Maxine's New Life Ch. 11

"I know Jen, well you take good care of the Reverend. Be careful honey, he likes to play some rough games." I said it as a warning.

"Then you don't mind?"

"No Jen, I don't mind at all."

I drank enough so that I woke up in a familiar bed but had no idea how I got there. Usually even when drunk, I could remember how I ended up in someone else's bed. Since I was the only one in the bed, I was worried about how I got there.

"Well gus, I guess I spent one more night with you after all." I said it aloud. I knew for sure that it was Gus's room by the Sofa throw with the Marine Emblem. How I got to the room, I had no idea.

Ten minutes later I knew. Chris came in with Coffee and donuts. She found the Krispy Kreme it seemed. "Good morning," I said.

"Good morning. You had a lot to drink and no one knew where you lived, so I had them bring you here,"

"Thanks, your dad and I always ate those on the balcony. He liked to watch the traffic."

"If you want to do that you better get dressed. It will be really cold if you go out there undressed like you are."

It had been two months since Gus died, and I had been in a deep funk almost all of it. I hadn't talked to Lucas about the cameras in my cabin, because I just didn't care. The business ran well on autopilot. I realized that there was nothing that I needed to do. Even so, I went to the office everyday. just to go through the motions. Sticking with the routine was good for depression. It kept me from laying in bed feeling sorry for myself all day.

I even found time,during one of my wasted time periods, to have a bike rack put on the van. Soon thereafter, I had the bike, I inherited from Gus, reconditioned. The preacher was trying to impress someone, but I don't think it was me. His mechanics went through the bike completely. When I got it back from his shop, it was twice as good as the day it rolled off the Chinese assembly line.

The mechanic understood the concept of the totally removable engine. He replaced a few bolts on the engine with wing nuts and studs. The only link to the frame, was a tie down rod which put tension on the motor. When the engine was remove it collapsible so that it all fit into a small canvas bag. The kind the guy rats used to carried their stinky clothes.

When the motor was removed it left only a mounting bracket under the seat and one stud with a wing nut where the tension rod attached. It was a neat system. I am sure there were others like it but I had never seen one advertised.

Chris and I had a long talk the morning after her dad's memorial service. I left Gus's apartment with a lot of information about him. Some of it, I would just as soon have not known. but I was still glad I had the talk with her. I also left with his Captain America bike helmet.

"I fussed like hell when he bought that bike after the DUI. I was afraid that he was still drinking and would ride it into traffic. So I bought him a blue bike helmet. He drew the flag on it with paint sticks. Not a really good job, but he loved it, and now it's yours," Chris said.

So by the time I began to feel like me again, I had a smaller version of the bike Marty and I rode across country. I also just woke up one morning and wanted to get deep into some shit. Any kind of shit, I just wanted to get back into life.

"So Lucas what should we add next?" I asked it once I was in the office, with a cup of coffee in my hand.

"Well, we already do bond jumpers, we serve court papers, and you do the occasional body guard job, what else is there?"

"That's what I asked you?" I replied giving him a genuine smile. "Hold on, isn't it time for you to get back into school?"

"Well if I was going to go back, it would be time yes. I think I'm going to take another semester off."

"I'm sure I do not approve of that," I said seriously.

"Well, short of firing me, there is nothing you can do. You honestly can't afford to fire me. You have grown the business, so that sometimes it takes both of us to keep up."

"That is true, but I could also just drop the bail jumper and body guard gigs and have plenty of time. So don't get too comfortable."

"Why don't we do the TV thing. Maybe we can get it picked up on a real TV network and become stars."

"Right that's what we need, every mooch in the state knowing, who we are, and how we do things."

"But for now it's just Internet TV. Probably no more than two of our mooches watch anything on the Internet." Lucas said.

"Would like to bet next weeks salary on that?" I asked.

"Why," he asked.

"I'll bet you next weeks salary, that at last 1/4 of them have watched Internet porn."

"Okay, you would probably win, but odds are none of them are going to see our little show."

"Tell you what Lucas, I'll leave it up to Ed. Ed do you want to be a TV star?"

"Actually with all this talk over the last few months, I have considered it. I knew you would have to ask me, since I'm the most interesting one here."

