Mariana's Choice

I'm Not Interested

            “I thought you had class today.”

            “I do but not until later. What do you need me to work on?” He answered tossing his bag on the chair by the desk.

            “Take a look at that Jag that came in yesterday. We promised the customer we’d have it ready by tomorrow.”

He turned toward the shop looking at one of the most expensive cars he’s ever seen. It was absolutely gorgeous too. Shiny and red, looking like it just rolled off of the lot. Whoever owns this car obviously takes care of it. Why in the hell the person would bring it to a small neighborhood auto shop, and why Artie was going to have him, a junior mechanic, work on it was beyond him.

Sam Machado was the youngest person in the shop, and he’s only been there working as a mechanic for about a year. As a kid he used to come in to Artie’s Car Shop with his father, whenever he was having work done on his vehicle and got fascinated looking at all of the cars learning more and more about them. One day Artie showed him how to change the oil and after that he was hooked, knowing he wanted to work on cars for the rest of his life hopefully one day opening his own shop.

Despite his parents who were pressuring him to go into the medical field. He just wasn’t interested in medicine no matter what his grades and SAT scores said. Intelligence was never a problem because he could see something once and have a full understanding of the inner workings of whatever it was. He tried to go into the medical program through his high school but he just didn’t feel comfortable. Instead of fixing people, he wanted to fix their rides.

Needless to say, he is a huge disappointment to his parents. His father the surgeon and his mother the teacher were pissed because he wasn’t going to do something else with his life. They didn’t understand that working on engines was an intricate process, an art form if you may. To them it was just labor with no real education needed to be successful. He just got to the point where he didn’t even care about their snide comments and demeaning behavior toward him. This is what he wanted to do and if they couldn’t understand that then it was on them. He was going to be happy regardless.

            “Are you sure? What does it need?”

            “Just a tune-up, which you can handle no problem. Plus the other guys are full up with other things.”

            “Uh, okay Artie.”

            “Don’t worry about it Machado, I trust you.” Artie answered slapping him on the back and pushing him out of the office.

He walked through the shop picking up his box of tools off of the shelf before heading over to the car. It took him several minutes before he even popped the hood, mainly because he spent the first few minutes walking around the car examining every inch of it admiring the sheer beauty of the vehicle.

He could just imagine the type of person who owned it, some rich, snobby person who wouldn’t let someone like him to wipe the dirt off of their shoes. With raised eyebrows, he opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat so he could reach the lever for the hood release. The smell alone on the inside of the car ran through his system making him a little lightheaded. Somehow he thought the car belonged to a woman because only a woman would smell that good. Or maybe it belongs to a guy who gets a lot of women because he has loads of money.

When he got out of the car, he slowly closed the door and walked over to the front lifting the hood seeing the most immaculate looking engine he had ever seen. This person definitely takes care of this car. He appreciates that because most people just run their cars into the ground, only getting it worked on when something major happens and by then it is almost always too late to fix.