“I can get it clean,” the boy said.
“Well, I’ll pay you twice what I do for the van ’cause it’s going to take you a while. Maybe tomorrow you could come over and let Early out. I have to do a couple bids in the west hills after work so I won’t be home until later.”
“I can feed Early too, if you want.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Eddie said. “If you want to wash the car, please do, but don’t feel like you have to. I’ll put the house key under the front seat of the Le Mans. But don’t tell your brother you have it and don’t let him in the house, okay?”
“I won’t,” the boy said. “I don’t tell him anything ever.”
The next evening Eddie parked the van in the carport. As he got out, he noticed four of the batteries from the Le Mans were gone. Russell’s bike was still leaned against the garage and nothing else was taken. He set down a bag from the Auto Zone, opened the back door, and let the dog out. He took a beer from the fridge, unlocked the garage, and got to work. He changed the oil, replaced the top radiator hose and the fuel filter, and then took one of the charged batteries and set it back in the Le Mans. He put two gallons of new gas in the tank, primed the carburetor, and got in the driver’s seat. He put the key in the ignition and the engine caught on the third try and idled smoothly. He got back out and checked for leaks, but there were none. As he stood watching, his gate opened and Russell walked slowly toward him.
“I missed you starting it,” the boy said.
“It wasn’t much,” said Eddie. “I just put a little gas in it and bam. I got lucky. She’s an old engine but she sounds pretty good.”
“I think she sounds good too,” he said and went to sit down in the lawn chair but it clearly pained him to do so.
“You’re hurt?” asked Eddie.
Russell looked at him and tears welled in his eyes.
“Curtis?”
Russell nodded.
“Did you tell your grandmother and your mom?”
Russell nodded vaguely.
“Do you want me to talk to him?”
Russell shook his head.
“Where’s your mom?”
“She’s at work.”
“Where’s Curtis?”
“I don’t know.”
“You think you need a doctor?”
“No,” Russell said quietly.
Eddie paused for a time and took a cigarette from a pack on the hood of the car.
“You did a good job washing the car.”
“I couldn’t get the hood,” the boy said.
“Don’t worry about the hood. I’ll get it. I’m going to change the tranny filter and if that does the trick and the transmission works, we’ll take her for a little spin. Maybe go get pizza.” He lit the cigarette, inhaled deeply, and blew the smoke out. “But you don’t like pizza, do you?”
“Pizza’s my favorite,” the boy said and smiled.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” he said.
“I thought you didn’t like pizza.”
“You know pizza’s my favorite,” he said and laughed.
“But I got a question to ask you first, Russell. Do you know anything about the missing batteries?”
Tears welled suddenly in the boy’s eyes. He tried to speak but couldn’t.
“It’s all right,” said Eddie. “I’m not mad at you. It’s just that four of the batteries are missing.”
Russell began sobbing.
Eddie went to him and patted him gently on the shoulder. “We’ll talk about it later. I’m gonna put this thing up on blocks, change out the tranny filter, and see if we can get it to move.”
Russell brought him two beers and a new pack of cigarettes before Eddie finished. He then started the car and put it in reverse, and the car went in reverse. He put it in forward and it went forward.
“We’re getting lucky,” said Eddie. “The tranny’s all right and the engine’s all right. I’m going to do one more thing and then we’ll take her for a spin.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m putting in a kill switch.”
“What’s that?” asked the boy.
Eddie showed him a small electrical switch. “I’ll set it up so you’ll just hit this switch and the car won’t start. It’s for safety. These old cars are easy as shit to steal. My brother had his van stolen once; I had a Dodge Dart stolen twice, and I had an old Ford pickup stolen too. That one cost me. I had a lot of tools in it. After that, I started putting in kill switches.”
“Then they can’t steal it?”
“Not unless they tow it or figure out where the switch is,” said Eddie. He spliced the coil wire and ran two wires from each side of it through a hole he’d drilled below the glove box. He lay on his back on the floor of the passenger side connecting the wires to the switch he had hidden there. Russell leaned over the backseat and watched until Eddie finished.