Chance Encounters

Whiskey and Water

Well the relaxing part didn’t happen. After I went to sit down in my truck,two school officers came glaring at me through my truck windows. I suppose in hindsight that I shouldn’t have picked on the head cheerleader. On the tails side of that coin,however,maybe she shouldn’t have started a fight that she couldn’t finish. “Young lady I am going to need you to come with us.” The one who spoke had a buzz cut almost military like and the other one stood silent,but his beady eyes punctured holes through me. I volunteered to go and gave Mark a smile. “I’ll be alright babe.” I said as I got out of my truck.

The walk to the front of the building was different. Everyone was staring at me as I had two security officers on both sides of me. It’s not the first time I’ve gotten involved in a fight,and probably won’t be my last. They sat me down in front of the principal. Mr. Mcholmes. “So skye,you started a fight and broke a girls nose and put a dent in the hood of her car?” He asked, my response probably wasn’t the greatest,but honestly I couldn’t help myself. “Yeah,actually the thing is,she put the dent in her own hood by putting her grubby hands on my new paint.” He looked at me almost sizing me up. “So I am going to call your mother and she can deal with you,because your attitude is almost appalling.” I smirked knowing full well that my mother would not answer the phone and if she did then it would only be his ass getting reamed out not mine. Putting the phone on speaker it rang and rang. until a very groggy voice answered. “If this is the school I’m not interested, I work nights and I quite frankly don’t give a f**k about what she did.” With that she hung up the phone. “I told you.” I said flatly. Mr. Mcholmes looked at me and sighed, “Look kid,you need to learn how to deal with problems,hell half the time I don’t know that you exist,but when I do notice you somehow you manage to almost start a riot.” I shrugged. “Look kid just go to home room and take your test,then you can leave and it’s a win for everyone.” I nodded, “Sounds fine to me.” I grinned and walked out,shutting the door behind me,an office lady handed me a piece of paper that was a hall pass. “Thank ya mam’.” I said exiting the office.

My home room teacher was less than thrilled about my lateness. “You have a hall pass?” He asked as I put the slip of paper on his desk. He glared at me as he put my test book on an empty desk next to his desk. “ Delinquents such as yourself have a tendency to cheat and we wouldn’t want that.” I shrugged as I sat down, the ACT was sitting in front of me. English was the first section and it was rather easy. I read the story.

Read the passage(s) carefully.

Read and consider all of the answer choices before you choose the one that best responds to the question.

Refer to the passage(s) when answering the questions. You have 35 minutes to complete 40 questions.

Just by glancing at the first two paragraphs it was boring as hell. I suppose having a good ACT score will help me look really good in UNOH’s eyes even though they already accepted me. I stood up and handed my home room teacher my test book. It was an hour and a half of nothing besides sitting and that was getting old. I handed in the completed book. “Well just because you finished first doesn’t mean that you will pass.” I looked over my shoulder, “I’m sure that I’ll still end up with a better job than you.” I stated and walked to my truck. I took a sip of my now cold tea which turned into sweet tea and sparked up a joint. I wanted to be with Mark. Ironically enough duck season was only about two weeks out and by god I want to go to the U.P. so badly. Ideally I would like to take Mark up with me. Eventually I’d like to live with him up there,but I doubt that he would go with me. I shook my head and started my truck and drove to thirty mile to go to work.

The gravel bit my tires as I cruised down to the shop. Thankful I wore jeans instead of my coveralls, the sitting was getting to me and I just wanted to wrench. I had my truck humming along in third gear when I seen a farmer in the field. I stopped and pulled to the side. He looked agitated and I heard from the outskirts him cussing at his tractor. I headed towards him ducking through the corn field and hopping over the agricultural ditches I managed to get to him. “Would you like some help sir?” Taking him by surprise he looked me up and down, taking notice of my shirt he said, “You work for Frank?” I nodded, “I’m a mechanic,might not look like much,but I’ll help you out if you need it.” He started to cry, and mumbled, “God is good. Real good. Yes! I need your help,my tractor won’t start it’s been stuck in this field for two days. I can’t get no plowin’ done because of it.” I nodded, “Alright sir let me grab some tools and other things outta my truck and I’ll help you out as soon as I can.” I jogged back to my truck and rummaged through the bed. I grabbed a ratchet and some sockets, along with a few extra spark plugs and some fuel. My back was getting beat up from my tools shaking around in my backpack and the gas can was rather cumbersome,but I managed to get to him. “If this takes more than field work I’ll tow you to my shop and get her runnin there sir.” He nodded and I went to work. His tractor was unique as it wasn’t a Ford or a Deere it was a McCormick Farmall. Not used to seeing this engine and make I noticed the carb was on the other side. I took it off and took the jet out. I blew out the jet,granted it was with my mouth and not an air hose,but it should still get all the dirt out of the needle. Next I took a look at the spark plugs and noticed they were all messed up. All of them had gas on them. I sighed and looked further hoping that it was just a misadjusted carb float,but that was not the case. “Sir,I am at least eighty percent certain you either have a stuck choke or too much resistance in your wires, I’m going to have to tow you to my shop.” He nodded.

