Chapter 3

  Several months ter…

  I picked up Matt from the jail. I felt reluctant and wasn’t sure if I would do it but he said he didn’t have anyone else. He was scheduled to get out today. I am wondering why I’m willing to do it, but to be honest he’s one of the only friends that I have. I mostly live alone and my family is out of the picture. Of course that’s assuming there isn’t a mob of crazy people out there shouting things at him. Then I wouldn’t feel like ‘making it in time’.

  He tosses his duffle bag in the backseat.

  “Ahh, thanks bro,” he sps me on the shoulder as he gets in the right side passenger seat of my really old car. I cringe. I don’t like touching people much.

  “Do you have a job lined up?” I asked, cutting to the chase giving him a serious ‘no free loaders’ look.

  “Oh yeah, they have this new jobs program where they try to line us up with work before we’re even out of jail,” he said, a bit too rexed.

  He’s seen better days. Going to jail didn’t go well on him. He’s got all kinds of new scars from fighting with other inmates and looks like his eyes are sunken into his head from a lot of stress and has this bushy whiskery five O’clock shadow. I can’t believe it went over well with them to think he was a pedo, but I am not sure what to think. Normally I would also think a pedo as pretty sick but because it was entrapment by a cop asking him out posing as a 17 and half kid I’m not sure. She did look a little young, but the experiences that both of us had at the speed dating where common and the norm in our society in how women viewed men as a warehouse for getting free stuff.

  Because of this, I actually feel sorry for him and feel this is a tragedy. If other women had been normal and avaible, I don't think he would have gone for the jailbait. For a long time he'd seen what I had, that most women had no interest in their men or just wanted supports and resources without giving any affection in return. Or they were somehow sick. Sicker than he was. That's why I think he was tempted. So its very sad.

  For now I’ll watch him to see if he’s really a scumbag or a victim. I’m not sure which yet, but when I see more clearly then I’ll take action then. I am feeling more uncomfortable about this the longer I see him here.

  “How come you don’t buy one of those new magnetic cars? It’s kind of old school to be driving and not have an autopilot system,” he said.

  Of course he and everyone else looked down on my car. It was over thirty years old. They don’t make models like this anymore, but I didn’t like the idea of spending money or being an economic sve.

  “Have you read prop 213?” Matt asked me suddenly as we’re driving away.

  “Huh? There’s a new voting issue?” I answered while trying to shift nes. It’s hard to get an older car like this to keep up with the newer stuff so changing nes can get pretty stressful when traffic is fast and I have poor acceleration. Finally I got over to where I needed to be.

  “So are you going to tell me about?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the road.

  The ‘mag’ cars pass me all the time on the left and right. Rather than only having rubber wheels they have a system using a portable interlocking rail system much like a monorail train, but that they can detach when turning and shifting nes to get onto a new rail. Older cars can still use the roads because of the way a pavement mesh and the rails interlock almost seamlessly with each other. The mag car system also has the feature of having an advanced autopilot system, which I’m kind of jealous of.

  “Where did you get this old beater anyway?” he is cringing while looking at my dashboard.

  “Bought it from my dad, when they took his license away,” I answered.

  “Oh, and you aren’t going to upgrade it?” he raised an eyebrow while people were staring at us left and right because of how slow we were.

  “Why? There’s no point. Upgrading costs a lot, and it doesn’t up the value that much when compared to how much money you have to dump in. An older car like this would cost a fortune to get up to the line of other cars anyway. The most I was able to do was convert it to an electric motor two years ago and that was because gasoline was phased out to divert resources against the Global arms race,” I replied.

  “Got it,” he said. “You sure aren’t going to pick up any girls in this you know bro,” he said sadly right after that. He has ducked down in his passenger side.

  Is he ashamed to be seen in my car? That bastard…

  That part hurt. I couldn’t help but have my face twitch in irritation though I don’t think he saw it.

  “People really should look at someone for economic freedom and not who has the newest stuff. You know when you see someone with a brand new mag beamer or other fancy car those are people who are losing more than half their paycheck to a monthly payment?” I said.

  “Really? You think so?” he questioned while we merged onto the interstate.

  “Yeah, I’ve done the math. So people will ‘mortgage’ their whole paycheck for a brand new fshy car to pick up girls or guys or whatever in…then they can’t afford to settle down because they spend more than they earn and have no future and can’t even make their rent because of their pick up girls toy. But then girls won’t go out with you if you don’t have a fshy new car. It’s a conceited system of looking for the most bling, but the only bling there is happens to be rented. That doesn’t work and it’s a cycle of entrapment,” I answered.

  “Oh. You might be onto something. If you’d described it as rented bling from the beginning I would have gotten it sooner,” he said biting into an apple. It was my lunch that he’s stolen. We’ll have discussion about the utilities and making sure he knows to buy his own groceries ter when we get to the house.

