Thunder and Lightening: Chapter 27Home « Thunder and Lightening Index « Previous

- Chapter 27

Posted: February 02, 2005 - 01:53:03 am



In two different cars, Jerry, Jenny, Henry, Bill and Abe pulled up in front of

the auto-detailing shop to pick up the Camaro. It was the first time Jerry was

to see it since he had been shot and he could hardly wait to see how it looked.

Eddie was waiting for them next to the car, but he didn't look nearly as happy

to show off this car as he had been with the truck.

The paint job was amazing. Using the dark on dark technique that Eddie had used

for the truck, the scene of a lightning bolt striking a tall building in a

cityscape looked three dimensional. As they approached to within ten feet of the

car, each of them stopped to stare at the picture in amazement at the quality of

it.

The only person who didn't look pleased was Eddie. He looked over at the picture

and shook his head as though displeased with it. There was something that

bothered him about the car and he didn't know what it was. The paint job was

exactly what he had wanted to capture, but there was something wrong. He had

spent days looking at the car from every angle trying to figure out what it was.

After a few minutes, Jerry stepped up and walked around the entire car taking in

the final product. The car was beautiful. The interior had been restored to a

condition that was better than new. Coming back to Eddie, he said, "It's

gorgeous. You did a nice job on it."

Eddie rubbed the back of his neck as he looked over at Jerry. Frowning, he said,

"The first couple of days, I loved it. The longer I've looked at the car, the

more convinced I became that there is something wrong with the paint job. I

don't know what it is, but there's something wrong with it."

Surprised at the self-criticism of his work, Jerry looked back at the car. He

walked around the car looking at it closer trying to identify what would cause

Eddie to say such a thing. The paintjob was outstanding and he couldn't see

anything wrong with it. Across the back were the signatures of the shops that

had done the finishing work and the name of the car.

He didn't see anything wrong, but Eddie was right. After a few minutes, it

seemed like there was some kind of itch at the back of his brain telling him

that something wasn't right. Jerry walked around the car again, looking at it

carefully. Everything looked right, but something about it bothered him.

From the back of the car, Abe called out, "Hey, I thought lightning didn't have

an 'e' in it."

Eddie ran to the back of the car and stared at the name of the car. Sure enough,

he had misspelled the name. Slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand,

Eddie saw that Abe was right. He groaned at the thought of the work that would

be required to correct the problem.

Everyone gathered behind the Camaro staring at the misspelled name. Bill said,

"It's not that obvious."

"You're being nice," growled Eddie as his face glowed red from embarrassment. He

wanted to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of his life. No one in the

business was ever going to let him live this down.

Jenny and Henry exchanged looks wondering what Jerry was thinking as he stared

at the back of the car. The tension in the air seemed to grow the longer that

Jerry stood there without saying a word. Henry moved over to Eddie just in case

Jerry lost his temper. The big man knew that he could probably keep Jerry from

causing too much damage, particularly with his arm still in a cast.

For his part, Jerry stared at the lettering trying to figure out how he was

supposed to react. In the past, his rage would have seen this as an opportunity

to run wild. There was nothing in the pit of his stomach but an empty hole. The

rage was well and truly gone.

Surprising everyone, Abe commented, "I think it's a good name."

Everyone turned to stare at Abe, but the young black man didn't look

uncomfortable with the attention. Puzzled by his announcement, Jenny asked, "In

what way?"

"We all know that Thunder knocked him on his ass, but since then he's dumped a

lot of the shit in his life that was holding him back," answered Abe.

Jerry nodded as he thought about what Abe had said. One of the things that he

had dumped was the rage and he did feel lighter as a result. Lightening was a

play on words, although unintentional. He wondered if he could live with it.

Of everyone there, Eddie was the most upset. Jerry had treated him well and

allowed him to use the truck to improve his business. He felt horrible about

having ruined the job and there was nothing to do except fix it. It went without

saying that there would be no charge for the paint job. He said, "I'll fix it.

Don't worry about that."

Henry was watching the big man, trying to figure out what was going on in his

head. His friend wasn't reacting in a manner that he expected. If the big guy

had broken out in laughter, he would have understood. He would have understood

anger, but this silent and thoughtful reaction had him confused.

