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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 17, 2009 13:46:03 GMT -5
Calendrea Hedgerow walked through the garage smiling as she thought of the day's business. She had performed three oil changes, two tune ups, and replaced an entire exhaust system on an old Ford F-150. She hadn't realized anyone in the city would drive one. She chuckled remembering the owner. A rather large man playing at being country. That truck of his was immaculate and rather than haul anything in the bed of his truck he pulled behind a little trailer. He'd been scared of scratching the bed if he used it to haul. It gave her a chuckle to think of the irony of it all. But what was making her day was the head gasket job that had come in today. The deal was gonna net her over $2000 dollars by the time she finished it.
She had gotten the call early that morning before the sun had even risen. A young man, broke down on route 16, three and an half miles past the high school...could she come give him a tow? Throwing on her overalls and grabbing her coat, she reved up the truck and headed out in the night. By the time she had made it back to the garage the sun was just begining to rise. The man had ridden back to the shop with her and had a cab waiting when they arrived. Later that day she had called to give him the bad news.
It seemed the intake gaskets had gone bad, along with the head gasket. The whole motor had filled up with antifreeze and fowled out the spark plugs in the process. But what had clenched things was that the timing chain had gone bad as well. Repairing it would be no problem, but it would be much cheaper for the owner to replace the whole motor than to fix it. The timing chain alone would cost nearly $1200 to replace and then there would be at least 10 hours of labor to pull the motor and change out the head gasket. She went on line and located a good motor easily, one with under 28,000 miles. Calling the man he had of course opted for the new motor and had not even batted an eye over the price. Too sweet!
Between drop ins and scheduled repairs she had ordered the new engine and prepared the old one to be pulled. It would take three days for the motor to be shipped so there was no hurry to get the engine out. Back home she would have had to set up a tripod over the hood to pull the motor, but here in her shop she has a hydrolic wench attached to the ceiling of one of the bay stalls. So much simpiler. She would get on that job tomorrow. For tonight she would clean up then go across the street to the dinner for some supper. The radio played in the background and she heard the DJ announcing a Pretenders' song. The light from her garage spilled out into the night and onto the street. Things were looking up and she hummed along to the music as she prepared to close down for the night.
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Post by Jacob Kale on Jan 18, 2009 21:09:09 GMT -5
Jacob Kale pulled up to the curb outside of Calendrea's Garage, In his old and beaten up car, looking to be a mustang from some time in the 80's. Obviously it needed repair of some kind, He heaved a frustrated sigh as he glanced out his passenger window to see the woman closing up the garage, Frustrated he quickly throws open the door and steps out of his car, leaving his trenchcoat on the passenger seat and his weapons in the back seat.
He speaks softly as he comes up behind the woman, his footsteps as silent as a feather on the wind. "Excuse me miss." His skin seemed to pale in the eerie glow of the moonlight as he stood silently waiting for a response.
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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 19, 2009 0:42:17 GMT -5
Turning round to the sound of his voice, Calendrea looked up to see the pale man standing there in her garage. She startled a bit not having heard his approach. "Hello. May I help you?" She looked past him to the curb and saw an old mustang from the 1980's that looked about ready to be scrapped. An old beater then...She prefered the stangs from the '70s thinking that Ford should have been shot when they changed the body style. Fortunately they had come to their senses and the newer modles reflected that vintage style. But it had taken them 20 years to get around to it.
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Post by Jacob Kale on Jan 19, 2009 2:27:30 GMT -5
Smiling slightly he glanced back at his vehicle, not knowing much about it, Heaving a sigh of frustration he speaks softly to the woman, his hands motioning back towards the car. "Well, honestly I'm not much when it comes to vehicles, I know how to drive them and that is pretty much where my expertise ends. Lately I've been having alot of trouble getting it started and well.." His nostrils flared slightly as he took in the scent of the area, and this woman, somewhat surprised at the nearly intoxicating scent, he closed his eyes and placed a hand on his forehead rubbing his temples as he denied his hunger.
"I know its late, but please, please, could you help me out?" His greenish gold eyes seeming to pierce her as he stared down into her own beautiful blue orbs. Sensing a slight hint of curiosity in her eyes. He reaches into the back pocket of his rather tight black leather jeans and pulls out his wallet, with nearly 500 dollars in assorted bills in it. "This is all I've got on me, could that pay for your time?" He asks, needing his car and needing it soon, he didn't want to end up stuck on the road in the daylight, He still had yet to tint his vehicle properly. Having bought it only a few days ago in some small town for a measly sum of money in the hopes he could fix it up.
Over Jacobs many years of life he had amassed a decent sum of money, through legal... and not so legal means, but he always made sure he took from the right people, People who couldn't exactly report their money as stolen... You know, a few gang bangers here or there, a crime family, and once a rather beautiful starlet who just happened to make quite a bit of money on the side due to some fairly unscrupoulus....favors.
