Chapter 4

Pepper finished his lunch by forcing the last bite of tuna against his throbbing stomach. He let out a long, agonized groan. "I did it. I finally did it." He looked at the two empty drink containers, the pint, the empty bag of chips, the paper hot dog tray. Uncontrollably, he groaned again. "This must be the feeling of satisfaction," he said clenching his shirt in his fist. He stood up, looked at the trash on the table and turned to walk back to the garage.

It was noon, humid and heavy as Pepper walked back. The cement and bricks of the buildings he passed seemed to crumble in the heat. Every glass and metallic surface he passed, bumpers, windows, mailboxes, a garbage man's keys, put the searing reflection of the sun into his eyes. His feet barely left the pavement, scraped along the sidewalk as he felt the combination of sugar water, ice milk, fried potatoes, tuna fish, mayonnaise and the animal pieces they put into hot dogs wrestle in his stomach. Sweat poured out making rings at the neck of his shirt, under his arms and over the area of his back.

Pepper slowly approached the garage from the sidewalk. Benny was sitting on the floor cutting underwear advertisements from the paper. "What oven you crawling out of?" he said as Pepper approached. "Damn."

Pepper continued his slump step into the garage. A few feet inside he collapsed to the floor.

"Jesus, Pepper," Benny said, putting his scissors down. "What's wrong with you?"

Pepper groaned again and rolled onto his side. Benny walked over and Pepper uttered something. He crouched down, "What'd you say?" Pepper let out another brief moan. "I don't know, man," Benny said. Pepper hiccoughed, paused, and his body contracted around his stomach as he threw up.

"Oh, oh goddamn," Benny said standing up. "That's gross. That is so gross, man. Why would you eat stew on a hot day like today?" Benny backed away.

Pepper muttered. "Shut up, shut up Benny. Shut up."

"Whatever you say," Benny said. He took his bandana from his head to cover his face.

Pepper continued to lay on his side, whispering to himself incoherently. "You just go ahead and pass out, mang," Benny said. "We ain't getting anything done today anyhow."

* * *

The roll of the garage door woke Pepper. His eyes parted slowly, the garage was full of light.

"Pepper! Pepper! God damn, boy, what, oh God look at all the upchuck. What the hell happened?"

Pepper recognized Russ' voice. He opened his eyes and stood up slowly.

"Back early, Russ?"

"Early? Early, no Pepper it's 7:30 in the morning," he said, handing Pepper a roll of paper towels. "Take care of the mess you made. And get changed, you smell like a wet grass bag," he turned towards his office.

"Morning?" he said. "Oh, damn," he whispered to himself. "Oh, damn." Pepper balled up a few paper towels for the mess and walked to his locker. He unbuttoned his shirt, opened his locker, took a pull from the mouthwash and swallowed. "Oh, no," he blurted and threw up again. "Oh, god."

He managed to change his work clothes, left with the socks and briefs from the previous day, and headed to the floor.

"Pepper," Russ called as he passed. "Come in here a sec. Sit down, tell me what you been up to, yesterday."

"Well I had lunch down at the Doggie Diner and the next thing I know I'm on the floor of the garage."

"The Doggie? But you don't get paid until next week."

"Oh, I know I know. But this gentleman Gerald he took me there and bought me lunch and he's gonna give me four hundred dollars."

"Four hundred dollars?"

"What?"

"You said 'four hundred dollars.'"

Pepper stared at Russ. "Well, what I meant to say is I must have eaten four hundred dollars of food because later on it just made me so sick that I couldn't keep any of it with me."

"All right. And who's Gerald?"

"He's a buyer," Pepper paused. "And a seller. A little bit of both, really."

"Okay, and this guy just took you to lunch?"

"Yeah."

"And how'd you meet him?"

"Well he just come in the shop said he had car troubles so I said oh I'll take a look, sir, so I did and it turned out all he need was some air in a tire and he said that's all what's the charge so I told him no charge and he said well let me get you lunch so I agreed and he took me down to the Doggie and I got some food and that was that, Russ."

"You'd think any soft-handed, scarf-wearing carpet salesman would be able to put air in a tire."

"Yeah I know," Pepper said, relieved. He pursed his lips and scratched behind his ear. "I'm the best liar this side of the Mississippi River," he thought.

"Okay let's get to work, Pepper," Russ said looking at some folders on his desk.

"Yeh, all right Russ," he said standing. Pepper wiped his forehead with a sigh. As he exhaled a red Mustang entered the garage. "Well I'll be damned," he said to himself.

"Check this out, Pepper," Benny said, pointing to the car. "In for an oil change, I can't wait-"

"Well seeing as that's my field of excellence I'll take it from here," he said. A woman was driving the car, a large pair of sunglasses buried in a lot of blonde hair.

"It'll only take a few minutes?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am, in and out," Pepper said.

"I'll run to the bank, then," she said, handing Pepper the keys.

"All right, it's just across the street, there."

She rolled her eyes, but Pepper missed the gesture from under the sunglasses.

"Oil, oil, oil change!" he said, walking to a shelf for a few quarts. He cracked the plastic yellow cap off of one and sniffed it. He exhaled heavily.

Pepper raised the car and as the oil drained he took a wrench and loosened the lugs a few turns. "Took all of thirty seconds," he said to himself. Pepper finished the oil job, lowered the car and spun the key ring around his finger. He whistled a bit, pacing around the garage.

"All set?" the woman called, walking into the garage.

"Yep, nineteen dollars," Pepper said. She handed him a twenty. "I'll run and get change."

"No, keep it," she said taking the keys.

"Why thank you, thank you very much, ma'am."

She turned the engine and drove out of the garage. Pepper dusted his hands and watching the car drive off imagined the sounds it would making flipping five or six times on the interstate.

Benny was replacing a rear-view mirror on a pick-up truck as Pepper walked over. "What you working on, Benny."

"Just a rear-view, mang."

"Yep, the old rear view. Gotta have eyes on the back of your head, huh? Keep one step ahead of the other guy, don't ya?"

"Sure thing, Pepper."

"Yep, a sure thing," he said. He heard an engine approaching, then cut off and parked outside. The door slammed, and a tall man entered the garage, a cigarette clenched in his teeth. He removed his sunglasses.

"How about an oil change?" he called. "Absolutely," Pepper said.

"Great. Mine's the Mustang outside."