Page 59 of Baby Blue
“There’s a problem with that.” Blue leaned against the truck and tossed the keys back and forth between his hands. “These engines have long, skinny spark plugs, and they’re mounted really deep,” he said, holding up his pinky to demonstrate. “Takes a special tool to take them out. And nine times out of ten, they break off before you can get them out. One breaks off, you’ve got to tear the engine apart. A two-hundred-dollar job turns into an eight-hundred-dollar job or worse.”
“And I suppose you’ve got a solution for that?” Chuck said mockingly.
“I looked at the mileage. This truck’s only got fifty-two thousand miles on it. Plugs don’t usually foul that fast. I could change out the plug wires and if that didn’t do the trick, change them back and charge the customer nothing. But I don’t think that’s what it is either.”
With that statement, he got Chuck’s attention. “And what do you think it is?”
“How ’bout I fix it and we see if I got it right?” Blue said with a wicked grin.
“You fix this truck on the first try, you’ve got the job.”
Blue nodded. “Deal. Give me a bay and some tools and I’ll have it done in no time.”
One of the guys in the shop loaned Blue a pair of coveralls and the tools he said he’d need. He got on the phone to the parts house he’d always used and ordered the part he needed. It was there in ten minutes, and all the techs in the shop stopped to watch. When he was finished, he slammed the hood shut and wiped his hands with a shop rag. “Take it out and drive it. It’ll be fine.”
“What did you do to it?” Chuck asked.
“Make sure it’s fine and then I’ll tell you.”
Chuck and another tech disappeared in the truck and in ten minutes they were back. “Well?” Blue asked as they climbed out of the cab.
Chuck’s eyes were wide and his jaw was hanging open. “What did you do?”
Blue grinned. “Ignition coil. It reads like a spark plug failure, but it’s really the coil. They’ve had a lot of trouble with them, but it’s not a hard fix if you know what it is.” Two of the guys started laughing. “What?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what was wrong with that truck for a month now,” Chuck said. “It’smytruck. It’s been sitting out there because I didn’t want to drive it the way it was running, and I didn’t trust anybody here to change out the plugs.” He started into the main part of the building, then looked back at Blue. “Well, come on. Let me tell you what I can offer you.”
Chuck closed the door behind them and motioned for Blue to take a seat. “Here’s my offer. Thirty-five to start.” Blue nodded. “You get your ASE certification in the next three months on my dime.” Blue nodded again?it was sounding promising. “And in six months, you go to manager of the service department. Sixty a year. After the first two months and with a good review, you’ll go to seventy. Full benefits after your first sixty days. Three weeks paid vacation per year and ten sick days. In two years, you’ll be in charge of hiring new techs. At some point, we’re probablygoing to consolidate the running of all the service departments, and I think you have the potential to be the guy to spearhead that move.”
Blue heard that buzzing in his head that said he wasn’t getting enough oxygen, and he sucked in a huge breath. “Seventy?”
“Yep.”
“And insurance?”
“Yep.”
I don’t believe this. I really, really don’t believe this.“Could I ask you something?” Chuck nodded. “Could I start today?”
The younger Wentworth laughed and it startled Blue. He hadn’t thought the guy had a sense of humor. “Sure! But I think you should wait until Monday. Go to the second office on the right when you walk out of here and ask for Mindy. She’ll give you a hiring packet. You can take it home and bring it back. Giver her your sizes and your uniforms will be waiting for you when you bring back the paperwork. And welcome to the Wentworth family of dealerships,” Chuck said and stood, extending a hand.
Blue took it and realized he was seeing his future unfold right there in front of him. He’d get to do what he loved in a shop with state-of-the-art equipment, mentor other younger mechanics, and make enough to pull his own weight for his family.
His family. The thought made him smile. Anne would be so proud. God, he wanted all this shit with social services to be over! Maybe when he told Ms.Parker he had a good job, she’d back off. “Thank you, sir. You won’t be sorry, I promise.”
“I’d better not be or my dad will hunt you down. Seems he’s pretty good at that,” Chuck said and gave Blue a pretend grimace.
“That he is! Thank you for this opportunity, sir, really.”
“Chuck. Call me Chuck.”
“Chuck. See you Monday. And everybody calls me Blue.”
“Then see you Monday, Blue.”
He picked up the hiring packet, thanked the girl in the office, and headed home, so excited he could barely stand it. When he’d parked the truck, he ran across the yards, up Anne’s front steps, and burst through the front door. She spun to look at him, alarm on her face. “Brent! What’s wrong?”
Suddenly, he couldn’t speak. He couldn’t move. He could barely breathe. In the next second, he was gulping air so fast that he couldn’t make words form. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god,” he gasped.