Jerry looked over at Eddie and didn't say anything for a long time. Finally, he

said, "I like it like this."

Abe smiled in agreement even though Jenny, Henry, and Bill looked at him as if

he had lost his mind. Eddie looked angry. The idea that the big man was trying

to keep from hurting his feelings was an insult. Bill countered, "If you keep

it, people will think you are a big dumb oaf that can't spell."

Henry, well familiar with that reaction, nodded his head in agreement as he

said, "That's true."

Shrugging his shoulders, Abe countered, "So what? The ones that think he's a big

dumb oaf are wrong. Shit, we all know he's just a big oaf."

Laughter boiled up from the pit of his stomach and Jerry was powerless to hold

it back. His loud guffaw carried through the air, infecting others as if it was

a contagious virus. Eddie had proved the most resistant to the laugh, but found

that he was chuckling along with everyone else after a minute. Hardly able to

stand, Jerry found himself gasping for air after five minutes of solid laughter.

Every time he looked over at Abe, he broke out in laughter again. Tears were

forming in his eyes as he laughed.

Jerry patted Eddie on the shoulder and said, "I'll keep it like this."

Shaking his head, Eddie said, "Look, I'll fix it."

"No, I like it," replied Jerry. The more he thought about it, the more he liked

the name. Abe was right about the name. Lightening, rather than lightning, was

the proper name for the car. He had undergone a huge change in which he had shed

a number of the things that had weighed him down and held him back.

Worried about him loosing his temper when someone made fun of him, Jenny asked,

"What will do when people make jokes about it?"

"I'll laugh if it is a good joke and explain things to them if it is tasteless,"

answered Jerry.

Having accepted the modified name of the Camaro, Jerry walked around it taking

in the paint job. He liked the images presented and came to like the car even

more. He opened the driver side door and examined the interior. It was beautiful

beyond anything that he could have imagined. They had followed the same gray

color scheme in the Camaro that they had used for the truck.

Looking over the dashboard, he noticed an expensive sound system had replaced

the old radio that hadn't worked. Surprised at the discovery, he asked, "What's

with the radio?"

Smiling at him, Jenny said, "I bought it for you as a little present."

"Wow. You didn't have to do that," replied Jerry choked up at the thought of the

gift. No one had ever given him a gift before. Sure, his wife used to give him

gifts on Christmas, but they were things like lawn mowers and other home care

goods.

"Maybe you can loan the car to me when I go cruising for chicks," replied Henry

with a grin. He winked at Jenny to let her know that he was kidding. He didn't

want her reporting back to Sharon that he was already thinking of stepping out

on her.

Jerry laughed and replied, "Keep talking like that and Jenny is going to take

away the keys. I'll be stuck driving her little Nova."

Laughing, Jenny said, "I'll drive it and turn this car into a regular Man Trap."

Abe quipped, "Dye your hair blond and no one will question the name of the car."

"Ugh, that's horrible," exclaimed Jenny with a look of horror on her face. She

knew that a whole series of blond jokes were about to start.

Abe and Bill nudged each other with their elbows and started trading blond

jokes. They knew a ton of them and would occupy themselves for an hour if Jenny

let them. Unable to help herself, she laughed at the punch line for the joke

about the blond bank robber that tied up the safe and blew the guard. Turning

back to look at Jerry, she smiled at the grin that was plastered to his face.

After paying for the work done on the car, the group split up. Abe and Bill went

shopping with Jenny to get some new clothes for school. Martin headed off to

pick up parts for Abe's motorcycle and Bill's Buick from a local junkyard that

claimed to have a couple of the parts they needed. Jerry got in the Camaro with

Henry. The Camaro had an automatic transmission and he could drive it even with

his cast. It was with a great deal of pleasure that Jerry sat behind the

steering wheel.

As they drove down the street listening to the music, Henry said, "Let's pull

into the drive-in burger place for lunch."

Jerry smiled at the chance to show off his restored car. He replied, "Sounds

like a plan to me."

More than a few heads turned as they pulled into a parking spot at the burger

place. A couple of teenagers got out and looked over the car. Henry smiled at

his friend and asked, "How long do you think it will take them to notice?"

Jerry laughed and said, "Considering the state of education today, I doubt they

ever will."

