In This Place

Green-Broke

                               "Just a wild child lookin' for a wilder blue" —Jackson Dean

"Are you kidding me, Noah? This is all you have??"

Noah nodded unhappily, as he sweated in his suit and kept sneaking glances at Switcher, who held a bag of frozen peas to his forehead.

"I'm sorry, Cory. If you'd come in last week, I would have had something. But at the holidays, people head out into the desert, go up to Mt. Charleston, you know? And Jeep and off-road are synonymous."

Cory walked around the black SUV with the word "Defender" written across the bottom of the hood. The hood slanted downward slightly to cup the headlights, giving the car an angry glare.

"How much is this thing a day?"

Noah pulled at his tight collar.

"It's...$499 a day. That's...why it's still here."

Switcher took his bag of peas off his forehead and stared at the vehicle, eyes wide.

Cory wasn't sure she'd heard right.

"Are you kidding me? What, was it handcrafted by elves in the moonlight?"

Noah struggled not to stare at the large bump in the middle of Switcher's forehead.

"It's a Land Rover Octa, with an off-road package on it. It's got a twin-turbo V8, that's 625 horsepower. Higher ground clearance, and a 6D Dynamic Suspension System for ultimate comfort and it can go from 0 to 62 in only 4.0 seconds. It has heated and cooling seats with embedded speakers so you can feel the music. Cory, this baby has everything you need, it doesn't just go through inches of snow, it can plow through a few feet. There was only so many of these that were released in the US."

"And it's all you have?" Cory glanced around, hoping to see the fender of a 4x4 lurking behind all the exotic rides.

"Yeah, it is. I'm sorry, if you'd been only a few days earlier, I had Jeeps."

"Okay, fine. I'll take it."

Both Noah and Switcher gaped at her.

"Cor, for that price, this thing should drive itself and make you cum at the same time. What is the sticker price on something like this?" Switcher asked.

"This model?" Noah gave the hood a reverent pat.

"This is around 170k, including the package it's got. Umm...what happened to your head?"

"Never mind my head. Cory, are you sure??"

Cory had been checking the weather reports coming out of Mt.Charleston and the Winter Storm Watch was already predicting heavy snow. It would turn into a warning by the time her and Kris got on the road.

"Yeah, I'm sure. It's a lot but...I need a vehicle."

Switcher snorted and put his peas back to his forehead.

"You've needed a vehicle for quite a while now, not that rolling cow flop you insist on driving. But this thing...damn."

Noah beamed.

"Let's get the paperwork started."

Cory watched him walk towards the office then turned to Switcher.

"Hey...thanks for giving me a lift here. I'm sorry about your head. But you shouldn't have said what you did." Cory wasn't willing to completely concede.

"Okay, I understand that. Now." Switcher said as he pulled the bag of peas off his forehead and pointed at the large bump.

"But what do I do about this? Huh Cory? Huh?"