she’d sass “I’ll bet,” for whatever that meant.
She wasn’t even Polish, for crying out loud. Her, with her long, flyaway hair and those narrow hips.
* * *
When Stefan’s Jeep arrived at the dealership, he looked on the neat, perfectly parked lot with great pride. There were all the little flags lining the elevated wires to call attention to the car lot. The place was spotless. The cars shone in the good TEXAS sunshine. Actually, it was clouding over and about ready to allow the dry TEXAS soil a taste of heavenly moisture.
Stefan drove into his slot and eased himself from his Jeep with great alacrity, easily done with a Jeep. He loved that blunt car. He patted it as he would a good horse, and went into the glass-walled building.
Manny greeted him with, “Kirt Overmann came by for those two Jeeps he ordered.”
Stefan asked ominously and with dread, “Did you go over the Jeeps with him like I told you?”
“He was in a hurry.”
“Damn it, Manny, I told you he’d pull that on you! You were supposed to stall him off and get him to check out each one!”
Earnestly, Manny explained, or complained, “I just couldn’t get a word in edgewise.”
Scowling, Stefan asked, “Which of the two did he pull?”
“The green one.”
Stefan moved his lips around as if rinsing his mouth with a minimum of water, and he guessed, “He’ll call just before supper and say the green one doesn’t work.”
“Leave now.”
“I can’t. Mac is coming in to make me look at that discard Jeep of his. You know what a pain that’ll be?”
Manny comforted his boss. “It isn’t even one of ours.”
“Try telling him that.”
“Show him our file! It isn’t there.”
Stefan looked at the damned cheerful flags. “He says we snuck the warranty out and burned it.”
“You got peculiar friends.”
“They’re enemies.” Stefan sighed. Then he mentioned, “You do recall that Kirt has three marriageable daughters he’s trying to palm off on unsuspecting men?”
And Manny’s nodding agreement was empathetic.
The phone rang, and Stefan said quickly, “Don’t answer it!”
But Manny had already picked it up, and he squinched his face in helpless distress. He had no choice, “Cisco’s.”
“Steve there?”
Manny’s courage only went so far, he said, “Yeah.” And he handed the phone to Stefan.
Giving Manny a narrowed-eyed look, Stefan punched the speaker button so Manny could hear both sides. Then he said to the phone, “Stefan here.”
And Kirt replied heartily, “Well, hello, Steve, got the Jeeps, but the green one don’t want to work. How about coming out and fixing it.” A demand.
Stefan looked at his watch. “I can make it about nine-thirty tomorrow morning.”
And Kirt asked, “What’s pushing you tonight? Everybody ‘round owes me, I’ll use one of the IOU’s to pry you free tonight.”
“It’s a woman.”
There was a pause, and then Kirt asked in a rather deadly way, “Who?”
And right out of his mouth, Stefan lied very stupidly, “Carrie.”
Relief rushed through Kirt’s, “Carrie? Great! She’s here now. You can pick her up...here. Plan on supper.” And he hung up.
Stefan slowly, gently recradled the phone. He looked up at Manny’s compassionate face and asked, “How many times is it, now, that I’m going to strangle you?”
“Last count? I think I’m down to thirteen.”
“Thirteen isn’t a lucky count.”
“Well, it’ll go down lower if you go on out to Kirt’s tonight for supper. You got Carrie to protect you from Kirt’s daughters, you can get the green Jeep put back together, eat and sneak away whole.”
“You go.”
“You know good and well tonight’s my night off. You’re the boss, and you get to fill in for me.” He smiled. “You want me to rescue Carrie? I’d be glad to save her and have her grateful.”
“Don’t.”
Manny then was curious. “What did you have on for tonight that I can help you with?”
And Stefan gave that woman’s excuse that covered everything, “I gotta wash my hair.”
Manny laughed until he got the hiccups.
Stefan watched stony faced and unamused.
Hiccuping, Manny stood grinning, but with some empathy, he said, “When there was something I had to do that I didn’t want to do, my mother always told me, ‘It’ll grow hair on your chest.’ I did more terrible, demanded things than I can count, and look —” he unbuttoned two buttons “ —no hair. She lied.”
With infinite worldly wisdom, Stefan explained, “It was a figure of speech. She meant the discipline would make a man of you. You need more discipline to reach that goal. Go to Kirt’s tonight.”
Manny shook a sorrowful head as he said, “God, I’m sure sorry, but I have to go to a funeral.”
Stefan narrowed his eyes, his brain going over the obituary columns of the area newspapers in the past week. “Who?”
Gesturing with grandiosity, Manny said, “You, if you interfere with my plans tonight.” And he left.
* * *
To go to the Overmanns’, Stefan didn’t shower. He didn’t wear his regular clothing. He stripped naked and pulled on some smelly, sweat-and-grease-stained coveralls. He wiped his face and hands with a grease rag. He went in the utility Jeep to Kirt’s house on land outside Blink.
He was completely confident that he was safe from being invited into the Overmann house. But dirty, in those grease-stained coveralls and wearing that golden earring, he looked like a potentially dangerous pirate.
The Overmann girls all came out and laughed and flirted while Stefan soberly switched and rearranged wires and connections which had been...switched and rearranged. He didn’t make any comment at all about the mess. He just...fixed it back.
Amid the friendly dogs, there was that passel of charming young women, the expansive daddy and the singleton guest named Carrie Pierce. She watched him with almost closed eyes and said nothing at all. She irritated the very hell out of him.
She had on red nail polish. It was daytime. It was too early for her to’ve gotten dressed for a date. She wore pink polish in the daytime and wore red at night. How come it was daytime and she had on red nail polish?
She had a date that night? Who was he? It wasn’t any of Stefan’s business. She was a discard. She could go out with any yahoo she wanted to tussle. It was none of his business.
Kirt’s wife hollered from the porch, “Get your hands washed, it’s about time to eat!”
And Kirt said, “Peel off them coveralls and come on inside. You can finish that up later.”
But Stefan had anticipated that very demand and managed a reasonable hesitancy as he looked at the grinning daughters. Helen, Alice and Trisha. Under his breath, Stefan said just for the daddy, “I don’t have on nothing else?” That was the TEXAS questioning statement. “This is almost done and — “
In