by Eric Hodges
CHAPTER 5
FIREWORKS
“Call the fire department or 911 or whatever you have here” Wheeler said as he bolted up from the table. Alice was staring motionless in disbelief. “Alice!…Alice!” He was yelling now. “Get to the phone!”
As he was prodding her into action he saw the fire extinguisher hanging by the back door. Just as she was reaching to the phone, he grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran to the front like a gazelle, hopping from side to side dodging furniture. He stopped at the door to take a good look. The flames were concentrated to his left in front of their newly decorated window and the coat rack was fully engulfed in a roaring inferno. The door in front of him was separated from the heat of it. He tapped the door and knob testing for heat, relieved that it was barely warm. He threw the door open in a rush and made a dash for the street. He turned back to face the building to see the odd flame wick up the side of the building, the bricks between the door and the window were starting to discolor from the smoke but the door itself too far away to sustain damage.
Excellent, Wheeler thought, as he pulled the pin of the small fire extinguisher and took aim. He loosed the white spray on the door and adjacent bricks. He got a faint whiff of gasoline and, with a covert sigh of relief, stopped shooting the fire retardant and bent over the bottle, feigning trouble with the mechanism. He knew the fire will only burn the gasoline fumes and the heavy plate glass and bricks would only be scorched, the fire wouldn’t really damage them. He wanted to give the coat rack as much time to burn as he could to make sure it got thoroughly ruined.
People were starting to come out of the other storefronts along the street so Wheeler made a show of satisfaction, pretending to ‘fix’ the fire extinguisher. He aimed at the building first, making short work of the dwindling flames on the brick. He applied extra powder to the smoke on the building to waste as much of the retardant as he could while appearing to the onlookers to be doing a thorough job of putting out the building fire. He could no longer avoid the burning coat rack and turned the nozzle to its blaze that was happily consuming the thing. The nozzle sputtered and went silent. Aw shucks, he was out of retardant. He almost laughed out loud before remembering the dozens of eyes watching him. Outwardly he showed remorse and disappointment, hiding his glee well.
The wisps of smoke coming off the bricks did little to cover the sparse soot marks smudged against what was mostly dull red brick. There was broken glass on the sidewalk that made Wheeler examine the plate glass window very carefully top to bottom, side to side. It was fine too. Curious thing, that glass, he thought as he looked careful at the pieces scattered on the side walk. The larger pieces were curved like corners of a bottle, then he realized ‘a Molotov cocktail!’ right here in Eaton!
His ears heard the faint sirens as Alice apprehensively walked out the front door onto the sidewalk to join him. “Wheeler, the coat rack is burning!” she exclaimed making a move toward it.
Wheeler grabbed her arm to keep her away from the flames because there was nothing she could do anyway. “They are coming now, I can hear the siren” he said hoping for a flat tire. The coat rack needed to be consumed and the fire had a good hold on it. The siren turned out to be a Deputy Sheriff with another fire extinguisher and he was able to beat the flames back to a smolder in short order. The coat rack was reduced to only a couple of the scrolls on top and the thick support legs had their decorative woodwork burned smooth.
Alice and Wheeler recounted their observations through the window and the Deputy dutifully took notes. When Wheeler recalled the back of the truck, Alice said “That was Stevie!” so abruptly both of the men jumped. “He said he would teach me a lesson and he almost did it.” Her eyes narrowed like she was preparing to do battle right then. Stevie must have been Pea-Brain, Wheeler thought.
“Ms. Keefer, did you see him throw anything?” the Deputy asked.
“Well no, I didn’t even see the truck, but that black old thing that Wheeler saw is his.”
“Mr. Wheeler, did you see him throw anything?”
“Not exactly, I only got a good look at the back of the truck, but I can’t say even what make it was. I did hear a noise of some sort just before the fire, then just the roar of the truck taking off.”
The Deputy stopped writing and looked down at the broken glass on the sidewalk and said “It looks like it was a bottle, probably filled with gasoline and it hit this rack thing on the sidewalk. That was lucky it didn’t hit the window, it might have broken it and set the furniture there on fire.” The three of them surveyed the scene not saying anything but there was relief in the air.
The city fire truck shut its siren off and pulled up next to the cruiser, angling itself toward the curb and left most of the back of it in the street. Two tired looking firefighters got out relieved to see a light smoke coming off of the coat rack and that it was all over. “We just came from a small brush fire out on the old highway” one of them said. “I’m glad this is over.”
The Deputy filled them in with the details as Wheeler leaned down a bit to Alice’s ear and said “You’re in good hands here, I need to get over to your brother’s place and finish up the generator for him.”
She looked up at him hesitantly “Yeah, okay. This is just a cleanup job that won’t take long.” Her sentence built in confidence as she said it, becoming a hint of the Alice he had seen over lunch. Maybe the little bird in her was gone. Wheeler headed down the block to the VW thinking ‘Good job’ to himself. Whatever or whoever had taken up residence in the coat rack now had no home and was separated by brick and glass from the next possible home when the eviction occurred. Wheeler knew that the inhabitant had a special affinity for the rack and it was unlikely it would just pick something else to attach to. The shop was safe now.
