Aekhem

Abigael

The car started making that old familiar number eight failing sparkplug sound, clapping like a piece of paper stuck in an air fan, every time the fans hit it in slow speed.

She would have to stop and clean the spark plug again. Sooner or later she would have to overhaul the engine or find another way to prevent the oil from getting to the plug ... or maybe it was a valve ... hard to tell right now, and for now, stopping, removing the spark plug, cleaning it up it and putting it back in was s the only option, there was no money for repairs, not when she had decided to change her life, her existence and sell all or what little she had left from her one year fleeting marriage with a very blindly in love signed and sealed prenup agreement tight clauses leaving everything to him and her with nothing. And then on top of it all her father's passing, leaving her full of pain and hospital debts.

After the divorce, she moved to her already abandoned childhood home and started with the inventory, she didn't want to keep anything so she decided to sell everything. A few dollars in her bank account, all hospital debts paid, and kept her father's beloved 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS.

She was 10 when her mother died and that's exactly when he bought the car. Money was tight, difficult times. It was not a good time for investing in and old piece of junk car. All of her dad's family told him she should've waited until things got better, but he didn't listen. The car was just a damn pity. Old, rusty, non-working engine, no tires, no headlights, not even a bumper and the inside looked like two cougars had the same fight every night while being at the junk yard and ended up eating the seats.

Her father didn't listen to anyone, and at her young age she could notice all the hours her father used to spend behind closed doors at the garage behind the house, every night after work. Abigail used to come from school to a silently lonely house. And as every afternoon, she did her homework in silence and like every day, as soon as she was finished, her father arrived, always at the same time. He was the manager at a local electronics warehouse. Always gave her a kiss on her forehead and asked how school was that day, which she always answer to the same every day question with the same every day answer "All is well". Sometimes it was difficult to answer that everything was well because nothing was, but that's what he wanted to hear and she didn't want to upset him or worry.

And as every day, he went upstairs, changed from a during day local electronic warehouse manager to an evening mechanic. Changed to the same old greasy jeans, unwashed for days, months, she didn't know, with his old mechanic shoes and always a different t-shirt, he looked younger when he was a mechanic.

Then, he fixed dinner for her, set one plate on the table and as he served he said as always "I'll be in the back if you need me".

She missed her mother and her cooking, and the conversations between them and the way they looked at each other's eyes not saying anything but understanding everything.

Or when they argued about money, or because he was late that night and dinner went cold or because she didn't go to the doctor when she felt the pain from her sickness, at the end of the day, there was that look in their eyes, the smile they exchanged, and that last kiss between them in front of her, that was the end of any argument, that was the promise that they would follow up where they left off maybe tomorrow but not tonight. Missing what at certain moment she had the perfect and happy family made her cry every evening, when she was barely touching her food.

She could hear the music coming out of the garage, behind doors, it was the same music they used to dance every once in a while she watched them. U2's "One" or "With or Without You" or even songs from an italian singer her mother didn't understand anything he was singing about but she just loved the singer's voice and his music. The music, the songs all of her body was in pain, pain in her soul that made her miss her even more until her dried out eyes closed and fell asleep.