The kid must have been conceived shortly after Steven and Daisy. got married. The thought of Steven andDaisy together conjured up a long buried animosity and bothered him more than it should have. More than ithad a few days ago, before he'd made love to her on the trunk of the car just a few feet from where her sonstood. Before he knew how good it was to be with her again. "I take it your mom is still in town?"
"Yeah." He stared at Jack as if he expected him to say something more. When he didn't, the boy added, "We'restaying with my grandma until my aunt Lily gets better. My mom thinks that might take a week or so."
He'd wondered what had taken place to make Daisy run from his kitchen Saturday. "What happened to youraunt?"
"She drove her car into Ronnie's living room."
Damn, he guessed fighting in front of the Minute Mart hadn't been enough revenge for Lily. "Is she going to beokay?"
"I guess."
The grinder started once more and Jack showed Nathan into his office and shut the door against the noise. Evenif Nathan had come dressed properly for a job interview, having Daisy's kid work in his shop would be anightmare. Seeing him would remind Jack of Daisy. And no matter how sweet that particular memory, it wasover and best forgotten.
"Your dad and I were good friends at one time. I was sorry to hear about his death."
Nathan set the tip of his skateboard by his black sneaker and leaned it against his leg. On closer inspection theunderside of the board had a scantily dressed nurse painted on it. "Yeah. He was a good dad. I miss him a lot"
Jack had lost his father when he hadn't been much older than Nathan. He knew what it was like. Giving the kidan application to take with him wouldn't hurt. "Did he ever tell you about all the trouble he and I used to getinto?"
Nathan nodded and the fluorescent lighting shined on his lip ring. "He told me about you guys stealing rottentomatoes and throwing them at cars."
Steven had been blond, like a California surfer. Maybe it was the hair but this kid didn't look like Steven hadgrowing up. Not even a little bit. Didn't look a whole lot like his mother either Maybe around the mouth. Well,except for the lip ring. "We made a tree fort in his backyard. Did he tell you about that?"
Nathan shook his head.
"It took us one whole summer. We made it out of wood we scrounged and old cardboard boxes." He smiled atthe memory of them dragging home junk from miles away. "Your mom helped us, too. Then just when wefinished, an F2 twister blew it all to hell."
Nathan laughed and motioned toward the door with his head. "Is that a 'Cuda 440-6 out there?"
"Yeah, it's got the original 426 Hemi."
"Sweet. When I get a job, I'm gonna buy a Dodge Charger Daytona with a 426 Hemi."
Now it was Jack's turn to laugh. He sat on the edge of his desk next to his Buick Riviera clock. He didn't wantto rain on the kid's parade, but only about seventy Daytonas with a 426 Hemi had ever been produced. If he didmanage to find one, it was going to run him about sixty grand. "Four-speed, right?"
"Yeah."
He took a drink. Naturally. The kid had just narrowed his odds even further considering Dodge had only put outabout twenty four-speeds.
"I saw one once at a car show in Seattle." Nathan swallowed and his voice cracked with excitement. "TheDaytona held the closed-course-track speed record for thirteen years. Ford and Chevy couldn't touch it."
Lord, he was just like Billy - and like Jack's father, Ray, had been. Blinded by speed. Jack loved fast cars too,but not like those two. How had Steven and daisy managed to produce a gear head?
"Do you watch 'Monster Garage'?"
"Occasionally." Billy was the "Monster Garage" fanatic.
"Did you see the episode where they turned a NASCAR into a street sweeper?"
"No, I missed that one." But he'd heard all about it from Billy.
"It was tight."
Tight? Jack supposed that meant good.
Billy stuck his head in the door as Jack crossed his feet. "We've got a problem with the right-front rotor on thatPlymouth."
There was always a problem with something, and Jack had learned not to sweat it long ago. "Billy come on inhere and meet Steven and Daisy Monroe's boy, Nathan."
Billy came farther into the office wearing his dark blue shirt that buttoned up the front and had a ParrishAmerican Classic's patch on the left breast pocket. Jack introduced them and they shook hands. Billy spokefirst, "I was real sorry to hear about your dad. He was a good guy."
Nathan looked down at his shoes. "Yeah"
"Billy here loves 'Monster Garage," Jack said and the two of them jumped into a discussion about whichepisodes were the best and which ones weren't.
"Turning that PT Cruiser into a wood chipper was lame," Nathan said.
"Jesse James wasn't into that one until they started feedin' stuffed animals through the chipper."
"Yeah, heh-heh-heh," Nathan laughed, tilting his head back a bit. "They blew stuffing all over the place."
"Did you see the Barbie get stuck in there?" Billy's eyes shined with humor and he laughed too, a rapid heh-heh-heh.
Christ, Jack thought, Billy had finally found someone who loved to watch "Monster Garage" as much as he did.
"Did you catch the episode with the Grim Reaper?" his brother asked.
"Yeah, that would have been tight if it'd worked."
Billy shook his head. "They smoked the first belt and the pump got too hot before they even got any of thecylinders to move those hydraulic arms."
"I heard a theory that the hearse was haunted and that's why the mission failed."
The mission failed because the hydraulics failed."
"Did you see Jesse when the ambulance caught on fire?" Nathan asked, so excited his eyes shined with it. "Thatwas cool."
"That's my favorite episode."
"Did you see his wife screaming at him?"
They both started to laugh at the same time.
Billy's voice was lower, but Jack couldn't help but notice that their laughter was real similar. The same heh-heh-heh sound, and they both tipped theft heads back at the same angle. The longer he looked at the two of themstanding side by side swapping "Monster Garage" moments, the clearer he saw beyond Nathan's bizarre hairand the lip ring.
Then within the span of a second, the world around Jack shifted and changed. The hair on the back of his neckrose and his scalp got tight. Time ground to a halt, cracked down the middle, and fell in halves.
A half-second ago, everything had been okay in Jack's life, and in the next it wasn't. One half he'd been noticinghis brother and Nathan laughing and sounding alike, and in the next he was looking at a fifteen-year-old versionof his father, Ray Parrish. For half a second he'd been sitting on the edge of his desk and in the next he wasstanding with coffee down the front of his shirt, scalding his chest. "Christ!.
"What's the matter?" Billy asked.
He didn't take his gaze from Nathan. He looked at the shape of his face and nose, and there was no turning backthe clock to a few seconds ago. He was definitely looking at a young version of his father. It was so obvious, hedidn't know why it had taken him so long to see it. "You didn't come here for a job, did you?"
Nathan's smile fell and he picked up his skateboard. "No."
Suddenly, it all made perfect sense. Daisy's insistence that they talk. That she had something to tell him.
Something she couldn't talk about on the phone or in a letter or at Showtime Pizza. Something important like ason. He felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach. "When is your birthday?"
"I've got to go now."
He reached out and grabbed Nathan's arm. "Tell me."
Nathan's eyes got wide and he dropped his skateboard. He tried to backup, but Jack didn't let go. He couldn't.
"December," he finally answered.
Jack pulled him even closer. "And you're fifteen aren't you?"
He could see Nathan's throat work as he tried to swallow. "Yes," he said just above a whisper.