Artifact 20: Josh's Downtime

Josh's mysterious Artifact delivery run has had its share of snags. First, he found the Artifact missing, second, he has a flat tire, and third, he can't turn down a friendly dog and a hardy breakfast

Artifact 20: Josh’s DownTime

 

Josh tried not to look concerned as Tom brought the gun to his shoulder. Josh noticed Harv had frozen mid-pace staring at a cluster of brush along the edge of the cultivated field. Josh took a couple steps backward.

Suddenly, a cackle sounded, the brush rustled and a pheasant burst from the undergrowth like a rocket. Tom raised the gun and for a moment followed the pheasant’s flight. A potent explosion erupted from the shotgun, but the large fowl continued on its evasive flight. Harv turned toward Tom, and Josh swore that he looked disappointed that Tom had missed the bird.   

 “Arm was going asleep�"a good excuse to miss,” Tom said, with a grin, “I think Harv is disappointed, look at him stand there all dumbfounded. “Good boy, Harv! Good dog, you tracked him and put him into flight.” Tom lowered the gun and reset the safety.

Harv came trotting back to Josh and Tom and received a worthwhile reward of rubs and pets. They continued on along the dusty path toward another set of buildings Josh could see in the distance.

“How often you drop a bird like that? And a beautiful bird it was.”

“Yeah, a nice looking c**k. We don’t have all that many around here with the commercial farming around, so most of the time I miss on purpose. I might drop one every couple years just to say I did and get a taste of wild game,” Tom said with a shrug. They walked on for a couple minutes in silence with Josh trying to sort out fixing his flat tire and trying to formulate a plan to find Dawn, if it were possible, and fixing her wagon for taking his box because he was sure she did. Tom broke the silence and Josh’s contemplations.

 “Let’s see, John, considering that machine you have back there…I’ve considered what kind of business you must be in. It has to be something to do with cars, a no brainer. How about an automotive engineer or designer? Maybe a custom car designer.  No, I think you’re more of a hands-on guy like a vintage auto mechanic or auto body man or something along those lines? Am I close?”

            “Well,” Josh replied.  Kind of close, how would an auto parts supplier sound?”

            “You sell auto parts?”

             “Yeah, used.”

             Tom laughed, “Junk parts?”

             “Well no, not exactly. I deal in illegal, non-emission compliant auto parts. Used to be racing parts per se, but now with the ongoing government clamp-down on emission controls it drove us all underground.”

            “Oh yeah, I remember reading something about that, about the governmental campaign to crush all the cars and parts that didn’t meet the what, way back then…what the mid-2000’s emission control standards?”

            “Actually, it was in two steps, the 2006 and then in 2008 the controls got stricter and they put teeth in the law to restrict us guys from selling. Still, there’s a market out there. The vintage cars are still being built and run, so, where do they get parts? From us guys. Not illegal to own the parts just illegal to market and sell them.”

             “So then you’re some sort of auto parts moon shiner?”

            “Yeah, we have a Blacknet network of “search and horde” guys, mostly old dudes holed up in the woods that know that these parts are worth bucks, whatever kind you want!  I’m what you’d call a “Connector” someone who finds who wants them and who has them. Before it became illegal it was done on the net, but now, if they’re advertised the police just zoom in and take in the buyers and sellers and destroy the�"merchandise.”   

            “Using the Oldnet?’

            “Yeah, except they can trace everything on it making it harder to do business like mine.”

             “Well, I’m a pretty good judge of character, so I’ll still feed you breakfast despite your occupation.” Tom grinned wide with a nice full mouth of white teeth.

The duo walked into the yard of a nice two-story farmhouse probable built back after the Second World War or so in Josh’s guesstimation. Walking across the lawn, the smell of fresh cut grass hit Josh’s nostrils.

            “Nice place and big.” Josh said, scanning the wide porch.

            “Five bedrooms. Big but still cozy, but real hard to heat even with the renovations and improvements I did when we moved in. Hey, Joan, we got company, get a big breakfast going.” Tom yelled in from the porch. “John, would you like some coffee?”

            “Sure..thanks”

            “Two coffees, Joan!” Tom shouted, but winced when he realized she had come out to the porch and touched his shoulder.

  “Hello,” she said, “So where did you run into this guy?” She elbowed Tom in the ribs making him grunt. 

             “Well, he had car trouble down by the highway, and Harv made friends with him and had to bring him home.” Harv sat happily on his haunches, long tongue hanging out of his panting mouth.

