“Ah, Pedro, he’s a good man. Always looked out for the girls, even though they were all the same age. When they came home and told me Pedro had given them the car, I had to drop everything on the spot. They were so excited. Wonderful man.”
“Granddad, do you think it still works?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t know, but we can ask Chico to come and have a look at her. He’s a very good mechanic, you know? Maybe he can get her to run again after all these years. Shall we start by getting her out into the yard?”
David and I went around each side of the car. We both looked at each other and smiled before we each took our key and unlocked the doors on either side at the same time.
This felt like a monumental event. It was likely that our moms were the last ones to be inside the car, and now we were hoping to do the same.
“Good job, boys. Now, where did I put that gasoline can? I know I have some here for emergencies.” Granddad found the jerry-can, which was almost full, and then helped us get the car in neutral so we could push it outside.
Once the car was out of the garage, we all did a walk around her. We found the ladybug sticker right where Pedro said it was, on the left by the trunk handle.
“This is so cool, don’t you think? I hope she works,” David said, clapping my back.
“Yeah, me too. I’ll give Chico a call now and see if he’s free. He gave me his number at the airport.”
Chico arrived less than thirty minutes later, wearing his greasy coveralls.
“Chico, my man, you look like a proper mechanic today,” I teased.
“What can I say, Joel? I scrub up well. The Mrs. makes sure of it any time I’m not working. So what have we got here?” He looked at the car, and his face was that of the cat that got the cream.
“Wow, guys, this is a classic!” Chico went around the car with my granddad and checked everything. He put in some oil, checked all the other fluids, and then added gasoline from the can. After he’d finished with that, he grabbed a battery charger from his truck and jump-started Ladybug into life with a shot of oil smoke coming from the tailpipe.
David and I high-fived again. We were acting like two teenagers but didn’t care.
“Well, she seems to work, but I’d like to take her to the garage for a checkup. Need to make sure she won’t break down on you.” He hitched Ladybug to his tow truck, and David gave him his copy of the key.
“I should have it ready for you tomorrow afternoon. You might want to give her a good wash when you get her back to get the dust off and bring back her shine.” Chico then turned to David. “You know the usual payment method.” He went back to his tow truck, rubbing his hands together.
“Payment method?” I asked.
“Custard tarts,” David said with a shrug.
Chico seemed to be in good shape, so I was sure David was the only customer that got invoiced in custard tarts. I laughed at the thought, and David looked at me as I was waving Chico goodbye.
“What? I was just imagining you getting an invoice for custard tarts from your mechanic. It’s funny.”
“You’ll be surprised how much I can get in exchange for custard tarts.” He winked, and I choked at his unexpected innuendo.
We helped Granddad get the dusty boxes back into the workshop and then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach by Pedro’s.
Pedro couldn’t believe we still had the car and made us promise to take him for a ride so he could remember the old days when our moms were still around.
I couldn’t think of a better thing to do for our moms’ friend.