"So what's your decision?"

"Well, I never did get my fifteen minutes, so yeah let me have my fame now."

I burst into the song "Fame, I'm gonna live for ever, people gonna' remember my name." I sang it and laughed.

"So do I call Gwen?" Lucas asked.

"Are you that hard up for ass? Do I have to be a TV star, just so you can get laid again?" I asked.

"Actually she gives great head," Lucas said smiling.

"All right lover boy, make your call. Tell her to get with Marty and make us an offer."

"We would have gotten more Gwen said, if we had done it right after the Russian shoot out."

"Yeah well, I was a little busy," I replied. "Besides it's going to take them a while to get it on the air anyway. They are going to have to edit the film."

"It is the Internet. It won't take long at all. They want it to be as raw as possible. Just as long as it is still entertaining. That's probably why they picked us. We are pretty raw." Lucas said with a grin.

"You are for sure pretty green at least," Ed threw in.

"Even if we all go for it, they won't be here for a while, so let's get some work done?"

"How does the day look?" I asked Lucas.

"Not too busy, we have time to play around, if there is something you want to do."

"What would I want to do?"

"I don't know, buy a car, let me ride the bike."

"Well I don't think we can buy a car today, but you can ride the bike."

"Cool," Lucas said all excited. Everybody loved Gus's bike.

"Load the bike onto the van and we will take it with us today. When we find a quiet spot, you can give it a try. But first we do the work." I was adamant about that.

We picked up the three new court orders. Ones we had not had time to pick up the day before. We also had two on hand, so our deliveries were five for the day, along with any calls we got while we were out working/ We could deliver three times that many, if they were ready for us.

In our business you don't just go, go, go. Usually it is go, wait twenty minutes for something to happen, then go again and wait again. During one of those breaks I had Lucas pull the van into the parking lot of an abandoned textile mill.

"Okay Lucas," I began once the bike was off the van and ready to ride. "Now we will start the engine. It is a centrifugal clutch so when you rev up the engine it will want to start pulling the bike. so don't rev the motor until you are on the bike. If it dies. stop immediately. If you can't get it restarted or it is out of gas, lift it off the tire and lock it. You got it?"

"Yeah, I have seen you ride it. I think I can figure it out."

"Well we can get into how to ride with the most efficiency after you get the hang of it." I suggested. I knew Lucas was really still a kid he wouldn't want to ride it for efficiency, he would want to ride it like a motorcycle. To do that he needed the big engine Marty and I had on our cross country trip. The engine on Gus's bike was just a helper. It was meant to extend the bike's range.

Since the larger engines were illegal in every state, we had gotten lucky. None of the cops or highway patrols along the way bothered with us. We were off the beaten path most of the time. The engine on Gus's bike was very legal. It was even a little smaller than the largest legal, but still inadequate engine.

"Put the helmet on, I don't want your mother to come down to beat my ass for letting her little boy crack open his skull."

"Right, I hardly think my mom would do that, but I will wear the helmet."

"You are lucky, it should be a motorcycle helmet to be legal. So go for it."

The beauty of the motor on a bike frame is that almost everyone knows how to ride a bike. With those things, there were no new skills to learn. Engaging the engine was just a matter of opening the throttle. which replaced the right handle bar grip. Most of the time it was rev the engine and hold on, with the engine on Gus's bike it was rev the engine and settle back. It still required that one pedal up hill and even on the flat to get more speed now and then, but it made longer trips on the bike possible with the expenditure of the same amount of energy.

"I love this thing, I want one." Lucas said to me when he stopped the bike.

"Actually I had a thought or two in the back of my head about that."

"Oh what kind of thought?" he asked.

"To look even more harmless, we could park the van a couple of blocks away and ride up on a bike. Motored or otherwise, who would question a bike messenger?"

"Even more important, It would be fun. That's the real reason, I didn't sign up for that next semester at school. This is just too much fun."

"Well, I have decided that you will sign up for it. I talked to Blevins. they teach the exact same classes at night. You will take a minimum of two classes a semester, or I will fire you skinny ass."

"Okay, okay, now to change the subject, what are you going to do about Gwen and Mike filming you at home?" he asked.

"They can feed from the surveillance cameras. You said they wanted funky, the image quality is pretty funky in the low light at night."

