The Family Business

Changing Gears: Part One

Three days...
"Benjamin Isaac Braeden, just what do you think you're doing," Lisa asked with an amused tone; as she stood in the doorway to that connected the house to the garage.

"Shit," Ben sighed quietly as he pulled himself out from under the hood of his mothers SUV. "Heeey mom, I thought you were going to be with the moms all afternoon."

Lisa was a dugout mom for Ben's baseball team this year. They had made it to state which meant a large dinner to celebrate was in order. Those things don't just plan themselves despite what the boys think. "We finished early," she said as she made her way closer. Lisa waved her finger between him and her vehicle "this now, explain."

Ben rolled his eyes and pulled the shop towel out of his back pocket to wipe his hands "I was just finishing bleeding out your lines."

"Why in the world would you need to do that?" she asked scrunching her eyebrows together.

Ben cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head "well I may have," he coughed "um, changed the thermostat."

"Benjamin!" Lisa snapped and swatted at his arm (something he successfully dodged.) "I told you I would take it into the shop later today there was no need for you to come out here and tinker with it."

"Mom, nobody has heard from Randy in three days. It literally took me maybe two hours to figure out what was wrong, call up Josh for a ride to the parts store. Then come back and change it," Ben explained animatedly. "I turn sixteen in three days, which means my driving test is in three days! The last thing we need is an overheating truck."

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose "you know one of these days you're going to tell me where all this car knowledge comes from."

"Wish I knew," Ben mumbled.

"Besides," sighed Lisa. "You're not taking the driving test in this."

"But, what..." the revving of an engine on just the other side of the garage door made him stop.

"There's been this bank account entitled 'Ben's car money'," Lisa began. "That for some reason closed earlier today."

The car outside revved again, she smiled at the excitement on her son's face.

"Oh, that's right!" Lisa made her way to the garage door opener and hit the button "I bought a car."

Ben dropped to the floor and rolled out under the garage door because the anticipation was killing him. He was quickly back on his feet but almost fell over again at the sight before of him. Ignoring his mother's laughter Ben continued to gape at the car he blinked a few times and pinched his own arm to make sure he was awake.

"Mom" he stepped towards the car with his hand out in front of him, when his fingers lightly skimmed across the hood he looked up at Lisa. "Mom this is real right, you're not playing with me." Ben's best friend and teammate Josh Baker got out of the driver seat and tossed him the keys.

"That would be a cruel joke" smiled Lisa.

"Do you realize what this is, though?" Bens voice going high in excitement. "Mom! This is a 1969 Camaro SS-427."

Lisa shook her head with a laugh "all I know is it's blue, Josh took care of the rest."

Bens eyes widened "mom! This thing has a V-8 engine with manual drive she can go zero to sixty in five point four-seconds and all you've got is it's ' blue'."

Lisa rolled her eyes "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear those last numbers."

Ben walked around his new car in awe that she was actually sitting in his driveway, that the keys were in his hand, this car was his.