Wheeler drove into the back lot of Keefer Fabrication and saw Bob’s legs and butt on display in front of the hanging Hemi with no visible torso. He was bent over at the waist probably checking his work, but it was a funny pose. Wheeler grinned as he noisily approached not wanting to startle Bob. Bob stood to full height, turned around and said “Wheeler! Excellent timing, the weld is just cooling. Come around here and look.” They both assumed Bob’s previous pose and Wheeler saw a clean hunk of metal connecting two other crusty pieces of frame at the front of the hanging assembly.
“It looks right at home in there, I hope the other fellows don’t mind a shiny new neighbor” Wheeler joked, as he lightly brushed some of the crud off of the older pieces. Bob grinned and went over to the lift controls.
“Steady the thing while I get it back over to where it belongs. I told Lee he can come and get it by 5:00 o’clock.” The two of them prodded and cajoled the hanging Hemi back into its former home and two sets of wrenches started flying.
About 3:30pm a shiny blue pickup with nice wheels and dark tinted windows rumbled into the back lot. Wheeler was hidden behind the sheet metal of the generator, busily attaching the driveshaft as the truck driver walked into the shop.
“Hi Bob” he said “Are you finally getting that generator apart? Mr. Gregor has been after you for a while.” The kid had a way of irritating Bob.
“It’s not coming apart, Jake, it’s going back together, I got some help” Bob replied with a taunting smirk. Wheeler was peeking through the mechanism under the top cover, watching the exchange as he realized he and young Jake had met the night before in front of the diner in the dark. “Hey wheeler, come on out and meet Jake.”
Wheeler stood up behind the generator, making himself look as tall as possible and as innocent as he could. “Hi Jake, pleased to meet you.”
Jake went positively white and had a comical ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look complete with wide eyes and gaping mouth. His mind was racing through fight or flight options in a confused torrent of possibilities and escape routes.
“Jake! What’s the matter with you, say hi to the man” Bob said because Jake was frozen in place.
“Uh, hi” he stammered, “I’
m Jake, Jake Carter.” He was too far away to shake so he just waved half-heartedly. He didn’t want to get too close to Wheeler anyway.
Wheeler didn’t give away any recognition and just returned the wave remaining impassive on this second meeting. It did not exactly trigger alarm bells in his head but registered an all too significant coincidence. He scanned his internal memory for messages but there was nothing there yet. Meeting Jake twice like this certainly foretold of a role to be played in some larger drama that was probably the real reason Wheeler was drawn to Eaton, but the complete stage was not ready yet. At least Wheeler felt assured the players and the scripts were being gathered. Not bad progress for his first full day in a new town.
“Sweep up around the big table” Bob said to Jake “and then take my truck over to The Ironworks and pick up the hardware and square tubing I ordered for the gate job.”
“Okay boss” Jake said in a more neutral tone, evidently concluding there was no need to run yet. Jake ambled toward the big table keeping a wary eye on Wheeler, picked up the broom and dustpan along the way and swept up Bob’s mess from earlier in the day. By the time he finished, Wheeler and Bob had the Hemi connected and were going through the start-up drill to make sure it would run properly. A few tries got the old generator running and the belching start up smoke cloud chased Jake out of the shop on his errand.
“It sounds okay” wheeler yelled over the din, “Do you have a meter to check the voltages?”
“No, I don’t have anything like that here” Bob yelled back. Wheeler made a ‘keep it going’ motion with his hand and trotted out to the VW to get his. It was a cheap one but it worked. He proceeded to check the 12 volts and the 115 volt AC and the AC frequency at the receptacles. The voltages were both good but the frequency was a little off. He grabbed a small screwdriver and adjusted the running speed of the engine to get it right.
“Shut it off” Wheeler said with a hand chop to the throat. Bob flipped it off and the shop went comparatively silent as the generator shuddered to a halt. “That went well,” he finished.
“Help me push it around to the back and let’s go get a drink” Bob said. They angled the hitch of the generator toward the rear of the shop and both headed for the break table toward the front of the shop. “Soda or water?” Bob asked as he reached into the small refrigerator.
“Water will be fine, thanks Bob.”
“Lee will be along in a bit, so we might as well wait here.”
“It doesn’t seem you really need a helper here, Bob, what else do you have Jake do?” Wheeler was trying to causally wheedle some background out him.
“Well, I promised his dad, Walt Carter, I would let him hang around and try to learn something useful. He’s not very useful to Walt, that’s for sure. Walt is my neighbor with a few hundred acres of vegetables, artichokes and fruit trees. There’s just not much for Jake to do there and not cause his dad some expensive trouble. He’s not very handy around big machines and he knows nothing about farming. His dad gives him a good allowance to stay out of his hair. It’s cheaper in the end and Walt told me not to pay Jake, he would take care of the money.” Wheeler sipped let Bob roll on. He could tell Bob spent a good amount of time alone.
