Page 36 of Just A Dash of Holiday Magic
Chapter 3
JULIANNA
Ryan and I plan to meet up on Christmas Eve to meet a guy about a scooter. I don't want to know how this gentleman has pertained such a hot ticket item; I'm just so desperate to make David’s Christmas a special one that I'm willing not to ask too many questions. I'm just glad that Ryan insisted on coming with me to meet with the guy. Who knows what trouble I could have been walking into on my own.
Ryan pulls his truck to a stop in front of a house in a suburban neighborhood that looks like it’s come straight out of a 1950s black and white television show. It’s a white colonial home with a matching picket fence in the front yard.
“You sure this is the right place?” I ask, looking up and down the street, decorated with flashing Christmas lights.
This is not what I was expecting. I was expecting to meet some shady guy downtown behind some abandoned factory selling it out of the back of his van. And judging by Ryan's equally perplexed expression, he had something different in mind too. He checks the paper in his hand against the address listed on the house.
“This is the address listed on the paper that Javi gave me.”
“Okay, let’s do this,” I say, eager to get this over with.
Ryan meets me on my side of his truck, and we walk together up the driveway. The front door opens before we get to the house steps, and a balding middle-aged man walks out. He looks like he could be friendly if he smiled, but the scowl on his face makes me think he doesn’t want to be dealing with us any more than we want to deal with him.
“We’re here to see you about a scooter,” Ryan says.
The man nods. “Are you a cop?”
“No." Ryan and I share a curious look before he turns back to the man and asks, "Are you?”
The man shoots Ryan a look like he’s just grown a second head. “Why would I be a cop?”
Ryan shrugs. “It seemed the right question to ask you back.”
The man chuckles and shakes his head. “You’re no cop.” He walks back into the house and rolls out aGo-Go Sonic Scooter.
Thankfully Ryan already gave me a rundown on the way over how to act with this guy. He told me this isn't much different from buying a car.
“We don’t want this guy to know that we are desperate,” he said.
“But we are desperate.”
“Yes, but we don’t want him jacking up the price because he sees us coming a mile away.”
So I stand there, trying to look like I'm not about to throw whatever dollar amount he asks for at him.
“How much?” Ryan asks.
“A grand.”
Fuck.
Ryan steps forward and squats down next to the scooter to look it over. He quickly scoffs and stands up, shaking his head.
“Are you kidding me with this?”
“Is there a problem?” the guy asks.
“This thing saysNo-No Sonic Scooter.”
“So?”
“So, it’s not what we came here for,” Ryan says. “It says it in the name, ‘No-No,’ that it’s not the original toy.”
“Well, if you wanted theGo-Go Sonic Scooter, then you should have bought one months ago like all the other parents. This is all I have left.”
