Chapter 7

Pepper was overcome with a rigid tremble, a stiff shock of excitement. He stood facing the shelf, the radio crackled,

When you've passed on to the other side
Think of those you've left behind.
When it comes to your tomb go with the trusted name
Chose a custom tombstone by Walter Payne!

"Sick," Russ said. "Walt's gone and totally lost it." Pepper tilted his head to one side. "Said he wanted to put a bright spin on it, thought it'd be good for business. A tombstone's a tombstone, everyone knows it, you just gotta buy one. It's like a shower curtain, you just gotta have one. You all right, there, Pepper?"

His mouth had parted slightly, his mouth full of saliva.

"Pepper," Russ said, looking around the garage. He started to walk towards the shelf, "Pepper, can you hear me? Hey! It's me, Russ, what the hell is wrong with you, man?" Russ stood behind him, put his hands on his shoulders and gave him a light shake. "Huh, Pepper?"

"Huh?" Pepper said. His muscles loosened a little.

"You just staring off at that shelf. You think it's time to order more oil? Were you counting how many canisters we go through in a month? It's a pretty big number, sometimes it make my head spin, too."

Pepper began to move his head in a slow circular motion. "Nothin', it's nothin' Russ. Just a bit of a spell, you could say that I guess."

"A spell, huh."

"Yeah, I'm real sorry."

"Hey guys," Benny called. Russ and Pepper turned towards the door.

"Benny," Russ said.

"I'm real sorry I'm late, there was a bad accident."

"We heard, I was stuck in it, too," Russ said.

"Oh, okay," Benny said relieved.

"But Pepper here, you know he walks to work. He's got it all figured out," Russ said.

"I guess so, Russ. I just about got it all figured out," he said, looking up at the ceiling. "Yep, my number's coming up pretty soon."

"Now you're telling fortunes, huh? A fortune-telling oil man. They should put your name in the paper," Russ said.

"You hear that, Pepper? The papers, huh. Front page stuff," Benny said, smiling at Russ.

"You think he's front page business, Benny?" Russ said, leaning back a little.

"Oh yeah, Pepper all the way to the front page. Straight from Bennett's garage to A1." They laughed.

"Let's get to work, huh, guys?" Russ said, turning to his office.

"Yeah, okay," Pepper said.

Benny began raising a coupe. "You want to help on this alignment?" he called.

"Yeah sure," Pepper said.

"Ok, good," he walked underneath the car. "These tie rod ends look awful."

"They look brand new, Benny."

"I think they look awful."

"I don't know what you're looking-"

"Come on, Pepper. This is what we do. We get the idea to the customer, to the customer's head, that these tie rod ends are garbage and then they pay for an alignment, parts, labor, come one Pepper."

"Oh yeah."

"And then, that turns into money."

"Seems like a lot of work for a little money."

"One hundred and ninety bucks."

"Split up, minus parts."

"Well that's pretty good still."

"I guess."

"What you call a lot of money, huh?"

"Four hundred, for yourself."

"Yeah, okay."

"For two minutes' work."

"Yeah, you go and crap out a pound of gold, sure."

"Ain't even that hard."

"What ain't that hard?"

"Nothing," Pepper said wiping his forehead. "Nothing, man."

"Well we got the parts, you wanna go and get them?" Benny said, working to removed them already.

"Sure, okay," Pepper said. With his hands in his pockets he started for the storage room around the back of the garage.

"Hey, Pepper!" Russ called. Pepper turned to see Russ in the doorway to his office.

"What?"

"There's a guy on the phone for you, says he wants to talk to you."

Pepper started walking quickly to the office. "What's he want?"

"Just said he wants to talk."

"All right."

"Phone's on my desk."

Pepper walked in and picked up the receiver from on top of a stack of invoices.

"Hello? Oh, Mr. Ford, hello," he stared at Russ. Russ looked past Pepper and out the window of his office.

"Oh, I'm sorry I'll wait outside."

"Yes, Mr. Ford I'm glad to hear from you."

"Well Pepper I heard about an accident this morning."

"Me too, on I-8."

"Yes, on I-8, seemed like a nasty wreck."

"Man on the radio said there was a big back up."

"I heard that too, very bad news. Very grizzly wreck."

"Any injuries reported, yet?"

Ford sighed. "I'm afraid that the driver of the car was killed."

"Oh that's too bad."

"Yes," he said. "Well can you meet me for lunch, maybe that'll brighten our afternoon."

"Sure, down at the Doggie?"

"Why not. I'll see you there at 1:30, how's that?"

"That'd be okay."

"Good bye, Pepper."

"So long, Mr. Ford."

He put gently put the phone back into its cradle and stood for a second. he focused on a poster above Russ's desk, a color photograph of a brightly colored bridge. "San Francisco," Pepper said quietly. He opened the door to the hall.

"Who was that?" Russ asked.

"A friend, just an old friend."

"Okay."

"I'm gonna go out to lunch later on. Meet up with him."

"All right, that sounds nice."

"Should be a very nice time."

Pepper got to the Doggie Diner a few minutes before one. He took a seat at one of the picnic tables, sitting on the top with his feet on the bench. Moving his fingers around in his pocket he found a bottle cap and started to chew it, looking up at the sky, squinting at into the sun. A car pulled up, Pepper blocked out the light with his hand.

Ford got out of the car carrying a small package under his arm.

"Hello, Pepper," he said.

"Hi, Mr. Ford," Pepper said, holding his hand out for a shake. Ford looked down, his hand wasn't as black it was at their last meeting. They shook.

"I got you a little something," Ford said raising the package. It was small, rectangular, wrapped in red paper with white polka dots.

"Oh, you shouldn't have."

"Well, I couldn't help myself. I'm afraid I've got to be going. I hope you like the gift."

Pepper looked at Ford, his mouth open. "Uh, Mr. Ford what about, um."

He was climbing into his car, strapping his seat belt. "Yes?"

Pepper bent down and whispered to Ford, "The, the money we talked about."

Ford rubbed his eyes and lifted them to stare at Pepper. "It's there, it's all there in that box."

"Oh! Oh, okay," Pepper said, he began to loosen the tape at one end.

"Don't! Open it here, don't open it, wait until you get home."

"Oh, sorry. Well thanks."

"Yeah," he slammed the door to the car, backed out of the lot and drove off.

Pepper held the package with both hands, he looked down at it and smiled and started back to the garage.

Benny was finishing replacing the tie rod ends when Pepper got back.

"That was a quick lunch."

"Yeah, I guess so," he said, heading towards the office. He walked down the hallway and to the break room and sat down at one of the tables placing the package in front of him. With his finger he began to loosen the tape at one end.

"Hey, Pepper," Russ said. "What's that?" He took some change from his pocket and started to feed it into the vending machine.

"Oh, a gift."

"From your friend?"

"Yep."

"You gonna open it?"

"Maybe."

"What is it?"

"I - I don't know, yet," Pepper said, pushing the taped end back down. He took the box and put it under his arm. Quickly, he stood up and walked into the hall and began walking towards the back of the building. The hall was empty, the air conditioner blasted, the fluorescent bulbs rang quietly. Inside the bathroom Pepper opened the door to the stall, got inside and locked it. He sat down on the toilet and put the package on his lap. Again he began to finger one of the taped ends, he tore the tape and unfolded the paper. It was a box for checks.

"Checks?"

Removing the lid, Pepper sighed at the sight of a ten dollar bill. He put his finger into the box and dug it down to the bottom of the stack. Lifting it between in his fist he smelled the stack of bills. He fanned them under his nose, over his eye lids, pushed them against his lips for a kiss. Leaning back on the toilet he sighed again.