Henry shook his head at the comment and said, "You're a little rough on the kids

today, aren't you?"

Shrugging his right shoulder, Jerry replied, "I guess I blame the schools for

helping to create kids like Joe and Kenny. With a good education, they would

have known better."

"Hey, they had the same education that Abe and Martin got," countered the big

man. He felt guilty about how Kenny had turned out. For the past five years he

had been trying to get the kid to grow up and act responsibly. He grumbled, "I

let them down."

"No, you didn't. You gave him every chance to straighten up." Jerry shook his

head thinking back to when he had first met Kenny. He said, "The first time I

met Kenny, he said that he wanted to sell grass for a living. I probably should

have taken his head off at the time, but I let it slide with a warning that

making an easy living tended to be a lot harder than working at a tougher job."

"I told him the same thing myself, but he didn't want to listen. He thought he

was smarter than everyone else," commented Henry. The sad fact was that Kenny

was smart. His mother had told Henry that the kid had the highest IQ in the

school. Everything came easy to the kid, too easy in fact. Asking the kid to

work was an insult.

"I'm still sorry about it all. He's going to be doing some time in prison," said

Jerry.

One of the kids looking over the car knocked on the window to get their

attention. Henry rolled down the window and asked, "What can I do for you?"

"Did you know that Lightning is misspelled?" asked the young man in a timid

voice.

"Well, the name of the car is Lightening and not Lightning. It's the picture

that's wrong," commented Henry winking at Jerry.

Jerry said, "Yes, this car represents a major load taken off my shoulders. I'm a

much freer man because of this car than I was before I fixed it up. You might

say that it was the straw that broke the camel's back and forced me to

re-examine my life."

The kid stood at the window listening to the explanation with a puzzled

expression. Finally, he said, "You're an adult. You can do whatever you want."

Both Henry and Jerry burst out laughing at that. Henry replied, "Son, you've got

a lot more freedom right now than both of us put together."

"Say what?"

Jerry said, "Listen, you've got all kinds of choices to make. That's freedom.

We've made our choices and have to live with the consequences. We've already

sold our freedom."

The kid stood there for a minute with a confused expression on his face. After a

minute, he said, "Gee, all I wanted to say was that you had a nice car."

Knowing the kid was confused by the conversation, Jerry said, "Thanks. I

appreciate it."

The kid wandered off to tell his friends about the strange guys in the Camaro.

It wouldn't be until several days passed that he would think about what the two

men had said to him. At the moment, their words meant nothing to him. Everyone

knew that adults could do whatever they wanted.

Jerry watched the kid walk off and shook his head. Henry voiced what was on his

mind when he asked, "Do you think the kid understood what we were talking

about?"

"No. I'm pretty sure that he looked at us, considered our size and thought that

we could do anything that we wanted," commented Jerry. He thought it was ironic

that kids wanted to grow up so that they could do anything they desired; never

realizing that each choice they made restricted their own actions far more than

what their parents could possibly impose.

Thinking about the kids that were out shopping with Jenny, Henry said, "You

know, it wouldn't be a bad idea to tell the boys that."

"You're right," replied Jerry. After a pause, his stomach growled and he said,

"I'm getting hungry."

Jerry leaned out the window and pressed the button to order. When the voice over

the speaker acknowledged him, he didn't need to ask Henry what he wanted to eat.

Without hesitation, he ordered, "Two burgers, two medium french-fries, and two

large shakes. One vanilla and one chocolate."

The two men enjoyed their lunch once it was delivered. Other people came by the

car, examined the paintjob and went on their way after making comments about the

car. Less than a third of them noticed the spelling of the name. One idiot

actually made a comment about blacks not knowing how to spell, but Jerry put him

in his place. Of course, he could hear the guy comment as he walked away that

the fucking gorilla couldn't spell either.

When they had finished eating, Jerry turned to his friend and said, "I've never

thanked you for installing the hot water heater."

The big black man looked at Jerry and said, "No problem. I couldn't believe that

you and Bill lived there for a whole winter without hot water."

"It never really bothered me. To tell the truth, I didn't know how long I would

be living there," replied Jerry. At the look from Henry, he added, "I didn't

want to make the house any more valuable for that bastard landlord."

