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 "Hints from the Model Garage"

    Nellie Cruickshank was the town busybody, always poking into everyone’s business — and telling the rest of the world what she learned. It was on one of her most active days that she flew into the Model Garage in an agitated state.

    “Just what I needed,” murmured Gus to himself as he bent a little closer to the carburetor he was rebuilding on the bench. “Gus, Gus! You’ve got to come right now and see Charlie Moran’s car. He’s making big sparks driving down the street. I’ve been watching him. He’ll set the whole town afire!”

    She dashed out the door again to point at a Studebaker station wagon just passing the garage. Beneath it, a shower of bright sparks trailed a black object that scratched the street with a terrible noise. The car pulled to the curb in front of the bank. Nellie gave Gus a little push toward the car, and he looked over his shoulder quizzically.

    Crossing the street, Gus walked up to the window of the car and heard the radio blaring as Charlie pulled on the parking brake.

    “Ah, Charlie, how are you today?” “What’s that, Gus? Let me shut off this radio. Great baseball game going on! Seventh inning and the Sox up by two. Now, what’s up?”, shouted Charlie. “Well, Charlie, it seems you have some parts dangling off your car, and Nellie, over there, thinks you’re trying to burn the town to the ground. Let’s have a look and see what’s happening.”

    It took Gus only a few seconds to see the cause of the problem and have Charlie drive the car into the shop. “Charlie, your old Studebaker has a broken shock absorber, must have been bad for some time before it snapped off. They don’t break like that very often.

    Didn’t you hear it scraping the road?”

    “Nah,” grunted Charlie, “I was too busy listening to the game. It’s the primary entertainment for an old bachelor like me.” Soon the car was jacked up and Gus had the remains of the shock off. “Shocks don’t last forever, you know. When your car bounces on every bump, it’s time for new ones. Fortunately, even shocks for Studebakers are pretty easy to get. They’ll improve the ride and make that old car of yours feel like new.

    It’ll be safer, too”, intoned Gus. “Looks like you need four new ones.”

    As Charlie waited for the car to be finished, Nellie came back in and slid into a chair next to him. Soon, she and Charlie struck up an animated conversation that Gus marveled at while he worked under the car.

    Later, paying the bill, Charlie turned to the still-present Nellie and inquired, “Say, Nell, how about you and I go find some supper and continue this conversation?” The slight blush of her cheeks did not go un-noticed by Gus as she took Charlie’s arm.

   Gus smiled a wry grin as he filled his coffee cup. “You just never know, do you?” he said to no one in particular. The carburetor was still waiting on the bench.

END

With apologies to the original authors and publishers of the Gus Wilson stories.

© Gary Ash, 2007