  He keeps chomping on my apple. It’s too te to take it back, nor would I want to now.

  I can see partly why the cops wanted to lock up Matt. I’m tempted to turn around and go back to the jail. To drop him off. I want to help him, but only if he's not going to be toxic to me.

  Asshole…

  Even if he is an asshole, he’s mostly pretty honest. I think he just made that one mistake right? I didn’t sympathize with him at all for what he did though. But I was raised to try to help people, and he was one of my best tenants even if he was trying to figure out his life still.

  The next few weeks are a bit boring. Matt settles in paying rent like before. I can tolerate it because he never faulted me on the rent in the past, doesn’t destroy stuff, and there isn’t any surprise visitors. He sometimes bums groceries from me which I find annoying but its never expensive amounts. He also is a slob with dishes but only a few dishes not all of them. His job is pretty rough though. He has to work with a bunch of androids doing heavy manual bor. Because of his new background he can’t qualify for any good jobs, so it’s a rough cycle.

  For me it’s the opposite.

  I qualify for the good jobs and have gone to school and worked hard for a few years. I work within an office and I’m doing pretty well. My day job is that I work as a mechanic on mag cars, and some types of commercial vehicles like work trucks and stuff like that. It’s not as physically demanding as it used to be since much of it is done through computer diagnosis now and there are lifting machines avaible to help with anything heavy. I like working with some independence and I don’t try to cheat anyone, although that’s difficult when everyone else is and often gives bait and switch offers. It’s the love of wanting to be independent and not just be a tool that has led me to do this job.

  But it’s been hard to compete with the bigger dogs when I’m a self promoted home garage style shop and the shops down the street have a lot more going for them. I can't always afford the expensive machines they have. Sometimes I don’t have that special tool needed for some models and have to pull away from being able to do that job.

  It’s been a bit better though since Ford and Chevy merged to fight Toyota and the other foreign car makers. They wouldn't have done that if they hadn't seen a few other rivals go under from pride though. They also made them easier to work on to promote the concept of not holding customers hostage to buying a new car when the old one could be fixed.

  I wipe my hands off and am washing them in the back sink.

  I’ve worked on two cars today. The one will be a major payoff and the other I won’t finish until tomorrow. I have three more coming in tomorrow and that’s going to force me to have to put in a lot of long hours tomorrow in order to meet the deadlines. Those won't have deadlines for about a week so I'll have some breathing room to get them done. That’s going to be hell for the next two days. One of them might have to potentially be sent to the manufacturer instead, and one of the others I’m not sure what the problem is. The owner was a bit vague on that.

  I feel pretty tired and ready to go get some food and sleep. But I like my setup and my life. I'm working out of my own house and yard. I got lucky that I can do it this way.

  Matt’s gone before I get up now. I feel sorry for him and his choices. He has to be up before dawn and has to sleep a long time to recover from his day, while getting as much calories as he can. Lately he’s been so tired and zoned out that I don’t even get a response when I say hello.

  I finished the second car before lunch. But even if I have good timing now it can all change instantly with a set back.

  Easy.

  Turns out the owner wasn’t even aware it wasn’t the big problem he thought it was. Instead it was just a bunch of mud and debris that had dried and solidified into the mag rail interlocking system. It could have been potentially a big problem if it had gotten any further; such as potentially causing the mag car to crash or improperly engage the rail system. He’s lucky he brought it to me when he did. How he didn’t already crash it is a mystery to me too.

  I charged him 1600 for bor, and warned him about whatever he’d done to get the mud in there was the real problem. It was a measley sum to charge and somehow he’s grateful. Other shops would have charged him double that and told him they fixed the mag interlock.

  When I remember my mortgage for my three bedroom house is 4000 a month it’s like I age prematurely from the stress. Most mortgages in this area are around 10,000 a month and the average worker is earning probably 200,000 a year.

  Of course my mortgage is low because I’d inherited the pce from my mom. But I’d had to stack in some financing for the probate and for setting up my business in the backyard. It’s kind of a cool idea really. This house was in the older part of town, but still in a good neighborhood. But the newer development ten years ago had literally put a bunch of businesses right on my doorstep and because of it the city had me with being able to use this pce for both commercial and residential zoning.

  So I ran the business out of my first floor and the second floor is where I live. It’s an older house that hasn’t really been updated in many, many years with a barely functioning net link system, but I can’t compin. There’s actually two more rooms, a family living room, and a kitchen downstairs too with five bedrooms total but I have had to partition things so that the residential areas don’t mix with my business office. Of course I frown when I realize that extra amount in savings will probably go to financing another machine tool setup for my shop…

  Sigh…

  I’m still living the American dream in a way. I just don’t have the whole part about a girlfriend figured out yet.

  And what not just that speed dating attempt but a life time has shown me is that a girlfriend is impossible. A wife is impossible. Too many people are crazy, ill, selfish or...