"Putting a Band-Aid over a hole in the wall would double the value of those

houses," quipped Henry with a short bark that passed for laughter. He grinned

and then asked, "Ready to buy some Band- Aids to fix up that house?"

After exchanging a look with Henry, Jerry started the car and they headed off to

a hardware store. It was time for them to fix some of the other minor problems

around the house since it looked like Jerry was going to buy it for the tax

payment.

As they pulled in front of the house, Jenny was outside sweeping off the porch.

She had beaten them back to the house after shopping with the two boys. It had

been a disappointing trip. The boys had picked out their shirts and pants

without even looking around at their options. There were times when she wished

that Bill were a girl. At least then she would have someone that enjoyed

shopping for clothes.

Appreciating the view of Jenny sweeping the porch, Henry said, "You've got

yourself quite a woman there."

"I know," replied Jerry, "she's more than what I deserve."

Henry parked the car and turned to face Jerry with a very serious expression on

his face. Over the past few weeks, Jerry had been very hard on himself and Henry

wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He suspected that Jerry was having trouble

taking care of his self and felt like a burden on all of the people around him.

Looking his friend in the eye, he said, "You've got to lighten up on yourself,

Jerry. You're a good man. You may not believe me, but even Mr. Atkins says so."

Jerry shook his head as if he didn't believe it. He still looked in the mirror

and saw a horrible monster. His calluses were slowly disappearing, but his hands

remained paws. Although he had lost weight during his stay in the hospital, his

basic skeletal structure remained the same. He was still a very big man that

looked like a monster.

"If you keep this up, the next time there's trouble you'll get yourself killed.

I'm surprised that you weren't successful last time," said the large black man

as he shook his head.

"What? You think I was trying to get killed?" asked Jerry surprised by the

implications of the statements made by his friend.

"Yes, I do. Four shots were fired in four different directions and you were in

front of each one. The way I figure it was that you felt that you were the least

valuable person there and the most expendable."

Jerry frowned at the assessment of his actions that day. He couldn't really

argue, as he didn't remember anything that happened that day. He grunted, "I'll

have to think about it."

"Listen. Jenny is madly in love with you. Abe thinks that you are some sort of

super hero put in the slum to clean things up. Martin thinks of you like the

father that he never had. Sharon is fond of you. You're my best friend."

Turning, Henry opened the door to the Camaro and stepped out. He waited for

Jerry to get out of the car before he said, "Take care of yourself. Too many

people will be hurt if something happens to you."

Frowning, Jerry stared at the ground between his feet overwhelmed by what his

friend had said. He wasn't used to sharing his feelings with others, except for

the rage. The rage had insisted on sharing itself with everyone around him at

the least provocation. Now that it was gone, he was left with gentler emotions.

Lamely, he answered, "Okay."

"I've got to go take care of Sharon. We got us a couple of quiet hours around

the house and they are just too rare to let pass by," said Henry with a smile.

He hoped that his words would have an effect on his friend.

As Henry walked next door, Jerry realized that he owed his friend a great debt.

He called after him, "Thanks, Henry. You're a good man."

The big black man, without turning, waved a hand over his head as both an

acknowledgement and a farewell. Jerry smiled at the thought of what his friend

was going to be doing all afternoon. Looking over at Jenny, he smiled at the

thought of what he would be doing all afternoon.

Jerry stood in his front yard examining the sight it presented to him. Abe's

motorcycle was spread out all over one side of the tree. The engine was in the

trunk of the Pontiac Chieftain parked on the other side of the tree. Abe and

Martin had already rebuilt the engine and carburetor. Most of the frame was

ready to be reassembled, but they were missing the gas tank. The front fender

that Abe had was in pretty bad shape and probably couldn't be fixed. Martin was

looking for the front fork and the front fender.

Abe was working hard to get the bike completed before his next birthday. He

wanted to start riding it as soon as he could. There were only a couple of

months to go and it was going to be difficult for him to finish it in time.

The Pontiac Chieftain was nowhere near as close to being restored. They were

still getting ready to pull the engine, but Bill was stuck with working on the

body until Jerry was strong enough to help him with the heavy work. At the rate

they were restoring the car, they'd probably be finished with it in time for

Bill to learn how to drive on his learner's permit. Jerry could imagine the look

on the guy's face at the DMV when Bill went for his driver's test in the classic

car.