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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 19, 2009 15:31:07 GMT -5
She tilted her head to the right slightly as she shook it no and waved her right hand in a negating fashion. "Please sir. There's no need for that. I will look at it for you and only charge what is rightful. Let me just pull it into the bay and get a good look at it." Opening the big garage door the metal hinges screamed alive and echoed down the block. She went to the mustang seeing that he had left the keys in the ignition. She couldn't get it to start right away, but after pumping the peddle a few times and then cranking it over again it coughed into life. Pulling it into the bay she shut it down and got out.
"I think you may have some fuel injection problems but I will have to check to make sure." Pulling the latch up she shut the door and walked toward the hood of the car. Reaching inside she triggered the lever and hoisted the hood wide, propping it open with the metal rod. For starters the air filter was clogged, it would need replaced. She freed it and set it aside so she could get a good look into the carborator. The shutter valvue seemed to be sticking. Stepping inside the car again she started it with the same results as before. She was worried that she would flood it if she had to continually pump the gas peddle to get it to start. Coming round to the open hood once more she took a flathead screw driver and stuck it into the carborator forcing the flap to stay open. The engine immediately sounded much better and evened out in its running.
Still it sounded rough as though the spark plugs may be fouled out. Shutting the engine off once again, she got out a sparkplug wrench and loosened spark plug number one from the engine block. Sure enough it was chared through. Going to the man she said, "I think your carborator needs to be rebuilt and your spark plugs are fouled out, they look like the stock modles that it came off the assembly line with. It would be a good idea to replace them and the spark plug wires at the same time. Your fuel filter is clogged and you'll need a new one of those as well. An oil change and new oil fiflter would probalby be a good idea too. Still, I don't think you have any major engine problems, I didn't hear any valve chatter or engine knocking when I reved it up."
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Post by Jacob Kale on Jan 19, 2009 16:53:01 GMT -5
He smiled softly as she shook her head and waved away the money he offered, He stood to the side of the garage door as she did her best to start the old mustang, heaving a sigh of relief as it finally coughed to life, he followed the car into the garage and stood out of her way as she went to work on his car.
The entire time she was speaking he couldn't help but be amazed at her obvious knowledge of the car, although she was a mechanic and it was her job, He chuckled a second to himself and gave her a confused look as she told him the problems with it and told him what he needed for the mustang.
He spoke, obviously overwhelmed by the fact he knew absolutely nothing about cars trucks or any motorized vehicle for that matter. "Uh...Well... Honestly miss, I have no idea what your talking about. Your speaking some foreign language to me here." He let out an embarrassed laugh before speaking again. "So, how long would it take you to fix and order all the parts you need to get it running properly again, oh and how much would it all cost?"
He could feel his hunger rising up in his stomach as his eyes locked onto the womans jugular, hearing her blood pumping through her veins, closing his eyes he let out a slight sigh as he brought his sense back under his control, trying to ignore the gnawing hunger in the pit of his stomach that told him to feed.
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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 20, 2009 0:26:21 GMT -5
She gnawed on her bottom lip a bit as she did some calculations in her mind."Well its to late tongiht to get everything done that needs be. But I can change your air filter in 2 minutes, your spark plugs and plug wires in about 15 minutes. But to rebuild your carboretor will take a few hours. I have to put it into the soak tank and sonicate it clean then make the repairs and replace all the gaskets. I think I have a gasket kit for a mustang on hand though. Fords are pretty standard about their carboretors. So if you want I can do the plugs, wires and filter tonight, spray in some carbo cleaner and send you on your way. It should work well enough for a little while. But you would have to bring it back again tomorrow to get the carb rebuilt. I also want to change out the oil and the oil filter. All in all it should run you $28.95 for the rebuild kit, $54.95 for the air filter, $86.80 for the spark plug wires, $16.00 for spark plugs, $5.95 for an oil filter, 20 bucks for oil, and I charge $45 an hour for labor. I figure it'll take me 2 hours tops. So that brings the total up to..." She was actually calculating all of this in her head. "...$302.65 and tax...that'll be $320,80."
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Post by Jacob Kale on Jan 20, 2009 0:55:33 GMT -5
Jacob listened to her silently as she rattled of thing after thing that had to be done, Heaving a sigh of frustration as she mentioned it couldn't all be done in a night, but he would rather have a car that ran for a good amount of time rather than a few more days only to end up in this exact same position.
He spoke softly and nodded at the amount she said, "Alright, well here you go. I was hoping to be gone by day... Anyway, do you know of any good places to stay for the night? I really have no idea where anything is in this place." he pulled his wallet out yet again and flipped through the bills, pulling out the amount of money she needed, holding it out to her.
