Hell of a Storm || TWISTERS AU

Chapter 2

I was expecting Frank's Auto to be slammed with storm-affected customers by the time we got there, but Theo and I were the only customers and were greeted by Frank himself. He took all of thirty seconds to assess the damage before announcing, "We can replace the bulb, that's no problem. But I'll have to order the plastic cover for your brake light."

"How long will that take?" I asked.

"At best?" Frank pulled a face. "Maybe two days?

Which put us, at best, three days behind schedule for the podcast. Theo said, "Can you put a rush on it?"

"That is puttin' a rush on it," Frank said. "What do I look like, an Amazon warehouse? We don't got any of that same day delivery baloney out here, do we?"

Theo and I exchanged glances. If this was our only option, there wasn't much else we could try. "Okay," I said. "Two days it is."

Frank went into the back office to place the order and write up our invoice, leaving Theo and I alone. "What do you want to do?" I asked him.

"We're not going to make it for tomorrow."

"I know."

Theo shrugged. "Unless you want to drive with only one brake light?"

"And get a huge fine?" I said. "Any cop would know immediately that we're not from around here. I bet they throw the whole book at us."

"Or," Theo said quietly, "we could just hire another car."

I spread my hands. "From where? We're in the middle of nowhere."

"Well, this road has to lead somewhere. Maybe we can hire another car in El Reno."

Before I could protest, we heard the sound of a car approaching, the gravel driveway popping like Rice Krispies under the tires until the wheels met the smooth concrete floor of the shop. A white SUV crept through the opening to Frank's Auto, the enormous Storm Par logo on the side barely visible under layers of mud and dust.

Frank burst out of his office. "Did I say you could park your car in the middle of my garage?"

The driver climbed down from the front seat slowly but confidently, descending from his ivory tower. "The storm chipped my windshield," he announced.

Frank let that sit, then said, "Okay?"

"Not okay!" Storm Par cried. "I need you to fix it."

"And how do you propose I do that, young man?"

Now he was thrown. "Uh," he said. "I don't know. Don't you have one of those little sucky things?"

Frank made a big show of crossing his arms. "What do you mean, one of those little sucky things?"

Theo and I stifled our laughter. Frank, I was starting to realize, was a bit of a prankster. I could definitely see the appeal to messing with people coming in from out of town. I made a mental note to search for his address on Amazon later to see if he was pranking us, too.

From outside came the unmistakable sound of another car approaching, this time with loud music blasting over the rumble of the engine and the crunch of the driveway. Tyler Owens was pulling into Frank's Auto in his enormous Dodge like he owned the place, accompanied by the girl from his crew with long dreadlocks. "Frank, my man!" Tyler yelled through his open window. "Got a job for you."

"Well, you can wait in line!" Storm Par replied.

Tyler cut the engine. "Well, I'd sure be happy to wait in line, sir, but I think you'll find you're actually cutting in on me." He hopped down from the driver's seat. "You see, Lily here already phoned ahead and made a booking with Frank just a few minutes ago."