I crept my truck into the field. Not ideal for my truck or the poor guys crops,but I tried to not go too crazy and go through the already harvested crops. All of this while going in reverse to have an easier time with towing the tractor. I pulled some chains out of my bed. “Alright sir,take a seat on the tractor and I’ll pull ya.” He nodded and sat down,hooking the chains on the front end I hooked the other end to the bumper of my truck. Sometimes driving a truck really was nice except for fitting into tight places. I threw my truck in first gear and with little protest got through the opening of where I already came from.

Being cautious I drove down the gravel road to Frank’s shop. I’m sure the man will kill me,but I can’t just leave a farmer without his equipment especially since this isn’t an ordinary field fix, this clearly was a bigger problem with the coils and wiring. I made a wide left turn as to avoid knocking the farmer off. We made it into the parking lot as Frank was unloading another piece of farm equipment. He shook his head and smiled as he seen the farmer on his tractor with a candy apple truck pulling it. “What the hell Skye! I can’t let you go anywhere!” He said laughing at me. I shrugged and laughed. “I seen him on the way to work so I figured I’d help him out,poor guy.” I pulled him into the back of the shop. “Alright sir, I’ll need you to get off so I am able to push it in and start tearing it apart.” He got off and watched me move it into the shop. “My boss is over there if you want to talk to him while you wait.” He nodded and walked over to Frank. I got started on the problem and went to tearing the spark plug wires out and replacing the carburetor.

The carburetor itself was on over kill and had been tuned to deal out more gas than oil,part of the issue there. I turned the jet and got a good mixture of oil and gas. I was replacing the fuel lines when I smashed my hand against the bottom of the engine tearing the skin on my knuckles and the back of my hand. “Shit.” I mumbled,great it was my left hand too,and now it’s profusely leaking blood everywhere. I kept going, getting this man back to his field was my priority. Tearing apart the spark plug wires I noticed that the ground wires were decaying and not making good connection. It was a four hour job, and I managed to get it done, but not as quickly as I would have liked. I shook my head wiping my hands on my shirt and started the tractor.

It ran,like a top. All new carburetor,fuel lines,spark plugs,an oil change and new wires made her sound like she just came off the showroom floor. The farmer was in shock as he seen me driving his tractor. “Oh my lord,you even cleaned it… it sounds…” he choked up and more tears fell. “I’m sorry for wasting your time.” He said through tears. I smiled. “It’s never a waste of time,I’m happy to help out someone. What is your name sir?” I asked. “Doug.” He said. I shook his hand, “I’ll cover the cost for parts don’t you worry about it.” Frank was in the front of the shop watching me as I sent Doug on his way. Frank got up and poured me a shot of whiskey. “Kidd,you make me proud,everyday,but especially today.” I tilted my head sideways and raised and eyebrow. “I’m just doing something that I hope someone would do for me if I was in that situation.” Frank smiled tipping his glass back and I took one with him. “My wife of twenty years passed away on this day four years ago. It’s been hard.” His hazel eyes were tinted red and tears were welling up in his eyes. “You are like my adopted kid, and you act so much like her even though you never met her. I just want you to know I’m glad you came in here and asked for a job.” I smiled and gave him a hug. He was like my adopted father. I smiled as I heard the sound of an olds pulling into the parking lot. Mark must have gotten out of work.

“I was hoping you two were still here.” I got up and took his hand. He sat down with Frank and I. Well honestly there wasn’t another chair so I sat on Mark’s lap. “You two official?” Frank asked raising an eyebrow at us. I buried my face into Mark’s shoulders and neck. My face turned a tomato and thank god Mark spoke first. “Yeah,we are. I enjoy her company.” I smiled against his skin and gave him a peck. Frank poured us all a shot. “I’m making a toast that you two stay together and have an amazing life together.” We clanked glasses and downed a shot together. Honestly for as poorly as the day started it turned out to be an ok one after all.