Page 26 of Baby Blue
“Um, I just got the baby Saturday and she’s six months old.” Now Blue was getting embarrassed. He sounded like a total idiot and he knew it. What would these people think?
“Hang on just a second,” the firefighter told him. Blue was sure he was relaying the information to the other guys there, and they were probably having a good laugh at his expense. A new six-month-old baby. That was pretty weird, he had to admit. But he was shocked down to his socks when the man came back on the line. “We’ve got three donated car seats here that we’ve checked over and they’re in good shape. If you’ll bring her on Saturday, we’ll see if we can fit her in one of them. How’s that?”
Blue could barely speak. “Oh, um, god, that’s, well, thank you so much! I mean, really, thanks. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem. That’s why we have them here. Wallace, did you say?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. BrentWallace. My friends call me Blue.”
“Well, Blue,” the firefighter said and chuckled, “see you Saturday!”
“Yes, sir! Thanks so much, sir! See you Saturday! Bye.” Blue ended the call and sat with his phone in his hand, totally in shock.
It seemed there was a whole world out there of which he was unaware, a world where people gladly helped others and didn’t ask for anything in return. Where had all those people been when he was alone, being abused and neglected and starved? He certainly hadn’t run into any of them then, but he was gratefulfor the ones he was finding in his current predicament. Saturday he’d get a car seat. Of course, he’d have to take her to the doctor on Friday without one, but it was a necessity. If he got stopped by the cops, he’d just have to tell them that.
He went back to work after lunch with a smile on his face and his heart just a little lighter. That dissolved at about two o’clock when he heard Turner heading his way. “Wallace!” Turner yelled.
“What now, Turdbucket?” Blue called back from under the car he was working on.
“Did you tell a lady that she didn’t need her transmission replaced?”
Blue was confused. “You mean the lady with the Thunderbird?”
“Yeah. That one. She says you told her she didn’t need her transmission replaced,” Turner said, his face beet red. “Did you actually tell her that?”
“I did. Because it was true. She didn’t. I tightened the bands and it’s fine,” Blue said, wiping off one of his wrenches and tossing it into a drawer. “Youtold her she needed something that wasn’t necessary and would’ve cost her thousands of dollars.”
“It would have nettedusthousands of dollars, you imbecile!” Turner almost screamed.
“It would’ve lost us a customer when she figured out she’d been swindled,” Blue told him point blank. He could feel his blood pressure rising with the fury building deep inside his chest.
“Next time I tell a customer they need something, you fucking do what I told them they need or you’ll be looking for a job,” Turner told him, shaking with rage. “Do you hear me?”
“Yeah. I hear you. Be a dishonest bastard. I’ll try, but I don’t know. I think you’ve got that perfected,” Blue said, trying hard to hold his temper.
“Shut the fuck up and do your job. And stay the hell off the phone,” Turner told him, then turned to walk away.
“I was on the phone on my lunch break. You don’t control my lunch break. I can do whatever I want while I’m at lunch,” Blue replied, mad as hell. Instead of a smart comment, Turner just walked away as though Blue had said nothing.
“Why is he gunning for you, man?” David, the guy who worked next to him, asked Blue.
Blue shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“I think it’s because you’re damn good at what you do,” grizzled old Vernon told him. “You’re the best mechanic here, and he abuses you like you’re a stray dog. You should go find another job. He doesn’t deserve to have you here, Blue. It’s ridiculous.”
Problem was, Blue was pretty sure he couldn’t find another job. He had no education and no training, just his instincts and experience. No one else would want him, regardless what Mr.Wentworth said.
He was stuck.
Dead on hisfeet by the time he got a little dinner eaten and Indigo cleaned up and dressed, Blue made his way to the hospital, driving slowly down back streets to avoid accidents and being stopped. An injured infant or a ticket for no car seat were things he didn’t need. He stepped through the front doors with Indigo in his arms, asked the lady at the desk about the nurses’ lounge, and in a couple of minutes, a pretty young nurse showed up and asked him to follow her.
They took the elevator up to the fourth floor and stepped off. The halls were quiet and smelled of antiseptic, and Blue was glad he’d never had to stay in the hospital. He’d been to the emergency room twice, once with a cut on his arm from a flying bolt, and another time when he’d dislocated his shoulder. Both times they’d treated him and released him, and that suited him just fine.
The girl stopped just outside a door that, sure enough, readNurses’ Loungeon a plate screwed to its gleaming wood. “Don’t freak out, okay?” she whispered.
“Freak out? Why would I freak out?” Blue whispered back. He hadn’t realized hospitals were like libraries and you had to whisper, but she was whispering, so he did too.
“Just don’t freak out. Ready?” she whispered again and giggled.