"Then I will explain that before they get all excited about the project. They might have thought that they were going to have access to your house as well."

"Yeah, make sure they understand they do not ever know where I live and if they find out, they are not to pass that information on to anyone under threat of death. Try to make sure they don't give the web address of my video surveillance away either."

"Oh yes, I'm sure there are things you don't want to be seen by everyone in the world."

"Yeah," was all I said. I didn't look at him when I said it.

"So about the new car," he suggested.

"For the new car we need to see Ed," I replied.

Back in the office I said to Ed, "Ed how many used car salesmen have you bailer out of jail?"

"Damn, over the years at least a hundred why?"

"Is there one you almost trust?" I asked.

"Yeah Willie Rice seems to be straight up."

"Give him a call. Ask him what he would charge to buy me a car at the wholesale auto auction."

Ed made the call then he covered the mouthpiece and said to me, "For me, since I bail his ass our for drunk and disorderly once every couple of years o so, he wants two hundred bucks over what he paid for the car at auction."

"Ed, I want to go to the auction with him."

"He said no way," Ed replied after his phone consult.

"Then tell him thanks anyway, but I'll make the buy at the public auto auction." Ed repeated that into the phone, then added that his next bail would be posted 24 hours after the arraignment instead of immediately. Then Ed listened and turned to me. "Can you live with a Chrysler product. There is an off lease auction Friday morning at 8AM in Tryon."

"Tell him I'll meet him anywhere, anytime. Also tell him that I am always on time, and he better be as well."

What Ed said was simple, "When and where do you want to meet." He looked up and said to me. "Shirley's pancake house parking lot at 7AM. You will have to leave the van and ride with him. Also bring cash, Willie said."

I just nodded my head. I was almost five so I looked to Lucas. "So what do you hear from Flopsy?" I asked.

"They are waiting form Marty to make the decision, and then they will make us an offer. Do you want to know what the offer is?"

"Not till it is ready to finalized. I don't haggle, so tell her to bring the best she has the first time."

"I already told her there is no second chance offers. I think they will come up with most of the money for us. She and Mike can sell season 2 to one of the cable networks at least." He didn't realize it, but he had most likely given me information Mopsy and Flopsy would rather I didn't have.

I nodded to him as well. "So how about dinner at the pasta and pizza pit?"

"Are you buying?" Ed asked.

"Sure why not, I have to swing by the bank to get a lot of cash first."

At 6:50AM I pulled the van into Shirley's pancake house parking lot. I felt a little concerned about having $15.000 in cash in my pocketbook. Since I had the .38 hammerless revolver in there as well, I felt a little better.

After a lot of bullshit I got through the gates and into the large chain link fenced area. There must have been a couple of hundred Chrysler automobiles of various models parked neatly in the lot.

"It would be best, if you picked out three you want. Just write down the number that is on the windshield. When they come up I will bid up to whatever amount you tell me. Make sure you like all three the same, because they won't come up in the order of your preference." Willie was actually a lot nicer than I had expected.

All three cars I picked were PT Cruisers. One was silver and two were white. I picked the colors to highlight the signs that would be going on it. They each had between 50 and 60 thousand miles on the engine. After i got one it would be a crap shoot.

"So how much do you think they will go for?" I asked.

"Seven to nine grand," he said

The silver came up first "Willie, do 8k Maximum."

I bought it for $7,600 . The bidding, though the most frightening, turned out to be the easy part. Inside the metal building, they used as an office, I went through the paperwork with the clerk. I got the title work done by her for twenty bucks in addition to the bid price. I was told that I had to pick the vehicle up by close of business on Monday. The lot would be open all day Saturday for pickups as well. If I had a dealer tag, I could take the car right away. Of course I didn't and Willie was planning to use his tag, Even if he hadn't been, his insurance wouldn't cover the car unless it went into his name. Then he would have to do the twenty dollar paper work for a hundred bucks more. I said no thanks.

We were back in Aster by 1PM, so I make the call to my insurance agent. I added the Cruiser and got the policy ID number for the DMV. That little DMV exercise took me almost an hour, but I got the tag and temporary registration.