He went to the front of the car and looked at the ornament on the hood. It had

the classic Chieftain ornament that actually looked like an Indian head. When

the headlights were on, the ornament would light up. When the car was first on

the market there had been the sales slogan that said, "Let the Chief light your

way."

Of course, Jerry didn't remember that from when he was young. The car was

already old before he was born. Bill had found that fact somewhere on the

internet and claimed that was just a little more of the charm of the car. Bill

had spent a lot of time on the internet looking for this car. The first Pontiac

Chieftain that Bill had found had been sold by the time that Jerry had gotten

out of the hospital. It had taken his son another month to locate this one.

For the most part, the body was in pretty good shape, but the chrome parts were

pitted fairly badly and there was a lot of chrome on that car. Martin was hoping

to pick up some replacements at the junkyard, but it was unlikely they could

replace all of the parts. It wasn't a disaster, but Jerry was hoping they could

replace as much as possible.

Jerry felt bad that he wasn't able to help Bill as much as he wanted. He cursed

the cast and all of the limitations it placed on him. It would be a couple of

months before it would be removed and that was a couple of months too long. By

then, the weather would be getting cold and they wouldn't be able to work on the

car with any kind of regularity.

Jerry went over to the porch. Jenny had a grin on her face as she announced, "I

left the boys at the mall. They're going to get a little something to eat and

then go to a movie."

"Wanna christen the Camaro?"

With a wink, Jenny said, "Sure, big boy. It's been a long time since I made out

in the back of a car."

The next Sunday, Jerry, Bill, and Abe were outside working on their individual

projects. Abe had removed everything from the frame of the motorcycle and it was

ready to be taken in for painting. He stepped back and looked at the bike. Since

Martin had found a new front fender and gas tank, all of the pieces for the bike

were present. The parts that were supposed to be painted were ready to be taken

into the paint shop.

He looked over at Jerry and said, "That's the last of it. All of the pieces are

here and in pretty good shape."

"It looks good," commented Jerry.

"Thanks, I can't wait until after it is painted. The engine is rebuilt and

there's not too much to do except put it back together again."

Bill came over to the bike and looked at the pieces. He asked, "What color are

you going to paint it?"

The two young men had discussed that many times. Bill wanted him to paint it a

solid black, but Abe was considering the original colors, red and green. The

flat colors wouldn't look as flashy as solid black, but the result would have a

stately nostalgic feel about it. He answered, "I'm going with the original

colors."

"You know, you might be right," replied Bill as he looked at the picture of a

restored motorcycle. He commented, "The colors do grow on you after a bit of

time."

"Martin is going to take me to the paint shop tomorrow. Would you like some help

on the car?"

"Sure," replied Bill. The two young men returned to the car and went to work

replacing some of the missing metal from the body with the metal inert gas

wire-fed welder. Jerry had showed Bill how to use it and now he was repairing

the damage that rust and time had perpetrated upon the body. The two boys were

wearing welding masks.

Jerry stood back, wearing welding goggles as he watched Bill carefully build up

another bead of metal along the doorframe. He'd have to use the sander to

restore the surface to the proper shape, but that was to be expected. For the

most part, there wasn't much damage to the body that a little bondo wouldn't

fix. Bill started to work the welder a little too fast and Jerry warned, "Don't

go too fast. You have to go at the right speed."

"Sure," replied Bill as he went back to the proper pace. He had learned a lot

about working with metal from his father over the past month. Since his father

couldn't work on the metal sheeting for the indoor fountains, he had taught Bill

how to do it. As a result, Bill now knew how to cut metal with a torch, bend it

to shape, and close seams with a good weld.

It took nearly an hour, but the missing metal on the front door was replaced.

Removing the welder's mask, Bill turned off the welder and stepped back to

admire his work. His hair was sweaty, his clothes were dirty, and his hands

filthy, but the young man stood tall with pride at a job well done. Jerry smiled

as he watched his son examine the work he had done.

"Good job," he commented.

