The Boarding House

Charlie

After Danny treated Joey to a 'king's breakfast' that consisted of a southwestern omelet and beer, he and Joey were off to see about Joey's dead Camero. They were back in Danny's black BMW. Danny pulled out of the long gravel driveway and took a right turn.

"I could have sworn we came in from the other direction." Joey questioned Danny's memory. He remembered paying attention just in case he wound up in a situation he didn't like. Hindsight, he thought to himself.

"Oh, we did." Danny confirmed to Joey. "Charlie woke up this morning and had your car towed to his shop." Danny was tuning the stereo to a rock and roll station. "Charlie owns the only shop in town. It's good to have friends Joey!"

"Oh? Cool!" Joey replied thinking it seemed kind of presumptuous to just pick up his car and take it to a shop. But to be honest, he really hadn't thought much about his car over the last eighteen hours or so.

The drive was pretty quick and the town, if you can even call it that, was pretty small. Danny was right, there's not much around this area. The main drag through town consisted of a small full-service gas station, an IGA, a post office in an old block building, and a couple little family restaurants. One intersection with a flashing yellow light and the town was behind you.

They drove for another couple of minutes before Danny flipped his turn signal on and pulled into a gravel parking lot with a metal building at the back of it. The sign on the front read Charlie's Auto Repair. Simple and to the point. Joey thought as they pulled up to the building and Danny turned the engine off.

Aside from what looked like a few junk cars around the building and an old tow truck, it looked pretty dead. The bay doors were open and the only vehicle inside was Joey's black Camero.

"She looks so lonely in there!" Danny joked about Joey's car as they walked into the lobby.

It wasn't really a lobby. It was more of a desk in the corner with a worn out old couch and a couple black folding chairs for customers to sit and wait for their cars to be finished. Joey looked around the dimly lit space before sitting down.

They waited there for several minutes before Charlie came out of the only sectioned-off room in the building. Joey assumed it was a bathroom.

"Hey guys!" Charlie called out almost cheerfully. Joey put his hand up and waived while Danny walked over and shook Charlie's hand.

Charlie was a good-looking man and in decent shape to be in his early forties. His short hair and trimmed beard were black with streaks of grey. Joey thought that he could've been a track star or swimmer when he was in school.

The two friends talked for several minutes before walking back to Joey in the waiting area where Charlie asked Joey how he "was doin today?"

"It's been an interesting day!" Joey admitted with a little bit of a laugh.

"Well, I'm afraid I ain't gonna make it any less boring." As Charlie's smile faded into a more somber scowl. "Computer's bad."

"Computer?" Joey questioned him to try to understand.

"Yup. The ECM, electronic control module. It's the brain of the entire car." Charlie explained the function of the part to Joey and Danny. "Without it, that car ain't goin nowhere on its own power!"

"Son of a bitch! How much does that cost?" Joey asked knowing he didn't have a lot of extra money if he was going to make his trip.

"Part's about two fity and labor is about a hunnerd dollars." Charlie told him. "But I can't get one in here til Monday the earliest." He finished giving Joey the bad news.