Lucas met me at the office, he had been out working. He drove me to Tryon in the van, then took it to finish his process serving. I got the cruiser and headed home. I had to buy gas within a mile of the auction. I figured they went around draining the tanks for their personal cars.

The little car seemed to do just fine. I could tell it wasn't the van, but it was still a good ride. Since Lucas was already making the final services of the week, I drove the Cruiser to the Sign Shop.

"Do you remember me?" I asked.

"Sure you are the lady who can't spell for shit," he said with a big smile and a handshake.

"How long will it take to do the same ugly ass signs for the Cruiser."

"I only do beautiful signs. You must want the sign depot." He replied.

"Okay, just do it," I said with a fake look of exasperation.

I made it back to the office in time to say, "Have a good weekend, to both Ed and Lucas."

On Saturday I got the bike rack installed on the cruiser. I also removed the rear seat. It wasn't an easy task, but I managed it after a trip to the hardware store for tools. I was proud of myself. I only had one scrape on my knuckles. For me that was a miracle.

I drove the cruiser to the Cop Out Saturday night. It was the first time I had been in the place since Gus died. I hadn't really been in for a while before he died. I guess the trip to the Cop Out meant that I was back on the market. I went back to my place to sleep alone again. If I had been looking for real, I could have left with more than one of the men there. Men with an erection have no taste, I thought.

When I got home, I gave some serious thought to giving Lucas a show, but decided not to bother. I drifted off to sleep easily because I had a long couple of days and was physically tired.

On Sunday Lucas called to say that Mopsy and Flopsy were flying in with the proposal. Marty had arranged for Jen to mediate. Jen was still my friend, but after the Reverend Archer thing, I wasn't sure how much I trusted her. Of course I had known that she was a lawyer, when I took her into my confidence.

Sunday would have been one boring day, had it not been for Gus's bike. I took the bike to the park. The park had a designated bike trail. It was not one of those walking tails, which allowed bikes. It was designated just for bikes. I checked with the Tryon Parks and Recreation department before I drove to the access parking lot. I found that Gus's bike qualified as a bike, not a motor vehicle.

So I put on my thermals, then made myself a bowl of cereal. First I added about an once of raisins to the big serving bowl I used for cereal. Then I added a few dehydrated banana chips to the raisins. After those I poured in several ounces of a cereal mixture, which I made myself. The dry cereal was corn flakes and brand flakes mixed in equal parts, I really don't care for the taste of either alone. I topped the mixture with sprinkled cinnamon and an once or so of sugar free maple syrup.

Then I ruined it all by adding rehydrated milk to the mix. It was the only kind of milk that didn't spoil in my refrigerator. I seldom ate breakfast at home, so it was only a minor inconvenience.

I had purchased a riding outfit just for chilly days like it was that Sunday. I wore thermal long pants under my tightly woven cotton twill hunters pants. Those turned the moving air better than jeans. They still had the look of a real person look about them. On top I wore a thermal tee with long sleeves and a light weight but still slightly lined nylon pullover. The pullover was at least two sizes too large. When the weather really turned cold, I planned to pick up a lightweight thermal vest to wear under it. I drove to the office.

There I put a 42oz bottle of premix where the biker's water bottle would ordinarily go. I topped off the tiny gas tank on the bike's engine, then loaded on on the cruiser for the drive to the bike trail.

I parked the cruiser in the parking lot meant for bike riders only. It was the place to leave our real rides. Once I had the bike off the cruiser, I looked at the next group of riders ready to leave the staging area. None of them spoke to me, even though they were friendly with each other. I had no idea whether they were a riding club, or just snobs.

Marty had always talked about the bike purist. They seemed to feel that he was raping the sport. They were in it for fun and exercise, Marty was in it for transportation and profit. I could see a place for both, I'm not sure the spandex group in the parking lot that morning could fit the Marty's vision into their mindset. I didn't really care that they were less than friendly, and probably wouldn't until I had a breakdown twenty miles from the parking lot. Well chances of me being making it twenty miles were about as good as me competing in the Olympics.

I studied the map at the trail's entrance. There was a parking lot 5.5 miles down the trail. That parking lot was the next staging area for riders to join the trail. The trail continued, but for a first day's ride, I decided that 11 miles was plenty.