 “Yes, I’m sure. You never know who or what Tom might bring home but any friend of Harv’s a friend of mine,” She said with a wink, “I’m Joan,” she said, holding out her hand. Josh reached out and gripped her hand lightly. He found in her grip that Joan wasn’t a stranger to hard manual work. 

            Josh hesitated before answering, “John.”

            “So what happened to your truck?”

            “He’s driving a neat car I’m wanting to check out,” Tom corrected.

             “Oh, a car. Sorry John, everyone drives a truck around here.”

             “Maybe it’s so because John’s from back east.” Tom said with shrug and a smirk. 

            “Oh really, whereabouts?”

             “Down Carolina way.”

            Tom interrupted. “Aaahh, John’s dying for a coffee and breakfast.”

             “Oh, or is it Tom dying?” Joan asked with crossed arms and a stern look.

            “Maybe later in most likelihood,” Tom smirked with a wink for Josh.

            Tom went inside with Joan after offering a wicker chair on the porch to Josh.  Josh sat down and surveyed the surroundings while sounds of pots and pans came from inside. His eyes grew heavy and almost nodded off in the minute or so before Tom came out with two cups of hot coffee, offering one to Josh as he sat in the other chair. 

            “Nice place to sit and just contemplate life, you know Josh?

            “Sure, I was just thinking how nice this is out here without all the craziness of the big cities and the nine to five set.  This setting is so, so Midwest, which is definitely a good thing in my book.”

            “Oh, I have my days of longing for that craziness again, and well, the better money…Anyway, I hope you’d like some plain old Midwest pancakes and bacon for breakfast.”

            “You bet, I wouldn’t find anything that good if I were still on the road. I find driving affects the appetite kind of funny like.  Sometimes you get hungry so fast but then again like this trip for me, I rather forgot about eating, but then this morning it really caught up with me. I guess it’s all about thinking about eating�"or not.” Josh raised his shoulders.   

            For a couple minutes, Josh and Tom sat in silence sipping their steaming coffees with Harv at their feet when the door to the house opened. 

             “Hey Dad, Mom said that we have a visitor,” said a younger version of Tom.

             The young man walked over to the two men who stood. 

“Josh this is my son, Tom Junior. Josh shook the young Tom’s hand.  ‘The nice to meet yous’ went back and forth. 

            “Your dad told me that you’re going to the University for something with cars?” Josh asked. 

             “Yes, Automotive Engineering, actually,” Tom Junior said sipping an orange juice. “I’m on summer break right now but I got a short term internship in Bloomington for a month at the Automotive Digital Corporation.” 

            “Sounds promising too, to continue onto a job there later on,” Tom inserted. “I told John here that you’d be pretty interested in his car out there.” 

             Tom looked around the corner of the house. “Oh it’s out by the highway because I ran into a small problem.” Josh pointed in the other direction.  “Actually, a small sharp problem�"now I have a tire problem.”

             “Shoot, I forgot,” Tom said. “You need a phone.”

            “Sorry, yes, I left mine in the car,” Josh said, remembering he did it on purpose.      

             “I’ll get it,” Tom Junior volunteered.

             When Tom returned with the phone, Josh pushed the button for directory and spoke a request for tire dealers. Only a couple options appeared on the screen. Josh picked a national chain tire store and let the phone dial. After talking to the salesperson after a minute he said thanks and broke the connection. 

            “Any luck?” Asked Tom Senior. 

             “Well sort of what I expected, they don’t stock the tire but can get it from the warehouse, tomorrow morning.”

             “Great, you can stay here tonight, and we’ll drive you over there in the morning. In the meantime, I smell breakfast.”

            The four of them sat down to a breakfast feast in the spacious kitchen that Josh had to remark over how nice, big and well-equipped it was.  A bouquet of fresh wild flowers sat in a glass vase in the middle of the huge round antique oak table that had four high press-back chairs surrounding it. Josh recognized the huge stainless steel round-front hybrid refrigerator as state-of-the-art with lazy susan type shelves with matching solar oven, microwave and stove alongside. Tom Senior told Josh that he did all the remodeling in the house before they moved in but the furnishings in the kitchen were recent additions. Tom Junior dove into his breakfast without any added comments seemingly uninterested in the older threesome’s conversation.

            Joan handed Josh a plate stacked high with pancakes the size of the dinner plate and then a separate plate of bacon and scrambled eggs. She asked him if these were to his liking. Josh replied that she shouldn’t have gone to all the trouble.

 “Tom thought you might have not eaten in days from his first impressions upon meeting you,” Joan said with a sly smile. 

            “Well, I don’t know about for days, but it has been awhile” Josh said, pouring on some thick syrup on his steaming pancakes.    