“So I have Jake doing cleanup and errands mostly. Sometimes I need an extra pair of hands that makes him useful, but I don’t let him do much of the fabrication. The kid’s just got too many thumbs.” Bob paused to sip as Wheeler pondered young Jake. He caught Jake trying to break into his VW, he drives a shiny expensive pickup, he must be in his early 20’s and Bob just said he has no skills. What does he really do?
“Is he in school or anything?” Wheeler asked.
“When daddy has big money, the kids, he has a brother you know, can live pretty well off the scraps.” Bob was gearing up. “Neither one of them works outside of the farm but at least Stevie does some good there. He’s the older brother and the name will give you a hint. He’s nearly 30 years old and still has his junior high school name that actually suits him. That one never grew up” Bob said, shaking his head.
“He does something out on the farm, maybe fixing tractors or machinery when he’s not racing through town causing trouble with his old rattle trap truck. He has an old black thing that he has souped up with a big engine and loud pipes and his dad has gotten him out of more than a few scrapes with that truck than I can remember.” Wheeler’s internal antennas started to twitch at that last bit.
“Does Alice know Stevie?”
“Oh yeah, they knew each other, in the biblical sense. They were an item for a while until Alice wised up and called it off. Little Stevie has been pestering her silly ever since and she’s called the sheriff more than once. I guess when you get everything you want, being overly possessive comes naturally.” Ahh yes, Pea-Brain, Wheeler thought.
Wheeler told him about the fire bomb that afternoon at the antique store and Bob bolted straight up tipping over their water bottles in the process.
“Why that little twit!” Bob exclaimed, “Now he has gone too far!” He was standing now with a red face and clenched fists looking to do battle right then.
They didn’t notice Alice walking across the shop toward them until she said “Who’s gone too far?”
Bob blinked a few times to bring Alice into focus as he tried to formulate a cogent idea of where his outburst was going. Fortunately, Wheeler stepped in to smooth over Bob’s rankled nerves.
“I just told Bob about our adventure this afternoon.” Wheeler wanted to add ‘it’s okay’ or ‘no harm done’ but Alice beat him to it.
“I sent the sheriff over to the Carter place to talk to Pea-Brain, but he said there wasn’t much he could do. There weren’t any witnesses to press charges, but he did say he would threaten him, tell him they’re watching, that sort of thing.” She delivered her update with calm and grace like she had no care in the world, everything was under control. She could really cause a guy to have whiplash. Bob got his outburst under control and she continued “Besides, you don’t have to fight my battles anymore big brother, I’ve made it clear to him that there is no future for us and I will not forget the past anytime soon.”
The three of them just got settled at the table when a faded blue pickup rumbled backwards into the shop tailgate first. Wheeler just caught a glimpse of “Gregor Construction” painted on the door as the truck backed up to the generator and stopped. Lee Gregor got out and joined them at the front of the shop as Bob half stood and stuck out a hand.
“Hi Lee, meet my new man Wheeler. He’s the reason you’re getting the generator today” Bob said with more than a hint of pride. “I’m hoping he’ll stay on for a while.” Lee and Wheeler shook hands and Lee greeted Alice the same way. A real polite bunch Wheeler thought.
“I’m real glad you’re finished with my generator, if it gives me any more trouble I’ll be finished with it too” Lee said as he glanced over to check on it. “I’ve got a job to start like yesterday and I can’t afford any more down time.”
“We checked it out after I fixed the busted frame” Bob said, “and it seemed to run just fine.”
“Oh it runs okay, it’s a good engine. That’s not the problem. The problem is my power tools. They keep burning up and I refuse to replace another saw.”
Wheeler waded into the conversation and Alice’ head swung back and forth like she was watching a tennis match. “The engine speed was a little off making the frequency of the AC power too high. The tools probably didn’t care for the extra boost. You shouldn’t have that trouble anymore.” Wheeler tried to not to sound like a know it all.
Lee looked at quizzically at Wheeler as he spoke to Bob “Where did you get this guy?”
“I found him wandering the streets and just took him in” Bob replied. It was not far from the truth.
“Well you better keep him, if it takes more than a hammer and welder you’re lost” Lee said to Bob with a big grin. Everybody chuckled along with Bob. “How much do I owe you Bob
?”
Bob pulled the invoice off of the desk behind him and pushed it over to Lee. A wad of 100’s changed hands as Lee said “Keep the rest for the new man. If that adjustment works, he just saved me the price of buying a new generator. They hooked the generator to the truck and the three of them watched it follow the truck out of the shop and down the block.
After just a moment’s pause Alice asked Wheeler “Where are you staying tonight?” Wheeler was not exactly surprised at the question but hesitated because he hadn’t planned out a plausible answer yet. Before the hesitation completed, she continued, “I thought so. Close up with Bob and follow him out to the house, okay with you Bob?” She started looking at Wheeler and finished looking at Bob.
“Fine with me, you go.”
“Done” she answered and headed out the back of the shop. Wheeler felt he had just been expertly maneuvered.