  I wasn't judging. I just mean that ... I was trapped in being super attracted to women, but unable to find any that would treat a man as an equal or even treat him good.

  It’s taken some time for me to train Matt in that the first floor is off limits however, in part because he remembers when we were kids and used to be there to watch TV while my mom gave us cookies and milk. But renting a room to him means I get 4000 a month from him for rent, so it’s like I almost have no mortgage. I’ll be able to pay it off next year, and I still have a lot saved up. It works because I’ve known Matt my whole life and so there’s some trust there. There are so many drug addicts, and head junkies out there that I don’t know if I could rent the other parts to anyone else. Because my business is literally at home I can’t just rent to anyone. So I haven’t bothered to rent out the third room yet.

  “That’ll be 2700 please,” I said to the gentleman picking up the bck mag truck.

  It sounds like a lot, but its a cheap amount in the times we live in now.

  He whistles, “That’s a lot. Kind of expensive don’t you think?” he has his fingers over his belt buckle in a defensive posture.

  Inwardly I’m groaning. I hate this type of customer. He’s just fishing for a discount and looking for someone to bully. He’s also a foot taller than I am but I won’t let that affect things.

  “The anti-noise system was punctured clean through. I had to patch the whole shut with a welder, in not just one pce but two. That costs parts. Because of all the salt on the road your pipes had rusted through. I’m guessing you used cheap metal the st time you repced it, or the shop that did it used cheap metal, not to mention it was used parts so it was pre-disposed to wear because it was already starting to wear through. I saw where they attached it. It was a time intensive job also.”

  “Oh come on, give me a break!” he pleaded.

  “You know I’m going to have to patch in two years again because you wouldn’t let me repce the used pipes in the first pce. It’s a wonder I could even get it to pass inspection this time? And let’s not forget the fuel cell system was put together by someone who didn’t actually know what they were doing,” I said, while shrugging.

  “Hey me, and my boy did that together,” he protested.

  “Ahh, I see. Well I'm not compining. Its nice you did something with your son. But its not a cheap repair because of having to buy parts.”

  Crap I really put my foot in my mouth. He’s clearly offended.

  “Well I did make necessary changes on the wiring setup. The reason you had trouble starting it was because of some connections that had come loose,” I noted also. I did say connections coming loose but the truth was they weren’t properly done in the first pce, but that would just get him even more worked up.

  “You didn’t need to do that,” he protested weakly.

  I shake my head. “I only did what was necessary to make your car able to start up every time without a fail. The previous wiring wasn’t stable and almost as if it was held together by duct tape. Your starter was malfunctioning at least half of the time. Another shop would have charged double what I did. That’s the bottom line.”

  “Do you take checks?” he pleaded.

  I’d seen that scam before too. I wonder why personal checks weren’t outwed or discontinued. It was almost a 60 percent chance they’d bounce however because people issuing them often didn’t have funs.

  I pointed to the sign. “Sorry, no personal checks, or borrowed debit chips. People haven't taken checks in decades bud,” which was at the front of the shop and marked in about three pces including the electronic bill and quote summary I sent to each customer.

  “My wife is sick and having a baby, I need a break,” he tried.

  Jeez, this guy.

  “You aren’t married and you got divorced st year with no kids,” I said.

  “Hey I didn’t authorize a background check,” he protested, getting angry.

  “I see your brother at the gym at least twice a month, by coincidence. He’s the one that recommended you as an honest customer. Maybe he was wrong,” I ftly stated. I could see the guys blood pressure rising by the second, I think.

  He wanted to hit me I think. I could see his fists clenching. There was an awkward silence and he’d stepped toward me in my face. He was probably testing me. I wouldn’t back down. If he did anything I’d just use the voice activation system on my phone to call the cops. I didn’t need the phone in my hand to call with the voice technology. I did point at the shop camera though.

  “Don’t be mad at me. Your brother told me about you. You should be mad at yourself though,” I shrugged.

  Oh that st part really got him. I could tell he was thinking about going for it.

  He ended up paying his bill. Of course I added a nice surcharge with a vague sounding technical diagnosis just because he was being an asshole. His final bill was 2,997. It was true that a prettier shop would have charged him about 4500 to 5200 depending. When leaving he said something about not coming back, but I know I’d see him back because nobody else gave such low prices like I did.

  The irony is if he hadn't tried to hustle me I would have worked with him more. And I knew he wasn't needy. He had a good job.

  Later I went back to work. If I can finish those other two that were dropped off today I’d be doing pretty well by the end of the week. Maybe I could take a vacation soon?

  Still, maybe I should add an extra chain to my security fence for the next couple nights. It wouldn’t hurt to add some cameras for people like that. I had one in the shop, and this guy probably had seen it pointed at him. It probably saved my life just now.

  Why were people so violent though? This was the third guy this year that seemed ready to explode at any type of remark.