             Josh saw Joan smile at Tom after seeing Josh voraciously devour a couple bites of pancakes by washing it down with orange juice followed by a gulp of coffee.

             “So John,” Tom Senior spoke, “I really didn’t get much of a look at your car because of the cover on it, but when we were checking out your flat tire, I noticed some huge exhaust pipes coming out the back. So what would you have in there for a motor?  It sure isn’t a hybrid or electric like they’re selling these days.” Tom Junior stopped chewing mid-bite suddenly interested in the subject discussed, while Josh almost choked with the unintended joke. 

“No, it sure isn’t,” he paused glancing about, “I have a W8 in it.” 

            Tom Junior almost choked now, “No way you got a W8�"Volkswagen or Daimer?” 

            “A what?”  Tom asked noticing Tom Junior’s interest and reaction. “I never heard of a W8.”

            “Well, there’s a good reason because they didn’t make too many of them,” Josh replied, finishing chewing some bacon.

            Tom Junior swallowed hard. “Wow! I’ve got to see and hear this motor actually mounted in a running car!” He said excitedly. “So tell me, what make is it? Daimler, Volkswagen, Audi…?”

            “It’s actually a Chevrolet 7.2 liter,” Josh said frankly.”

“That’s even rarer, I thought they were either destroyed or junked out. We studied those in our internal combustion design lab and the way they recorded their history. It sounded like none them survived,” Tom Junior said. “But in fact, we have a 3D printed mockup of one from the NASCAR days.”

“One in the same,” Josh stated, holding his coffee up to lips ready to drink.

“Let the man eat, Tom” said Joan. “Calm down and eat.” 

“Calm down? Calm and the existence of a W8 nearby cannot be stated in the same breath,” Tom animatedly replied. “Not a chance Mom, there’s no calm about it because this is incredible.” Tom took a breath and Josh expected an avalanche of questions from the enthusiastic young man.

“John, I thought that they were plagued with cam and valve train problems.”

“They were as I understand it, either running triple or quadruple cams. But we found the solution, which I’ll tell you all about�"later,” Josh said, seeing Joan was giving Tom Junior the evil eye.

“Tom, so what do you know about them, these W8s?” Tom Senior asked his son to relieve the need for Josh to answer his son’s questions.

“For one: Probably the smallest engine in size and weight per horsepower of its engine displacement ever built. They have a super strong block construction with really efficient cooling because the eight cylinders weren’t directly in banks ya’ know not next to each other.”

“I can kind of imagine the “W” configuration but as for the mechanicals I can’t see how it would work,” replied Tom Senior. “’Course I’m not an automotive genius by any means,” he said with a wink to Josh.

“So, can I take a look at it John?” asked Tom Junior, visibly sitting on the edge of his seat.

“Sure thing. Tell you what, do you want to give me a hand pulling off the tire?” Josh asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Two birds, one trip.”

“I’ll load up our pick up with the floor jack and we’ll head on out.”  Tom Junior said pushing back from the table. “C’mon, John!”

“Slow down a bit son,” said Tom Senior, “let John settle a little before you go out again.”

“Okay, fine I’ll load up the pick up and get ready anyway.  Oh, John do you have tools?”

“Actually, I don’t have a decent wrench for the wheel lug nuts. We’ll need a 19 millimeter socket for them.”

“OK, I know we have that along with a decent breaker bar too.”

“Sounds like it’ll do the job, thanks.”

Josh leaned back in his chair visibly satisfied and thanked Joan and Tom warmly for the hospitality and food. “This kitchen has such a real comfortable feeling,” said Josh gesturing, “With the sun shining in shows how well you finished it.”

 “Thank you for the compliment, John.”

“Can I help you with dishes or anything? I feel like I’m intruding and freeloading. This is so great of you two to feed and invite me into your house.” 

“Oh, forget about it,” said Joan, “We hardly ever get any company and I don’t think we’ve ever had an opportunity to help anyone out that broke down on the highway.”  She looked out the side window, “Appears Tom Junior is chomping at the bit to get a look at your wheels. He has the truck all loaded and ready to go. He really doesn’t get excited about much here at home after spending time at the University with people his own age and those things he love so this is good for him.”

“And gear heads to boot in college, who’d think? Say, you go ahead on with Tom,” said Tom Senior. “I have some chores in the garden that have to get done today because they predicted a storm heading our way tonight,” said Tom Senior, “despite their claims of being able to control the weather.”

“Funny about that, huh?” Josh said, with a worrying premonition burning in his brain.