Suddenly...Gone

Chapter 3

Daryl woke up the next morning and glanced over at the clock next to his bed. It was almost seven thirty. He typically didn't work weekends as Mack only did emergency repairs on Saturdays. With Mack gone the garage would be closed.

He sat up and lit a cigarette taking a deep drag on it before lying back down on the bed. Daryl was trying to figure out what he was going to do that day. Maybe he'd go into the garage and work on his truck he thought. He didn't have any plans, and he wasn't in the mood to listen to Merle all day, so going in was looking like a good idea. He ran his fingers through his short light brown hair trying to decide what to do, seeing the keys for the shop on the dresser decided for him.

Daryl walked across the hall to take a quick shower. He could hear Merle snoring away in his room. If he could get showered and out before Merle woke up, then he could leave without having to answer a bunch of questions on where he was going. The less Merle knew, the better.

He pulled on a pair of dirty work pants along with an old dark blue t-shirt that had a hole in the side. He slid his feet into his steel toe work boots, and he was almost ready. Daryl ran his fingers through his still wet hair. He was too lazy to pick up the comb. His hair would do whatever it wanted to do anyway. He grabbed his phone off the charger and as ready to go.

The trailer door closed quietly behind Daryl. He twisted the knob to make sure it was locked. Last night he made sure that Merle gave him a set is keys before he went to bed. His eyes immediately went to the parking spot next door. The black Honda was there. Daryl took a second to look over Emma's trailer. Unlike theirs, it has a small wooden front porch that had two chairs on it. She also had flowers planted around the base and a few wind chimes hanging. It was definitely a woman's home. No guy would ever plant flowers or hang the chimes, at least not any that he knew.

Daryl backed the truck out of the small drive and headed off to the shop. Now that he knew where he was going, it only took him about twenty minutes to get there. He parked outside one of the bay doors, went in and unlocked the shop. He was about to press the automatic door opener when he looked around. The shop could use a good sweeping he thought. In fact, it could use a thorough cleaning.

Working on the truck was automatically put on the back burner as Daryl decided to use his time to clean up the garage. He spent the next few hours restocking supplies, organizing shelves and putting tools back where they belong. Then he washed down several of the larger machines they had and then stood back looking at his progress. It made a difference, and that made him feel good.

Daryl grabbed the big push broom they had and gave the floor a good sweeping. The final touch was that he washed the windows of the bay doors, the regular main door and the windows in the office, both inside and out.

It was mid-afternoon by the time he was done. He stood outside admiring the job he had done on the windows when a car pulled up. There was steam coming out from under the hood. An older woman got out wringing her hands.

"I think I have a problem, can you look at it for me?" she asked him.

Daryl knew that the garage wasn't really open, but he couldn't turn her away.

"Sure, Ma'am. I'll pop the hood and take a look. I'll get a chair for you to sit in while you wait," he told her.

"Oh thank you, young man. What is your name?"

Daryl smiled at the elderly woman. No one had called him a young man in a long time. "Name's Daryl, Ma'am. Is there anything in the car that you need while I look at it?"

She had her oversized purse clutched in her hands. "I'll get my knitting is in the backseat, then you can show me where to wait," she said. "Oh and I'm Gladys Johnson."

"I'll get this fixed up right away Mrs. Johnson. I'll get a chair out of the office, and you can sit off to the side." Women were a rarity around the garage, so they really didn't have a place for customers to wait. The guys just hung out and talked to Mack. Maybe he'd suggest that, it may bring in more business.

He jogged inside and wiped down the cleanest chair he could find and set it up for his new customer. "You can wait right here, Mrs. Johnson," he showed her.

"Just call me Gladys, Daryl. Doesn't make me feel so old," she told him with a wink.

"You got it, Gladys," he said with a chuckle.

Daryl opened the bay door before heading to the car. Gladys had a five or six-year-old Buick. He popped the hood of the car and started to check out hoses, the radiator and anything that could have caused the steam. It didn't take him long to find a cracked radiator hose. He'd replace that, check the fluid and see if he saw anything else. He walked back into the shop to get a new hose, and he heard Gladys on the phone.

He thought it was funny that a woman of her age used a cell phone. While checking the shelves for the right size hose, he accidentally eavesdropped on her call. She was telling someone that she couldn't meet up with them because of her car. Then she said she hoped it wouldn't cost more than forty dollars as that's all she had until social security check came in next week.

While Daryl worked to replace the hose, he knew normally this was a sixty to one hundred dollar job and depending on what else he found it could go higher. What was he going to do?

Forty minutes later the job was done. It only needed the hose and coolant to replace what was lost. He also had a plan. Daryl the hood of the car and headed over to where Gladys was sitting. Her knitting needles were clinking non-stop as her fingers worked the yarn, yet she never looked down at them once.

"Is it fixed?" she asked him.

"She's all set, Gladys. It was just a hose."

"How much do I owe you, Daryl?'

"Just twenty-five dollars," he told her.

Gladys looked at him suspiciously, "Are you sure, that seems awfully cheap?"

"Yep. That's it. Today's the last day of our fifty percent off sale," he lied.

"Oh, that makes sense then," she said with a smile. Gladys opened her large purse and rummage through until she came up with a wrinkled twenty dollar bill, four singles, and change. She handed that to Daryl and patted his hand. "You're a good boy Daryl."

It felt good to help out this woman, and it made his whole day worthwhile even though it was going to cost him twenty dollars to cover the rest of the cost for parts. "Thanks, Gladys. You take it easy now, no speeding."

"They'll have to catch me first," she laughed. Daryl carried her knitting to the car for her and placed it in the back seat. Gladys got in the car, started it up and drove off waving goodbye. Daryl watched her blow through a red light and hoped she was going to make it home without killing anyone.

This was a good day for him. The shop looked clean, and he helped out a woman who could have easily been his grandmother if he had one, which he didn't. It was time to close up the shop and head home.

On the way home, he picked up a pizza for dinner and six pack of beer. Tonight was a good night as any to get drunk and with additional the beer that Merle had in the fridge that was going to be a really good start.