He took in her scent, committing it to memory as he did so, releasing his breath of air silently he glanced around and smiled at the woman before speaking again. "I really can't thank you enough."
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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 20, 2009 1:01:56 GMT -5
She pocketed the money and shook her head. "Well there is a motel three blocks down from here but its not the greatest place in the world. I really don't think that it'll take that long to get the intial repairs complete. Then you could take it home and bring it back tomorrow duringthe day when I would have more time to work on it. Anytime after 9pm would be fine with me." She was pulling that motor tomorrow on the Explorer but that would wait. This guys seemed to be in a hurry. It was ust so late and she couldn't do all the repairs this night...she was late for supper as it was.
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Post by Jacob Kale on Jan 20, 2009 1:07:58 GMT -5
Jacob nodded at her words and sighed softly before speaking. "Well, I don't live here so that could be kind of tricky... could I just leave it here for the night? I'm not afraid of walking, three blocks isn't so far."
He smiled at the woman, holding out his hand in a friendly gesture. "My names Jacob Kale, thank you for taking the time to do this for me, I'm sure you have more important places to be than with some unlucky fellow like myself."
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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 20, 2009 1:13:01 GMT -5
She took his hand and laughed slightly. "I tell you Jacob, when your car won't work and it leaves you stranded out in the middle of nowhere there's nothing more important that getting it running again. It's my job. My name is Calendrea Hedgerow. And yes you could leave it here for the night. Truthfully I was about to close and go across the street to eat my supper. If you don't mind leaving it overnight then I could get on it first thing in the morning." She looked to him with an openess that had often gotten her into trouble. Still, she would not close the world off despite the dangers involved. It was not her way.
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Post by Jacob Kale on Jan 20, 2009 11:37:16 GMT -5
Jacob smiled and shook her hand as she took it, to her his skin would seem cold, very very cold, Nodding at her words as she spoke, after a few moments he spoke softly. "Well, nice to meet you Calendrea, and thank you for all the help. I'll be back tomorrow night alright? Well, I'm sorry I interrupted you plans for supper, I guess I'll head off in search of that motel you spoke of."
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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 20, 2009 17:29:06 GMT -5
His hand did feel cold in hers and as she took hers back she shivered slightly unintentionally. Hearing that he would not be coming back until tomorrow night she said, "Well it won't take but a couple hours to fix and I could have it ready well before noon no trouble at all. Unless of course you are unavailable during the day."
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Post by Jacob Kale on Jan 21, 2009 19:34:28 GMT -5
He placed his hands in his pockets, seeing her reaction to his lack of body heat, he spoke softly, trying to seem like it was nothing. "Oh, sorry about that, poor circulation you know, keeps my hands quite cold.."
As the woman spoke about his car and how soon it would be finished he let out a relieved sigh before speaking. "That is great.... Well, I, Uh... Yes, I'm busy during the day.... Would you mind some company? I'm a bit hungry myself." He didn't know what had possessed him to ask to join her for a late dinner, he rarely ate human food and what he had eaten he wasn't very impressed by.
Jacob smiled sweetly, purposely keeping his unusually sharp and long canines hidden behind his lips, he felt an odd attraction to this woman, maybe it was the smell emanating from her or possibly his hunger getting the best of him... Or maybe he had finally found the flavor of blood he truly preferred.
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Post by calendreahedgerow on Jan 22, 2009 16:22:38 GMT -5
She thought nothing of his cold hands, really. Poor circulation seemed like a plausible explaination to her and she shrugged it off as another peculiarity of nature. Although she would like to stop keeping such late hours in the shop she truely didn't mind. "I live upstairs over the gagrage...so even if the shop is closed, there is a side buzzer at the man door to the left..." she hooked her thumb back over her shoulder to indicate where that might be. "...you can just ring that and speak into the squawk box...it'll be no trouble to slip on down and get you your car."
His request to join her at the dinner took her back a pace though. She shifted nervously at first. Still, it would not hurt to have some company. That was the one thing lacking most in her life since moving to the city. What could dinner in the diner hurt? It might actually be enjoyable. Shrugging she said, "Sure...why not? Though I will warn you its just a dinner...don't expect to have the greatest food in the world. Just let me lock up then, alright?"
She moved about the place securing the few tools she had used in examining the mustang, hung up his keys on a wrack in the office provided for just that purpose, locked the man door and met him at the open bay. "Watch yourself now...I'm gonna turn out the lights and shut her up." She flipped the switch to bring the door down, then shut the lights off. She ducked under the door and slipped out beside him in front of the garage. The door closed with metalic squeals and a soft thunk as it touched the concrete. She smiled to him, "So Jacob...shall we?" She guestured to the diner right across the street.
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