Читать книгу Celia's Shadow - Sandy Levy Kirschenbaum - Страница 21

After thirty minutes, Celia saw the big bright shark headed toward her. Behind the wheel was dependable Brian, looking exactly the same as always.

Brian was hot. There was no denying his splendor. He was tall, with muscular arms. His greasy T-shirts displayed the name of his towing company across his broad chest—Sharky’s Garage and Towing. Long black hair, slicked to the back of his head, clearly exposed his gleaming smooth skin. At all times, a cigar hung from his mouth.

Sharky’s tow truck was enormous, with a huge towing crane at the back. Except for a colorful shark’s face with big white teeth painted around the grill, the truck was bright red. It was fierce.

“You know, Celia, for what you pay to get this piece of junk repaired, you could buy yourself a jazzy little new car. I’ll bet you drop a pretty penny on repairs every month.”

She knew he was right but couldn’t bring herself to deal with monthly car payments. She owned this car outright for over eight years. The car was old, rusty, and falling apart, but she didn’t want to part with it. The cloth interior on the inside roof was coming loose from the body of the car. To keep it in place, Celia had purchased a package of star-shaped thumbtacks. The little stars were pushed through the fabric into the car’s ceiling. One afternoon, a thumbtack shook itself loose and found its way down the back of her shirt. She felt the sharpness on her back and almost crashed while she jumped around in the driver’s seat. She thought a bee had flown down the back of her shirt. She loved that old green car and she was deathly afraid of bees.

Kate arrived as Brian finished the hook up to Celia’s car. “You do realize we’ll never make the reservation, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m super sorry." Celia moved her head closer to inspect Kate’s chin. "Why is your chin all red?”

“I told you when you called; I was plucking.”

“I’m sorry, Kate. The car has been running great and I’ve been adding oil every week.”

“Celia, I think you have a keen sense for the obvious. Don’t you think there’s a problem when you have to put oil in every week?”

“Yeah, I guess that is a problem, but it’s been running fine and I didn’t expect that to stop.”

“Maybe you should start to plan on it breaking down, Celia, because it always does. I plan on it breaking down every time you drive when we go out. You should plan on it too. I don’t understand the emotional attachment you have with this car. It’s not worth a dime, it’s unreliable, it’s rusted out, it’s…”

Celia put her hand over Kate’s mouth. “Stop! I know all the faults this car has. You’re right. You’re right and I’m sorry we missed the reservation. Do you want to try to make Soma, or do you want to grab a burger somewhere? My treat.”

“No kidding it’s your treat!” Kate reached over and touched Celia’s shoulder. “I still love you, but you and your little car are royal pains in the ass. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! I know. And I appreciate you always being there to help us.”

“There is no us here.” Kate shook her index finger back and forth. “I never help the car. It’s YOU I help, not the car. Got it? You need to get over this passionate bond you have with this piece of aluminum.”

“I think it’s steel, at least for the body, hood, doors, and trunk. The bumper might be plastic, but it’s an old car. I’m not quite—”

“Whatever it is, it’s some kind of metal and it’s junk,” Kate interrupted, cutting Celia off mid-sentence.

“Hey, I thought you go to electrolysis. Why are you plucking?” Celia changed the subject onto Kate’s face.

“What do you mean?”

“Your chin is all raw and you told me you were plucking. You could get them waxed, you know. I got my brows waxed last week. Aren’t they great?” She traced her fingers over her eyebrows.

“I’ve never had to pluck my eyebrows.” Kate pointed to her chin and scrunched up her nose. “No, no. I don’t have hairy eyebrows. I couldn’t get that lucky. No, I have to have a full beard and a thick mustache.” Still pointing at her chin, she curled her lip in disgust at the fate of her hairy face. “I’ve spent a fortune to get the roots shocked and now they’re growing back. I don’t have time for those appointments.”

“You shouldn’t be plucking. It makes them grow back stronger.”

“Silence!” She rubbed her hairless pink chin.