Page 58 of Anywhere with You
He snorted a laugh. “Let’s do it. Don’t tell your mother. I want it to be a surprise.”
“It’s a deal. How’s Badger?”
“I don’t know. He likes your mother more than me. I even fed him bacon under the table this morning, and he still likes her more.”
“Don’t feed him bacon. It’s not good for him.”
“It’s not good for me either, but YOLO, you know?”
Cara was still waiting patiently, listening to me talk, but I was eager, too, to find out what the mechanic had to say about her car. I wouldn’t mention anything to my parents until I had more news.Hey, I broke down several states awayisn’t what parents want to hear from their children.
Dad was still on the line, trying to turn YOLO into a yodel.
“And on that note, I’ll talk to you later,” I said.
“Wait,” he said, “say hi to Dadi Ma on your next video. She’ll get a kick out of that.”
“I absolutely will. Thanks, Dad.”
I hung up, and Cara and I walked to the repair shop. I thought about calling the music store again while we walked, but I didn’t want to check in too often. Besides, Florence had said everything wasfiner than frog hair split four ways, which I assumed was a good thing.
Doug had been restringing guitars, his favorite task. He’d been at the store every time I called. I knew I could cover payroll this month and next, but past that…I tried to put it out of my mind. I’d decided to talk to them when I got home. There was no point dwelling on it until then.
When we got to the auto repair shop, Mechanic Bill recognized me and met us just inside. He wore grimy yellow coveralls, the same as yesterday, as far as I could tell.
“It’s the battery,” he said without preamble, “and we don’t have a replacement in stock.”
“Oh no.” Cara closed her eyes. “How long?”
He looked us both in the eye and didn’t sugarcoat it. “A week, minimum. Supply chain issues.”
Cara shook her head and kept shaking it.
“Ah,” I said to Bill, moving a little in front of Cara to give her a moment to process, “How do you feel about being on Mesmio?”
Our Mesmio reels with Mildred and Jeffrey had been fun, but I confess, it was the enormous number of views and followers that prompted me to ask. The burden of fame.
It turned out that our new friend Bill had an automotive repair Mesmio of his own.
“Do you want to stay or go back to the motel?” I asked Cara. “You can have some time on your own if you need.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Let’s start recording.”
Cara and I explained our spring break road trip to Bill and his followers. For ours, Bill told a funny anecdote about a car that wouldn’t start and turned out to have a whole litter of baby possums curled up on top of the engine block. He was considerably more loquacious on camera.
“They were cute as a fluffle of bunnies,” Bill said.
I didn’t try to hide my grin.
I wondered if anyone besides me could tell that Cara’s smile was fake.
I imagined that anyone who vividly remembered having vacation plans ruined by unexpected car repairs would probably realize. And sympathize. I didn’t know what to feel yet.
I’d told my parents about our Mesmio page, but I doubted they’d seen our reels. If they were watching, my plan not to tell them about our car trouble had been a little pointless.
Once Cara had agreed to the repair and our videos were finished, I walked with her back across the street for coffee and pie. The diner was a much nicer place to hang out than the motel, and there didn’t seem to be any other businesses besides a chain convenience store and a church.
We took the same wine-red booth as yesterday, both of us looking out the window and, likely, both wondering what on earth we were going to do now.
