment, the man reached down for a moment and pulled his hand back up. Kyle could see that his fingers were wet with gas.
The man looked up at him in genuine surprise and said, "Long crack in the fuel line, like you said. How did you know that?”
"In these big, old eight-cylinder Chevys more often than not it's an old fuel line that's the trouble. Look, I really know what I'm doing," Kyle said.
The man stood up and studied Kyle for a moment. "We don't get a lot of strangers here, and they make people in Stonewall nervous," he said.
"Why?" Kyle asked.
The man shrugged and said, "There's been some trouble." He didn't elaborate, and Kyle decided not to push it.
"Be here at seven tomorrow morning. If you know what you're doing, I'll give you a chance. Seven bucks an hour.”
"Seven?" Kyle said, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice. He had made almost twice that at home.
"This isn't down south, son, in case you haven't noticed. Anyway, you look like you need a job, and I don't need the help that badly," the man said.
"Okay, okay," Kyle said. Then an idea struck him, and he pointed back at Max and said, "My friend here knows bodywork. He's, um, got great hands, if you need that kind of thing.”
Kyle turned to get Max's attention, but it wasn't neces- sary. Max kept his face neutral and nodded, going along with whatever Kyle was doing.
The man waved him off and said, "Let's see if you can hold a wrench first, then we'll see about your friend.”
Kyle held out his hand and said, "I'm Kyle, by the way.”
The man hesitated and then finally shook Kyle's hand. "Dan.”
"I'll see you at seven, Dan," Kyle said.
Dan didn't respond. He simply turned and went back to work on the car.
As Kyle and his friends stepped back outside, Max said, "Nice work.”
Michael added, "Yeah, one of us has a job.”
Kyle couldn't help but smile, then he said, "True, but at seven dollars an hour, it will take me a couple of months to pay for the repairs.”
"Michael and I will find something, and maybe the girls will too," Max said. Then he added, "You do realize that I've never done bodywork in my life.”
"Yes, but you can reorganize matter at the molecular level," Kyle said! "I'm sure your powers will work fine when it comes to banging out dents.”
Kyle realized as he spoke that he had done something that Max and Michael hadn't been able to do with their remarkable powers. He had done something that would help himself and his friends.
On the way back into town, Kyle found that he could barely keep the smile from his face.
7
You're kidding," Maria said finally. "Anything but that.”
"We've tried everywhere else," Liz said.
"Despite appearances, this town does not seem to be a powerhouse of opportunity," Isabel said. "Take it from me, the new relief person at the Laundromat.”
Before Maria could respond, Liz said, "Come on," and reached for the door of the diner. She stopped for a moment when she saw Jimmy's flyer about his missing sis- ter. They had seen three more missing notices at other places in town, all for young women.
A moment later, they were inside again. Jimmy was clearing a table and looked up immediately and met Liz's eyes. She saw the question on his face, but she had no answers for him.
I wish I knew where she was, Liz thought as she gave Jimmy a thin smile.
Inside, it was dinnertime, and Liz was surprised to see the place was two thirds full. The same woman was there, running from table to table. There was another waitress, also in street clothes, who was helping her. By the way she carried herself, Liz could tell that she had little or no wait- ressing experience.
She was fumbling around, clearly overwhelmed… both women were.
"They're in the weeds," Maria said, shaking her head in sympathy.
"Yeah," Liz said. That was the term they used for com- pletely drowning at their waitressing stations. There was no cure for it. You just had to struggle through until things got sorted out and business slowed down.
As Isabel found a table, Liz and Maria waited at the counter and caught the women in charge as she headed for the kitchen.
"Excuse me," Liz said. The woman turned to her and said in a short voice, "Yes?”
Liz spoke quickly and said, "We saw the 'Help Wanted' sign and we're looking for work.”
The woman looked them over quickly. Liz saw a flash of recognition in her eyes and realized that she remem- bered them from earlier. "You have experience?" she said.
"Yes," Maria and Liz said together.
"Tons," Liz added.
Without thinking, the woman said, "If you're here at six thirty tomorrow, you're hired.”
Then she was gone.
"We have jobs," Liz said, immediately feeling relief.
"Is that the good news or the bad news?" Maria asked, frowning. The two girls joined Isabel at the table just as Max, Michael, and Kyle arrived in the diner. Max smiled at Liz as the boys crowded into the booth.
"How did you guys do?" Liz asked.
"Well, the garage won't start on the van until we have some money, but Kyle got a job there," Max replied.
Liz saw the pride on Kyle's face and understood it.
"What about you two?" Maria asked.
Michael shook his head. "Nothing. I came close, at the Laundromat, but a tall girl with brown hair beat me to the coveted relief-attendant job," he said as he shot Isabel a look.
"It's okay, Maria and I will be working here tomorrow," Liz said. "We'll be out of here before we know it. How much will the repairs cost, Kyle?”
"If we were paying for them, could be as much as a thousand," Kyle said.
There were sharp intakes of breath around the table.
Kyle lifted his hand and said, "But I'm hoping that the boss will let me do the work after hours, so then it would just be the parts… just a few hundred.”
"Even so, it could be weeks before we earn that here… after we pay for food and somewhere to sleep," Max said.
"Did you guys find a place?" Liz said.
Max nodded. "There's a motel just outside of town. A room is forty dollars a night," he said.
"Just about everything we have," Maria said.
Liz quickly did the math in her head. "It would leave us with less than three dollars," she said. She shook her head. "We're not doing it. We'll sleep in the van tonight.”
"What?" Maria said.
"If we spend the money on a room, you guys will have nothing to eat. And we'll have nothing tomorrow," Liz said.
"We'll be okay," Max said. "We can get a room.”
Michael looked over at Max in surprise.
"No," Liz said, before Michael could respond.
"Tell you what, Max," Liz said. "Let's put it to a vote.”
"Out of the question," Max said.
"If you remember, you made it clear that you don't want to make all the decisions," Liz said, smiling. She turned to the group. "All in favor of getting the boys some food.”
Liz put her hand up, followed by Isabel, then Michael, Kyle, and finally Maria.
"That's the problem with democracy: Not everybody gets what they want," Liz said. Waving over the waitress, Liz watched the guys order. After the boys had finished, Liz realized she was tired. By the look of them, so was the rest of the group. Checking her watch, she saw it was almost six thirty. "We can't hang around here all night," Liz said.
"Yeah, we'll see enough of this place tomorrow," Maria said.
"We should head back to the van," Max said. He turned to Kyle and asked, "Do you think it's safe? I didn't notice when they close.”
"Five thirty," Kyle said. "If the sign was right. We should be okay.”
The group moved down the street, still attracting the interest of the few people who were on the street. There were very few people, Liz noticed, even for a sleepy little town. And no one seemed to be sitting outside anywhere… either on a porch or in front of a store. Instead, everyone she saw was either coming or going. No one was staying still or even lingering outside. Thus, they were able to make their way down Main Street without attracting too much attention.