What the hell, Jackie! Get inside! Get inside! Faster!
Well, good thing she finally came to her senses. After jumping around in a circle behind Beatle, she finally managed to run back to me and climb in.
Start! Start! Start!
The alarm was still going off and I could almost make out the guard in white uniform coming our way.
Go, Jackie, Go!
“Oh God, oh God!” she cried after she finally managed to get me started. “Escape plan, escape plan. Where to go, Toto?”
This was what I was talking about! We have to have an escape plan! You know I like Beatle, right? He’s a cool car. And now you’ve ruined the only friendship I have in this godforsaken parking lot!
Okay, I had to focus as well. Jackie was definitely going crazy as she veered me away, almost bumping against the headlights of the narcissistic BMW--the only thing I regretted not happening that time--and zoomed around the parking lot.
Calm down, girl. Calm down. You don’t want to be too obvious. Oh God, the guard is coming! Turn, turn, turn!
I have always wanted to be a getaway car. I had met one a long time ago and the thrill of the vic’s story made me want to experience the same thing. Yes, it was a bonus that it was a feminine vehicle. But there was a big difference between that vehicle’s experience and the one I was in.
Its owner came prepared. That was why it lived to tell the tale.
My owner wasn’t. She did the act on impulse and it was getting us in trouble!
“That alarm was not part of the plan,” Jackie uttered the moment we finally made it out of the parking lot without the guard running after us.
Oh, so you had a plan? I must tell you, Jackie girl, whatever that plan was, it was stupid as hell.
Jackie was obviously still tensed. I could feel her fingers gripping my wheel tightly.
You almost gave my engine an attack to the death, I told her after a few minutes. We were now driving around Bacolod Lagoon, past the capitol and to McDonald’s. She entered the drive thru.
Good thing you decided to get lunch. Eat and your brains might just start working again. I was really pissed with her at that moment. I was still thinking about Beatle’s cry of anguish as we drove away. How could I ever repay that Civic? Not in this mileage, I guess.
Ever since I had been manufactured, I had never experienced such thing. Sure, I liked the thrill, but it was one thrill I was not willing to go through again. It would have been better if it was Georgie. That girl had a lot of guts and cunning unlike Jackie here, who seemed to have shifted from the nice, pretty lady I knew she was to a crazy car killer.
Jackie ordered a meal of burger and fries and then we were back in the road. She drove to the Philippine Red Cross headquarters.
Hey, there, Dee! I called out when I spotted my ambulance friend. The only friend I had left after Jackie did her criminal act earlier. Ah, yes, of course, I still had Tata. But I hated her owner so she didn’t really count.
Jackie climbed off me with her food and I was, for the first time, thankful that she was leaving me.
*****
“What are you doing here?” George asked her.
Her friend was behind a desk full of radios set in different frequencies. The other rescuers in the office just stared at Jackie as she walked to where her friend was.
“You look like you’ve been to hell and back to tell the tale,” George noted.
“Well, I have been to hell. Or I did get a glimpse of it for a few seconds before I decided to run away.”
George’s slit eyes narrowed further as she looked at Jackie. “What do you mean? What did you do this time?”
Jackie cringed. “I sort of committed a crime.” The moment she said it, the other four male rescuers in the room turned their heads at her. She looked at them dryly. “It was just a metaphor, guys.”
Dan, Fred and Mike knew George’s friends. The men looked at her for a moment before they continued on with their work. Dan, the chubby, tall guy was watching the news. Fred, the skinny guy with glasses was behind his computer. Mike, the handsome team leader of George’s team just shrugged and stood up to get a cup of coffee.
“Jackie, what happened?” George asked her impatiently.
“Well, nothing big, really,” she said nonchalantly, now completely relaxed, sure that she was not caught by the guard earlier.
“Then why are you here?” George asked as she watched Jackie open her burger and take a bite.
“I just want to have lunch with you,” she said, munching on her food. “And I’m also here to tell you that we might have a visitor later.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you might be riding Toto with Dannie at the back.”
“Why?”
Jackie just shrugged and smiled wickedly. “You’ll see.”
*****
I was still pissed at Jackie and I was afraid of Beatle the moment we entered the parking lot of Collins Corporations. Jackie gave a sigh of relief when no one was around Beatle, who was still standing on his spot with his back tire flat, damaged and obviously pissed at Jackie.
I’m sorry, buddy. I didn’t know she was going to do that. Do you want to hear another story from my friend Dee?
It was no use. Beatle wouldn’t talk to me. He said his boss was pissed and that if he could only talk, he would have given Jackie away without blinking a headlight.
So there went my Wednesday afternoon. Alone with no Beatle to talk to and with the narcissistic BMW asking a lot of stupid questions.
*****
Jackie tried hard to keep her face as neutral as possible as she stepped into the office floor. Karen immediately jumped to her feet and met her halfway to her desk.
“What’s wrong?” she asked her friend.
Karen stared at her conspiratorially. “Someone stabbed boss Dean’s car tire.”
Again, she put out her crazy shocked face. “What?”
“Yes,” Karen said, pulling Jackie toward her desk when she dramatically stopped and placed her hand over her mouth.
“Did someone see who did it?” she asked, her heart beating fast. For all she knew, everyone knew she was the car killer.