Abe helped Bill put up the welder so that Martin could return it to the rental

agency the next day. Once that job was done, Bill got out the sander and went to

work smoothing out the surface. Abe stepped back and watched the sparks fly as

the sander took off the metal at a steady pace. Jerry watched his son work. He

felt a lot of pride for Bill in light of the skills that the young man had

learned over the past month.

Jerry went back to the porch and sat down thinking about how much his son had

changed over the past year. He realized that Bill could get a job at a bodywork

shop with the skills that he had already developed. It would be a good paying

job for a kid his age, but Jerry wanted more than that for his son. He wanted

his son to go to college and to make something more of himself than a grease

monkey.

The cell phone clipped to his belt started playing 'Hail To The Chief.' He

glared over at Bill, knowing that his son had changed the ringer on him. Half

the time when the phone rang, he had no idea what tune would play. Fishing his

cell phone out of its holder, he answered, "Hello?"

"Jerry, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your mother-in-law died,"

answered Tony, his lawyer.

His stomach churned at the news even though he had never liked the woman. It

didn't matter how he felt about her; he still didn't want to hear that anything

bad had happened to the woman. He had no idea about the impact that the death of

Melissa's grandmother would have on his daughter. He said, "I'm sorry to hear

that, Tony. How's Melissa taking it?"

"She's not as upset about her grandmother's death as one would expect," answered

Tony. The lawyer representing Jerry's ex-wife was already with the girl and she

was furious about having to live with her father. As far as he knew, she wasn't

concerned about her grandmother's death. He added, "Well, I hate to have to tell

you this, but you now have custody of Melissa now and she's not happy about

having to move in with you."

Jerry thought about how all of his attempts to communicate with Melissa had been

rebuked by her. There was no way that she would want to live in his house. She

wouldn't like living with him, she wouldn't like the house, and she wouldn't

accept living in the neighborhood. He stated, "I know, Tony. She's not going to

be happy about this at all. What about her mother?"

"She's in jail on a DWI."

The news that his ex-wife was in jail surprised Jerry. He hadn't heard anything

about what she had been doing since they had filed charges against her for

beating Bill with a baseball bat. The news that she was driving around while

drunk only confirmed his impression of the mental stability of the woman.

Looking around the neighborhood, Jerry wondered how his neighbors would react to

Melissa. Jerry asked, "Where is Melissa?"

"She's at her grandmother's house with your wife's lawyer. They're waiting for

you to come pick her up."

Sighing, Jerry considered his situation. There wasn't much he could do. At least

he had his Camaro and could drive over there without having to beg for a ride.

He said, "It'll take me a little while to get there."

Hanging up the phone, Jerry looked over at Bill and Abe. He didn't know what to

tell his son. Bill was not going to be happy living around his sister again. She

had taken a hammer to his first scooter and beat the hell out of it. That was

only the crowning touch of a life spent abusing her brother. He said, "Bill, I

need you to move your stuff out of your bedroom and put it in the bigger

bedroom."

Walking up to the house, Jerry was concerned about what he would find inside.

Ever since he had left his ex-wife, he had tried to arrange a meeting with his

daughter but she had refused every offer. With the death of his mother-in-law

and the fact that his ex- wife was in jail, she didn't have a choice except to

deal with him. He had hoped that they would have a chance to get to know each

other in a more relaxed fashion.

His lawyer, Tony, was parked in the driveway and walked over to join Jerry.

Shaking his head, he said, "I'm sorry about this."

"It's not your fault," commented Jerry.

"She's not very happy about having to live with you," warned the lawyer. He had

never heard such a hateful rant since Jerry's ex- wife had unleashed her

vindictive tirade in the courtroom.

"I imagine she has a lot to say about me," remarked Jerry with a sad tone in his

voice. Although it was hard to admit, he had known that she didn't think highly

of him even when he was at home paying all of the bills. Her mother had poisoned

her soul with her attitude about men in general and Jerry in particular.

Tony knocked on the door. After a minute, the other lawyer opened it. The poor

man looked as if he had just gone twenty rounds with a heavy weight boxing

champion. He looked at Tony and then at Jerry while shaking his head the entire

time. With a grimace, he said, "Come in."

From behind him, there was a screech in an angry female voice, "Don't let that

fucking ape in this house!"

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