“No,” Karen answered and Jackie almost went limp to the ground with relief.
“It’s really unlucky of him to have his car tire stabbed with a knife,” Jackie uttered.
Karen frowned. “How did you know it was a knife?”
Shit! “Uh…you just told me, didn’t you? Are you sure you ate your lunch?”
Karen was still frowning with confusion when Joseph came in sight. “Jackie, where have you been?”
She looked at her watch. “I’m not late for anything, am I? I had lunch with a friend.”
“I want you to finish up that report. Boss Dean is pissed because of what happened to his car and I don’t want my ass burned because you passed another late report.”
“Yes, yes, I’ll be right on it.” She gave Karen a look and walked behind her desk. She almost gave herself away earlier and she promised to shut her mouth for the rest of the day.
*****
The rest of the day went slow. Very slow, actually. Jackie was already done with her report by three and she spent the remaining hours searching for the best ideas to present on their next meeting. When the clock struck four, everyone started clearing up their tables. By four-thirty, Karen and Joseph had already left. Their other team members were long gone. But Dean Gamboa was still inside his office, his head bent over some papers.
She checked her watch again. It was getting late. George was texting and Dannie had called twice already. She had to leave, but she couldn’t while her boss was still here.
And then she remembered Brian. He had to be waiting for her by the parking lot later. How could she do that?
Of course! Facebook!
She went online and posted a status: Working late.
She looked over at Dean Gamboa’s office. He was still working.
Pretending to be doing something in her computer, Jackie waited.
When she finally saw him stand up and rearrange his table, she turned off her computer, took her bag and hastily walked to the elevator doors.
“Come on, come on, come on…” she told the elevator under her breath. “Shit!” she uttered when she saw her boss walk out of his office and turn to the direction of the elevator.
“Wait up!” he called.
Jackie moaned as she blocked the elevator doors and waited for Dean Gamboa.
“Thanks,” he said in his usual flat tone.
The doors closed and they were immediately enveloped in awkward silence.
Jackie’s plan had to change a bit. It was now or never.
She took a glance at Dean Gamboa beside her and she almost cringed with guilt. But it was for her plan to get rid of Brian. She gulped and willed herself to speak. “I heard about what happened to your car.”
He just nodded.
“Do you need a ride home, sir?” she asked and she saw the shock that registered on his face. “I mean I do have a car and it’s getting late. I heard you live in Mountain View. I live near the area. I can just drop you off.”
He was already looking down at her and he took his time before he finally said, “That’s not necessary, Miss Ramos--”
“No, I insist. I know what it’s like to have your car break down on you, but in your case it is different, of course. But it is still the same, you know. Toto once broke down on me in the middle of the road and I had no one to help me and it was just like hell. I understand that you might feel it is inappropriate, but you don’t really have to feel that way. I am very much willing to help you out because I believe in karma. Dannie, my friend, once told me that you have to help others if you can and right now, I can help you--”
“Yes,” he said, cutting Jackie’s blabber.
“And I am not expecting anything in return because I believe that--”
“I said yes, Miss Ramos,” he cut in once again, looking her in the eyes.
Jackie’s words stopped in her throat as she was, for a moment, lost into those eyes. “What, sir?”
“I said, yes, I’ll take your offer,” he said once again.
She stopped herself from jumping up and down. Instead, she said, “Well, then, let’s go.”
*****
The moment Jackie stepped out of the building with Dean Gamboa, she felt like she won the lottery of luck. Despite the craziness of her action that afternoon, her plan was definitely working. For one, she managed to incapacitate her boss’ car. Second, she succeeded in making him say yes to take him home. Third, she had manipulated Brian to wait for her in the parking lot.
Only this time, he was waiting for both her and Dean Gamboa. He didn’t expect that, of course, because she saw it on his face as he stared at them while he leaned against his gray Toyota. He must have expected to have another moment with her. Well, sorry to disappoint him because she was with her boyfriend. And her boyfriend would be riding with her in her car. They were together.
Jackie pretended not to see Brian as she walked to where Toto was. Dean Gamboa was right behind her. When they reached his car, she paused to check the damage she had done earlier.
She gasped when she saw the evidence of her strong knife attack. The tire was completely useless. “You don’t have a spare?” she asked.
“No. I used it last year.”
She nodded and continued walking. “You’re having it fixed tomorrow?”
Her boss shrugged. “Maybe. I am planning to take it today, but I guess the shop I take it to might already be closed.”
*****
I watched as Jackie walked toward me. I was so focused on hating how she prettily walked that I didn’t notice her boss behind her until she stopped and looked at Beatle’s tire.
This is weird. Why is she with her boss?
And then I saw Brian from afar looking at the two of them.
What’s happening? Why is Jackie talking with her boss now?
It was only when she started to walk toward me and her boss followed did I manage to finally grasp the ingenuity of it all.
“I’ll open your side from inside,” she was telling her boss who was standing outside my passenger seat in a composed, awkward way. Brian was still standing by his ugly gray Toyota, staring at the three of us like the stalker that he was.
Okay, I take it back, Jackie, I said as she unlocked my door with a smile. You are one genius lady, girl! We’re taking your boss home, aren’t we? This is gonna be fun!